Tuesday May 24, 2022

Scripture Ex. 16: The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

– God had recently delivered the Israelites from Egypt, gone before them in a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, opened the Red Sea so that they could cross over on dry ground, and then drowned Pharaoh’s army in that same sea, but here we see the same people God has delivered grumbling and complaining about their current situation! 

– How like the people of God to cry out to God for help, receive His help and then soon afterward turn back to complaining at the first sign of problems.  

– Are we aware that every time we grumble and complain it is an offense to God?  Why is grumbling and complaining an offense to God? When we respond in this way we are showing that we have no confidence in God to provide, no faith in God regarding the concern, no trust that God will see us through, and no hope in the God of our salvation. It is impossible to grumble and complain and yet possess the victory that faith makes possible. 

– We think we are complaining about an issue or a person, but ultimately we are complaining against God and His provision for our lives.

– In our complaining we exalt the problem instead of exalting the Lord.  We might say we believe that with God all things are possible and yet by our grumbling and complaining attest to our doubt and disbelief. 

– The Israelites complained, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” In their grumbling they forgot the reality of the bitter bondage God had saved them from and instead began to long for the days when, although they were enslaved and mistreated in Egypt, they had what they referred to as pots of meat to eat and plenty of food.

– In their near sightedness, they could not see the value of their new found freedom because of the momentary longing of their stomachs! This issue is one we all wrestle with on an ongoing basis.  Yes! God has delivered us!  Yes!  God has saved us from eternal death through Jesus Christ!  Yet, we still struggle to believe God, even though we know what God has already done for us, will help us in our current struggle.  The God who has saved us eternally can help us in our momentary struggles.  If God has moved heaven and earth to save us, we can trust Him with any and every crisis we encounter!