Painting Pictures of Egypt

Exodus 14:11, 12 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt so with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?” “Is it not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
Exodus 16: 2, 3 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “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.”
Exodus 17: 3 And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
It amazes me at fast how the people were so quick to complain to Moses, after they had received so much from God. They had begun to paint pictures of there past lives that were attractive to them in their minds, forgetting that the land they lived in was not their own, the livestock they owned was not their own, even their very lives were subject to the whims of the Egyptians. They failed to see that there were graves in Egypt and they were full of their friends, family and children. They forgot that they felt hunger and thirst for freedom in the land of Egypt. They saw only the sand and the way that they were being led was too hard and they wanted to go back to the comforts of slavery.
The people forgot or overlooked the glory that God had already revealed to them. I am not talking about years passing by and the people crying out against Moses, the time frame for this turn around in their thinking is a matter of a few months. In chapter fourteen they have raised their voices against Moses soon after experiencing the mighty hand of God against Pharaoh, in their deliverance from slavery.
In Chapter sixteen, after the Red sea crossing and the death of Pharaoh’s army, and after composing a song of praise to the Lord, which spoke of God’s mighty victories, plus witnessing God turn the bitter water into water that they could use for themselves and their flocks, they again raise their voice against Moses. The rumbling in their bellies was nearly loud enough to match their rumbling against Moses.
Again, in chapter seventeen the people cry out for water to wash down the manna that God was providing for them daily. How long before they began to cry out against the manna itself. Oh yeah numbers 11:1-6; Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” God is more patient and loving then I am. My answer to this lot would have been; “Let me give you something to cry about! I’ll take away the manna and give you nothing, and then we’ll see how quickly you grave the taste of manna.”
There seems to be a pattern here, the people complain, the Lord provides. But are we that different from our Israelite brothers? We have been delivered from a certain death, and the bondage of sin. The Son of God dwells in each of us, who have invited Him into their life. We are able to approach the God of the universe just to fellowship with Him. His blessing, protection, and guidance are a part of the every day life of the believer, but yet we look back upon our past lives with passion saying; “Man I remember when?” Becoming a Christian does not always mean we are now living a life of ease, where our every want is given us, and we walk daily in the gardens smelling the roses, and sharing in fellowship with others that are enjoying the same existence we are, but we want it. So we complain, and the Lord provides, not what we want per say, but what we need. The Bible teaches us that God knows what we need even before we ask, and Jesus taught that we don’t have what we ask for because we ask for the wrong things.
The cost of discipleship is hard, we become a Christian and want to bring our old self right along with us into this new freedom we are experiencing, all the while God is trying to tell us that the old self is dead and I want to shape you into what I want you to become. We invite Jesus into our hearts and lives and complain when He wants to change the wallpaper and carpet. I remember when I first came back to the Lord in my twenties, if you remember from my testimony I was saved in my teens but fell away from the Lord, I still liked to drink and when drunk I would tell others about this new love I had for the Lord. This was such a turn off I soon lost a few friends, I also soon was able to get my drinking under control. I ached for the fellowship I had with my party crowd, but this is not what God wanted for me and found fellowship with other believers just as rewarding. I complained to God that my walk with Him cost me my friends, He provided new ones.
Jesus’ disciples found out the cost of discipleship wasn’t something they always understood early in His ministry. In Luke 14:26, 27 He tells them; “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, and his own also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” That sounds so much like Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes. If you hate your parents and yourself, you might be a Christian. If you are able to pick up your cross and carry it all your life, you might be a Christian. Not that the Lord was joking when He said this He was telling His disciples that they must put their relationship with Him above all others even their own wants and needs and be willing to suffer for the cause of Christianity. This sounds like a hard road to walk for some and some do turn away, as is written in John 6:41-60. Jesus told then they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to obtain eternal life. Now some of them were thinking that was just something they could not do, first of all that was gross, and second he was just one skinny Jewish guy, how could everyone get a piece of Him. We know what the Lord meant, but to them it seemed a very difficult thing to do. Even today when you tell others who desire to gain access into the Kingdom of God that it has to come trough Jesus, they turn away for they can not bear the cost of discipleship. I do not want to give up my Sundays for church, or there are a lot of things I like about my life and wish to keep them, and I just know that walking a life of Christianity will cost me those things. So they turn away and hope that they are a good enough person to make it to heaven. I would hate to stand before the Lord and tell Him I deserve to be there on my own merits, to tell Him I lived my own life and was a good person. To tell Him that I did not need saved from my old life, I liked it just fine. The hard truth is that any who do not accept God’s provision for salvation, will not enter into the Kingdom of God.
What of those who receive this precious gift and offer it back to God, but yet do not fully understand it? I like what Peter said to the Lord in John 6: 68, 69, when He asked the disciples if they too would turn away from following Him. Peter said; “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe that you are the Christ the Son of the living God.” Peter knew what we also know, that Jesus is the path of salvation. We do not always understand this journey we are on and long to go back to our old lives when it becomes hard to walk this path, but we have come to know the truth found in His Spirit, and His word, we have come to love Him more than our own lives. We stand on the road God has laid out before us and turn and look back at the lives we led and at times long for the past failing to see that it too was not always filled with ease. We paint a picture of our past that seems attractive and allow Satan to place these thoughts in our mind. For the enemy can mask the bad and show you only the good. Jesus hides nothing from us, He tells the disciple that the road is hard and few can walk it. Still we trod on putting one foot in front of another, walking a road we do not always understand. For we too have come to know that Jesus is the Christ, and our salvation. He is our rock, redeemer, a mighty fortress into which we can run and be safe.
The things that we have come to know as truth no longer will fit the lifestyles we lived in Egypt, but point to a future filled with His light, and His glory, filled with fellowship so sweet that the mind cannot imagine it. It is faith the propels us along this road, and it is faith that will bring us home.