General Conference Bulletin, vol. 5

THE FRUIT OF UNBELIEF

“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried and the people wept that night. 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!” GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.4

This shows us to what desperation unbelief will bring people. My brethren and sisters, when thoughts of unbelief and distrust come to you, remember that silence is eloquence. Speak no word of unbelief; for such words are as seeds that will spring up and bear fruit. There is among us altogether too much talking and too little praying. We think and speak of the difficulties that exist, and forget to trust the Lord. God’s Spirit would work mightily in behalf of His people, if they would give Him opportunity. What they need to do is to open the door of the heart and let Jesus enter. GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.5

After the children of Israel had begun to murmur, they began to question God’s wisdom. “Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey?” they said. “Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?” So weak was their confidence in God, notwithstanding the the miracles He had wrought in their behalf. GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.6

As the complaints of the people arose on every side, Caleb and Joshua attempted to quiet the tumult. “The land, which we passed through to search it is an exceedingly good land,” they cried. “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. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land: for they are bread for us; their defense is departed from them, and they are bread for us: fear them not.” GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.7

“But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.” They stood with stones in their hands, ready to throw at Caleb and Joshua, as they stood in defense of the truth, declaring that the Lord was with them, and that with His strength they could go up and possess the land. In a few minutes these faithful men would have been killed, but “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.” God was watching their plottings, and He delivered His servants from their hands. GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.8

“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 showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than they.” GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.9

What a temptation this was! But Moses said. “Then the Egyptians shall hear it (for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them); and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the 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 daytime in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if Thou wilt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying, 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.” GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.10

“And now I beseech thee, let the power of My Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying,”—and then he repeated the Lord’s own words; and this it is our privilege also to do. We can cite His promises. “According as Thou hast spoken, saying, 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 to the third and fourth generation. 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 until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word; but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 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 harkened 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.... To-morrow turn ye you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.11

The Lord had fulfilled the word that He spoke to Abraham when He declared that after the children of Israel had been in bondage four hundred years. He would deliver them. He visited Egypt with fearful judgments, and brought His people forth. And when the Egyptian host pursued the Israelites, He destroyed Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. Yet here, on the border of the promised land, they dishonored Him by giving way to unbelief. GCB March 30, 1903, page 8.12