ONE BAD DECISION: A GOOD IDEA GONE AWRY

June 18, 2012 at 3:12 PM (Christian Living, One Bad Decision)
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In the course of a twenty-four hour period we make gobs of decisions. Some of these we make with a serious amount of forethought and prayer. But, if you’re like me, we make many of our decisions spontaneously with little or no thought as to the consequences or impact our decisions will have—not only for ourselves, but also for the many others whose lives are intertwined with  ours.

Have you ever thought much about how a single decision can change your life forever? Sometimes a single decision will change us for the better. And sometimes a single decision will change us for the worse.

In these blog posts I’d like to look at the singular decision that some people in the Bible made that changed their lives forever…for the worse. By looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word it’ll give us reason to stop and think about both the long-term and short-term ramifications of the decisions we make. Lots of forethought and prayer, I’m convinced, will save us from the pain and regret of a hastily-made decision for the worse.

A GOOD IDEA GONE AWRY

We all have good ideas. Sometimes they really are good. Other times, they just seem good to us at the time, but really they’re not. The hardest part to understand or accept is the fact that SOMETIMES GOOD IDEAS CAN HAVE TOTALLY UNFORESEEN, REALLY BAD, CONSEQUENCES. Here’s a case in point.

The Israelites have journeyed out of 400 years of bondage and slavery in Egypt. They’ve trudged wearily through the hot desert sands and finally arrived at a place called Kadesh-barnea. It’s the last desert town. Beyond it lay Canaan, the land of promise. It was their destination and home. Excitement was in the air as the travel-weary Israelites finally got within sight of home.

Moses, the leader of the Israelites, called for a nation-wide assembly. You’ve finally come to the land of promise. This is the land that the Lord your God has promised you. It’s yours. And it rightfully belongs to  you. Unfortunately, there are people living in this land. The natives aren’t going to hand over their lands and vineyards to you. You’re going to have to take it from them. This means war. But don’t be fearful or disheartened. We’ve got a huge fighting force here. With God on our side and with your prayers, we’re going to go in and take possession of the land, one acre at a time, one city at a time, one step at a time. With God’s help we will take possession of the land!

It really was a rousing speech. You’d think the Israelites would be all pumped up and ready to launch their invasion. In hindsight, that’s what they should have done right away. God had given the marching order. The battle cry had been sounded. It was time to go in and fight and take possession of the land.

But the fearful and unbelieving have a way of making things more difficult and complicated. They have a way of making themselves heard. They weren’t convinced that the war was going to be a piece of cake. They had an idea. And, quite honestly, at first sound, the idea was a really good one. It made perfect sense. Whoa, Nelly. Let’s not be so hasty and get ourselves into something we don’t know anything about. We have no idea what lies ahead of us. We don’t know where the enemies are or how strong their city walls or forts are. Let’s send a scouting party out so that they can spy out the land, know the terrain, know the enemy’s strongholds, strengths, and weaknesses. We don’t have cameras. But at least they can draw us a map and show us where we need to attack. Let them see what’s ahead of us so that we’ll know where and when to start our invasion (Deuteronomy 1:22).

The idea made good military sense. Joshua used it when he launched his invasion of Canaan forty years later. Every nation under the sun, even to this very day, reconnoiters the land before launching an invasion or attack. That’s how things are done. That’s how wars are fought. And won.

The only problem was, that’s not what God told them to do. Yes, it may have been a good idea. But GOOD IDEAS AREN’T REALLY GOOD WHEN THEY CONTRADICT OR DISOBEY GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS. God’s instructions were, Go and take possession of the land. Don’t be scared or intimidated by the enemy. I will give the enemy and their lands into your hands (Deuteronomy 1:20-21).

Moses should have listened to God. But, unfortunately, He listened to the fearful and unbelieving. So twelve spies were chosen and sent to scout out the land.

