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CONSEQUENCES OF DOUBTING GOD’S WORD

In the previous chapter, we began to look at the qualities of the word of God and we already established that the word of God has integrity. We defined integrity as moral excellence and truthfulness. We also saw from the word of God that the bible is replete with the demonstration of God’s moral excellence and truthfulness. Let us look at this example of people who called God a liar in Num.14 and the consequences they had to face for doing so.

In Num.13, Moses sent the 12 elders of the 12 tribes of Israel to go and spy out the land of Canaan which they were supposed to possess as their inheritance. After 40 days of roaming the land, they came back with various reports which the bible classifies into two namely; Evil report and good report. Unfortunately, the majority of them came back with the evil report. What was the evil report?

All of them agreed that the land was pleasant, rich and a very good place – a land flowing with milk and honey. They also agreed that the land had a lot to offer them but there was a major point of disagreement between the two groups. One group and unfortunately, the majority said there were giants in the land and in their own eyes, they were like grasshoppers before the giants and for that reason, they were not going to be able to take the land. Meanwhile God had earlier promised to give them the land and ordered them to go and take possession of it.

Let me disclose one secret in life to you here; there are no tree lands anywhere. You will have to contend for to take delivery of any promise God has given to you. These people ought to have known better because they had to fight a good fight of faith to be able to come out of Egypt in the first place. All through their journeys in the wilderness, they had to believe God for food and water and in all of these, God was faithful. Yet they still (by their claims of impossibility) insulted God by calling Him (to whom nothing was impossible) a liar when they insisted (in contradiction to God’s word) that they would not be able to possess the land.

On the other hand, two of the twelve elders namely Joshua and Caleb agreed that they would be able to take the land by the grace of God. However, the people did not listen to them as they were already corrupted by the majority opinion. They even thought of stoning Joshua and Caleb for expressing confidence in God’s word to them. As far as God was concerned, that was the height of it. God immediately responded to their unbelief by passing a judgment against them as shown in Num.14:10-13:

“… And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

Moses immediately interceded for the people who expressed unbelief in God’s word and God replied in Num.14:20-39 with this verdict:

      And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it…

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.”

Look at what happened to these peoples in Numbers. They with his evil report

said they would not be able to take the land because there were giants there. Their feeling of inferiority was born out of a spirit of unbelief that they allowed to control them but Joshua and Caleb stood out. The Bible says concerning them, that they had “another spirit”. Apostle Paul discloses in 2Cor.4:13 that this “another spirit” is the Spirit of faith. The spirit of faith was reflected in their utterance when they began to declare that with divine intervention, they would be able to take the land. They insisted that God who had brought them to where they were was able to take them beyond there and give that land to them; that the land was theirs and that they were going to take the land in spite of the giants.

God came down in anger and all the ten of them that brought the evil report died that same day. And when the others who expressed unbelief through their evil report (in their presumption) decided to go to battle against their enemies even though Moses warned them against it, they were defeated. Those of them who survived the war ran back to tell the story.

Let me quickly say here that God’s word may not sound loud and intimidating when He says something but the word of God is the truth. It has integrity. If God is telling you to repent for instance, you better do so for your own good. God wants you saved because He loves and wants you, not because He needs you. If you do not go to heaven, God will not miss you. Heaven is real and so is hell. God promises those who will receive His salvation package in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ an abode with me after their demise from earth. That word must come to pass because God cannot lie. He also reserved eternal damnation for all who would not believe Him and receive the Lord Jesus Christ; first in hell after they die physically and eventually in the lake of fire and brimstone forever after His white throne judgment where he would judge the all the living and dead sinners from Adam to the last child to be born before that day.

But beyond going to heaven, right now on earth your life is wasting if you are not saved. Because until you come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, you make him your personal saviour and Lord, you cannot begin to run the course heaven has charted for you. You will only be running Satan’s program and Satan hates you with a passion.

From our text scripture, we learn the following truths about the consequences of not believing God’s word:

1.     You will not be able to walk in faith. The result is that you will not experience divine distinction. Joshua and Caleb were distinguished by God when He tagged them with another spirit which we saw to be the spirit of faith in 1Cor.4:13.

2.     Lack of faith in God’s word can reduce a person’s lifespan. Those ten spies were not supposed to die that day but their lives were cut short with a plague as a judgment from God for disbelieving Him and spreading an evil report as a result.

3.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in bringing a curse on those associated with us. For example, all the people who associated with the ten spies in their unbelief came under God’s judgment that day and some died the same year from the plague, others died from the presumptuous war they tried to fight with their enemies against the counsel of Moses and the rest of them died in the course of wandering the land within the forty years curse of delay.

4.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in a needless delayed destiny. The children of Israel did a journey they were supposed to be completing for another forty years.

5.     Lack of faith in God’s word, can result in lack of protection. When the children of Israel in their presumption attempted to take Canaan in our story here, they were defeated because God did not go with them.

6.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in the fulfillment of a negative prophecy in the life of the person without faith. God told them that they would know what it meant for him not to keep his word to them because of their unbelief.

7.     Lack of faith in God will reflect in negative declarations from our mouths. In verse 28 of our text, God said he will cause what such people say to His hearing to come to pass. This should teach us that whatever we do not want to see happen in our lives should not find expression through our mouths.

This piece is culled from Pastor Alero Nanna's new book - "Exploring the word of His Power" to purchase your copy of the book, please contact flourishinggirl@gmail.com or call +233 271823700 or +234 8033459152.

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