So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them. Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths, The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel. In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works. So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror. When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant. But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return. How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert! (Psalms 78:29-40)

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Disobedience is never commonly dubbed as bad and as black as it really is. Under any veneering, cultured or coarse, it is devilish. The core of the devil’s spirit is to set one’s own preference up against God’s. When one remembers that God is more tender than a mother, more eagerly devoted than a lover, and more sensitive to pain and slight than any human, the black badness of disobedience begins to stand out in all its ugliness.

“The Bent Knee Time” Samuel D. Gordon