Wednesday,
August 9, 2023
There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about
Moses and Aaron. “If only
the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and
ate all the bread we wanted. But now you
have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m
going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as
much food as they need for that day. I
will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my
instructions. On the sixth day they will
gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the
people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the Lord who
brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning you
will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaints,
which are against him, not against us. What
have we done that you should complain about us?” Then
Moses added, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and
bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints
against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against
the Lord, not against us.” Then
Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present
yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’” And
as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the
wilderness. There they could see the
awesome glory of the Lord in the cloud. Then the Lord said to
Moses, “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have
meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am
the Lord your God.’” That
evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp
was wet with dew. When the dew evaporated, a flaky
substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The
Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food
the Lord has given you to eat.
Exodus 16:2-15
The Israelite tribes complained
bitterly that they were on a “fool’s errand”; they complained God had gotten
them out of Egyptian slavery, only to die of hunger and thirst in the
desert. After 400 years of bondage,
they’d gotten pretty comfortable in Egypt; none of them had ever known
freedom. They didn’t have a clue how
costly freedom was to obtain, nor how much self-sacrifice and work it would be
to maintain it. As a nation they were
infants facing Goliath. Spiritually they
were like naïve children; they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I have known that twice in my life and ministry. In 1981 I was ordained as a minister of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. The battle over
women in ministry had reached a boiling-point with a conservative “takeover” in
the Southern Baptist Convention. It was
a contentious time, and ten years later the denomination split into Southern
Baptist and Cooperative Baptist groups.In 2005 I was drawn into the serenity of
the United Methodist Church as a pastor.
Nearly two decades have been overshadowed by a fragmentation of
leadership between far left progressives and far right conservatives. Of late the parting of ways between the UMC
and Global Methodists has been sometimes peaceful, even amicable; at other
times, World War III. In some ways I
sense I’ve been struck by lightning twice during my 40+ years of simply trying
to follow God’s leadership in the midst of a tornado. The daily cares of pastoral work seemed
diminished, overshadowed by strife and hot tempers. My ministry began in Florida where they say it’s
hard to remember you’re draining the swamp when you’re up to your eyeballs in
alligators.
For You Today
There is a sense of
hope that abounds in even the wrongest of places at the worst of times…Jesus
didn’t come to bring anger, confusion, and death; He is life!
You chew on that as you
hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Go to VIDEO (read by
author)
Title Image:
via Wikimedia Commons
Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
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