Know God - day 8

Exodus 16, 17, 20.

Wandering in the wilderness and griping about everything!!  We humans love to complain.  But that isn't what God is telling the Israelites.  What is he really saying??

When the people complained about fear of starving, God told Moses, 16:4, "I will rain bread from heaven for you."  The the people complained and quarreled about having no water and God instructed Moses to strike a rock with his staff and water will come out of it so the people can drink.  Yet the people continued to find fault with their situation.  Sometimes it is easier to be a slave, but easier isn't better.  Do we need to be slaves to our own gods? Or rely on God and try not to complain?  In the boy's AWANA work, he is learning Phillippians 2:14 - Do everything without arguing or complaining.  Funny how I'd never noted that verse before.

God is telling us that even though we grate on his nerves, he wants to put his hands over his ears and shut us out, we annoy him greatly - he STILL loves us. he STILL wants to provide for us. he is STILL gracious and merciful toward.  And we in no way deserve it. we often aren't thankful for it.  instead we have an 'it's about dang time' attitude.  Yet, he continues.  Pastor asks us to take a few minutes to thank God for his patience and grace and help us be less irritating and ungrateful.  We can do that...but speak it from your heart - not just rote words from your mouth.  

In 16:4, God told the people to gather just enough manna for that day. Testing them to see if they would obey.  Jesus in Matt. 6:11 taught us to pray, "Give us this day our DAILY bread."  Hmmm...wonder where that idea came from.  Daily. Just enough for this day.  

Have you figured out what God is telling us?  Pastor talks about two opposite yet equal problems he has.  (and he is by no means alone!)  Romanticizing the past. (or regretting the past for some of us). fearing and/or romanticizing the future.  I tend to look at the past with either 20/20 googles and make wishes that things could have been different, or with rose colored glasses and thinking things were much better than they actually were.  The future is typically an exercise in not trusting God enough.  God wants us to rely on him.  In the new testament he tells us 'Tomorrow has enough worries of its own." Matt. 6:34.    Where do you tend to look? Past? Present? Future?  

This reminds me of when I took flying lessons.  One rule was to never fly into a cloud because you didn't know what direction you were flying or what was in your path.  On the other hand, maybe we need to fly into the God cloud.  Sure, we can't look around to see where we are going, but we have to trust God to keep our path clear and lead us in the right (as chosen by him) direction.  Ask, plead, beg Him to guide your path and show you the blessings of today - the present.

God gave us the 10 Commandments. His way of telling us how to behave.  What is God telling us? According to Pastor there are 3 main ideas through the 10 commandments:

1.  sin and obedience matter.  if we deny this, then we deny we have a need for a savior. if sin and obedience didn't matter, what do we need God's grace and mercy for?

2. God matters. He told us first thing to have NO OTHER God's before him.  After all, he was the one who brought the Israelites out of slavery...into the wilderness...

3. Other people matter.  He tells us not to steal, kill, covet, etc.  This can be materially, figuratively, and literally.  How often have we coveted? Hurt with words? dishonored someone?  It all matters.

God expands and then grows the rules in Leviticus and the New Testament.  If we only love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, is that really enough?  Who do we need to love more? The God we keep as an afterthought or the neighbor who mows his yard at 7am on a spring morning when you want only to sleep?  By loving someone, I don't want to hurt them intentionally or unintentionally.  I try to avoid hurting them. making them mad. If we truly loved God, we'd follow his commandments - we don't need the other 600+.