Ex. 17:17, Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” 5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
Ps. 95:8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 “When your fathers tested Me,
They tried Me, though they had seen My work.
10 “For forty years I loathed that generation,
And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways.
Heb. 3: 7, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME,
AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me,
AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.
10 “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION,
AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART,
AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;
11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ ”
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Mark 6:6, And He marvelled ( was amazed) at their unbelief.
Deut.1:32, Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
That is a lot of scripture for me to quote to give such a simple word like I’m about to give, but I wanted you to see the simple thing that these Scriptures are trying to say to us about the sin of unbelief, so if you didn’t read all of the verses above, please go back and read them in the order I quoted them.
I believe that the sin of unbelief is the sin that so easily entangles us referred to in the first part of Hebrews 12. By the time the people of God had come to Meribah they had already seen God perform numerous, timely miracles on their behalf in bringing them out of Egypt, yet when confronted with what appeared to be the lack of water their response to the situation was to say “Is the Lord God among us or not.” That sounds a lot like us doesn’t it? Even though God has proved Himself to us time and time again, it seems that we never learn His ways. How often have you and I found ourselves in circumstances and situations where our first response was to think and even speak words of despair and unbelief. Oh how many times have we complained, wondering why God abandoned us, or just didn’t seem to care.
They had seen His works many times, but had yet come to understand His ways. You see, God’s ways are often to allow us to come to a place of extremity, so that He can demonstrate His adequacy. Notice in the Hebrews passage, in verse 12, that he says an unbelieving heart is evil in the sight of God. As a matter of fact, verse 13 says that unbelief is a sin of deception. The reason I quoted the Mark 6:6 passage is because I wanted you to see how astonished God is when we don’t trust Him. He knows that He’s the most stable, powerful, and trustworthy reality in all the universe and especially in the life of one of His children; therefore He is always amazed when we don’t trust Him. That’s why he says that walking in unbelief is a great deception from the enemy.
Many years ago the person who mentored me the most in my walk with Jesus used to say to me over and over again “Chuck, the only problem you will ever have is found in Deuteronomy 1:32; For in this Thing you have not believed the Lord your God.” Over all these years I have found this to be truest word I’ve ever heard. Believing God, in light of who He is and all He has done, should be the easiest thing in the world for us to do. That’s why unbelief is such a deception, and that deception is the number one priority in the devils arsenal against us.