The Danger
Numbers 20:12, “But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
I’ll be honest; for a long time I thought this was “Godly overkill”. Yea, Moses and Aaron disobeyed God when Moses struck the rosk of Meribah to get water for the Israelites(click hear to read). But, nobody was around to hear the actual command by God, so what did it hurt. God told Moses to talk to the rock, but instead he struck it! Potato/Potatoe. No big deal; YES, BIG DEAL! When God gives a command He expects His followers to obey it ALL the way. Moses only made one simple change in a command by God, so what; remember it was also a command that no one else heard.
Well, God knew what happens when His commands were not followed exactly as He said. Think all the way back to the creation. God created Adam and Eve to control His garden, and there was only one command. Genesis 2:17, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” God commanded Adam not to eat fruit from that one tree, but when the Serpent tempted Eve she told him that they were not even supposed to touch that tree. That was only one simple change in God’s command. One little, itsy-bitsy, change can’t do any harm, right. WRONG!
That one change as small as it was allowed Satan a foothold, and he took off. Sin came into the world because of that one change that man made to God’s command.
God knew that when Moses did not follow His order to the letter, no matter who else knew, sin would be able to get a foothold, and possibly mess up what He desired. God did not overreact to Moses’ disobedience because He knew that disobedience could have dire consequences.
Jesus Christ was sent by God to lessen the impact, on us, of our disobedience; but when we don’t follow God’s commands to the letter there can be horriffic outcomes. Whenever we decide to make the smallest change to God’s commands then inevitably that will require another change and then another and another. Before long we will be so far off from God’s truth that we will no longer know what the truth is. As Christians we must stay close to God, and His commands! It is the only place where we can be safe, and certain that we will enter the Promised Land!
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Father, I thank You for giving me Your commands, and I ask that You do not allow me to make changes because even the slightest change to Your word can have dreadful results. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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The image above can be found at:http://42andotheranswers.blogspot.com/2010/09/questioning-questioning.html
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