Exodus 14:10-12(NKJV)
10And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
Yesterday we asked the question, “What is our generations?” The Generation that left Egyptian bondage had no idea that they would be part of a world changing period in History. They were just normal people doing normal things. I believe we live in a similar generation. The world is changing all around us. Will we be ready for our part in this great drama. There are some things in the life of Israel during this period that we should take note of. If we learn from them we may be able to do better than the first generations of Israelites did. They never went into the promised land. I don’t want to miss our opportunity.
In the verses just after the one above we see three keys to being ready. Moses tells Israel to “fear not” and “stand still.” God then tells Moses, “God forward.” The first thing that has to be dealt with is fear. I find it interesting that one of the effects of fear, as displayed in Ex. 14:10-12 is to blame leadership thereby breaking unity. Unity is very important during times like Israel is going through. Strife is at the heart of the Devils kingdom. If he can sow strife at critical times, he can disrupt our faith in God and keep us from the victory we should have.
We see this same dynamic in the early days of the church. In Acts 2, 3 and 4 we read of thousands being saved. We read of healings and miracles and great power. In Acts 5 we read the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold some property and instead of giving the full amount they gave only part of the sale price and told the church that was all they had received for the property. Peter tells them that they could have given whatever they wanted, but because they lied to the Holy Ghost about it they would be judged by God. They both dropped dead in the assembly.
Why was their judgment so severe? Since the bible says their transgression was lying to the Holy Ghost, we must assume that to be the case. However, I think I have done worse than what they did. However if we look closer we find that the church was in absolute harmony both before and after this incident. The crime was lying to the Holy Ghost, but the affect was to break unity and at this critical time that could not be allowed. Unity was too important given what the church was about to do.
At the period of Israel’s history we are studying the same is true. During normal times disunity is bad. During critical times when faith in God is the only hope of victory it is disastrous. That is why the devil always tries to stir up strife during those times. If he can stir up strife against the leaders, so much the better. We must not allow fear, or anything else for that matter, to produce strife among us right now. There are things at stake that are much more important than our feelings.
How can we keep disunity out of our lives? There are a few things we must do. First we must guard against it. When people are afraid or hurt they will always look for allies. They will always be compelled to talk to someone about how they feel. If you find yourself in the place of the listener, don’t entertain the complaints. It will seem you are helping the person by listening. You are not. You are only encouraging behavior that is damaging to them, to you and to the church. If someone comes to you with a complaint about any brother or sister, encourage them to go to that person. Encourage them to do so respectfully. Matt. 18 gives us a formula for dealing with disputes.
Matthew 18:15(NKJV)
15“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
Notice the point of this process; to gain your brother. Any other motivation is unacceptable. If the brother is unrepentant, the next verse tells us to take someone else and, if that doesn’t solve the problem, bring the matter before leadership. The goal never changes. It is not to get satisfaction. It is not to get a point across. It is not even to prove to the one who is a problem that he or she is wrong. It is to restore relationship and unity. It is not specifically stated here, but in the process it could be just as likely that you will be proven wrong. The truth is what matters and the result desired should be restoration of relationship.
What happens if the party who is wrong will not repent? Here is the rest of the process.
Matthew 18:16-17(NKJV)
16But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ 17And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
In the end the one who does not repent must not be considered part of the fellowship. He is not to be treated badly, but he is to be treated as an outsider. Why? Unity must be maintained.
The other way that we must guard against disunity is to be on the lookout for it in our own hearts. We are all human. We will all fail one another sometime. Leaders have the greatest opportunity to fail of all. We say more, we are looked to more and more is expected of us. That’s OK. It’s part of the job, but those who follow should remember this and not be too quick to judge. On the other hand those who lead have the greatest opportunity to be offended. We can’t allow ourselves to take things personally. If we can’t handle the criticism we need to forget about leading.
We all must take the admonition in 2 Cor. 10:4-6 to heart. We must bring our thoughts into captivity. We all have thoughts when our feelings are hurt or we think we have been wronged. We can’t let them run around in our minds. We need to cast them down in Jesus name.
Finally we must do one more thing. We must forgive, forgive and then forgive some more. The times we live in are too important. We must stay together. I don’t know what God is going to do or when, but he is going to do something. He is doing something. I want to be a part of that and I won’t let some offense cause disunity between me and my brother that will jeopardize what will be the greatest day for our generation.
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