Hebrews 3:7-11 (NKJV) 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
Yesterday we defined unbelief as our mortal enemy. The whole first generation of Israelites who left Egypt lost their destiny and the blessing that God wanted for them because of unbelief. The very last verse of this chapter makes that very clear.
Hebrews 3:19 (NKJV) 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
In this scripture, we see something about the life of Israel of which we need to take note. Although the writer is speaking about the children of Israel, it is clear that he is using their experience to warn us today.
Hebrews 3:12 (NKJV) 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
We are not immune to unbelief. If we can understand how unbelief became so rooted in their hearts that it could rob them of so much, we can begin to identify the same pattern in our lives and stop it before it takes hold. This generation of Israelites did not start out in the level of unbelief described in these verses. Their unbelief resulted from a pattern of behavior that continued throughout their journey. It reached its full manifestation when they refused to cross into the Promised Land. They chose to believe the evidence of their eyes instead of the evidence of what they had seen God do in the wilderness.
The generation who first left Israel grew up as slaves. They did not know how to believe God for themselves. Moses carried the burden of their faith. Moses brought the plagues on Egypt. Moses confronted Pharaoh. Moses revealed the Word of God to them in the Passover. The only thing they needed to do was put the blood of the Lamb on their doorposts. Moses did the rest.
There is a definite parallel here to our salvation. Jesus confronted the devil. Jesus paid the price of our sin. Jesus was crucified. Jesus rose from the dead. All we have to do to obtain our salvation is believe that what he did, he did for us and accept his Lordship in our lives. Just as our salvation is complete through the work of Jesus, Israel’s deliverance was complete through the work of Moses. However just as we have to “walk out our salvation” by walking in faith for ourselves, Israel had to walk out their deliverance by walking in faith through the wilderness.
What we see in these few verses is that they would not do that. They continued to expect Moses to do everything for them. They blamed Moses for everything that went wrong. He continued to be a supernatural channel for them. When they needed bread, God used Moses to call down manna from heaven. When they needed water, Moses brought forth water from a rock.
God demonstrated his love and care for Israel not only through the things Moses did but also by his mighty hand. However, nothing was enough for Israel. They refused to be thankful. They refused to trust that God would continue to bless them. No matter what God gave them they wanted more and expected Moses to get it for them.
Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV) 4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
We see something here that contributed to the pattern of unbelief that robbed them of God’s will for their lives. First, we see the term “mixed multitude.” There were people with the Israelites who were not part of the “body of Israel.” Anyone could partake of the covenant of Israel. It was not limited to the Hebrew race. However, if you wanted to partake of the blessings of the covenant you had to submit to the qualifications of the covenant. You had to be circumcised and submit to the Law that governed the covenant.
In the camp at this time, there were many who saw the power of God and followed after that power, but they did not want the lifestyle God required of Israel. They just wanted the blessings. They created a mixture in the Israelite camp. That mixture became a voice of unbelief in the ears of Israel.
We can never eliminate the voice of unbelief from our lives. It is everywhere around us. We hear it in the media, we hear it in the news and we hear it from the mouths of people we must interact with every day. Just because it is there does not mean we must invite it into our camp so to speak. The problem with Israel was not that there were people out there who would not submit to faith in God; it was that they allowed them to become part of their inner life.
It was their voice and not the voice of the Israelites who initiated the complaint about manna. I do not believe any one of us would look at something as supernatural as manna and complain that God was not doing enough for us. However, when we open or ears to the voice of unbelief coming from the world we will begin to question things that we normally would not.
I can hear the mixed multitude saying, “Doesn’t this God of yours know how to make anything but this weird bread? How about a little meat once in a while.” God provided the perfect food for them. By all accounts, it even tasted good. The people of Israel should have seen the manna on the ground every morning and marveled at God’s supernatural provision. It was the mixed multitude that made them begin to question something that was obviously the power of God.
We must be careful of those who would bring the voice of doubt and criticism concerning God’s provision for us into our ears. Mixture always carries the voice of doubt. No one is perfect. We all have some mixture in our lives. We sometimes do not fully obey God. We sometimes want things we know we do not need and maybe should not have. It is unrealistic to think that we are only going to read the bible and go to church.
What we must do if we want to keep the pattern of unbelief out of our lives is identify that mixture and not allow it to challenge the love of God for us. We must not allow it tell us that what God provides is not good enough. We must monitor how much control we are giving to the things that cause mixed feelings and once we identify them cut them out. Jesus pointed to this many times in his teaching. One of the clearest is Mark 4:24 in the Amplified Bible.
Mark 4:24 (AMP) 24 And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear
We need to be careful of the mixture we allow in our ears, our eyes and our lives. Mixture always bring unbelief with it. We cannot afford to give the enemy that kind of foothold. Too much is at stake.
More tomorrow.
Leave a Reply