- Jul 15, 2014
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It dawns on me from time to time, just reading excerpts from the Bible such as Psalms 95, what the "real" sin, so to speak, of the Israelites as they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness before coming to the Promised Land at the beginning of Joshua may have been. Just my personal thoughts, mind you, but by the words of Psalms 95 it seems that when you get right down to it, the only reason God was ever displeased with His own chosen people during that time was that they demonstrated complete faithlessness to Him despite His already having shown them great and mighty works (such as convincing the Egyptians with ten great signs and wonders that He was God and He intended to bring Abraham's descendants out of slavery and to a land He alone decided for them, whether the Egyptians would like it or not) personally. And yet many a time the Israelites would grumble and complain and wonder aloud that their very God - who had already revealed Himself personally to them in so many ways, mind you - had abandoned them to despair and violence at the hands of enemy nations. What it boils down to in my opinion? Lack of trust. Instead foolishly believing that God rescued them from Egypt only to abandon them or actively turn His hand against them in the wildernesses on the journey to the Promised Land. Instead of trusting, they often seemed to believe that God was playing some kind of cruel joke upon them, that He never cared for them ultimately and did not intend to fulfill His promises to their descendants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Perhaps, there is no greater sin than disbelief that God is for you and not against you.
Again, just my personal thoughts. I could be wrong, but, these days, especially after being healed of my dreadful sickness from a certain kind of obsessive compulsive disorder, I feel it would be a GREAT evil and sin on my part if I were to ever fail to trust that God wanted to take care of me and wanted good for me instead of evil - as though I instead thought of Him as some great tyrant instead - ever again. God forbid I ever look at Him in loathing fear instead of gratitude and trust ever again.
Perhaps, there is no greater sin than disbelief that God is for you and not against you.
Again, just my personal thoughts. I could be wrong, but, these days, especially after being healed of my dreadful sickness from a certain kind of obsessive compulsive disorder, I feel it would be a GREAT evil and sin on my part if I were to ever fail to trust that God wanted to take care of me and wanted good for me instead of evil - as though I instead thought of Him as some great tyrant instead - ever again. God forbid I ever look at Him in loathing fear instead of gratitude and trust ever again.
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), but was unreported to David. Whereas the 800,000 Israelites mentioned in 2 Samuel may not have already included them. As for the men of Judah, 500,000 and 470,000 are close enough to each other mathematically for us to not need flip out and declare all of the Bible an erroneous lie. 
Again, these are supposedly different authors talking here.
