Viral Unbelief | Sunday, May 3, 2020

So we see that they were not able to enter the promised land... because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:19) > > Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)

An entire generation was quarantined in the wilderness by a single, deadly contagion—and its cure is still the same today.

The Flesh Comes Out Under Pressure

I have believed for a long time, and shared many times here at the church, that our true nature—what Christians commonly call the flesh—shows itself most clearly when we are sick, tired, hungry, and stressed. In those times we default to who we really are. Our impatience, unkindness, irritability, and anxieties come to the surface.

I think we can add one more to that list: quarantined. A week or two is one thing, but as of today we are at day 45 of the shutdown in California. Quarantine can certainly bring out our flesh. Maybe you've even had to apologize to your family a few times in all of this. God often uses challenging things like quarantine to bring our flesh to light and expose it. These things are His tools for pruning, purging, and purification.

Israel's Forty-Year Quarantine

Ancient Israel spent a significant period on shutdown. They were quarantined and separated from the land God had promised them for thirty-eight years. For four decades Israel wandered in the wilderness south and east of the promised land, in and around what is known today as the country of Jordan.

Israel remained under this extended quarantine to deal with a virulent problem—a deadly strain that infected an entire generation. The author of Hebrews identifies the contagion: they could not enter the promised land because of unbelief. So dangerous is this contagion that Hebrews prescribes, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." Those are incredibly strong words. I would go so far as to say an evil heart of unbelief is ultimately more deadly than any other condition, because unbelief is the root cause of eternal spiritual death—far worse than physical death.

That unbelief often manifested in symptoms of murmuring, rebellion, disobedience, and the occasional debauchery. Most of Deuteronomy 2 summarizes this period of Israel's history, and Moses's summary holds important lessons for us.

Why Moses Recounts the History

The first question we should ask is why. Why was Moses summarizing the previous thirty-eight years for his listeners? The simple answer is that his listeners were about to be tested for this highly infectious contagion. Their parents and grandparents had a very deadly strain of it; the entire generation died under quarantine as a result. By recounting their history, Moses is working to inoculate the new generation from the deadly unbelief that killed the previous one.

This week, rather than my usual points, I'm going to make about four observations from the text—observations that teach. To understand them, it's worth noting that Moses has just reminded his listeners that their parents and grandparents failed to possess the promised land because they were fearful of fortified cities and giants. In light of those obstacles, they were filled with fear and unbelief, and as a result they wandered and died in the wilderness by their own choice. They did not trust that the God who brought them up out of Egypt could bring them up into the promised land.

Observation One: God Will Let You Walk in Circles

So we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. (Deuteronomy 2:1)

How many days? Many days—an indeterminate period. As much as we may not like it, I have found this to be true: God will allow you to meander aimlessly so that He may accomplish His ultimate ends, even if that means letting you wander in the wilderness for decades. God has a lot of time, and He is more than willing to wait. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty impatient. God isn't.

I'm going to call this waiting on us God's anti-blessing. It isn't exactly an active curse, but it is also definitely not His blessing. It is a kind of judgment—but a judgment that Israel chose for themselves.

This leads us to one of the most important forms of prophecy in the Bible, which I call conditional predictive prophecy. It is predictive in that it foretells what will happen, but only insofar as it recognizes cause and effect: if you do X, then you will get Y. A² plus B² always equals C². It is effectively the principle of sowing and reaping. So I am awesomely prophetic when I tell a promiscuous young couple, "If you don't stop what you're doing, you're going to get pregnant." And then when they get pregnant, they ask, "How did you know?" Well, I'm a prophet.

If you feel like your life is going nowhere, meandering meaninglessly, circling the wilderness, you have to ask: Did I choose this wilderness myself? Am I experiencing the anti-blessing of God? And if you're still wandering—are you done yet? Are you tired of it?

Then the Lord spoke to me, saying: "You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward." (Deuteronomy 2:2–3)

It's time to stop wandering. The Lord then commanded Israel to pass through the territory of their brethren, the descendants of Esau in Seir, without meddling with them, even buying their food and water with money. The same was true of Moab and Ammon. God would not give Israel any of those lands, for He had given Seir to Esau, and Ar to the descendants of Lot.

So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp... For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. (Deuteronomy 2:13–15)

Observation Two: God Will Let You Long Jealously

Not only will God allow you to meander, but He will also allow you to long jealously for the life and possessions of others, to provoke you to move into the life He desires for you. That may seem counterintuitive. Some of the real Bible people are thinking, "That's crazy. Jealousy is wrong; God would never be okay with that."

