God will take us through hardship even as He will also give us moments of great abundance and rest. The wise learn to trust God in little as well as in abundance. In Christian living, there may come a time of scarcity but there will also be moments of plenty. We can expect life to consist of both Marah and Elim type of experiences. In times of difficulty we must trust God. In times of plenty we must praise Him. But at all times we must learn to give thanks.
Since the day prior to their departure from Egypt, the Israelites were already a people full of complaints. Every time when things did not go as they had expected, they would become negative and murmur, gripe and complain. Even after such a glorious deliverance from the army of Egypt, as soon as they reached Marah they were filing a protest concerning the bitter water. God, of course, gave them a reprieve and brought them to Elim to enjoy the abundance of cool water. But soon it was time to go back on the journey. It was again time to test their willingness to rely on the Lord and grow in the process. So in Exodus 16:1 we are told “…they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.” Understandably they were tired and probably hungry. But that could never be a good reason to rail at the Lord’s servant and God. Verse 2 tells us that “The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” Just look at their audacity. They said to God’s servants, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Their besetting sin was whining. Throughout their wandering, the book of Moses reveals that they grumbled all the way. They grumbled when they did not have water. They grumbled when the food ran out. They grumbled when they had no meat. It seems that all that they knew to do was grumble, grumble, and more grumble. This is just a symptom of a deeper issue. For right at the heart, they were a lot of discontented people. Discontentment is an inner disease of the attitude. Grumbling is a sign of rebelliousness. So right at the heart of the Israelites was the spirit of rebelliousness. They were in effect rebelling against God and His salvation plan for their lives. They, in actuality, were saying that God did not know what He was doing. And they would be better off dead in bondage than alive in the wilderness. Oh, would to God that none of us will ever entertain a complaining spirit! For every time we gripe and complain against our circumstances or our leaders, we are finding fault with God. This is a clear indication of a disconnect with Him. Let us rather give thanks in everything. For in so doing, we acknowledge God’s sovereignty and control over our lives.
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