FEAR HAS CONSEQUENCE

• DAY 38
• Fear File: Israelites
• Scripture: Numbers 14

“But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness, they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”

Numbers 14:32-35

We don’t like to talk about consequences in today’s church. It is too grievous a topic to discuss we focus on love, grace, and happiness. And I get it. Past generations dwelt more on consequences and didn’t strike a balance. When the next generation came on the scene, they made the exact same mistake in the opposite direction. And dwelt on grace without consequence. They both needed to teach balance presenting the truth about God and the gospel as seen in scripture. So if today’s post is discombobulating and your mind cannot perceive that the merciful God can actually dish out punishment, be not afraid, He is merciful even in His consequence.

God Is Merciful

This is his nature. In His mercy, He never lets us experience the fullness of His wrath because He knows it will destroy us. He is so merciful He allowed Moses to intercede for these hooligans time after time. If you recall, he was ready to destroy them but Moses intervened. He may be angry but he always leaves room for intercession.

You see the Israelites didn’t get here just because they complained this once. As we read in verses 20-21 Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; …all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. 

God had continuously worked wonders in the midst of these people so much that believing in Him should have been a given. Yet these 10 times they tempted him. What ten times? We will get to that later. And for every time they tested him, he extended mercy and grace even here.

Be It As You Have Spoken

“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you‘ ”  Verse 28

I consider fear a dangerous toy. You cannot play with it and expect not to get poked in the eye. And what makes it scary is that fear must find a verbal expression. it is impossible to have a habit of fear and hide it from your words. And words have creative power. So as you speak, so it shall be. We forget to consider that fear and faith require the same principles to manifest. You must believe it, confess it, and act as though you have it and you will see it. The difference is that one brings freedom and the other brings torment.

Beloved, Fear has a consequence. It may look different from 40 years in the wilderness but I can guarantee you that if you continually doubt God He will give you your desire. And there is nothing scarier to me than having my life run by my will. Try it out and see. Try running your life by your wisdom and tell me how far that gets you and how fulfilled you are. I want to live a God-ordained life. I hope you do too.

Pray With Me

Father, I am aware that your thoughts are the best option I got and your plans are my only alternative but sometimes I let fear distract me. So today I ask that you help my heart trust you always in every season and you, in your mercy, forgive my fearful days.

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