The Price of Disobedience

          I’ve never really thought too much about the connection between disobedience and unbelief even though it should have been obvious. In Hebrews, the author makes this connection in chapter 3:18-19 as he speaks about the children of Israel who wandered about in the wilderness for forty years (or died of a plague) instead of enjoying the fruits of the Promised Land: “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief” (NASB). The children of Israel were laid low in the desert for forty years because ten of the twelve representatives of the tribes who were sent into the Promised Land to spy it out came back with positive reports about the land and the negative suggestion to abort God’s plan for his people due to the size and number of their enemies. Their unbelief not only caused them to disobey what God had commanded of them, but it also multiplied their sorrows because God opposed them based on the number of days they were spying out the land (Num. 14:34). Even after having seen what God had done to get them out of Egypt, their unbelief was strong enough to cause them to disobey, which ultimately led to their deaths.

On the flip side, I love what God said about Caleb in the same chapter: “But my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it” (vs. 24). Only Caleb and Joshua remained alive out of the men who were sent to spy out Canaan (vs. 38). Only Caleb and Joshua entered the land promised to them by God, who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Only Caleb and Joshua received the inheritance promised them. Like an entire generation of the children of Israel, we, too, forfeit so much because we simply cannot believe that our God loves us enough to save us and wants the best for us even when appearances are deceiving. Another possibility is that we believe he won’t act on our disobedience. The children of Israel were more than willing to do what God asked after their brethren started dropping like flies from the plague God sent on them after they refused to receive the inheritance he wanted to give them because they were unbelieving and disobedient. While the rewards of faith are precious and eternal, the price of disobedience, whose root is in unbelief, is terribly high; both rewards are eternal, but the devastation of the fruits of unbelief are more than I can even bear to think upon: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13, NIV).