FEARFUL DECISIONS 1:
Numbers 14:1-4 NKJV
[1] So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. [2] And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! [3] Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” [4] So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
One of the silliest mistakes to make in life is to make a negative decision out of fear. God had heard the cries of His people, the Israelites, sent Moses to deliver them through powerful demonstrations of His might, and to bring them back to their promised land, a land filled with milk and honey.
Yet, they feared because of a bad report they received from ten of their leaders who went to spy out the promised land of Canaan and made the decision to choose leaders who would lead them back to Egypt and back into slavery!
They refused to listen to the wise and accurate report presented by two faith-filled leaders, Joshua and Caleb, who encouraged them and wanted to stone them instead.
Numbers 14:6-9 NKJV
[6] But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; [7] and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. [8] 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.’ [9] 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.”
Decisions made out of fear are also made because one sees himself as inferior and incapable (Numbers 13:31-33). Fearful decisions result in stagnation, a life of going round in circles and going nowhere.
May the Lord help us to break and remove such circles of defeatist thinking and decision making from our lives in Jesus’s name. Amen!