DISOBEDIENCE: BEFORE & AFTER

(Message by Tanny Keng)


1. Disobedience

a) A bewildering characteristic of the wilderness Israelites — their frequent acts of disobedience.

2. Before And After

a) Before the period of wilderness wandering, there were numerous examples of disobedience to God. You will recall how, in the time of the PROMISES TO ABRAHAM, Joseph's brothers sinned in selling him into slavery.

b) Even Moses, a giant among people of faith, was not without a record of sin. In the time of the BONDAGE IN EGYPT, when Moses lived in Midian, he neglected the covenant of circumcision and God was going to kill him, however his wife saved the day (Exodus 4:24-26).

c) After the period of wilderness wandering, during the CONQUEST OF CANAAN, when judges ruled the Israelites, the people disobeyed God by not driving out all the inhabitants of the land. Consequently, their children were drawn into worshiping the Baals and "there arose a generation arose who did not know God". In their own promised land they became slaves to the people they should have conquered. God raised up judges to restore them, but time and again they fell back into the same error (Judges 2).

d) In the time of the KINGDOM OF DAVID when David and Solomon ruled, David sinned when he took Bathsheba. Solomon loved a thousand foreign women who turned away his heart to serve false gods.

e) In the time of the DIVIDED KINGDOM there were many wicked kings such as Ahab, who married the wicked Jezebel who set out to exterminate God's prophets (1 Kings 16-21). Elisha predicted an ugly death for her (2 Kings 9:10,30-37).

f) In all the other periods the same story continues. Even in the time of the COMING OF THE SON OF GOD, the religious leaders opposed him and sought to kill him (John 5:18).


The End ...

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