It's really quite amazing how fickle God's Old Testament people were toward Him. They had cried out to God for release from their terrible afflictions in the land of Egypt, and God heard their pleas and answered them. They witnessed the ten plagues on Pharoah and his Egyptian countrymen: Nile River turning into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock dying, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death of firstborn sons. God's people were spared from all these acts of divine judgment. Finally Pharoah relented, and the Israelites were allowed to leave with all the silver and gold jewelry and clothing of their Egyptian neighbors. What a rescue!They were then led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. How amazing would that have been to see? At the first sight of the Pharoah pursuing them, though, this is the reaction of the Israelites:
"They said to Moses, 'Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.' "
God responded by parting the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape to safety. When they were on the other side and witnessed the total destruction of the entire Egyptian army, they rejoiced, sang songs, danced, and played tambourines.
Three days later they were grumbling once again against God and Moses because they were thirsty. They were supplied with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.
Very soon thereafter they were hungry and complained once again:
"Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
They were then fed by bread from heaven.
See the pattern? Complain, blessing, complain, blessing. How sad. But is this any different for us? Do we cry out for help from God, receive it, then move on to the next session of whining? Oh, I think this is definitely one pattern of human sin.
It is far easier for us to recognize this pattern in others than to see it in ourselves. Let's pray that God would reveal to us our ungrateful and forgetful attitudes toward all the blessings He pours out on us each and every day.
How easy it is to think, "Oh those Israelites how can they be so blind, so selfish, so unfaithful, so forgetful?" But like you said, all we have to do is look in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteWe are a "double minded" people, God reminds us of this character flaw several times in His word.
James teaches us to "not merely listen to the word, and so decieve ourselves. We should do what it says. Otherwise we are like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself, he turns and goes away forgetting what he looked like.
Praise God that everyday is a new day to try again. Heavenly Father grant us this day a hunger, not for the physical bread that is a distraction from You, but for spiritual bread that feeds our souls as with the richest of foods, may our hunger be for the Bread of Life which can only come from Jesus, and may we come back to His table over and over again when we feel the urge to grumble and complain. Amen DS