CONVINCED BUT NOT CONVERTED

7. “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.
38. A MIXED MULTITUDE WENT UP WITH THEM ALSO, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.”
Exodus 12:37,38 (NKJV)

• A number of people are convinced about the Lordship of Jesus Christ but they are not converted.
- A dictionary defines “convinced” as being completely sure that something is not true or right, especially because the evidence seems to prove it or one is persuaded to believe it. While to be converted is to change one's religious faith or other beliefs.
- In our text, Exodus 12:37,38, some people who left the land of Egypt with the Israelites were called mixed multitude.
- They were the set of people who got to know the God of Israel through their relationship with the Israelites. THEY knew the power of this God, they tasted His goodness, and they did witness His awesomeness—the dramatic way He delivered the Israelites.
- These people decided to follow this God called YAHWEH, they went up with the Israelites to the promised land, the land of Canaan. Another name for these sect is Proselyte Jews—they were of Gentile origin, but accepted the worship of Jehovah.
- These mixed multitude were convinced about the God of Israel, that He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient, but they were not converted.

“Now the MIXED MULTITUDE who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?”
Numbers 11:4 (NKJV)

Another translation says:
“Then the FOREIGN RABBLE who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “
Numbers 11:4 (NLT)

• The disorderly crowd [mixed multitude, rabble] incited the people, the Israelites, against Moses and God, by complaining—tried to poison the people’s minds against God and His servant, Moses (Numbers 11:4-6).
- These people, the rabble, were not really converted, they were not ready to submit to God’s will and plan—the ways of God were strange to them and they were not ready to embrace it (1 Corinthians 2:14).
- The mixed multitude are everywhere today; they are in the church of Christ. THEY want the blessings of God, but they are not ready to follow the leadings and the ways of God—they argue, not ready to comply with the directives, the instructions given by God.
- The mixed multitude always long for good old days.
THEY always thirst and want to go back into those things which they claimed they have forsaken, but they are not ready to be weaned off completely.
- Such do not want to discipline themselves and their appetites for sin, and they do not want to embrace God’s plan for their lives.