Tuesday: Restlessness Leads to Rebellion
The story begins on a positive note. The Israelites have finally reached the borders of Canaan, and 12 spies are sent to explore the land. Their report is extraordinary.
Read the spies’ report in Numbers 13:27-33. At which point are the expectations of the Israelites dashed?
In spite of Caleb’s intervention, the voices of the doubters and skeptics prevail. Israel does not set out to conquer what God had promised them. Restless at heart, they choose weeping and murmuring over marching and shouting for victory.
When we are restless at heart, we struggle to walk by faith. Restlessness, however, affects not only our emotions. Scientists tell us that there is a straight line of cause and effect between too little rest (including lack of sleep) and bad choices, resulting in obesity, addictions, and more restlessness and unhappiness.
Read Numbers 14:1-10. What happened next?
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
Things move from bad to worse. Caleb’s desperate plea, “only do not rebel against the LORD” (Numbers 14:9), goes unheeded, and the entire assembly prepares to stone their leaders. Restlessness leads to rebellion, and rebellion ultimately leads to death.
“The unfaithful spies were loud in denunciation of Caleb and Joshua, and the cry was raised to stone them. The insane mob seized missiles with which to slay those faithful men. They rushed forward with yells of madness, when suddenly the stones dropped from their hands, a hush fell upon them, and they shook with fear. God had interposed to check their murderous design. The glory of His presence, like a flaming light, illuminated the tabernacle. All the people beheld the signal of the Lord. A mightier one than they had revealed Himself, and none dared continue their resistance. The spies who brought the evil report crouched terror-stricken, and with bated breath sought their tents.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prohets, p. 390.
Right then, however, the glory of the Lord manifests itself publicly. When we read the story in Numbers 14, it seems as if the entire scene has been frozen, and we are now privy to listen in on God’s conversation with Moses. God recognizes that even though the stones are meant for Moses and Caleb and Joshua, ultimately the rebellion is directed against God Himself.
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Sometimes the difference between rebellion and reformation is not as clear-cut as we would like. I am sure that many saw the leaders of the reformation as being rebellious. We have the advantage of making our evaluations by looking back on history with the 20-20 vision of hindsight. However, at the time, it may not have been quite so clear.
The big difference between rebellion and reformation is the selfish vs selflessness dichotomy. When we are pushing for change in a congregation/church/denomination/society we should take a careful look at our motivation. How often do we take on board an idea or an issue and in doing so sacrifice the very principles of Christianity to win? We no longer cast stones at one another but some of the aspersions we cast are just as sharp and as damaging as the stones that were used against Joshua and Caleb at the borders of the promised land.
Perhaps, if we were to live the words of this hymn:
Then our actions for change will be reformation rather than rebellion.
So why would those bringing truth from God's word be seen as rebellious, and by whom? Consider Ps 119:105. It was this "Lamp" that allowed the Reformation to take place, giving any who would follow the Light the ability to know the "certainty of the words of truth"(Prov 22:20,21, John 8:31,32), aided by the ever-present Holy Spirit. Those who wish to continue in sin will not follow this Light, rejecting the conviction, and will work to stifle the truth using every means possible. Like Cain, sinners will see God's faithful as the enemy, and rebels against the greater good.
This is coming soon to the world for the last time. We need to know how to discern between truth and falsehood, as Jesus taught.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Prov 30:12
Restlessness Leads to Rebellion
Of a truth sometime there is a thin line between some truth and error. How do we know when a Pastor or leader comes with an idea (that is not clear cut in the bible) that we should honor it. E.g to build a large edifice for worship when most of the members are on the poorer side of life. Some even tell the members to go ask your family and friends abroad to send money.
How do we know the leaders are right at church board or trying to lead a church when they cant even lead their own house-hold. Some PK are rebellious, was it for lack of knowledge in the house-hold, was the parent too busy with church activities etc. Then some may say, how can he lead the church and council others when he cant lead his own house-hold?
