Dangers of Spiritual Shortsightedness unto Blindness

As we studied just recently in the letter of Apostle Peter we are all at times endangered by many perils while walking in the wilderness of this life, but one of the greatest of these is not trusting the Lord at His spoken word to us.

The first chapter of the book of Deuteronomy is an awesome example of such unbeleif on behalf of Israel of God at mount Horeb.

This awe inspiring story of God’s excellent power to save and deliver His people gives us a clear picture of Who really He is for us, but within its context we see how men of earthly mindedness can destroy their own destiny by rejecting Him through disobedience. In this chapter of the Holy Scriptures the Lord shows us His eternal grief over man’s rebellion in mistrust of His own Savior. It shows us how human fallen nature can succumb God’s grace extended to him for complete personal deliverance and future blessing. It is as though he walks away from the Rose of Sharon the He is, even leaving behind the peddles of His mercy. As in the prophetic book of Jonah the scripture says

“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy” (Jonah 2:8) I believe this is what is spoken here in the first chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. My Bible gives this portion of chapter one the following title.

“Israel’s refusal to enter the Land”. Here Moses tells the people of Israel to go on from Horeb to the mountains of the Amorites and from there to go on to poses the Promised Land before them. The Lord speaks through Moses to His own people to go on in trusting Him to capture the Promised Land.

In this command of the Lord the Lord says to them “ Look the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and posses it, as  the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.” But then in verse 22 Moses says “ And every one of you came near to me and they said , “ Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.” Here, even though Moses says their plan seemed well to him and he did as people told him, but later on we read only two men Joshua and Caleb come back with positive news, meaning they looked unto God and His word and the rest brought a bad report, meaning they saw with men’s eyes forsaking God  and His word to them.

They rebelled against God even to the point of speaking in their tents, saying “Because the Lord hates us, He us brought us out to the

The land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts.” But Moses continued to encourage them in the Lord by saying to them that the Lord will go before you and fight for you, and your battles as He did in Egypt, as you saw before your eyes. However in their rebellion they refused to believe Moses on his word, even all the rest of God’s miracles for them that He did they disregarded. His fire by day and cloud by night and all other magnificent wonders God did for them. Here is where the Lord’s anger the scripture says broke against them.

In verse 34 of chapter 1 Moses said to the Israelites in their hearing… “And the Lord heard the sound of your words and was angry, and took an Oath saying”….

“Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb

The son of Jephunneh, he shall see it and him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked because he wholly followed the Lord.” Moses even said that the Lord was even angry with him, because of them, saying “Even you shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there, encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” Then the Lord said only their small children who do not know good from evil will be permitted to go in and possess the land, and that the rest were to continue to remain there in the wilderness until they were consumed there. Why was all this? Because the Lord’s word were not taken serious and in their distrust and shameful speech they irritated the loving and the sovereign God they never came to appreciate. By their free will of chose they rejected Him in their Adamic nature having been partakers of the tree of good and evil through their ancestor Adam.

After all that God had done for them before their eyes they blamed Him as an unjust Judge who is out there to destroy them after all. Then the Lord said to Moses to crown or anoint Joshua son of Nun for the task and even reading further on we see He refused to hear Mosses’ plea on His own behalf. Then also when Israel began to have a remorseful cry before the Lord just like Esau they too were refused to be heard by God. Yes God turned a deaf ear to their cry.   What a great and terrifying lesson we have to learn here from this story. A truth that many times is repeated in the New Covenant. That God is a jealous God and a consuming fire that we need to fear and respect Him at His word. His word was to be trusted then and now. Why did the Israelites asked men to be sent to spy the land when God had already told them to trust Him? It is the same today. It is a dangerous thing to mistrust God and to put any man even our own understanding before Him.

When the Lord speaks it is all done and if God tells us something after we pray and hear Him, it is a disgrace and rebellion to still worry or trust any other opinion, even our own. We need to clearly understand that our God is all powerful and faithful to the end, and when He speaks of something that He would do He is not to be questioned. He needs to be revered as who He really is. Not trusting Him for His spoken word is a blasphemy of His omnipower majesty. Today the Lord speaks through His word by the Holy Spirit and a mistrust of His written or spoken word is even a greater sin.

This is why the word says ….

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths.” (Prov. 3:5)

“Do not be wise in your own eyes, Fear the Lord and depart from evil” 3:6

Israel’s greatest fault was that they mistrusted God’s ability in performing His promises to them. They refused to believe that their stay in the wilderness was going to end soon. They thought that their God who freed them from Egypt is now unable to conquer the giants of the promise land for them. I am terrified to say, it can be the same with you and me. We believe that God was the One who brought us in to the faith by which He also saved us, but cannot trust Him to finish His work in us.

By our humanistic fears we are telling Him you are not able to handle this mountain now in my life. We another words are telling Him, where and how He can save us. We say the God of Egypt is not the God of Canaan. In this way we anger our God to His face, saying yes you could save me then, or bless me here, but in another country where the warfare is more intense you are powerless to perform like in Egypt.

It is as though we are telling God, oh yes you can save and deliver me, BUT… You cannot give me healing now that I am sick, or yes You could bring me out of the prison and by the way thanks, but you cannot fix my marriage Or as if we tell God oh yes in 1987 you were able to provide me with a job, but now in 2010 in this economy no way no the reports are no good. The Wall Street Journal says no more stocks and that the deficit is so bad, so Lord let me help you by sending some men to inquire of the status of the economy, before I could trust you. Wow! Isn’t it scary where we believers could end up too?

We have set limits for God, or we spy on our own what He already promised to conquer for us. We say to God Oh yes you could do this and that, but THAT I don’t believe so…

The Lord in Isaiah says “It is not I that can’t perform miracles on your behalf; it is your sins that have separated you from me.” And the greatest of them all is the sin of unbeleif or mistrust in His power to fulfill His promises.