Epidemics!

It's serious when WE SEE IT!!   It is confirmed -  Whooping Cough is among us, and families are wisely taking necessary precaution.   Physical contagions of this kind  can cause epic suffering - that's why they're called Epidemics!  Are we just as alarmed at "unseen" deadly spiritual contagions?  


Do we ask ourselves " am I contagious, could I be infected, or could I infect someone else?" Have we understood the epidemic nature of unbelief and considered just how deadly this spiritual contaminate can become? The contagious unbelief of ten men caused an unbelieving epidemic that resulted in the death of about a million people - we know at least 603, 448 men - so if even half of these men had wives the number would exceed 1 million. These men spread their unbelief to their fellow Israelites simply by relating the difficulties ahead without faith in God. Grumbling and murmuring is another deadly spiritual contagion that will cause epidemic suffering and loss.  When the assembly grumbled against Moses after the death of Korah and his followers, a plague broke out from The Lord and 14,700 people died before Aaron got in front of the wave of death spreading like a tsunami engulfing the already contaminated crowd.  Perhaps the most deadly spiritual plague of all is the one spoken of in both the Old and New Testament - "the root of bitterness"!  This deadly plague is caused by even one person, or one family, ignoring the warnings God has given and claiming personal safety and security while "persisting in going their own way."  Moses and the writer of Hebrews warned that this would cause epidemic consequences among the people of God by defiling many.  May The Lord help us to be just as careful about carrying a spiritual contagion as we are about infecting or being infected by serious physical disease.   The consequences of a physical epidemic are temporal, whereas spiritual epidemics can and will have eternal consequences!