What is your Egypt?

It has been a few days since I have had time to write. I am a Student minister and this last weekend we had a student conference and then my wife and I had to travel out of state to take care of a few things for our adoption. Needless to say I am behind a few days but instead of trying to catch up we will just jump into where we are today (a day behind if you are following along with us in our Lent study.)

We jump forward into Exodus 15. God has sent the death angel and inaugurated Passover. Moses has lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Pharaoh changes his mind again and chases after the Hebrews, God parts the Red Sea and now we come to the Hebrews starting their trek to the Promise Land. 

The grumbling of the Hebrews is a constant theme of the Exodus. It happens over and over again. You would think after a while it would have sunk in that God had them, but it doesn't and we get the cycle repeat multiple times. In chapter 15 we see it starting and in 16 verse 3 it says:

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (ESV)

We read that and think "wow, really?!" They would have rather died a full slave in Egypt than been free (they would argue die of starvation free but that would not happen). Now I have never been enslaved to anyone, but I cannot imagine its a "good" life. In fact in Exodus, God says that he heard their "groans". I don't know about you but when I groan its not usually associated with a good thing. But I do know what it is to be focused on circumstances and look at the past with rose colored glasses and forget all the bad. It is easy to criticize the Hebrews, especially after reading about the plagues and the miracle at the Red Sea. How could they forget these awesome things that God has done?

But are not you and I the same way? When our belly gets hungry, bank account gets low, we lose our job, our children lose their minds, our family or friends hurt us, that thing we had replaced God with on the throne of our life lets us down, do we not forget what God has done for us? Oh how often we get bogged down in our current circumstances and miss the big picture. We forget that we serve a God that has brought us out of our own Egypt. But when times get hard and life doesn't go how we planned we can be just as quick to forget. We want to get back to what we can control. When the Bread of Life calls us to something bigger than ourselves how quick we are to beg for bread when our stomachs start to rumble.

I am reminded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 Jesus says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" God tells us following Him will not be easy and it is okay for us to pray and ask God for provision. But let us not long to go back to when we "thought" we were in control. Let us not forget what He has done for us.

-JD