Consequences of Believing a Bad Report

What do you do when you hear a bad report about someone or something? A bad report could be reported misbehavior or some kind of wrongdoing concerning that person. What if it is a report of misbehavior that concerns someone you are directly acquainted with? Do you believe it right away? Or, do you withhold judgment to get the facts? We are not talking about someone’s opinion of another; we are talking about a report about someone that is disturbing to hear.

If you are like most people, you probably give credit to the report and begin to reformulate your conclusions about that person or situation. Maybe you even make a few declarations, thus passing judgment on that person. But then, what do you do when the report turns out to be false and you acted on the false report?

Let me turn the question around another way. What if the report is true and you have called for judgment before the matter was determined to be true?

In both situations (an untrue report or a true report), your actions, according to God, are misbehavior on your part, equal to the bad report. He says you are not to prejudge a person. This is the meaning of being “prejudicial.”

The Messiah has warned us about how we make judgments, particularly judgments concerning others. Moses taught us that you cannot condemn a murderer unless there are at least two to three witnesses. The Torah has stated that a truth cannot be determined without two or three evidences and that we are to follow a just process when passing judgment, if it is our responsibility to do so. Everything requires confirmation. The Apostle Paul instructed us in our assemblies that we are to hear no accusation against an elder (leader) without the confirmation of two to three witnesses.

But do we do that?

In my humble opinion, I have rarely seen this done. Too often, I have seen brethren latch on to a bad report/rumor like a stray dog on a piece of scrap meat. We are too quick to believe the worst.

How we respond to bad reports or rumors, whether they be true or false, is a measure of our maturity in the faith. Consider this example of how our ancestors heard a bad report and acted on it.

The children of Israel left Mount Sinai and came to a place called Kadesh-Barnea. This was the threshold God was going to use where the Israelites were to enter the promised land. It was from this location that Israel sent spies into the land, six teams of two, for forty days.

Previously, however, the Israelites had seen God’s hand of judgment upon the Egyptians, bringing about their release from bondage. The final of the ten judgments was upon the firstborn of Egypt at the Passover. Pharaoh’s army had followed Moses out of Egypt, only to come to the banks of the Red Sea. When Pharaoh decided to recapture the Israelites, God opened the sea and allowed the children of Israel to cross on dry ground. As Pharaoh’s chariots pursued, God closed the waters, defeating Pharaoh. This same people began to eat manna given by God, which appeared as fine as the frost on the ground, and to drink water given by God from a rock. At the base of Mount Sinai, they saw and heard God come down on the mountain and speak the Ten Commandments directly. Moses began to write the books of the Torah and followed God’s instructions to build a tabernacle in the wilderness. God filled that Tabernacle with His Presence. All the people saw and heard these things. Now they are on the brink of receiving the promise given to their father Abraham—the Promised Land.

But something strange happened.

Instead of continuing with God leading them and addressing each situation, they got the idea, and Moses agreed, that they should send spies into the land first. In Numbers 13:1, GOD instructs Moses to send spies, but in Deuteronomy 1:22, it says the people convinced Moses to send spies. While the account in Numbers records the event, the account in Deuteronomy speaks to the actual wording of the event. God did not need spies to go in first. He knew the way to go. He knew the good parts of the land and all the fruits and grains that grew there. He even knew about the people that were in the land and how tall the walls of every town and village were. God did not need an intel report on the Promised Land. But the people thought they should do it.

Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.” The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

Deuteronomy 1:22–23

Again, it seemed like a good idea to the people in the camp. Twelve spies were selected, and they were given specific assignments:

When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country. See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

Numbers 13:17–20

For forty days, the spies checked things out and reported back to Moses and the people.

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,

They proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

Numbers 13:25–29

Note that the “nevertheless” part was more than a simple report. It included a negative commentary about the people in the land and their fortifications. Anak was descended from the Nephilim, the giants of the land, and the Amalekites were the raiders whom they had previously encountered in the wilderness. There were Hittites who had fought the Egyptians before, and all the other “...ites.” The spies’ report concluded that Israel would NOT be able to overcome these peoples.

So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Numbers 13:32–33

You could easily make the argument that the mistake made here was attempting to do for themselves what God said He would do. God was going to lead them into the land and give the land to them. But instead, the people began to enter the land themselves by getting their own intelligence. Where did this “I will do it myself now” idea come from, considering all that had happened up to this point? Had God said, “Ok, you are on your own now?”

Instead of trusting God, sons of Israel were operating on their own wits and skills. In their unbelief of God’s promises, they quickly concluded that they did not have enough wit or skill to take the land and receive God’s promise.

“Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”’

Deuteronomy 1:26–28

But they made an even worse mistake. They believed the bad/false report. Ten of the spies had falsely testified about the land.

Instead of processing the full report and hearing all the spies, the sons of Israel were caught up with how the ten spies overstated, misrepresented, and prejudged the situation. Their job was to report, not to make the decision, or express their fears. They failed to consider what God was doing and only reported on what they thought they could do.

The people believed their false report. They went so far as to conclude that God hated them. They fed on each other’s fears and projected disaster for their future.

