FREED BUT NOT FREE (Part 2)

Craving the Wrong Things
The children of Israel were in the wilderness. By simple definition, the wilderness is not a place where water or food is easily accessible. It is not a comfortable place to camp. The real benefit here was it was no longer Egypt. At least they were free and not in Egypt. There is an important principle here. If you are leaving Egypt, you must go through some wilderness to get to the Promised Land. There is no plan of God to go directly from Egypt to the Promised Land. The plan is to go through some wilderness first.
You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2
As a side bar for a moment, there is no imminent rapture of the saints where you go from mortal to the kingdom. The plan of God is the same as He did for Israel leaving Egypt. We do not take the shortcut–the rapture–by way of the Philistines (see Exodus 13:17); instead, we escape through the wilderness before entering the kingdom.
Just as our ancestors should not have complained about the wilderness–it was the path to freedom–so believers should not be afraid nor complain.
God was providing the needs of the people. They had manna, the bread of heaven, and an adequate supply of water for themselves and their flocks. However, their greedy desires rose up to cause trouble for the whole camp.
And the rabble (mixed multitude) who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
Numbers 11:4-6
Some Bible commentators have tried to identify who the rabble (mixed multitude) were among the camp. Jewish commentators have suggested that the aliens and sojourners–the non-natives–were the rabble who swept the “sons of Israel” away with them in their mistake. I mention this because one of the surest signs of true complainers is their ability to find fault with others and not take responsibility for themselves. I believe the rabble (who were both native and alien) were people who liked to complain. And one of the first things that a true complainer likes to complain about is the food he or she eats.
There was nothing wrong with the food; the complaint originated strictly within the heart of the complainer. The food was the excuse for the complaint. This was the problem with the rabble in the wilderness. There was nothing wrong with the manna; the complaint was in the greedy desires of the rabble. God knew this as well and judged the people accordingly.
How, then, do we handle complaints? The only way a complaint can be addressed and resolved is to get the complainer to transform his complaint into a question. When you ask a question, you have something to work with – a request. A complaint can never be satisfied; a question can be. The answer to the question (the supply to the request) becomes the solution to the problem. What was the question that the rabble should have asked instead of complaining? Moses asked it for them.
Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep before me, saying, “Give us meat that we may eat!”
Numbers 11:13
Apparently, the people wanted an additional menu item with the manna. They recounted the foods they used to have in Egypt, such as fish, melons, leeks, and garlic. They didn’t want the manna necessarily to go away. They just wanted it all – what they had in the past and what they could also get from God. But there was a subtle twist in their reference to the food of Egypt.
“We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt,…” This is a false statement!
They paid for the free fish with their slavery. The cost of their free fish was more than they could bear. That is the reason they wanted to go to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Had they not cried out to God for deliverance? So, what is really being said here? What is this really about?
Complainers distort the circumstances of their situation. Sometimes, they forget or ignore key facts altogether. They slant their complaint by overstating or understating the key facts. In this case, the fish was free (an overstatement) and the manna depressed their appetites (an understatement). Just for the record, an appetite is increased by lack of food, not by the faithful supply of it, so the manna did not cause the lack of appetite other than it wasn't satisfying their taste. This distortion of the facts is what usually produces arguments with the complainer. Therefore, one of the keys to dealing with complainers is to not get sucked into an argument because of their overstatements or understatements. Complainers start arguments by distorting the facts.
What was the real question? It had something to do with wanting meat. But wait, they already had meat, didn’t they? They had brought their flocks with them. Besides that, they were traveling near the shore of the Red Sea, which is full of fish. If they really wanted the fish again, they could have put together a fishing party. And as for the meat, they could have taken some of their flock and slaughtered them for a meal of meat.
It turns out that their hearts truly were greedy. They just wanted more and they were going to force God and Moses to give it to them by exerting pressure through their complaints. This is why complainers like to involve other people. They know that their simple preference for something is not enough to change a situation. But if you can get enough people to complain, to the point that it becomes a problem, then something has to be done about it. Is that how serving God works? Is that how the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us to the truth, by complaining until there is a real problem? No, that is not how God leads us by His Spirit, but the people play this game to get what they want. This is nothing more than simple tactics. Sometimes, it works with men, but God was not, and is not, moved by these tactics. So, the Lord instructed Moses accordingly.
And say to the people, “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, ‘Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.’ Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are 600,000 on foot; yet Thou hast said, ‘I will give them meat in order that they may eat for a whole month.’ Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?” And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord's power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not.” Numbers 11:18-23
It turns out that the Lord transformed their complaint into a simple request for meat. This gave the Lord the latitude to bring birds (quail) to them, so they could eat meat. They don’t have to go fishing, they don’t have to eat any of their flocks, they get to eat meat brought by God right to their camps. There was a problem though. God knew who the complainers were and He knew they would be the first to eat. The end result of their greedy lusts was judgment from the meat.
While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague. Numbers 11:33
This is what God thinks of people who complain about food from heaven. By the way, Jesus is compared to a bread that, if you eat it you will not be hungry again. He is called the True Bread from Heaven. If we complain about Him and say we are dissatisfied with Him, what will be our outcome?