The uncircumcision heart is always restless. Some people are optimistic while others are pessimistic. Some see the glass half empty while others see the glass half full. How do these people dwell and work together. Have the Lord ever laid something on your heart and you shared it with the brethren just to get it shot down or shut you up? Some people in the church will use all their energy to work against you to make sure you do not get something done that is beneficial to the congregation because they did not come up with the idea.
This subtitle is true IF we refer to restlessness as unbelief, otherwise I'm not so sure I would agree without the author(s) defining “restlessness” as they understand it. One may feel restless at times, without rebelling. Paul called Israel's response "unbelief"(Heb 3:17-19).
The spies glowing report of the land turned sour when they expressed their unbelief in God's promises by saying the people were too strong for them to overcome, and the cities too fortified to overthrow. This is no surprise as unbelief was their constant demonstration throughout their journey from Egypt to the promised land. The majority report was negative, even though it was contradictory and false, and since unbelief was the common response, it led the vast majority to expressing their great dismay.
What followed the evil report was a reenactment of Cain going after Abel to slay him, except that God intervened to save His faithful servants from the unbelieving and rebellious throng. This scene will be repeated again in the very near future, and will end up in the same manner: the unbelieving rebels will die, and God's faithful will inherit the Promised Land.
Unbelief truly is restlessness and what follows is a multitude of sin. The scriptures show us that something else comes first before the unbelief that lays the foundation for restlessness. Revelation 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
The fearful are those who do not believe God or have fear or reverence for God, or trust God therefore they have not rested in God. The result is they will not obey God.
The Fall of humankind in the garden starts when Eve did not rest in God. She allowed her fear that God may not be fair to overshadow reason, therefore she believed a lie about God which was her unbelief. Her unbelief and failure to rest in God manifested itself in her disobedience to God. Adam followed the same course, he became fearful, then unbelieving then disobedient
He was restless and disobeyed God.
The Everlasting Gospel message of Rev 14:7 instructs us to "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come."
Sister Gale, I agree with your reasoning.
The scripture reference should be Revelation 14:7.
It’s interesting that while reading this story, Lucifer came to mind. He rallied as many angels as he could to follow him. His entire focus was negative, which is what the focus became with the Israelites. Their negativity turned into irrational behavior, weeping and wailing all night long. For them to be willing to head back to Egypt and go back into cruel bondage just seems crazy to me. But here again we see Moses character shine through. He interceded for these irrational and rebellious people.
I still hold that judging the children of Israel by the Light we have today is not fair. Do we want to sit in judgement of a people who struggled mightily with their insecurities because they were unwilling to trust God Almighty? Yes, they were restless, yes they rebelled, but we, having the privilege of ‘hindsight’, can exercise understanding and compassion and learn from it.
They had already become restless in Egypt, rising up against the demands of their slave holders. Now, rebelling against authority was a sign of transitioning between the gods of the old faith and the God of the new faith. Remember, Stephen was stoned due to a misplaced, zealous application of faith.
How many of us Christians still fear dramatic, complete upheaval of life’s circumstances? What insecurities, concerns come to our hearts in recognition of the ‘end of days’? I think very many of the Hebrew people had sincere relationships with their gods of Egypt and feared their retaliation.
I think God's Light of Truth in their hearts and minds needed to increase; needing to let go of relationships with the Egyptian gods and building a faith-relationship with God Almighty became essential. It is for us to consider and to thank God for His longsuffering and Grace!
In my opinion, experiencing restlessness, in and of itself, is not a negative experience. How one goes about resolving it becomes the issue. Luther’s ‘restlessness leading to rebellion’ is a good example of his conscience, stirred by the Holy Spirit to seek God’s Light of Truth to be established within the organized church, leading him to challenge the status quo in spite of threads against his life.