This was done even when Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. Additionally, they did not listen to Moses and usurped his leadership by wanting to appoint a new leader to take them back to Egypt. Apparently, Moses had been compromised earlier by agreeing to send in the spies (it seemed like a good idea to him). Their faith in God was so weak that they believed the first bad report they heard about the land.

Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

Numbers 14:1–4

Now we have a real problem. Because of a bad report, most of the people turned completely away from God. They forgot about being freed from Egypt. They forgot the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, God’s presence in the camp with the pillar-by-day and the fire-by-night, the manna, and the water from the rock. This bad report caused them to lose hope in God’s promise to their father Abraham for a homeland.

At the point of wanting to replace Moses as leader, they reached God’s limit for tolerance and mercy.

The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?

Numbers 14:11

“Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the LORD fully. The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there.’”

Deuteronomy 1:35–37

Even Moses suffered from this bad report. He would not make it into the promised land himself.

Many Messianic congregations are attended by people who have checkered pasts. By that, I mean they have been sinners and did not play well with other churchmen. However, they fit well into a Messianic congregation, as we are a type of Jacob’s flock. We represent all the black, speckled, and discolored sheep he had accumulated from shepherding for Laban. Laban’s flock had all of the lily-white sheep. As a result, we are the perfect people to learn the commandments of the Lord, as we know we are sinners who need repentance. We are grateful for our redemption and have a desire to obey the Lord. We are just like our ancestors!

But some of God’s commandments are definitely different from our previous lifestyle before salvation. For example, we are no longer to spread gossip, backbite, or slander one another. We are not to spread lies, especially the ones where we put others down to make us feel upright and righteous. We are to deny our egos and become a humble and obedient people, trusting God for the decisions in our lives.

One of the big ones we are to learn is to not misjudge one another or different situations. We are taught, “Justice, justice you shall pursue,” which means we are to seek justice in a just way. We are NOT to conclude a matter on a single report, nor to make pronouncements from our own discernment. “Lean not unto your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5–6)

During my ministry in many congregations, I have seen much harm done to many brethren because the people heard a bad report/rumor and reacted before all of the facts were available. I have seen many misjudge others and break friendships and brotherhood in the faith. It has caused congregations to divide and, in some cases, die altogether.

Moses had to endure bad reports about himself. Many Israelites did not like his leadership style and questioned what God had told him. Every prophet of Israel suffered falsehoods about themselves from people who did not want to obey God. Many were killed, based on the reporting of others. Yeshua was accused of breaking the Sabbath, altering the customs of Moses, and seeking to destroy the Temple. Even to this day, I have heard Christian preachers joining Jewish unbelievers in making the same accusations against Yeshua as though they were true. They do it to justify their “replacement” theology.

With regard to the Sabbath, it is NOT sin to do good on the Sabbath. So, healing on the Sabbath is NOT breaking the Sabbath. Yeshua took issue with the religious leaders for preferring their precepts and traditions to the commandments of God. That is NOT altering the customs of Moses. And His call to tear down the Temple and that He would rebuild it in three days was a metaphor for His resurrection and rebuilding His temple in the hearts of men. Many Christian teachers today use the same accusation of the Jews, as though it is now true, to support Christian theology.

I have discovered that people latch onto bad reports and believe them for a couple of reasons. Like our ancestors, they forget God and what He has done in the past. Their faith is so weak that any obstacle requiring faith is too much to overcome.

One of the reasons that the faith of many is weak is fear. Instead of fearing God, which is the beginning of wisdom, they fear others and what others might think or do. They fear the unknown. This kind of fear is believing in the worst. Believing a bad report is relishing in the worst. They do not want facts anymore. A single report and their fears of the unknown are more than enough to act.

I have watched this kind of fear, mixed with another agenda, become the action for a bad report. Consider this for a moment…

Did all of the children of Israel want to go to the Promised Land when they left Egypt? Apparently not. Some of them began complaining from the beginning and jumped on the idea of returning to Egypt.

Fear either immobilizes you or gets you to run away from where you were going. Mumbling and grumbling along the way reflects and provides justification for that fear. A false report is the incentive to act on those fears.

Let us take application to what this article is about–how do we manage these kinds of reports?

In today’s world of perversion and criminality, there are plenty of bad and false reports/rumors. As I asked earlier, how do we handle a bad report (rumor/false accusation/even true reports) concerning our own leaders and brethren in the faith?

For example, what do we do if we hear a report that a spiritual leader or brother has sexually misbehaved? This can include everything, from something about his past, to something current. We are talking about infidelity and secret sins. When those come out into the open by an accusation, what do you do?

Do you act on the report without confirmation by spreading the report? Do you offer your personal commentary, adding to the report to increase it? Do you promote your ideas of judgment, acting as if God has given you great wisdom in the matter? Do you disagree with others who want to help the accused? Do you ostracize and banish the accused because of your personal fears on the subject?

I leave you with these words: Do not believe bad reports, accusations, falsehoods, or rumors on face value. It could cost you your own personal trip to the Promised Land. Be wise and confirm the truth, and let God be the judge of the matter. Ask God to be as merciful with them as He has been with you. And, if it’s none of your business, leave it alone. ■

Shalom,

Article written by Monte Judah

* Scripture references from the NASB95