Bad Apple or a Pinch of Leaven...You Make the Call?

We left off in our last publication with 10 of the spies stirring up the Israelites with the tales of the giants that inhabited the land of Canaan…let’s continue in Numbers 14.

“That night all the people in the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly said, “If only we had died in Egypt or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Numbers 14: 11-12, 14

Why did the Israelites consider returning to Egypt? Well, for one reason, it was not that far removed from them. Though it had been a time of great suffering, how quickly they had forgotten the hardships that had been their affliction. Their lack of faith and trust in the Lord brought them to the quick conclusion that they would rather return to Egypt than trust the Lord to deliver them as conquerors over the inhabitants of Canaan.

Secondly, it only took a few “bad apples to spoil the entire bunch”….to stir the crowd into such a frenzy that they wanted to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb. The bad report of these leaders blinded the Israelites to the power of their God and wiped their memories of past victories that had been theirs. God had continually cared for them and had already given them his assurance that He would be with them and provide them a homeland that was “flowing with milk and honey.”

As you can imagine, God was NOT PLEASED. He told Moses that He would send a plague that would destroy them; however, once again, that great man of God, Moses, fell on his face before the Lord and begged for mercy….and once again, God forgave the Israelites for their disobedience and lack of faith.

The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs that I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me 10 times (there’s that number of times God forgave) …not one of them will ever see the land I promised on an oath to their forefathers. No one who has ever treated me with contempt will ever see it.” Numbers 14:20-23

So, God granted their grumblings and let them wander in the desert for 40 years… until every one that had complained and wept aloud received their desire…to die in that desert!

And the same holds true for you and me when we gripe, complain and moan about the unfairness of life or the lack of God’s faithfulness. It is in these times that God leaves us to our own designs and allows us to wallow in our own grumblings. He may forgive us, but there will be consequences to our lack of faith and our poor vision of God’s infinite provision.

If we are believers, then we are called to remain steadfast and trust in God to make us the overcomers He has called us to be….for He is faithful, unwavering and unchanging…So, whenever you encounter a rough patch in life, do what I do...just take a moment to think back and you will ALWAYS recall a time of God’s divine intervention and the blessings that followed.

But there’s still a question that remains unanswered …What happened to those “few bad apples’ that sent the Jewish nation into such an uproar?

Numbers 14:36-38 gives us that answer; “So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it; these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord. Of the men who went to explore, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.”

So remember, when God places you in a position of leadership, you have one of two choices….you can be a “bad apple that spoils the entire bushel” or you can be “the pinch of leaven that makes the entire loaf rise”….the choice is yours…. and the results of your decision can have earthly, as well as, eternal consequences.

Striving to be an encourager,

WPQ