Good word. It reminded me of the following, written by Alan a while back. An exhortation to the body of Christ to be watchful with our tongues and heart....Beware of the Whisperer\tThere is a softly spoken word that does not edify our faith, but instead breeds doubt and death among the people of God. This whisper is wicked; it is called murmuring. Moses recounts it as the reaction of the people to the “evil report” they received from the ten spies who saw clearly the size of the giants, while having no vision for the greatness of God. The consequences of murmuring are devastating to those defiled by it. The following passage from Deuteronomy 1:2-3 should serve as a sober reminder: “It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road. In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month…” \tHow does an eleven day journey become forty years of wandering in the wilderness? A whisper! Even as “a soft answer can turn away wrath,” so a soft whisper can turn away faith. \tMoses wrote about the recommendation to explore the land, a fact finding endeavor to gather more information before blindly obeying God’s command. In Deuteronomy 1:23 he stated, “The idea seemed good to me.” He never envisioned the end result of what at the time seemed like such a good idea. When the exploration committee submitted their report to the people, it was 10 to 2 a thumbs down, no go, “evil report.” Evil report is the word used in Numbers 13:32 and we shall not be surprised to discover, in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Dictionary, the root meaning of this Hebrew word is whispering. \tWe need to understand the cause-effect relationship between “evil reports” and “murmuring.” The Strong’s Concordance number for “evil report” is 1681; its basic idea is slander. Two related words are “to move slowly, and to be sluggish.” We learned a children’s song about obedience from friends that has become a favorite in our home; it has a line ending a verse, “to delay is to disobey.” When God clearly says go, He must not mean slow. The New Testament word diligence found in II Peter 1:5, “giving all diligence”, comes from the Greek word σπουδη: our English word “speed” comes from this. Urgency requires quick action, and we all know this when we add to our instructions “and hurry, be quick about it.” We know how sluggards think, “there is a lion outside;” doubters often seem to have good reason for their hesitatation. \tThis calculated hesitation (doubt) will lead to the snare of the whisper, the main concern in this writing. Whispering/murmuring is a quiet conversation between fellow hesitators. It is very “reasonable”, although sadly with the “natural mind” rather than the mind of the Spirit. If we are on the lookout for “proud defiance”, we can easily miss the subtlty of “private discussion.” These conversations will not take place in the openness of the main assembly, but in the privacy of individual homes. Moses purposely wrote, “But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents.” It is not surprising that God’s chosen leadership is left out of doubt-filled dialogues. Moses, Joshua, and Caleb were out of touch with reality, so the Israelites found more comfort and compatibility in the privacy of their homes rather than a public encounter with faith-filled men. But just as Jesus warned, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad,” God heard and became very angry! We should also not be surprised at the “apparent” legitimacy of these private discussions; appearances can be deceiving. The Septuagint, uses the Greek word διεγογγύζετε for murmur; this word is found in Luke 15:2 “And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” The Pharisees did not win any public debates with Jesus, so it is understandable why they would often privately discuss His faults among themselves. But the Jewish leaders weren’t the only ones who murmured at Jesus; when the people saw him heading home with Zachias, Luke records, “They all murmured, saying, that He was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” We can assume no one had the courage to openly ask Jesus why, but they were comfortable with discussing His actions among themselves. Beware of such conversation!\tDoubtful dialogues may begin in the privacy of individual homes, but their unbelieving poison will quickly spread and pollute an entire assembly. We should remember another children’s song, “Oh be careful little ears what you hear.” \tWhat is the end result of the deadly whisper? The same as Moses recorded in both Numbers and Deuteronomy. The people did not have faith to enter the land of promise, and wondered out loud, “Where can we go up?” The poisonous unbelief of the whisperer leaves people caught in the middle of not having faith to go forward and not having the desire to go back. It condemns them to a life of wandering around in a spiritual wilderness, caught between the land of milk and honey and the bondage of Egypt. In the land of the middle (spiritual indecision), a slow wandering death march begins and ends short of the promise of God. A tragic result of this spiritual poisoning is that it does not lose the “appearance” of faith, but what looks like faith toward God has become in reality only a “form of godliness.” Gone is the abundant life of joy, peace in an intimate childlike faith, replaced by a “touch not, taste not, handle not” walk of fear of defilement. Gone is the new covenant liberty of the life and fruit of the Spirit against such there is no law, and in is the old covenant yoke of the legalism and tradition of a life lived by the Law. Praise and worship are replaced by privacy and withdrawal; self preservation takes precedence over public service. Standing firm in the Lord becomes a private concern, instead of a corporate commitment; personal safety overrules sacrificial love. People wandering in the land of the middle (the death march of the whisperers) don’t throw away their bibles. They may read them daily, just like the murmurers continued to eat manna. They still claim to be led by the Spirit, even as those condemned to die in the wilderness were led by the pillar of cloud and fire. A few of them become like Dathan and Abihu, and gain courage to openly defy God’s chosen leadership, but the vast majority are deceived to die the slow spiritual death of religion without the joy of intimacy with Christ. We need to understand the danger of listening to whispering conversations. A good verse to fix in our heart as a defense towards the poison of the murmurer is found in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.”Paul warned Timothy and Titus to avoid destructive communication, and pursue “sound doctrine”. Whisperers do not minister “well-balanced” spiritual diets; rather, they often produce “doting about questions.” Paul used this expression in his letter to Timothy. The Greek word indicates a “diseased reasoning”, or in other words, an infected way of thinking. This is in contrast to “sound” doctrine which comes from the Greek word indicating “healthy” instruction. \tAccuracy does not equal purity; factual does not equal faithful. When factual conversation produces the fruit of hesitation and withdrawal, sin is not absent. The Jews from Jerusalem who came to Antioch, accurately reported that the Law of Moses required all who were to join the covenant of Sinai were required to be circumcised; however their factual perspective lacked the wisdom and insight of the Holy Spirit. When the full leadership of the church gathered, their factual stand was found wanting of spiritual wisdom. \tMay the Lord give us His Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and may He cause our love to abound more and more in depth of knowledge and insight so that we may be able to discern what is best. Factual is not always what is best. Touch not, taste not, handle not, are derived from commands in the Law, and do have an appearance of wisdom. Nevertheless, the Letter still kills, whereas the Spirit gives life. Beware the deadly factual conversations of the whisperer, and commit to life giving edification of grace ministering faith.
