Moses and the Israelites, on the other hand, were led by God out of Egypt. Out of slavery into freedom. This is definitely a theme for our team-Komboa means liberation, freedom, rescue, redeem. But first we must find and walk into this freedom. God is leading us there, but it is a process.
Part of this process is learning to trust God completely-the freedom that comes from complete abandonment to God and His provision.
Here is where I find a strong comparison to the Israelites. After wandering in the desert for a few months, the Israelites were grumpy. They complained, “If only we had died in the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you brought us into this desert to starve the entire assembly to death.” WHAT A SHORT MEMORY THEY HAVE. Yes, two months ago they had plenty of food, but they were also SLAVES.
Slavery still exists today, both literally and figuratively. While there are 27 million slaves in the world, I would hazard a guess probably the nearly 7 billion people on earth are also enslaved. Enslaved to lust, to food, to addictions, to technology, to people, to work, to money, to time, to beauty…They have made idols of everything that displaces God as number one in the hearts.
Here is where I see our team right now. This is the first month we’ve felt the rumbly in our tummies. While we have food, it is a lot less than we had in American or New Zealand. While we have shelter, it is much hotter and more humid here than in America or New Zealand. The temptation to whine, to complain, to beg to go back to Egypt to die with food in our tummies but an empty spirit is there.
Instead, we must learn to depend on God’s provision. To the Israelites he gave manna and pigeons every day for their whole time wandering in the desert. Granted, they got a little tired of all the carbs (understandable-this week we are eating cereal, PB&J, and ramen), but they did have food and God provided.