After forty days of reconnoitering the land, the spies came back with a mixed report. We went to the land where you sent us. It really is a land flowing with milk and honey. Here’s some of its fruit.  (28)  But the people who live there are strong, and the cities have walls and are very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.  (29)  The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountain region. And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and all along the Jordan River  (Numbers 13:27-29).

Turned out, the land itself was good. But the people in it weren’t. They were militaristic and militarily equipped. They lived in walled cities. Impregnable fortresses more like it. The land was well populated with many different races of people. And worse of all, the giants, the sons of Anak, lived there.

Naturally, the news was dismal and it caused quite a ruckus among the people. Joshua and Caleb tried to calm the people and get them to focus on the God who would lead them into battle and to the victory. But nothing doing. The fear and unbelief of a minority spread like wildfire until it consumed the entire nation.

Numbers 13:30-33  tells the story. Caleb told the people to be quiet and listen to Moses. Caleb said, “Let’s go now and take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it.”  (31)  But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!”  (32)  So they began to spread lies among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw there are very tall.  (33)  We saw Nephilim there. (The descendants of Anak are Nephilim.) We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them.”

Long story short, the Israelites refused to go to battle. The Lord punished them by making them spend forty years wandering aimlessly in the desert until an entire generation of murmuring, fearful, unbelieving Israelites perished in the desert sands.

So what began with a good idea ended up killing hundreds of thousands of people, if not a million or more, over a forty-year span of aimless, senseless desert travel. I dare say, they lost more people in the desert than they would have had they obeyed the Lord and launched an immediate invasion. The desert—not the war nor Israel’s enemies—ended up killing the great majority of the Israelites.

So you’ve got a good idea, huh? As long as it agrees with God’s ideas, that’s mighty fine and dandy. But you’d better make sure first before you follow through on what you think is the best or the right thing to do. Learn from the Israelites, dear friends. IF GOD TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING, THEN DO IT. DON’T LET YOUR BRIGHT IDEAS, OR ANYONE ELSE’S FOR THAT MATTER, FOOL YOU INTO DISOBEYING GOD. GOOD IDEAS CAN GET YOU KILLED IF YOU DON’T LISTEN TO GOD AND OBEY HIM. In this sad and tragic way, what parades as a really good idea is anything but good for you. A GOOD IDEA THAT INSPIRES FEAR, UNBELIEF, AND DISOBEDIENCE IS REALLY A BAD IDEA. Any dead Israelite buried in the sand will tell you that.

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ONE BAD DECISION: AN EARTH-SHATTERING DECISION

May 4, 2012 at 12:07 PM (Christian Living, One Bad Decision)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the course of a twenty-four hour period we make gobs of decisions. Some of these we make with a serious amount of forethought and prayer. But, if you’re like me, we make many of our decisions spontaneously with little, or no, thought as to the consequences or impact our decisions will have—not only for ourselves, but also for the many others whose lives are intertwined with  ours.

Have you ever thought much about how a single decision can change your life forever? Sometimes a single decision will change us for the better. And sometimes a single decision will change us for the worse.

In these blog posts I’d like to look at the singular decision that some people in the Bible made that changed their lives forever…for the worse. By looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word it’ll give us reason to stop and think about both the long-term and short-term ramifications of the decisions we make. Lots of forethought and prayer, I’m convinced, will save us from the pain and regret of a hastily-made decision for the worse.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING DECISION

Moses had it hard. The desert heat, travels, and deprivations were bad enough. But to make matters intolerably worse, he was constantly having to deal with people who didn’t like his decisions; people who questioned his leadership and his wisdom.

Korah was one such person. He was a rather influential Levite. A big shot as far as Levites went. Anyways, he was disenchanted with Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership. He felt like he needed to be a part of the upper echelon leadership team.  He wanted to be a priest which, by lineage, was not his right or prerogative to pursue. He wanted the laws of priesthood to be changed so that he could become a priest. And if changing the laws meant getting rid of Moses and Aaron, then, by God, that’s what Korah set out to do. So, he gathered 250 of the nation’s most powerful princes and they had themselves a very public showdown with Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 16:1-3 tells the story.  Now Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On, took men:  (2)  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:  (3)  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?

