Grave Consequences

Friday, 21st September 2007

Consider the following passages of Scripture which talk about the grumblings of the Israelites:

1. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" (Ex 15:24)

2. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (Ex 16:2)

3. But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Ex 17:3)

4. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! (Num 14:2)

Now consider God's response to the people's grumbling...

1. He caused the bitter water sweet so that the Isralites could drink it (Ex 15:25)

2. He fed them with quails and manna (Ex 16:13)

3. He caused water to come out from the rock (Ex 17:6)

4. Those who grumbled ended as corpses in the wilderness (Num 14:29,32)


In the first 3 incidents, God responded to their complaints by providing for them in terms of food and water.

Yet in the 4th incident, the response was one of judgement for disobedience.

What happened between Exodus 17 and Numbers 14 to cause such a drastic change of response?

The Mosaic Convenant!

Even though the Israelites murmured and grumbled between the Passover and Mt Sinai, no one died because the convenant that was in effect at that point of time was the Abrahamic one where God promised Abraham and his descendants a land flowing with milk and honey.

But once the Israelites were under the Mosaic covenant based on their law-keeping and obedience, the stakes were different, and many a times, fatally so.

A person who was found to be gathering wood on the Sabbath was stoned to death! (Num 15:32-36)

The earth opened and swallowed up Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their family because they had grumbled against Moses and Aaron (Num 16:31-33). Another 250 men were consumed by fire because they were offering incense to the LORD, but the Law only allowed Levites to do so (Num 16:35) . And 14,700 others were struck dead by a plague because they blamed Moses and Aaron for the earlier mentioned deaths (Num 16:49).

I thank God that we as New Covenant believers are no longer under the Mosaic Law of "Do good, get good. Do bad, get beat". Jesus has fulfilled all those Laws on our behalf, as well as taken upon Himself all the curses that pertained to the Law, and we are now redeemed from them. Praise be to God that we only enjoy the blessings. Amen?