February 28, 2012

"We Used to Eat Free in Egypt" (2/28)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Numbers 11-13.

“The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna’” (Numbers 11:4-6).

The complaints of the children of Israel were a frequent occurrence in the wilderness. It is amazing that those who had seen the power of God first-hand would so quickly lose faith in Him.

Yet we see something about human nature here. Many people want someone to regularly provide for them, even if there are strings attached. They want consistency in their lives, even if their circumstances are not ideal. They do not desire true freedom, for this requires contentment, diligence, personal responsibility, and a trust in the providence of God.
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February 4, 2012

Pots of Meat and Plenty of Bread (2/4)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 16-18.

It did not take long for the Israelites who had seen the destruction of Pharaoh and his army to begin murmuring and complaining.

“The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, ‘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 the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’” (Exodus 16:2-3).

How quickly they forgot the conditions they had endured in Egypt – forced labor, cruel beatings, and lacking the freedom to worship God according to His instructions. By this point, all they wanted to remember was the fact that they had food to eat and, though the circumstances may not have been ideal, they had sufficient security and stability to expect that those “pots of meat” would continue to be available.
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February 1, 2012

God Reminds Pharaoh of His Place before Him (2/1)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 7-9.

After suffering through several plagues, Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship God. After the sixth plague, God told Moses to deliver a message to Pharaoh, reminding him of his place before the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go’” (Exodus 9:13-17).

These words were meant to remind Pharaoh of some facts he had allowed himself to ignore:
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January 28, 2012

For Food, We Will Be Slaves (1/28)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Genesis 46-47.

Bible students are familiar with the period of slavery the children of Israel endured in Egypt. But there was another period of Egyptian bondage that occurred earlier. In this case, the slaves were not the Israelites or any other foreign people, they were the Egyptians themselves.

During the time of the famine, the Egyptian people willingly gave themselves over to be slaves. But it took some time for this to happen. First they used all of their money to buy grain (Genesis 47:13-14). When their money was gone and the famine was still ongoing, they exchanged their livestock for food (Genesis 47:15-17). But the famine continued.
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