murmurings: undercurrent of complaining
disputings: arguing and debating
Philippians 2:14-16
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life;
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The Old Testament often gives us vivid examples of various sins.
Exodus 15:22-24 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
(The people forgot that it was God leading them into that wilderness. God led them by a cloud by day and by a fire by night.)
Numbers 9
16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.
18 At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.
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Instead of praying, they "murmured", complained against Moses and also against God for it was really God leading them on the exact route through the wilderness.
Because of their lack of faith in God, God put a penalty upon these men who brought back the evil report and cause the congregation to doubt.
Numbers 14
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
8 If the LORD delight in us, then HE will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke ME? and how long will it be ere they believe ME, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for THOU broughtest up this people in THY might from among them;)
14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that THOU LORD art among this people, that THOU LORD art seen face to face, and that THY cloud standeth over them, and that THOU goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if THOU shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of THEE will speak, saying,
16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which HE sware unto them, therefore HE hath slain them in the wilderness.
17 And now, I beseech THEE, let the power of my Lord be great, according as THOU hast spoken, saying,
18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19 Pardon, I beseech THEE, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of THY mercy, and as THOU hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
22 Because all those men which have seen MY glory, and MY miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted ME now these ten times, and have not hearkened to MY voice;
23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked ME see it:
24 But MY servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed ME fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against ME? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against ME.
28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in MINE ears, so will I do to you:
29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against ME,
30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know MY breach of promise.
They did not have a "fear of the Lord" and what HE might do to them if they disobeyed and disrespected HIM. Instead they feared man more than God. And God caused them to wander 40 years in the wilderness because of their evil report against HIM.
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Exodus 14
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
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5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that HE heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?
8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against HIM: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
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Sometimes our faith in God is tested by circumstances and by that which we see with our natural eyes.
When they were sent to search out the land which God said HE would give them, they saw the circumstances, there were giants in the land.
If God sends us, HE will make a way for us to do that which is HIS will.
In 1980, while I was sleeping in the night, a loud trumpet-like voice spoke 3 words to me: "Hartford, Seattle, KWJS"
I jumped out of bed and wrote "KWJS" on a notepad for it seemed to me that these were call letters to either radio or TV.
When I found it to be a radio station, I said to God: "Are YOU telling me to go on radio? I wouldn't know how to do that."
Instantly God brought to my mind the following instruction: "Call the radio station manager."
That same day, when I felt the station would be open, I did call the radio station manager and I said to him, "God might me showing me to go on radio. How would you do that?"
The station manager said, "Make an audition tape 29 1/2 minutes long and send it to me and if you fit our broadcasting, we will offer you a contract."
I made a tape as soon as I got off the phone and I took the recording and mailed it to the KWJS station manager.
Within 5 days I was exhorting the church weekdays on KWJS. Within a year, I was on radio from Hartford area to Seattle just as I heard in the night when that trumpet-like voice spoke those three words: Hartford, Seattle, KWJS
(I believe that was a voice of an angel speaking to me that night on January 10, 1980.)
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Numbers 13 (God sends the men to search out the land which HE will give them.)
2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
(They forgot it was God who was giving them that land and that they would overcome through God.)
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Only Joshua and Caleb showed faith in God.
Faith is hearing what God says and believing it was God who told you to do this thing.
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In December, 2018, I fell at my house in Texas.
As the ambulance workers rolled me past the front door to take me to hospital, I heard a word from God. "You'll never see this house again."
(The Holy Spirit shows us things to come. John 16:13)
That word did not disturb me at all. God had another way for me to go. I knew it would be a better way than the way I had been going.
I put my house in Texas up for sale.
A woman from our church group said to me, "I don't see how you can to this."
I replied: "I've heard from God that I will never see this house again."
To me, when you hear a word from God and you believe it was God speaking to you, you simply do that thing appropriate to what God has said.
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James 1
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
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Hebrews 3
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was HE grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware HE that they should not enter into HIS rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
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We build faith in God by reading the Bible and by doing specific scriptures.
We hear the Word carried to our mind by God by the Holy Spirit and because we believe it is God speaking we do that instruction.
We go from faith to faith by doing those scriptures and Words that we believe God has spoken to us.
And we learn as we read the various examples in the Bible showing those who had faith and also those who did not trust God.
I Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
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