Did You Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth After You Received Salvation?
Even Eve and Moses Were Guilty of Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
In the last blog post, I asked if you look a gift horse in the mouth when receiving blessings from God. Remember that since horses’ teeth grow over time, checking their length is a way of gauging old age. If someone gives you a horse and you inspect its teeth you have shown a sign of mistrust towards the giver by unappreciatively questioning the gift too closely. In this post we will see how Eve and Moses looked a gift horse in the mouth and the consequences of doing so. We will also analyze whether we have done so after receiving salvation.
Eve’s Gifts in the Garden of Eden
God gave Eve many blessings when He placed her in the Garden of Eden with Adam. She lived in a beautiful garden. Everything she needed was provided for her. She didn’t even have to date in order to choose a husband. She got the perfect man! She lived in the perfect place! God had given her some pretty fantastic gifts!
Then Eve was confronted by a serpent. In Genesis 3:1-6 we read the serpent asked Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Eve responded by explaining God had said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” After the Serpent basically called God a liar, saying, “Ye shall not surely die,” Eve determined the tree was good for food, was beautiful to look at, and would make her wise. She took its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to Adam and he ate it.
Eve had the beautiful home, husband, garden, marvelous food, plenty of leisure time, and she leaned into the horse’s mouth and focused on the teeth, the only tree she was not allowed to eat from. She focused on the negative aspect of the gift. She showed mistrust of the giver.
Eve must have been heavily influenced by Satan’s craftiness for her to have done so. When questioned by the serpent she even expounded on what God had said. He said in Genesis 2:16-17, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
But Eve added to what God said, saying, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
Instead of being extremely thankful for the gifts she had been given, including life itself, Eve focused on the one negative in the garden and made it even bigger than it was by saying, “we can’t even touch it!”
The result of Eve’s fixation was disobedience. Disobedience that affected, first her husband and then all of mankind as the sin nature is now inherited by all people.
Moses Sending the Spies to Canaan
Now consider Moses. In Numbers 13:1-20 we read about Moses sending the spies into Canaan. In verse 2 God instructed Moses to “send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.” In verses 17-20 we read Moses’ instructions to the men he sent:
“Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.”
Numbers 13:17-20
Most of us know this story. We know that because of what the spies saw and reported back to the Israelites, the whole nation ended up roaming the wilderness for forty years. We often blame the ten spies who gave negative reports for their disobedience and detour through the wilderness.
But wait! Let’s look at Moses’ part in this. Just like Eve, Moses expounded on what God had said.
God said, “Send men to spy out the land.” He might have been telling Moses, “Hey, I want to give you a sneak peak of the gift I am giving you. Let the heads of the families go into the land and see how sweet it is!” Could it be God wanted to give the Israelites a glimpse of the good gifts to come in order to carry them through the challenges they were going to face as they entered and took over the land?
But what did Moses tell the heads of family? He started by saying, “Go, look at the land.” Then he expounded on that saying, “See whether it be good or bad.” Moses looked into the gift horse’s mouth! He showed mistrust for the giver! And, he set the spies up for fixating on the negative.
Moses also continued expounding by turning the spies’ attention from the land to the people. “See the people that dwell there, whether they be strong or weak, whether there are few or many, what cities they be that they dwell in, whether they dwell in tents, or in strong holds.” Moses wanted to know about the people and how they were living. Moses set the sights of the spies on the wrong things. Although God was certainly prepared to give the people into Israel’s hands so that they could occupy the land, the people were not a part of the gift. God was giving them the land! God wanted them to get a glimpse of the land in order to strengthen and encourage them.
In Numbers 13:27 the spies proclaimed the goodness of the land: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.” This is exactly what God wanted them to see! The land is exactly as God had described it to Moses in Exodus 3:17 and again in Exodus 33:3, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
But the spies didn’t get to stop there because Moses had expounded on God’s instructions. He told them to look at the people and how they were living. That is when the spies got into trouble. In Numbers 13:28, 31-33 the spies continued, stating:
“However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. … We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. … The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Numbers 13:28, 31-33
“However,” they said. This always means there’s a contrast, a contradiction coming. Yes, the land is flowing with milk and honey, the gift of God is very good! But the people are enormous! “We are not able to go up against the people.”
Just in case fear of the people was not enough to convince Moses and Israel not to pursue the gift of God (the land), the spies started making bad things up about the land. “The land devours its inhabitants!” Amazing!
The results of Moses expounding on what God instructing him to do is the whole nation of Israel roaming in the wilderness for forty years.
Summary of Eve and Moses
Eve expounded on what God said and made the one tree that she was not supposed to eat from bigger than any of the fabulous things God had given her and she disobeyed, causing the fall of man that has impacted all of humankind.
Moses expounded on what God said and focused the spies not on the good things God was giving them, but caused them to question the quality of the land and to focus on the people, which were not a part of the gift.
In both situations they showed mistrust to God. And both situations negatively impacted many more people than just Eve and Moses. Both lost the pleasure of God’s gift for some time.
Application to Our Salvation
Have you looked the gift horse in the mouth after you received the gift of salvation? The apostle Paul explains in Titus 2:11 that salvation is a gift to all people. Did you have the same attitude Habakkuk expressed in Habakkuk 3:18 when you received salvation? He declared, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Was this your attitude? Hallelujah! God is sooooo good! What an amazing gift!
But Paul continued in Titus 2:12-14, explaining that God’s grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.
So, when you received salvation, did you respond as in Habakkuk, rejoicing over your salvation; or did you soon afterward start reading on and learning more and focusing on what you think is the negative? Maybe you thought something like these questions: What, I have to renounce ungodliness? I have to turn my back on worldly passions (whatever those were to you before salvation)? I have to live a self-controlled, an upright and godly life right here at this present time? Ahhhhh … I don’t think so!”
Some people over time look a gift horse in the mouth, showing mistrust to God. They choose what biblical teachings they will follow and discard some as unnecessary, or too burdensome.
As with Eve and Moses, looking the gift horse in the mouth and focusing on what we might perceive to be negative about the gift will only lead us into disobedience. For Eve, the thing she thought was negative was only for Adam’s and Eve’s protection. And for Israel, God would have given the victory over the occupants of Canaan. The people of Canaan would not have turned out to be a negative at all for Israel.
The same is true about the things we might perceive as negative about our gift of salvation. They are either for our protection or they are things that do not turn out to be a negative at all because God gives us the victory over our adversaries. But we often focus on the negative, which leads us into disobedience. And that disobedience has lasting consequences, not only for ourselves but for our families, our loved ones, our churches.
Consider your attitude toward not only the gift of salvation, but also the giver. If you find you have expounded upon things that were said or that are in the Bible in order to justify disobedience and have shown mistrust to the Lord, go back to Him and speak honestly, lovingly, and sorrowfully to Him. With godly sorrow that leads to repentance, He will restore you to the joy of your salvation. And you can be confident in His love and blessings in your life, and the lives of your family and church.
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