Too Late: Decisions Which Cannot Be Undone
(Numbers 14:20-45)
1. We make small decisions all the time, and they can affect the direction of our lives. Take this true story: “When I was a kid, my mom, my cousin, my sister, and I were all about to go to my great grandma's house from my grandma's house. It was not a far drive so my mom allowed my sister who was 11 at the time to sit up front, leaving my cousin and I in the back. My cousin chose the window seat behind the driver. For some reason I felt a need to sit in the middle instead of taking the other window seat. 2 minutes into the drive, a woman who was clearly not paying attention, slammed right into the back seat of the car where I chose not to sit. Fire fighters later told us if anyone had been sitting there, they would be dead. Instead, all four of us walked out with 2 bruises and a scratch” [source: boredpanda.com].
2. We all make a few huge decisions in life. Career paths, where we live, etc. Marriage is one many of us have made. Someone has said, “Marriages are made in heaven. Then again, so are thunder, lightning, tornadoes, and hail.”
3. Sometimes we make a significant decision and change our minds and are able to recover and move on. I have known situations where a bride or groom changed their mind at the last moment. Or when we plan a change or purchase, think it over further, and change our minds with few consequences, if any.
4. Reversing our decisions and changing our minds can sometimes be a good idea. Some people, however, refuse to do so because of pride. Cannot admit a misjudgment.
5. Trying to reverse a decision when it is too late often makes the situation worse. Like an oil painter who cannot stop playing with his painting until he ruins it, there is a time to accept defeat or situations less than ideal. Sometimes we must honor our bad decisions, because the consequences of a reversal are disastrous or hurt our reputation. We should all desire what Proverbs calls “a good name.”
Main Idea: Many decisions are major crossroads, others less but sill significant; trying to reverse them only may make matters worse in the long run. Therefore, we need to ponder our decisions, using God-honoring caution.
I. The People Chose NOT to Believe and Obey God and Could Not Lessen the Consequences (20-45).
A. God’s judgment for their refusal to enter the Promised Land was to WANDER in the dessert for forty years (20-35).
1. Some people are content with boredom, sameness, and monotony.
2. But aimlessness and purposeless is worse than boredom.
3. You can turn the same single bolt on an assembly line for 40 hours a week if you have a family to support; you are bored, but you have a purpose.
B. God ZAPPED the ten unbelieving spies (36-38).
C. This instance of unbelief was a THRESHOLD they had crossed, the point of no return (39-45).
1. Unbelief cuts us off from the special grace of God: by grace through faith…
2. The people held God in contempt and felt entitled to His provision and mercy.
3. This time, it was different with God. A boundary had been crossed.
4. The people tried denial – pretending the entire ugly episode never happened. They appear before Moses with smiles and say, "Here we are! Let us conquer!"
5. Notice vs. 44; it says, "In their presumption..." It was too late.
6. 2 Corinthians 7:10 reads, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." Repentant over consequences, or offending God?
7. Their attempt to reverse themselves led to their defeat.
D. Hebrews 6:4-6 is a MIDRASH on this passage.
1. This provokes a question: Were these people really saved?
2. Based on the mother text in Numbers, my opinion is “no”
3. It should not surprise us to see people who professed faith in Christ turning away.
4. Jesus taught the same thing in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.
II. We May Make Matters WORSE by Trying to Reverse the Irreversible; We Must Make Decisions in Obedience to God.
A. Many decisions cannot be REVERSED without consequences.
1. We tell our young people to wait until they are married to have sex; We tell them to go to college, specialized training, or trade school; We tell them to not even date someone who is not born again and part of an evangelical church.
2. If you buy a cottage on the lake, how is that going to affect your church life? And it has to be maintained. You might end up going there when you would rather stay home, but you feel like you must go to get your money’s worth. Now you have lost some personal freedom, or freedom to vacation elsewhere.
B. Many times, we make decisions based upon a PATTERN, good or bad.
1. It is not like all of a sudden the children of Israel had a fit of unbelief.
2. Some Christians make decisions independently from God.
3. Some of us make impulsive decisions, rather than pondered ones.
4. Some of us make the decisions our peers would, which is what happened here.
5. Only Joshua and Caleb were able to resist the peer pressure of their generation.
6. If you want to make decisions that please God, start with convictions.
C. When we clearly understand God’s will based upon His Word, and we defy Him, we PROVOKE His discipline and judgment.
1. David and Bathsheba….baby would day, civil war and David ousted by Absalom.
2. A man wrongly divorces his wife to marry another and is miserable in his second marriage. His former wife has remarried and is as happy as can be.
3. Some people just don’t get it…they make bad choices and think they are innocent victims, maybe even get bitter against God.
4. When someone like Job walks with the Lord and bad things happen and they become bitter, there is a logic there; but when people do not walk closely with God and bad things happen, do they even have a right to get bitter?
D. We have all made mistakes we cannot reverse, but we can minimize them through FAITH in God and His Word and through LONG-term thinking.
