The price of deliberate disobedience...

"'...Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place the LORD has promised.' But Moses said, 'Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD when it will not succeed? Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the LORD.  And the LORD will not be with you.'  But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.  Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah."--Numbers 14:40-45.  In this passage, we see that Israel is told to do one thing, warned what will happen if they don't and them doing it anyway causing them to pay the ultimate price of deliberate disobedience. 

The price of deliberate disobedience.  Take a look at the image I posted above.  It is a picture of a man climbing over a wall despite the fact that there is a sign on the left side of that wall indicating that he should not.  You look in the background of the picture, there is an ocean view.  I can't say for sure but there is a pretty good chance that when that man climbs over the wall, he will drop straight down a hundred or more feet.  He will be extremely lucky to survive a fall like that.  The image above fits perfectly with what is going on here in Numbers 14:40-45 because there is a clear warning but the man is disobeying anyway and his failure to heed it will cause him to pay the price of deliberate disobedience. 

The price of deliberate disobedience.  Many of us, myself included will read this passage and say to ourselves, 'What in the world were they thinking?' but let us not be too quick to judge. How often are we guilty of reading God's warning of what would happen if we disobey a particular command and we deliberately disobey anyway? I have seen it happen over and over again with members of the Lord's church and I hate to admit, I have been guilty of this myself.  I have paid the price of disobedience.  Not the same one the Israelites paid but I still paid a price. 

The price of deliberate disobedience. To elaborate on my own example, my whole life I have struggled with money and the proper use of it.  About this time last year, I allowed that struggle to get out of control (Emphasis on I allowed it meaning it was my fault) and I found myself in what seemed like insurmountable debt.  I am thankful to say that I did manage to pay off the majority of that debt and what debt I have left is manageable.  I thank God for His good grace and giving me the resources to get out of the hole I dug for myself.  But when I was in the midst of all this, I confessed what was going on to my best friend and in my confession, that is when I realized I had sinned against God by mishandling my money, which in reality is His money, not mine.  There are Scriptures that speak to how we should use our money but that is another discussion.  The point I am making here is that I knew how God wanted me to handle the money He had given me and I deliberately disobeyed and paid the price of that deliberate disobedience. 

The price of deliberate disobedience.  In Numbers 14:40-45, we see the ultimate price being paid, the price of human life but every act of disobedience to God comes with some sort of price to be paid and unfortunately this can include the ultimate price, death. Some examples of the price of disobedience can include broken families when the parents might be Christians but the children fail to heed their godly guidance and go off into a life of sin.  This is something I have witnessed firsthand in some families that I am close with.  God tells us in Romans 13:1 that we are into be subjection to the governing authorities but how often do we do something as simple as breaking the speed limit and end up getting a ticket we might not be able to afford to pay?  These are just two examples of many that give us the price of deliberate disobedience. Following is a video from the song "Homeboy" by Eric Church which gives us a visual representation of what the price of deliberate disobedience can be in a family.

The price of deliberate disobedience.  To close, I want to briefly describe a discussion I was having with one of my good friends Charisa over lunch yesterday.  As she and I were talking about the Scriptures, she made the statement that God's "rules" are there not to restrict us from doing stuff but they are there in order to protect us and to keep us from getting hurt.  To illustrate her point, she used the basic example of why a child is told not to touch a hot stove.  The child is told to not touch the hot stove for protection from harm, not restriction from fun.  This is what all of us as Christians need to realize.  God's commands are there not to restrict us from what we think is fun but they are there to protect us from harming ourselves and others. 

The price of deliberate disobedience.  So my encouragement to you is this, if there is a particular struggle you have that you know is contrary to God's will, do everything you can to get that struggle under your control so that it does not control you.  Like me, it might be money but it might be something else. Whatever it is, take some time to write down some practical ways you can get that struggle under control in your life. Let's all make it a point to avoid paying the price of deliberate disobedience.  And if you are reading this and are not sure about whether or not you are going to heaven, you can avoid paying the ultimate price of deliberate disobedience, losing your eternal life with God by simply obeying the gospel message.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!