Let me prove from Scripture that it is true. I understand jealousy as an outgrowth of covetousness, and we will see in just a couple of chapters that covetousness transgresses God's law. We should not covet what our neighbor has. But God certainly intended for Israel to long for the possession He had created for them. If that still feels off, read Deuteronomy 32:

They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. (Deuteronomy 32:21)

Like it or not, God will allow you to long jealously as you see the life and possessions of others, so that He might provoke you to move into the life He desires for you. If it drives you crazy that you're not where you feel you should be, and someone else seems further along, it may be worth asking: Am I where I am supposed to be?

The descendants of Esau, Moab, and Ammon were distant relatives of Israel, living in their own land, with their own cities, farmlands, cattle, sheep, and goats. During those thirty-eight years, Israel walked through their cousins' lands and saw them settled in their own homes. There is no possible way that didn't drive Israel crazy—as well as it should have.

Observation Three: God Will Let You Witness Your Enemies' Victories

God will allow you to witness the victory of your enemies to highlight the discomfort of your defeat. The descendants of Esau, Moab, and Ammon weren't exactly Israel's enemies—but they kind of were. As Israel wandered through their lands, the text says:

The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim... The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them. (Deuteronomy 2:10–12)

Did you catch that? Why did Israel not inherit the promised land under the exodus generation? Because they were afraid of the giants in the land. But what did their cousins, the descendants of Esau, do? They dispossessed and destroyed the giants. The text repeats it in verses 20–22 regarding Ammon: there too were giants—the Zamzummim, "a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim"—but the Lord destroyed them, and Lot's descendants dwelt in their place.

Israel failed to possess their land because there were giants in it. But their cousins defeated the giants, and God Himself helped them do it. Wouldn't He have helped His own people Israel to do the same? Sometimes God allows us to witness the victory of our enemies to highlight the discomfort of our defeat. He didn't want Israel to grow comfortable in their wandering, so He let them see their defeat in relation to their cousins' victory. Apparently a little rivalry is sometimes not a bad thing.

Observation Four: God May Require You to Fight

Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. (Deuteronomy 2:24–25)

God may require you to engage in battle to take the possession He has promised. That means it isn't going to be easy. Everything worthwhile is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you or selling something.

God's aim from the beginning was to position Israel in their own land, because His redemptive plan required it. The exodus generation failed, but He allowed them and their children to meander aimlessly so that they might be provoked to jealousy, discomforted by defeat, and stirred up to move into the land He had prepared for them.

Salted Oats and a Hard Run

There's an old saying you've probably heard: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." That's actually not quite true. There are at least two things you can do to make him drink—run him really hard and salt his oats. He'll get thirsty really quick.

Some of you this morning have been eating salted oats and running hard, and God is going to keep you running until you are ready to yield to and trust in Him. In more than twenty years of pastoral ministry, I have never met a person who regretted yielding to God and trusting Him. But I have met quite a few who wish they had not wandered the wilderness for decades before they finally did.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin... Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. (Hebrews 3:12–13, 15)

The nation of Israel, some thirty-four hundred years ago, hardened their hearts and rebelled. They did not trust and follow God by faith when He sought to lead them into the promised land, and they failed to enter the fullness of His blessing. God wants to lead you into the fullness of His blessing in Christ today—but that's only possible if you will yield to Him as Lord and trust in Him for salvation.

A Prayer of Faith

Some of you recognize right now that you need to do just that. It's time to stop wandering and put your trust in Jesus. Receiving the free gift of salvation is as easy as ABC. First, you admit that you are a sinner and need Jesus. Second, you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and rose again. Third, you confess Him as Lord and ask Him to come into your life.

If that's you, pray this simple prayer with me:

Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that You died in my place on the cross. I believe that You rose from the dead. Please come into my heart, be my Lord and my Savior. Help me to turn from my sins and to turn to You in faith. Save me from my sin. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, please let us know by going to commit.lifeinconnection.com and filling out the form. We would love to be in contact with you and, if you don't have one, send you a Bible.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we thank You for the good things that You are doing, and we ask that You would continue to help us to trust in You in the midst of these challenging times. Sometimes we can feel like the children of Israel in this passage, walking in the wilderness. But God, I pray that You would use this time to transform us by the renewing of our minds, and help us to trust in You and worship You through it. We look forward to the opportunity, hopefully not far in the distant future, when we can gather together as Your body to worship You. Until then, would You continue to cause Your word to go out to the uttermost parts through the media we're using right now. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.