Christian Living
THE POWER OF WHAT WE SAY
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].” Proverbs 18:21 Amplified Bible. Nowhere is this illustrated better than in the experience of the Children of Israel. They were a generation who had done nothing to earn God’s favor. They were slaves in bondage to the greatest nation of it’s time. But they had an inheritance because of the merit of their father, Abraham. He did have a special relationship with the Most High and a promise that his descendents would inherit the land of Canaan.
Israel did nothing significant to merit God’s intervention, but Yahweh in His incredible mercy sent ten plagues on the superpower of the age, which held Israel captive. Ten times the Almighty punished the cruelty of the Egyptian oppressors so that that generation of people could receive the promise. God freed Israel with a mighty hand and brought them to Sinai to Himself. There He gave them Ten Commandments. Along the way from Egypt to Canaan there were also ten tests, all of which Israel failed. Israel was delivered physically from Egypt, but in their minds they were never set free. So sad to say, Israel of old did not speak the truth during even one crisis. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and if one speaks a lie often enough, they will reap the result of the doubt and disbelief.
Israel had its first test at the Red Sea. There the people seemed to be trapped between the water and the advancing Egyptian army. After the 10 mighty plagues Jehovah had sent on Pharaoh, one might have expected at least some faith from the delivered people. But no, they acted as if God had never done one thing to rescue them before. Exodus 14:11-13 tells us how the people responded. “Then they said to Moses, ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.’” In spite of the dramatic power God had used ten times to deliver them from Egypt, the Children of Israel spoke doubt and lies when brought to a test. In contrast, Revelation 12:11 shows the attitude of the believers who triumph, and it says the brethren “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony...” NKJV.
The Red Sea was not a one time experience. Over and over the ones who had been so gloriously liberated spoke words of unbelief and lies. Three days after the Red Sea miracle, the people were fussing again because the water was bitter. Then the Children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin and they grumbled again. They said, “’Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” Exodus 16:3 After that Israel left the Wilderness of Sin and came to Rephidim, but there was no water there. So the people said, ““Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” Exodus 17:3
Are you beginning to get the picture? This was a generation that had done nothing to merit God’s favor, yet the Most High graciously set them free from slavery. But then every time they were faced with the unknown, they testified that Yahweh was trying to kill them. They spoke doubt, defeat and lies. God had been very merciful to them, but they were very condemning to Him! They were the accusers of the Most high, helping the devil along with his work.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].” Proverbs 18:21 Amplified Bible. These people heard the Ten Commandments from Jehovah in person, they learned to keep a weekly (weakly) Sabbath, but they never entered into the rest that God had for them. They never brought faith into their lives (Hebrews 4:2). They spoke doubt and kept living without faith until it killed them. They kept predicting a death in the desert and God finally gave them what they were obsessed with.
So how is it with us? When we are brought into a crisis do we speak doubt or faith? You say we never saw the great miracles that fell on Egypt. Yes, but the only Bible experiences they had was the events of Genesis. We have a record of the whole Bible history – Old and New Testaments – and the complete plan of salvation. We have the evidence that God Himself came to earth, lived a perfect life and died for our own sins. We have scripture telling us the good news that God loves us with an everlasting love, and that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. Do you overcome by the word of your testimony when you are brought into a crisis?
We have people today, when they get into a crisis they ask, how can God love me if He allows things like that to happen to me? And I answer, what happened to God when He came to earth – was it all a grand picnic and roses? So why then do you, being sinful, expect life to be nothing but a great carnival if it was so cruel to the only One who was perfect?
I never understood what the Bible verse meant that says, “Therefore, my beloved...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Phil 2:12. I think I am beginning to comprehend it now. Israel had an inheritance in the land of Canaan, God gave it to them. The inhabitants didn’t all fall down dead. Yahweh delivered Israel from Egypt, and then the Children of Israel had to go up and fight to “receive” it, but it was promised to them. So we today are “saved” and delivered from our past. But to grow into God’s image and not the beast’s image, we have to overcome by the “word of our testimony.” As we head toward the promised inheritance, crisis will come up. Difficulties will manifest themselves. As Children of the King, we have to speak faith and victory, not death and unbelief. We can overcome by being faithful in our testimony. Death and life are in the power of the tongue...yes they are – it is all up to us.
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