As you can imagine, Moses was rather disheartened by this rumbling of revolt. The rights of the priesthood and leadership were not his to make, but God’s. So here’s what God told Moses to tell Korah and his insurrectionists. “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him, who is holy, and who it is that he will allow to come near him. Only the person the Lord chooses will be allowed to come near him.  (6)  Korah, you and all your followers must do this tomorrow: Take incense burners,  (7)  and put burning coals and incense in them in the Lord’s presence. Then the Lord will choose the man who is holy. You’ve gone far enough!”  (8)  Moses also said to Korah, “Listen, you Levites!  (9)  Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the community of Israel? The Lord has brought you near himself to do the work for his tent and stand in front of the community to serve them.  (10)  He has brought you and all the other Levites near himself, but now you demand to be priests (Numbers 16:5-10).

The burning of incense was the priests’ prerogative. Only they could do it and no one else, not even a Levite. So here was Korah’s chance to at least taste a little of the priestly rights and prerogatives that he coveted for himself.

Well, morning came and Korah and his insurrectionists showed up at the Tabernacle as instructed. In fact, the whole nation showed up. Moses then took them on a walk and led them to the tents where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lived. Moses wanted these men to be with their families. Once there, Moses told the people what to do.

Numbers 16:26-30, Move away from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them, or you’ll be swept away because of all their sins.  (27)  So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children.  (28)  Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t my idea:  (29)  If these men die like all other people-if they die a natural death-then the Lord hasn’t sent me.  (30)  But if the Lord does something totally new-if the ground opens up, swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive to their graves-then you’ll know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.

The scene is emblazoned in my mind. It’s a sad, tragic picture that I cannot erase or forget. Its horrors haunt me. I can see Korah, Dathan, and Abiram at the door of their tents. I can see them gathered with their families. The men have one hand around their loving, beautiful wife; the other, tenderly holding on to the children. A smug look of defiance is on the face of each man, as if to say, Bring it on, Moses. Let’s see what you’ve got. But the women and children look with alarm, eyes enlarged with fear, as the authoritative voice of Moses thunders through the crowd.

Like standing beside the tracks as a train goes whizzing by, the earth begins to rumble. Softly, at first. Then, as the people begin to yell hysterically and run in fear, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram hold their families with both hands, as if to protect and shelter them from a coming calamity. The earth violently shakes and yawns, opening her mouth wide, and swallows the insurrectionists. Entire families, tents, and livestock—everything that belonged to these rebels—were sucked into a black hole. The earth closed her mouth. And the rebels—and everything they owned, the families they loved and held dear—were gone (Numbes 16:31-33).

What a sad, tragic, and dreadful end! It all began with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram moping around one day, wanting to know how they should do about righting a perceived wrong. After some deliberation, a decision was made. Let’s get a bunch of Israel’s most powerful and respected princes and let’s stage a showdown with Moses.

Unbeknownst to them, the decision would be a debacle. It would literally be an earth-shattering decision that would not only kill them, but kill their wives and children also. The insurrectionists saw what they wanted to see: they saw themselves forcing Moses’ hand and forcing him to cede more power to them. But what they didn’t see is what killed them. WHAT THEY WANTED, WHAT THEY COVETED, KILLED THEM. AND THOSE THEY LOVED.

Brethren, think slowly and think twice before you create a scene. Clear your mind and get God’s mind on the matter. YOUR DECISIONS AND ACTIONS AFFECT THE LIVES OF THE ONES YOU LOVE THE MOST. IN SOME WAYS REAL, THEIR LIVES AND WELL-BEING ARE IN YOUR HANDS. If not for yourself, then think of them. And don’t let your foolishness kill them.

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