Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Grumbling vs. Gratitude-DD 10/20/2010

"Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, 'Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us." Deut 1:26-27

Contextually, Moses is relating the history of the house of Israel since the Exodus. In this particular passage, he reminds them that though God had given them full assurance that He would be with them as they crossed into the land which He had promised as they moved to take possession of it (and He had a great track record of doing exactly what He said He would do...every time).

As it turned out, the people more readily believed the reports of adversity and challenge than motivation and confidence in the Lord. They rebelled and grumbled amongst themselves.

Beloved we must be careful with our murmurings, which can be indicative of our failure to recognize our blessings and possibly, our lack of faith in God. Note that the people still have their exodus from Egypt and concerns about threats from their enemies on their minds. How quickly they seemed to have forgotten that they were in slavery in Egypt. How quickly they seemed to have forgotten that God had vanquished their enemies over and over again after miraculously delivering them from bondage. They seemed to have forgotten that He gave them food and water out of His own hand, yet still they they felt they had things about which to grumble amongst themselves.

Sometimes we need to take a good, strong, sober look at where we are and what we have compared to where we were and what we lacked. We may not be living in the best of times and conditions but we are by no means anywhere near the worst. We must adopt the attitude of Joshua and Caleb who were confident in the Lord and what they could do in power of His might. This they recognized despite what might seem to the weak in faith as insurmountable odds. Anyone can grumble in a tent. The difference is made by those who are willing to take up the charge, obey God and be part of the solution.

We must choose reward or punishment: "But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. "Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ' Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully.'" Deut 1:32-36

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