.After Joseph died, the new king of Egypt was threatened by
the number of Israel’s descendants. So
he set taskmasters over them, and he worked them rigorously. And they cried out to God to save them from
their oppression.
And God appeared to Moses and said, “I have surely seen the
oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of
their taskmasters, for I know their sorrow” (Ex 3:7). “So I have come down to deliver them out of
the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and
large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Ex 3:8).
And God gave Moses signs and wonders to show the children of
Israel in Egypt so they would know that God had heard their cries and had come
to take them out of Egypt. And Moses did
the signs and wonders, and the people believed.
So he went to Pharoah, but Pharoah’s heart was hard, and he would not
let the children of Israel go. And so he
worked them even harder, and he ordered their taskmasters to beat them. And so the children of Israel quickly forgot
what they Lord had promised them, and they began to doubt. They turned on Moses, and said, “Let the Lord
look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of
Pharoah and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill
us” (Ex 5:21).
And God told Moses to tell the children of Israel, “I am the
Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will
rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm
and with great judgments. I will take
you as My people, and I will be your God.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex 6:6-7).
But the children of Israel did not believe Moses because of
their anguish.
And each time Moses went to ask Pharoah to let the children
of Israel go, and the Pharoah refused, the children of Israel began to doubt
more and more that the Lord would keep His promise to them.
And the Lord struck Egypt with plague after plague, never
once harming the children of Israel. And
still they did not believe, because Pharoah had still not let them go.
And it was only after the Lord struck His tenth plague, and
Pharoah allowed the children of Israel to leave, that they began to trust Him
again.
But when they had made it as far as the Red Sea, and they
saw that Pharoah had sent his army after them, they were afraid, and began to
doubt again. And again they complained
to Moses, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we
should die in the wilderness” (Ex 14:12).
But the Lord is faithful, and He saved Israel that day out
of the hand of the Egyptians. “Thus
Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people
feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses” (Ex 14:31).
And the children of Israel sang songs and danced before the
Lord, worshipping Him for what He had done for them. But when they had traveled three days without
water, they quickly forgot all that the Lord had done, and they complained to
Moses again! So the Lord made the bitter
waters sweet for them to drink. And He
said to them, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do
what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His
statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the
Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals
you” (Ex 15:26).
And the children of Israel continued on their journey, but
when they still had not found something to eat, THEY COMPLAINED AGAIN, “Oh that
we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the
pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!
For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hunger” (Ex 16:3).
And the Lord said, “I have heard the complaints of the
children of Israel. At twilight you
shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your
God” (Ex 16:12). So the Lord rained
bread from Heaven for the children of Israel!
But this time, He wanted to test their faith in Him. So He promised to rain bread from Heaven
every day for six days. He told them to
gather only what they needed for that day, trusting that He would provide for
them again tomorrow. Moses warned them,
“Let no one leave any of it till morning” (Ex 16:19).
But again, the children of Israel did not listen, for they
still did not trust God’s promise to them!
So they gathered enough to have some leftover for the next day, and in
the morning, God had bred it with worms and made it stink. And Moses was angry with them for not
listening.
And the Lord said to them, “How long do you refuse to keep
My commandments and My laws?” (Ex 16:28).
As I was reading this story, I felt myself starting to get
angry with the children of Israel!
HELLO! Are you seriously
complaining again? How can you still
have doubt after all God has done for you?
What’s the matter with you guys?
SMACK!
Talk about a slap in the face! I do that!
We all do that! We do it every
day! When God is good to us and things
are going great, we worship Him and thank Him and praise His name. But when things get tough, we are quicker
than the speed of light to doubt Him. We
doubt that we heard His voice. We doubt
that He is true to His promises. We
doubt that He hears our prayers and answers them. The Bible says, “he who doubts is like a wave
of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6).
And we are so much worse than the children of Israel! They are complaining because they were being
beaten and slave driven by the Egyptians.
Then they complained because they thought they were about to die at the
hands of an angry army seeking revenge.
Then they complained because they had gone three days without
water. Then they complained because they
had gone weeks without food.
Now I don’t know about you, but I have never been beaten by
an employer. I have never had an entire
army coming after me to try to kill me.
I have never gone one day without water, let alone three. And I have never gone weeks without food. So who am I to get frustrated with the
children of Israel for complaining? Doesn’t
Jesus tell us to first remove the plank from our own eyes before we can see
clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye?
So I find myself asking the same question God asked the
children of Israel: how long will I refuse to keep His commandments and His laws? How many times will I continue to doubt Him,
when He has proven Himself to be faithful time and time again?
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the
faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those
who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut 7:9).
His promises are always true! He has always provided for me and kept me
safe. And yet, I still find myself
doubting Him at times. I still find
myself complaining. I still find myself
worrying.
The Bible says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). When we give our lives over to Jesus, we make
a choice to die to our own flesh, and to live by His Sprit. But this is not a one-time-only event. This is a choice we have to make DAILY! Some of us (yours truly included) may even
have to make the choice several times per day.
Because our flesh will always work against His Spirit. Even as I am writing this blog, there are
children outside the house asking for me to come out and play. I don’t want to come out and play. It is 125 degrees out there and today is my
day off. I want to stay inside in the shade. Don’t they see I am busy writing a blog about
dying to myself?
(Pause to laugh at myself)
I am human. I have
selfish desires. But Jesus tells us, “If
anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
DAILY, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
So please excuse me.
There are some beautiful children waiting for me outside.