FREED BUT NOT FREE

The book of Numbers is the primary text that tells us how the children of Israel did not transition well from slaves to free men. Instead of rejoicing in their freedom and deliverance, they complained. Their complaints resulted in rebellion and contempt for the Lord. The Apostle Paul tells us the lessons from the wilderness are instructions for us.
 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 says;

                                                 ¹ Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware   that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, ² all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. ⁵ But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.⁶ Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. ⁷ And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” ⁸ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; ⁹ nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; ¹⁰ nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹ Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. ¹² Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. I Corinthians 10:1-12

            Before we examine the lesson Paul is referring to, we need to address a reality about us. You are going to discover that all of their mistakes began with something common among us all – it started with complaints. So, let us define what complaining really is so the lesson of our ancestors sinks into our reality.
A complaint is a question that is not asked. A complaint is an expression of contempt for the situation you are in, others around you, and the God you serve. A complaint is the voice of a coward who is afraid of the solution. A complaint is verbal poison given to your friends to make them as sick as you are. A complaint has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when a believer is complaining, he is not speaking by the Holy Spirit but from his or her own fleshly lusts. With this definition in mind, let us now examine the examples of our ancestors.


To be continued tomorrow...

WHAT YOU CONFESS DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY

The people that God delivered out of Egypt were looking for the promised land. They hoped for it. They prayed for it. They were oppressed while in Egypt and needed deliverance. But when they were delivered out of Egypt and the moment came to go into the promised land, they rejected the promise in one day and accused the Lord of hating them! How could such a turn around take place? How could they leave Egypt, cross the Red Sea, eat manna, hear the voice of God at the mountain, receive God’s laws, build a tabernacle, follow the pillar, and yet when the time came to receive the promised land, they flatly rejected it? How could such a thing happen?
It is easy. They heard a bad report.
Despite Moses and the efforts of Joshua and Caleb, the people believed the bad report from the other 10 spies. Here is the story given in Numbers and Deuteronomy.


"Then they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, "We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan." Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us." So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 13:25-33
The people believed the bad report. As a result, they were very discouraged.


Numbers 14:1-4
Not only were they discouraged but they were willing to give up the promised land and to actually return to Egypt.


Numbers 14:27-29


Numbers 14:31
Moses recounted these events to the children of that generation, explaining how the bad report produced rebellion in the hearts of the people, skewing their spiritual judgment to their harm and that of others.


Deuteronomy 1:26-29
The bad report made their hearts melt. What an interesting word picture to explain the effect of the bad report.


Moses explained the promise of God in an effort to encourage their hearts, but they would not listen nor be encouraged. So, the Lord took action against that generation.


Deuteronomy 1:34-35
Since the people had used the preservation and protection of their children to be their stated reason for rebellion (when in their hearts they were really afraid and cowards) God spoke directly of their children in the matter.


Let’s review the facts. God was with the people. God had promised the land. If there were enemies in the land opposed to the people then it is God’s problem to remove them, so He could fulfill His promise of the land. But the fear of the spies and later the people was greater than any facts.
We are like grasshoppers standing by them easily appears to be an "overstatement" of the problem. The word picture used by the spies had a clear intention and purpose. We are so small that we will be stepped on and smashed. Obviously, the spies had concluded that God was not able to give them the promised land. The land is already taken by their "gigantic" enemies.
Do you see how the report of the land was slanted, twisted, and used for another purpose? Had they shared about the good land? Yes. But, they added, slanted, and left out key facts to produce a new conclusion. The report was based in fear and it led to a bad conclusion – a conclusion that would stir many people to reject the leadership of Moses and the direction God was leading.