His willingness to go against religious authority’s old order brought about the freedom to pursue a personal relationship with our heavenly Father directly. Luther and his contemporaries ushered in a worldwide movement of faith-reforms to enhance the relationship between God and the believer to the Honor and Glory of God.
Brigitte, we are not meant to judge, but are to be admonished ourselves by their example of unbelief(1 Cor 10:11). They saw miracles we have only read about. They had amazing evidence, even hearing the voice of God and seeing the brilliance of His glory, yet cherished unbelief.
There was no earthly power in their day that could have delivered them from the most powerful nation on earth, but they walked out free with Pharaoh's blessing and much gain because of the wonderful manifestations of God's power, which they witnessed. All of this is preserved that we might be admonished ourselves and put away our unbelief. Any judgment against them will be worse for any who fail to enter into His Rest today(Heb 3:16-19), with all this evidence to learn from.
Robert – yes, as your Scripture reference points out, we are not meant to judge, only learn; sadly, too often I find the 'readiness to judge' instead of 'willingness to understanding'.
Reading the record of the people’s actions, I see them still tethered with a strong ‘tie of faith’ to their previous gods and believes.
What a gracious,wonderful gift for mankind to have one's eyes become opened to the Truth and Light of God - the true God, the God who created heaven and earth and all that is within and His Son to come to testify of Him.
Those who believe ‘prepare the way’ - through prayers, meekness, compassion, and acts of kindness toward them who do not yet see this Light. This is God’s way to soften their heart and to accept His Truth with their mind’s understanding.
The children of Israel were standing at the threshold of their experience with God, starting to build their national and individual relationship with Him - and we benefit from their experiences.
I think perhaps they were actually tethered to their unbelief and resulting sin/sins. They desired what God wanted to free them of. Their problem, as with every unrepentant sinner, was reluctance to surrender to the will of God.
I don't know of any evidence at this point in their history that tells us they worshipped other gods. The golden calf was an effort to reconcile with the Egyptians upon their plan to return.
Robert – my comments use Numbers 14:33-35KJV in which God uses strong language to demonstrate that He considers the conduct of the children of Israel ‘whoredom’. Theirs was not just bad behavior in a vacuum, their acts were based on their allegiance and trust in other gods more than in Him who brought them out of Egypt; and He does not take this lightly as His response shows.
I mentioned that one cannot fill a vessel that is still full; and they were still full with desires for other gods and all that came with that. It appears that the golden calf was the "representation of the Egyptian bull god Apis in the earlier period and of the Canaanite fertility god Baal in the latter." (Britannica.com)
I believe we sometimes forget that the mixed multitude of Egyptians were traveling with the Israelites and seemed to influence them in various events like the golden calf, longing for their previous diet and returning to Egypt.
We should watch out for nonbelievers influence on us.
I agree with the author, the people were restless. According to the Miriam Webster Dictionary defines “restlessness “as follow:
Lacking or denying rest: uneasy a restless night.
2 : continuously moving : unquiet the restless sea.
3 : characterized by or manifesting unrest especially of mind restless pacing also : changeful, discontented.
Numbers 14:1-10. The children of Israel complaint against Moses and Aron, and everyone said we should have died in the land of Egypt. They were not experience the rest in God that he offered them. They had no faith in God. So they murmured and complaint. Then came disobedient and their restlessness. Cain was disobedient which led him to commit “murder “Genesis 4: 12 said, you will be a restless wanderer on the earth. When we go against God by being disobedient our spirt, mind body and soul becomes restless. The only true rest we can have is that which is in Christ. When we find that rest then we have peace of mind. We will shun the very appearance of evil. We will cease to murmur and grumble because we thrust God to handle all our situation. Without true connection to God man is restless.
Amidst the chaos and unbelief, there is, most times, that one or two men/women that speak and nobody tends to listen! It is sometimes out of the way systems are designed. However, may God help us not to get to the level of chaos, and if we do, may we be able to still listen to that woman or man that is speaking words of hope and encouragement!