WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday September 29, 2019
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FAITH
DURING CONSEQUENCES
(Despite
GOD’s mercy and forgiveness, sin still has consequences)
(Numbers
14:11-25)
In
the biblical Greek, the word used for “longsuffering” is “makrothumia”, and it
describes a spirit that “never grows irritated”, “never despairs”, and “never
regards anyone as being beyond salvation”. The negative reaction by the
Israelites and the ten scouts, toward GOD, angered GOD to the point where HE
was ready to destroy all of them immediately. However, here in this passage, Moses
prays a prayer of intercession, one of many that he would have to pray for the
people over the years, and he pleaded with GOD not to destroy them.
Also in this passage, GOD, once again
demonstrating HIS “longsuffering SPIRIT” for HIS human creation, granted Moses’
petition to “not punish the people with immediate death”. However, the ten
scouts (all tribal leaders of Israel) who talked the people against GOD, were
not spared, and were all punished with immediate death (Vs.13-19). Death was
the only judgment and consequence available to “false leadership” in the
community of GOD back then, and it still is today.
GOD also granted the people of Israel their
wish that “they would rather die in the wilderness than face the Canaanites” as
HE had instructed them to do (Vs.26-38). And GOD caused them to wander in that
wilderness for the next forty years, one year for each day (40 days) that the
scouts had explored the land of Canaan. Their actions had proven that they
feared the Canaanites nephilim (giants) more than they feared GOD, WHO had
miraculously destroyed their oppressors in Egypt less than three years earlier,
right before their very eyes.
“Sin” is a “disobedience” that always
begins in “the thinking stages”. If we “repent” for our sins while still in the
thinking stages, in other words, “change our mind” (which is the true
definition of the word “repent”), before we actually “commit the physical act”,
there is “no consequences” to those thoughts. However, once we let our “sinful
thoughts” become reality we must deal with the “consequences” of those sins,
sometimes for years to come.
GOD wants us to “repent” (“metanoia” in the
biblical Greek), “change our mind”, before we actually commit “the physical act
of sin”. Once we commit the physical act, we then have to deal with the “judgment”
(“consequences”) of that sinful physical act, which has to “run its course”, or,
“manifest its results physically and mentally” before we are truly “restored”
back “spiritually” into a relationship of friendship with GOD.
However, even during “the consequence
stages” of our sin, we still need to maintain our faith, trust, and reverence
in the LORD. We need GOD, not only in order to survive those consequences, but
also to strengthen us that we may have a better chance to “go and sin no more”.
That right! Once GOD restores us through CHRIST JESUS, HE fully expects us to
do that, “go and sin no more”.
The LORD
forgives us time and time again for our disobedience, which is caused by our
lack of fear, faith, and trust in HIM. And there will always be consequences to
disobedience that must run their course before we can receive any future “special”
(not ordinary) blessings from GOD. Without “faith”, it is impossible to please
GOD. And we must please GOD with our behavior if we want HIM to endorse us with
HIS blessing, or “special favor”.
Whenever
we sin, “our relationship with GOD is interrupted”. This was true in the Old
Testament times, and it is still true today. Whenever we fall into sin, we must
repent and ask GOD for forgiveness, which HE is faithful to grant. After we’ve
received GOD’s forgiveness, the consequences of our sin must still run its
course before we are fully restored back into a right relationship with HIM.
One of the many special contributions to
mankind that JESUS’ vicarious sacrifice on the cross brings us, is that, we are
no longer, necessarily, under the threat of immediate and certain death for our
sins, as the people in Old Testament times often were. Because of JESUS’
sacrifice on the cross, perhaps we now receive even more of GOD’s wonderful and
abounding grace than ever before, and HE gives us many, many, more
opportunities today to come to the “saving knowledge of CHRIST”.
There remains for those who are faithful, a
very possible way to enter into the unknown territory (for man), where JESUS
had to go in order to save us from ourselves, and emerge victoriously through
our strength in HIM. In addition, GOD lends us HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WHO will always
lead us in the right direction, because HE knows no other way. And if we trust
in HIS counsel, HE will carry us well beyond our own capabilities, and well
beyond our own, self-imposed, limitations.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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