Disobedience

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/06/hope-beyond-consequences

I have read Numbers 20:2-12 a number of times, and although I know the spiritual principle the LORD is teaching in the passage, I find it difficult to understand the motivation for Moses to do what he did in disobeying God. Basically, the story goes that the Israelites were complaining again about the lack of water for them and their livestock, and although that was a legitimate concern, their complaints bothered on cursing God. Instead of being thankful to God for liberating them from slavery in Egypt, they were complaining that Moses brought them out into the wilderness to die. Perhaps Moses was angry and frustrated with them. The result was Moses reacted, and instead of speaking to the rock as per the LORD’s instructions, Moses used his staff like he used to. Water nevertheless gushed from the rock, but this act displeased the LORD, and the consequence to Moses and Aaron is that they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. They could only see it from afar. As for the rest of the Israelites, the consequence of their constant murmuring and disobedience was that they had to spend 40 years roaming the wilderness, and every adult that came out of Egypt died there without entering the Promised Land, except for Caleb and Joshua.

In Philippians 2:14-16, Paul wisely advised the Philippians to do all things without complaining and disputing so that they may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights of the world. This is not the same as the Israelites who murmured against God, yet the principle is that doing things without complaining is a virtue to aspire to as a testimony of the goodness of God in our lives, for us to be a light in the midst of darkness.

God has been consistent that there are consequences to disobedience and sin, as we have seen in both the lives of King Saul and King David. So much so that we could derive a spiritual principle that obedience is better than sacrifice. It goes without saying that God knows all things and thus if He asks us to do something in a certain way, we need to trust Him that He knows best and it is best that we just obey and follow. If we want to be stubborn and go our own way, then we bear the consequences.

But of course, God is love, and He still loves us despite our disobedience. Thus, even though there are consequences, He will pick us up and rebuild us if we turn back to Him. He will restore what the locusts had devoured. He will bring life to dry bones as in Ezekial 37:1-10. He will rebuild the Temple overran by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.