Multiple times, I've heard a church goer say, "Oh ... My God would never do that!"
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We can see a true image of God by reading the examples where God dealt with HIS people.
Often God is harsher than we would have been because our own flesh causes us to be flabby concerning sin and judgments.
But by Bible, we can see what God does to those who cast aside HIS word as if it means nothing.
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Consider the following judgment of God:
Numbers 15:32-36 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
And they put him in ward (in an area of confinement like a prison cell), because it was not declared what should be done to him.
God gives HIS judgment to Moses:
And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.
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I Corinthians 5:6-8 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Humans often "glory" in their rational fairness in order to impress other humans.
God doesn't have to be concerned about that which other people think of HIM. God does that which is right.
God is very different from us!
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The apostle Paul said:
II Corinthians 5:9-11 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of HIM.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
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Galatians 6:7-10 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
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He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know HIM that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto ME, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge HIS people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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God sent men in to view that good land which HE had given them. It was their land, for God gave it to them. They had to drive out or destroy those persons who were already living on that land. And some who lived there were the children of Anak, they were giants. (Numbers 13:33)
All but two brought back an evil report to the congregation. They said they were not able to take the land that God had given them. The men of the land were strong and many in number and they lived in walled cities. (Later God takes care of walled cities when He had the priest circle the cities and blow their trumpets and the men of Israel shouted and the walls of Jericho fell down.)
These men didn't see the power of God although they had seen all the plagues God brought upon the Egyptians and they had see God part the Red Sea which they walked through safely and they had witnessed God using the same sea to destroy Pharaoh and his horsemen and their 600 chariots.
Because of their report, the congregation feared the nations, and all the congregation "murmured" (complained) against Moses and Aaron and then they began to accuse God. (Numbers 14:2-4)
God wanted to destroy each one of them and save Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb alive to bring them into the promised land.
Moses pleaded with God to forgive them.
God agreed to do as Moses wished.
But then God said: Numbers 14:21-22 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
(God got HIM glory on the Egyptians by the miracles and plagues which HE brought on the Egyptians.)
God pronounced a judgment and a sentence upon the men who brought back the evil report and on the congregation who murmured against Moses and Aaron and HIMSELF.
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
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.
Numbers 14:28-32 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: 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.
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.
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.
But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
Numbers 14:22-24 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;
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
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.
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God did two things against those who murmured (those who complained):
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.
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.
But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
God caused them to wander for 40-years in the wilderness until all of that complaining generation died.
Thus God added a 40-year sentence onto their wanderings before HE brought them into the promised land.
Secondly, God brought a plague upon the men who delivered that evil report which made the people fear. God killed each of them with the plague. (Numbers 14:33-37)
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After they saw all the evil God was going to do to them, they said they would go up into the land promised them by God and fight.
Moses arose and said to them: Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. (Numbers 14:42)
They wouldn't listen to Moses and they presumed to go up to fight.
Moses said:
But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
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I've seen this many times in the church where people wouldn't follow God when HE told them to do something then later when bad things happened they decided to follow what God had said, but it was too late then. There is a timing of God and if we turn God down by our reasonings and then later decide to do what God told us to do, it often fails.
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Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken HIS commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
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Old Testament / New Testament:
Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all MY commandments, and be holy unto your God.
In the New Testament church: God writes his laws in our hearts and in our minds. (Hebrews 8 & 10) And we have been given the Holy Spirit to remind us of the way of God so that we can follow that way in the issues of this present life.
John 16:13 Howbeit when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear, that shall HE speak: and HE will shew you things to come.
The Holy Spirit brings to our mind "the way", the Word, which applies to our situation.
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