How To Avoid The Big Fall

What am I talking about, when I say the “big fall.”

The big fall is exactly that. It is the big failure, the big letdown, the big sin. It is the thing that you hoped you would never do, the big failure that will leave its mark on your life forever.

It can happen to the best of us. Moses, after being trained in the wilderness by God for forty years, was then sent to Pharaoh to deliver the Israelites out of captivity. In the end he was the victim to the big fall, which kept him from going into the promised land. In a fit of anger, he struck the rock three times, instead of once as God commanded him to do.

I’m not sure about this teaching, but I heard the pastor of a large church give it in one of his sermons.The reason why Moses striking the rock was so serious, was that it messed up a “type” in the Bible. What is a “type?” it is something happening in the Old Testament that foreshadows something that is to happen in the New Testament. Moses striking the rock was to be a type and foreshadow of the death of Christ on the cross. The rock signified Christ. Striking it once, was to represent His death on the cross. But moses struck it three times.

Because of his disobedience to God in this matter, he was only allowed to look into the promised land from a distance. He was not allowed to go in.

Abraham was going along real good. Then he lost faith that God would fulfill His promise of a son, so he thought he would help God fulfill the promise, and he had relations with Hagar, his servant. The result was Ishmael, who was not the fulfillment of the promise, because the promise was to come through Sarah. In the end, the descendants of Ismael and the descendants of Isaac became enemies, at odds with one another to this day.

You remember Jim Baker, the founder of PTL. PTL was a successful ministry with an expansive campus and a very large television audience. Everything was going along real good, until the devil pranced a wanton woman in front of Jim at a weak moment. He gave in to temptation and slept with the woman. Then his whole ministry, everything he had worked so hard for, came tumbling down. He ended up in prison.

The mighty King David went through ongoing hardship and trouble in order to become king. Saul chased him from city to city trying to kill him for nine years. He finally became king, and had a stellar record. He had never been defeated in battle. He had a gorgeous home, wives and children. He had huge respect among his people.

Then in a weak moment, he saw Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop. He had her summoned, slept with her that night and spent many months trying to cover up his sin, only to have it revealed to the whole nation. Because of that sin, his children rebelled and committed acts of defiance against him, causing him untold sorrow.

The subject of this message is how to avoid the “big fall.” So let’s look at King David’s life and see what happened leading up to that fateful night when he made such a huge mistake.

Upon examination of David’s life, we’ll see that the big fall didn’t happen all of a sudden. It happened over a long period of time. Little things leading up to that moment, made David vulnerable to the big fall.

Satan had been laying the trap for a long time. The Bible says, “The little foxes spoil the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15).” We must be attentive to the little things. We must pull the small weeds out of the garden before they become large and choke out the plants.

What happened to David in the months and perhaps years leading up to his fall with Bathsheba? Was it pride? Was it overconfidence? Was it carelessness? Was it all three?

We’ll discuss this matter further in the next installment, to be posted here next week.

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine