Disbelief

 

 

“The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?” (Numbers 14:11).

 

 

  1. Disbelief makes us to listen to people’s loud voice rather than to listen to God’s quiet voice.

 

Among those twelve spies who went up to the land of Canaan, Caleb made this report to the Israelites: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Num. 11:3).  But other ten spies reported as follow: “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are” (v.31).  In fact, these ten spies spread “a bad report” among the Israelites (v.32) saying “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (vv.32-33).  And the Israelites chose to listen to the ten spies’ bad report instead of the Caleb’s (good) report.

 

We, Christians who have disbelief, listen to ten men’s report of unbelief rather than one man’s report of faith.  We refuse to listen to God’s quite voice and are prone to listen to loud voice of surround Christians who are like doubting Thomas. 

        

  1. Disbelief makes us to shed worthless tears.

 

After listening to the ten spies’ bad report, the Israelites raised their voices and wept aloud that night (14:1). 

They already wept again in Numbers 11:4 because they wanted to eat meat.  Now in chapter 14:1, they wept aloud again.  Why?  Why did they weep aloud?  I think it was because they though that they would die in the wilderness (v.2).  They were scared.  And in their unbelief and fear, they thought that they couldn’t go into the land of Canaan because all the people of Canaan, especially Nephilim are of great size and that they would loose the battle against them.  So they wept aloud.  I think their tears were worthless.  It seems to me their tears were tears of unbelief, of fear and of grumbling against Moses and even against God.  Shouldn’t they shed tears of thanksgiving and of devotion to God who had brought them out of Egypt and was leading them to the promised land of Canaan?

 

We, Christians who have disbelief, shed tears of fear and of worry.  And those tears are worthless. 

 

  1. Disbelief makes us to grumble against God’s servants and even against God.

 

When we disbelieve God, we tend to disobey God’s commands. It is because disbelief produces dissatisfaction and grumble in our hearts.  The Israelites did not believe in God (v.11).  And in their disbelief, not only they wept aloud they grumbled against Moses and Aaron (v.2).  When they grumbled against the God’s appointed leaders, the Scriptures say they grumbled against God (v.27).  Why did they grumble against the God’s appointed leaders Moses and Aaron?  It was because they didn’t fear God.  In other words, the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron because not only they didn’t fear God but also because in their hearts they didn’t trust God.  They didn’t trust Moses and Aaron that they could lead them into the land of Canaan.  They were sinning against God.

 

We, Christians who have disbelief, commit sin of grumbling against God’s appointed leaders and against God.

 

  1. Disbelief gives us twisted thoughts in our minds.

 

When the Israelites were grumbling against the God’s appointed leaders and against God, listen to what they said against them: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? (vv.2-3). Do these complaints make sense to you?  Did God really brought the Israelites from Egypt and tried to bring them into the promised land of Canaan in order for them to be fall by the sword? (v.3). Why did the Israelites make such nonsense complaint against Moses and Aaron and against God?  It was because of their disbelief.  The Israelites didn’t believe in God.  Although Caleb and Joshua believed in God saying “If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us” (v.8), they didn’t have this kind of assurance of victory (13:31).  The Israelites did not believe that the Lord was with them (14:9).  That was why the Israelites made such nonsense complaints against Moses and Aaron with their twisted thoughts in their minds.  And to those who had the twisted thoughts, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (v.8) was a killing field and a land of captivity (v.3).

 

We, Christians who have disbelief, have twisted thoughts about what God has been done in our lives are committing a sin of grumbling against God’s appointed leaders and against God.

 

  1. Disbelief makes us to go back to our  former life of slavery to sins.

 

When we have a twisted thought toward God, we tend to keep on thinking about that twisted thought and eventually have a twisted plan.  It seems like that was what happened to the Israelites.  Eventually they planned to go back to Egypt by choosing a leader (v.4).  You see, they longed for their former lives in Egypt.  In Numbers chapter 11 too, the Israelites longed for Egypt by saying “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic” (v.5).  They weren’t satisfied with the manna that God was giving to them from heaven (v.6).  In their dissatisfaction, the Israelites grumbled against God constantly.  Indeed, this is the result from their disbelief in God.  And in their disbelief, the Israelites in today’s chapter 14, they planned to go back to Egypt by choosing the leader for themselves.  How should we understand them?  Who wants to go back to their former way of life that is a life of slavery?  I am sure nobody except the Israelites.  Why did the Israelites want to go back to Egypt?  Was it because they were scared of dying?  Did they think that it was better for them to stay alive in Egypt rather than dying in the desert?  Aren’t we like the Israelites?  Don’t we want to go back to our old way of lifestyle when we fear of dying?  Aren’t we keeping on looking at back when everything seems good to us?

 

We, Christians who have disbelief, long for our former way of living.  And we do keep on going back to that life.

 

 

Longing to have stronger faith in God,

 

James Kim