Verse of the day: Exodus 19:24-25 Then the LORD said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
Have you ever heard the term, “Curiosity killed the cat”? Well, curiosity can certainly lead the Christian down an undesirable path that leads us right to sinful living. Curiosity causes us to ask, “Why are people into ‘this’ or ‘that’?” “Why do people enjoy doing ‘this’ or ‘that’ so much?” That kind of curiosity can lead us down the path of, “I’ll just try it once.” “There’s no harm in doing this just one time.” “Besides, God will forgive me for this, since it’s only this one time.” The path of fulfilling our sinful curiosities is a dangerous one. In these verses, we see that God is warning Moses that he should go back down to the people and warn them, once again, about God’s command not to come near the mount. Although Moses’ instructions, and warning, to them was clear, God knew the stubbornness, and hard-heartedness, of the people. He knew that their curiosity would cause them to give in to the temptation to disobey God’s instructions. In verse 21, God tell Moses to go down and restrain the people from coming near and trying to get a look at God. Yet, Moses, in his limited ability to see what will happen, or his inability to see the hearts of the people, insisted on debating with God about what the people would do or not do (v. 21-23). How often do we get so stubborn about what we think we know, even to the point of going against God’s Word on something, only to find out we should have listened, and obeyed, God’s Word, and leading? We are all guilty of this at some point in our walk with the LORD. God finally had to be forceful with Moses to get him to go and do what He had directed him to do. In God’s forcefulness, in demanding that Moses go and restrain the people, we see God’s amazing grace. Knowing that the Israelites would disobey, God chose to give them another opportunity to avoid death by keeping them from indulging in their foolish curiosity. Not all curiosity is bad. Some curiosity helps us to understand how things work, and has allowed man to make great strides in coming up with cures for diseases, or even led to major breakthroughs in modern technology. However, there is that curiosity that pits us in direct contrast to God’s commands. Those curiosities should be avoided at all cost! Thomas Fuller said, “Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit which still sticketh in the throat of a natural man, sometimes to the danger of his choking.” Proverbs 27:20 warns us, “Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” Ecclesiastes 1:8 also tells us, “All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” In other words, our curiosity is never satisfied. It is our own wicked desires, and curiosities, that lead us down a path of sinful entanglements. James 1:14-15 states it this way, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” The bottom line is that there is only One who knows all things, because He is Omniscient. God chooses what He will reveal to us, and what He will keep secret. There are things about the future that God chooses not to show us until it is time, and our foolish desire to know what God has chosen not to reveal has led, even Christians, to turn to fortune tellers or psychics; who are an abomination to the LORD (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6; Deuteronomy 18:10-13). Deuteronomy 29:29 clearly tells us, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Sadly, curiosity about knowing that which God has not revealed has led people down the path of following false teachings about Jesus’ second coming. For some of these curiosity chasers, the end result has been death, because they have involved themselves with, and joined, deadly cults. In Acts 1:7-8, Jesus said this in response to a question posed to Him in regarding the kingdom being restored to Israel, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In other words, God will do what God will do, when He chooses to do it. Instead of sticking our noses where it does not belong, we should be busy doing what we have already been commanded to do…share Christ with the lost, and live a life that honors God.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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