I Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall”.
The opposite of faith is doubt, or unbelief. In Messiah Yeshua we stand strong by faith; however, the opposite is also true: we fall away from God through doubt and unbelief.
Matthew 21:21 Yeshua replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.”
James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”
James likened a doubting person to a wave of the Sea, unstable, driven to and fro. Yeshua’s disciple Thomas refused to believe that Yeshua had risen from the dead until He saw the risen Lord. Thomas had to put his fingers into His side before he believed.
The Bible mentions two kinds of unbelief. One kind of unbelief is doubt accompanied by a desire to believe: (Mark 9:24) “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief”. Yeshua had mercy on the father who said this. Although the father had his doubts, he was willing to exercise faith as small as a mustard seed so Yeshua healed his son. Another kind of unbelief is hard-hearted refusal to believe: Hebrews 3:12 “Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”. This kind of unbelief not only hinders the supernatural work of God but also brings about God’s righteous anger and swift judgment.
Sadly, not everyone who sets out on the road to salvation will hold fast to faith in Yeshua, many will fall away in unbelief. Hebrews 10:38-39 tells us, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition [the opposite of salvation]; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
Perhaps the most profound example of unbelief in the Bible comes from the generation of Israel who failed to reach the Promised Land. That generation of Israelites experienced the brutal oppression of slavery, they witnessed God’s plagues upon Egypt, they watched the Red Sea part for them, they trembled at God’s power revealed at Mount Sinai, they tasted bread from heaven, and they drank water from a rock, but what happened to that generation? They wandered in the wilderness for forty years and did not enter into the Promised Land (except for Joshua and Caleb), because of their unbelief. Hebrews 3:17-19 “But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that didn’t believed? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
The children of Israel were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, by the blood of the lamb, and immersed into Moses at the Red Sea. They were led by God; a pillar of cloud and fire through the wilderness. But then, “the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not” (Jude 1:5). “ They were broken off like a branch from a vine” (Romans 11:20-32), because of their unbelief. As a result, that generation did not reach their final destination of salvation in the Promised Land.
The sobering truth is that unbelief will keep us from the promises of God, but more importantly, unbelief will prevent us from continuing in our salvation. Do not be deceived: those who cast off their faith and depart from God — even if they knew Him at one time — will not inherit the Kingdom of God, unless they repent and get back on the path to salvation. This may be a hard word for some to receive, but it is biblical truth. Don’t give in to doubt because “nothing is too hard for God”. Yeshua said that “blessed are those that believe without seeing Me”, so don’t let doubt or unbelief ruin your faith in Yeshua.