It must confuse the world when God's people lose their joy.
Exodus 16:1-3 Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and
journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They
arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after
leaving the land of Egypt. 2 There,
too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
3 “If only the LORD had killed us
back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and
ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this
wilderness to starve us all to death.”
In the previous post we saw that God's people were redeemed and rejoicing as they stood on the banks of the sea that had just swallowed up their enemies. After hundreds of years living in bondage they were redeemed from the kingdom of darkness!
God's people just got out of church, it was the best worship service ever,
they sang the first praise and worship songs ever and nobody complained that
they didn't know the song or that the music was too loud. (Exodus 15:1-21)
But
the best worship service ever wasn't enough to stop them from complaining
right after church was over. The amazing things that God did for his people were quickly put aside as
they left the worship service.
The people looked at their situation and
quickly turned the amazing things that God did for them around so that
it was a curse instead of a blessing. They failed to acknowledge
that God's goodness is the reason they are out in the wilderness on
their way to his next promise.
The redeemed and rejoicing so quickly became the redeemed and regretting!
Exodus 16:3 “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned.
Instead of continuing to praising him they turned into
complainers that didn't appreciate what God did for them. They looked back and decided it would be better to be dead back in Egypt
than to be dead in the wilderness.
Say what!?! Either way they would be dead! The
fact that they are in the wilderness meant they had experienced God in a
bold new way and they should expect that they will see him work for them again.
Our unmet physical needs are the quickest way to get distracted from what really matters. It is difficult to trust God spiritually when you are doubting that he will provide for you physically. It is easy to see that we need to grow up when our first thought is "What do I get out of this?" rather than "How can I please God in this?"
| God Is Sufficient For Our Needs |
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1. God leads you into places of need so that you will look to
Him to meet those needs. 2. When you look to the Lord, you’ll see His grace and glory to be your sufficiency. 3. The manna points to Jesus Christ, the true bread of life that comes down out of heaven to satisfy your soul. 4. You must daily make the effort to lay hold of Christ as bread for your soul.
-From "Raining Bread From Heaven" (bible.org)
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God allows us to have unmet needs so that we will learn about him and so we can learn something about ourselves as well. God already knows our heart, so when the ultimate heart doctor gives
us a test, it is for our benefit. The test result show us things about ourselves that can be shocking to learn.
The worship service shouldn't be an event that is done for a set amount of time, it should be a lifestyle that continues all week long, but God's people lose their joy so quickly that the rest of the world must get really confused. They can't see God's glory in us and long for what we have because most of the time we don't seem to have much that they should desire to have.
God's people often feel that if they just grumble to a close friend
that will be discrete with the information then it's okay but they
fail to acknowledge that God hears it all. The Bible tells us four
times that while the children of God were whining in the wilderness God was listening to their ungrateful attitude and he wasn't pleased.
(Exodus 16:7-12)
Exodus 16:7 In the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?”Exodus 16:10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of the LORD in the cloud.
God used the wilderness experience of Moses to prepare him to lead his people and now the entire nation was going to be in God's wilderness classroom. They would see God's glory just as vividly as Moses did in the burning bush and they would also doubt God just as Moses did. They could see the awesome glory of God but they still couldn't take their eyes off of themselves.
The people that met Jesus when he came to our world failed just the same. The true daily bread from Heaven miraculously fed thousands from a boy's lunch box and the same people respond to Jesus the next day by focusing on themselves so much that they missed the long awaited Messiah. (John 6:1-71)
We need to appreciate God's goodness toward us even after the emotional high of a big event begins to wear off. We have "crossing the Red Sea" moments in our lives that should change our relationship with God but too often we miss out on truly seeing him, experiencing him and learning from him.
Thank you Lord for your presence in my life! Help me to see your glory in the big moments so that I can learn that you are sufficient for all of my needs. I need to acknowledge that your goodness brought me to this place in life and my wilderness experience is a classroom that I shouldn't complain about.