People, for the most part, feed off of bad reports. It is a sad but true fact. From the world’s standpoint, a news report gets more attention if it is bad news. An earthquake, a tsunami, a tornado, a hurricane and a flood makes the best news reports, especially if people (a large number) were hurt. Disaster and human destruction speak of great loss.


Why do people want to hear a bad report more than "good news?" What is it about harm, destruction, and a fall that is so compelling for people? I think the answer is found in the basic conflict we all find ourselves in as mortals. The Scripture says that our enemy is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He has one purpose: to destroy and to kill. Bad reports are part and parcel of the disruptive world we live in.
There is something mesmerizing and compelling about something that is going wrong. It seems to have the power of lust and temptation. Whether it is the train wreck or a house burning to the ground, it has our attention. Our eyes want to take it all in. However, most of us have no sense of a bad report being a kind of lust or a temptation. We actually convince ourselves that there is something right and noble about sharing or receiving a bad report. The truth is that a bad report is one of the most destructive things we personally experience.
Did you know that if sheep are in a flock close together, that a wolf in their midst can walk from one sheep to the next, killing them, and the rest of the sheep will not run away? For some reason, sheep are not afraid of a wolf inside of the flock, despite what he is doing. They feel safe because other sheep are around them. Did you know that our greatest enemies are referred to as wolves in sheep’s clothing?
Why do we abandon the principles of truth and in particular that truth is established by the evidence of two or three? Yet, we will listen and give weight to a single bad report. More importantly, we actually believe the bad report. By believe, I mean we will act on that report. We will carry it on to another. We will adjust our relationship. We will alter our plans, etc. There is obviously something very compelling in a bad report that brings out the worst in us. This is the very reason that gossip works so well.
Like the picture of the wolf in the flock, brethren will tolerate another believer speaking harm against another member of the flock, even killing them. More over, we will do nothing about that destruction and harm, justifying ourselves that it not about us, it is not our business.
Some people think that quoting a person directly is all the evidence they need to determine the truth. "Well, so in so, said this…," is the evidence many times given but it is received as the absolute truth.


Do you know that Satan quoted from God? So does that make Satan telling the truth? Don’t we know what Satan’s motive is and does it not immediately make anything he says suspect? Don’t we know that any statement made by him is for the purpose of leveraging us away from that which is good and right? It is the leveraging, the bias of the person reporting that should be balanced with whatever has been said.
How many times have we heard of the story of a specific quotation given, only to discover that it was a partial statement and did not reflect the final conclusion of the matter? Just because you heard someone say one thing does not prove that it is his real position. It turns out that motivation and the reason behind something play a pivotal role in determining whether something is good or bad, whether it is the truth. Do we ever ask the person passing on the bad report what their motivations are? It is obvious to us now that the spies were afraid. This biased their report. We were like grasshopper beside them. Wouldn’t it have been appropriate to factor their bias into their report before believing it? We now see the wisdom of that, but can brethren apply that same wisdom in their relationships of today? Apparently not. There are few among us with such wisdom.


There is the underlying motive that pays for the postage of bad reports. Most people who deliver bad reports do it for self serving motives – or, worse yet, contrived and hypothetical motives. People listen to a person who delivers a bad report, even people who would normally never listen to them. How many times have we heard a person challenged with putting out a bad report, self justify it with they were trying to prevent someone else from being harmed? " I am warning others about this."
This is a favorite motive for many spiritual brethren. They justify their dispersal of bad reports by trying to "save" others. We are not talking about the loss of life here. The spies were afraid that the enemy would kill them and in the end, kill their wives and children. They thought they were saving others from the enemy. In the same manner of the spies, many brethren actually do greater harm than the harm they were trying to save others from.


The Apostle James spoke of the tongue and its power to do good or harm.


James 3:4-6


James 3:9-10


Whose report are you believing? Many life's failures, hurts, and challenges are caused by believing bad reports.  Something being a fact doesn't mean its TRUTH remember the enemy (devil) came to Kill, Still and destroy.


You're more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. Don't give in to a negative, bad report.


The Power of Life and Death is the Tongue. You become what you confess.


What report are you confessing today?