He Did Not Waver At The Promise Of God

wise seeker

"Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; "and you complained in your tents, and said, 'Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 'Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there." '

"Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 'The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 'and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.' "Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God, "who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. Deuteronomy 1:26-33

The sin of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt and failed to go into the promised land was that they had failed to believe God in spite of all that He had done for them. They failed to walk by faith rather than sight. They had allowed the false cowardly spies to deceive them and discourage them from possessing all that God had for them. And then take took up stones to kill God’s two faithful servants Joshua and Caleb who told them:

… "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them." And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.

Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? "I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." Numbers 14:8-12

The children of Israel were not like their father Abraham who believed God and gave up all to follow God when the Lord said to him:
Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3

The children of Israel were stubborn, rebellious and unbelieving who put action to their complaints and caused God to move against them. The Lord called them an evil generation who didn’t follow the Lord wholly even though they were His people. The bible records for our profit and instruction:

"And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, 'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, 'except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the LORD.' "The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, 'Even you shall not go in there; 'Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 'Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

'But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.' Deuteronomy 1:34-37

The real enemies of the children of Israel were not the Anak, the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites or the Canaanites, but their own evil unbelieving hearts that allowed them to believe others rather than God. It’s a sin that many of God’s people practice even this day and need to repent of it. God’s word is unchanging:

Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:17-19

Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching. Mark 6:5-6
Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14
Unbelief is an enemy of all of God’s people because it prevents them from receiving their needed blessings, healing, deliverance and miracles by faith. They need to be like Abraham who unlike others was greatly blessed by God because he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness. God’s word is unchanging:

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness." Romans 4:17-22

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrew 11:1-6