Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on no more sin.” John 8:11.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Sin is very deceptive. Avoid it. If you indulge yourself and are not firm about avoiding sin, once it has come in, it will lead to greater sin.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 2:1-2.
The Israelites that I redeemed from the slavery of Egypt never checked the spirit of disobedience that had gotten in them. They complained, whined, and spoke against Me constantly. As slaves they were oppressed and countered their inability to get out from under that oppression with resentment, hatred, and an inner rebellion in their hearts against their slave masters and that had become their mode of thinking. Anything that did not serve their flesh for immediate gratification, they saw as a threat and a hindrance. The problem was they had never exercised self-control because others controlled them.
When I brought them out from under slavery, at first they celebrated but they soon forgot who had saved them and they were worshipping molten images. I finally got them to the Promised Land as I crossed the wilderness with them as one in their midst, but when they got there they refused to enter, rejected My promises of victory, and they accused Me of evil intent against them, finally proclaiming they would rather die in the desert than be killed by the sword in the land I had promised them. There flagrant disrespect and disobedience lost them their beautiful inheritance. Not because I took it away from them, I did not, but because they refused to receive it. But that was not the end of it. Once you harden your heart to My Word and open yourself to sin and let it master you, even once, if you do not repent and have a complete turn around, you will get into worse sin. Why? Because once you have sinned you are not in the place where you should have been and you come into temptations and pitfalls that could have been avoided if you had been where you should have been.
You will notice that once Israel was back out in the wilderness, they no longer followed My lead. Before they picked up camp and followed where I led them. Once back in the wilderness, they really had no particular place they were heading except to stay near the promised land so the next generation could go in with Joshua when the rebellious generation had all died out within the forty years. However, I told them to go by certain roads, which they disobeyed, and ended up running into trouble and tiring themselves out so that they had a run-in with Moses that made him lose his entry to the Promised Land.
And then came the terrible rebellion of the Levites, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, these at first were also joined by On, one of Reuben’s tribe. These rose up and defied Me, Moses and Aaron, trying to take over as the leaders. But they went too far in their evil.
Then Moses sent a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come up. Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us? Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!” Numbers 16:12-14.
There is much wrong here. They are idle people with idle words. They said they had been taken out of a land flowing with milk and honey, they are referring to Egypt. They are using My words about the land I promised them that they were not living in and saying they had that in Egypt, which was not anywhere near the truth, and that Moses made them leave that good place. But this was not true, they were slaves with nothing but abuse in Egypt and I had told them about the promised land:
“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; so that you may prolong your days on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year. Deuteronomy 11:8-12.
But the rebels did not back down and rose up to take the authority of Moses and Aaron down for them to take over. Moses turned to Me for vindication and affirmation and I backed him up against the rebels and the powers of darkness as I will for you as well.
This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words. Selah. As sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form shall be for Sheol to consume so that they have no habitation. But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol for He will receive me. Psalm 49:13-15.
I warned the Israelites to get away from the rebels or to suffer their same judgment, be careful about the company you keep and who you entrust your heart to, and the rebels were led by their shepherd that they followed, being the devil himself, right into hell and not to Abraham’s bosom with the patriarchs of whom they were descendants.
But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:7-10.
After the incident of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the Israelites did not repent but continued to get into more sin, they even got to the point of speaking against the miraculous bread from Heaven that sustained and kept them strong with no work on their part. They spoke against Me and Moses and said they detested the Manna, the called it “worthless bread.” That opened the door to the devil to take over their lives again and the snakes that had been unable to touch My people entered the camp and bit the people so that many were dying. When they turned to Me, however, I gave them the remedy. I told Moses to make a bronze serpent and hang it on a cross and whoever gazed on it, the venom would be pulled out of the and go onto the cross.
Be careful how you judge heavenly bread. For the real bread that comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world has come and when you eat His body and drink His blood you have eternal life.
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 1 Corinthians 11:27-31.
Do you recall what Jesus said to the man who had been ill for 38 years by the pool of Bethesda after He cured him?
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” John 5:14.
But the good news is Jesus has released you from your sins by His precious blood and made you a kingdom, priests unto Me, the very thing that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram wanted to be. Sin is no longer your master, for Jesus has given you everything your heart can desire: My calling to eternal glory and My Kingdom seated with Him, His inheritance (you are joint heirs with Christ and I have given Him everything), and the resurrection power bringing life to your mortal body and raising you up on the Last Day with your immortal glorified body.
Evil, if you will rise up and understand what you have in Christ, no longer has any power over you. How is that? Listen to the prayer of Jesus to Me on the night of the Last Supper when He gave you the bread and wine of His body and blood and told you how to be fruitful branches on His Vine:
I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:15-21.
Jesus prayed to Me that I would keep you from the evil one, all you who have believed in Him through the words passed down to you in the New Testament. And you have. Do you believe you have this? You do and you can take down the evil one every time. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. You are safe in My hand.
We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God, God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18.
I love you. You are fully equipped and are led by your great good Shepherd along righteous paths. Take your stand and put the devil under your feet. I have given you the power of the Holy Spirit within you and on you. As I sent Jesus, so He sends you, so go and seek and save the lost. And you do not have to look very far. They are all around you and they are not hard to find.