It's Okay . . .

So very often I have heard people say, “It’s okay, as long as you don’t hurt anyone.” And if you look at their situation, it does appear that no one is really offended or getting hurt. That’s because we are not considering God and how He feels about our actions. In the Bible, all offenses against God are called sins (James 2:9-11). We are told that God hates sin (Psalms 5:4-5); He turns His face away from sin (Isaiah 59:2), and He is hurt by sin, no matter how large or small the sin is.

One of the passages of Scripture that really speaks to me about this is when the Israelites were in the Wilderness and God told Moses to “…speak to that rock…” Instead, Moses struck the rock, not once, but twice (Numbers 20:1-13). Because of what Moses did, God did not allow Moses to enter into the land that He promised them.

In my thinking, God was really harsh. Moses was faithful to God for the entire journey. He was obedient to the Lord and even interceded for the people of Israel when God, in His anger with the Israelites, was going to destroy them (Exodus 32:7-14). Moses was a good man, but this one time, Moses exploded and lost his temper. God told him that he was going to receive the same judgment as everyone else—he was not going into the Promised Land—that just doesn’t seem fair. Is God that petty and shallow? How can striking a rock hurt anyone?

The answer is found in the following words. God told Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

God says it’s a matter of honor. God says it’s a matter of holiness. God says it’s a matter of trust. Moses and Aaron broke faith with God. Later on in the New Testament, Paul said that the rock that followed the Israelites around in the desert was Christ (I Corinthians 10:4). What Paul says to me is that the rock that Moses struck was Jesus. And Moses struck the rock not once, but twice.

This is also the picture we get when we see Jesus hanging from the cross. It’s a portrait of the Living Word of God (John 1:1, 14) being rejected by men (John 1:10-11). The vastness of sin is truly and soberly revealed in the sufferings of Jesus on the cross (II Corinthians 5:21).

Don’t let anyone kid you. If no one else, your actions affect God and it's not okay.