Bitter Water

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur.  They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water.  When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink.  So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).  Then the people complained and turned against Moses.  “What are we going to drink?” they demanded.  So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.  Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.  It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him.  He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”   Exodus 15:22-26

The children of Israel had water issues.  When they were running away from Egypt, they were stuck with too much water, the Red Sea, preventing them from getting to the Promised Land.  The Egyptian storm troopers were hot on their heels, and God parted the waters so they could walk through dust, instead of swimming (and mostly drowning).  Three days later they had the opposite issue – no water.  They complained and Moses led them to Marah…where the water was unhealthy, bitter.  God fixed that by purifying the water.  Further on in the journey they were dry once again, and God brought forth water from a rock. 

I had my own issues with a water valve this week.  The plumber came right away and did another miracle, fixed it, and charged me less than the cost of a Buick!

Normally I write in the early morning hours.  Yesterday was an exception.  I started the day by getting my dog settled with his business, and carrying him to that spot he occupies right next to my desk.  I began to write when dawn was just breaking.  Elizabeth opened the study door and the pitiful sight of my bride in pain was worse than Israel’s drought on the run.  We immediately got in the car and went to the Emergency Room.  Around three o’clock we found out she had pancreatitis, along with a secondary infection.  An hour later she was admitted and settled into a room.  It is now 8:22pm, I’ve just had supper; it’s been a day!

So what does all that have to do with Marah’s bitter water?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  Today’s events were much like Israel’s Marah experience.  When they were back in Egypt as slaves, they could at least count on having water to drink from the beautiful river Nile.  Out in the desert life became uncertain, uncontrollable.  Today reminded me of that…my sweet bride, usually smiley and always on the lookout for our family…now helplessly rubbing her side, and not wanting to do anything but be left alone.  And Russell, helpless, unable to do anything like Superman, leaping tall buildings, stopping speeding bullets; I had no way to take away her hurt.  All I could do was just sit by the bitter water of pain.  I’m not sure how many people prayed for us today; I do know my phone looked like an exhausted little puppy when the battery died.  Tons of people responded to our Facebook post, and the word spread.  When I left Elizabeth’s room at 6:30 this evening she was smiling, and looking forward to coming home tomorrow.  The doc had said, “we’ll see,” but I know that look in the woman’s eye.

So…time to wrap it up and get some sleep.  My day was planned to write.  Pain had other ideas…and like too much water at the Red Sea, too little water in the desert, and bitter water at Marah, I got frazzled and saw my weakness.  But God had the answer…even before I asked.

For You Today 

Whatever you’ve got going on today, remember where the well is located.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Between the Rock and Hard Place

 

Thursday, March 3, 2022

So the slave drivers and foremen went out and told the people: “This is what Pharaoh says:  I will not provide any more straw for you.   Go and get it yourselves.  Find it wherever you can.  But you must produce just as many bricks as before!”  So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw.  Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard.  “Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did when we provided you with straw!” they demanded.  Then they whipped the Israelite foremen they had put in charge of the work crews.  “Why haven’t you met your quotas either yesterday or today?” they demanded.  So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him.  “Please don’t treat your servants like this,” they begged.  “We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, ‘Make bricks!’  We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault!  Your own people are to blame!”  But Pharaoh shouted, “You’re just lazy!  Lazy!  That’s why you’re saying, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’  Now get back to work!  No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”  The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.”  As they left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them.  The foremen said to them, “May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials.  You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”  Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord?  Why did you send me?  Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people.  And you have done nothing to rescue them!”  Exodus 5:10-23

Four hundred years in captivity was a hard place.  The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were conscripts of Pharaoh’s dynasty.  They were forced to work endlessly just to stay alive, and had nothing.  Then things really got hard.

Bondage is brutal – and that is certainly an understatement.  Not just Israel, but humanity has been under something of bondage to COVID-19 and its cousins the past two years.  Even if you have been blessed enough to have escaped having the virus, you know someone, perhaps many, who have had to tough it out like making bricks without straw.

You’ve also seen what happens when the rock of struggle meets the hard place of frustration…someone must take the blame.  Pharaoh, like any pandemic virus, was an iron-fisted, hard-hearted tyrant.  He threatened, bullied, and killed.  His soldiers spread the virus of hate and oppression.  The people, frustrated, having no place to turn for relief, blamed Moses for stirring up Pharaoh’s anger.  Moses went right to prayer….and blamed God!

Just a few plagues later, the slaves were seeing Egypt in the rearview mirror.  Forty years later Moses saw the Promised Land from the mountaintop.  But none of the original group, including Moses, ever set foot on the other side of Jordan. 

The conclusion is rather rock-like:  Blaming someone else for your problems will get you somewhere, and it’s often a harder place than the rock you were facing.

For You Today

When the temptation comes for you to blame someone, some pandemic, some circumstances, or God, for whatever trouble presents, let your prayer of surrender to God’s will and care turn blame into blessing.  

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

When Job Got It Right

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Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:  “Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.  “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right?  Are you as strong as God?  Can you thunder with a voice like his?  All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty.  Give vent to your anger.  Let it overflow against the proud.  Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand.  Bury them in the dust.  Imprison them in the world of the dead.  Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.  Job 40:6-14

Then Job replied to the Lord:  “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.  You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’  It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.  You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!  I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’  I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.  I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”  Job 42:1-6

Somewhere along the way Job forgot his connection to Adam and Eve; Job forgot about original sin and that sin nature we all inherit from our first parents.  Job somehow managed to consign to the back burner that need we all have for God’s grace-filled forgiveness.  Job was a moral, God-fearing man who, as a paragon of virtue in his community, was respected and did the right things.  He was like the good brother in the story of the Prodigal Son, obedient, compliant, useful, and the kind of dependable, unselfish guy every church elects as chairman of the board.

However, when the unfair, tough times came and his life’s train got derailed, Job defended his purity level, demanding an answer from God.  For 39 chapters Job tried to pry an accounting from Heaven.  When God did answer it shook the “good man” to his core.  The only sound heard from him the rest of that day was the clicking of his teeth as his mouth closed its’ complaining.  That was how Job finally got it right.

Many in our day who have ditched “church” in favor of just being good people are making the same mistake Job made.  They assume their goodness is measure enough to pass whatever test God (if He’s really up there) can pass out.  It’s a kind of macho-bravado that dares God to question their freedom to determine their chosen pathway.  And that attitude holds enough truth to get them in as big a dilemma with God as Job experienced.  That’s because God does, indeed, allow us free choice in how we will live our lives; it’s just that the consequences of our choices are just as tied to those choices we make as night is connected to the next morning’s daylight.  It’s like the proverbial domino reality; when you choose to push that first one, the second, third, fourth, and each one thereafter will fall the same way.  Years ago, the Alaskan highway was just a rough, unpaved trail through the wilderness.  During the rainy times the ground was soft and muddy.  A sign was erected at the start of the trail:

Choose your rut carefully; you’ll be in it for the next 200 miles.

We could apply that same wisdom to choosing grace, or our own strength.  God has given us the gift of free will; humility applied to that choosing will go a long way towards losing that arrogance that says its my life, I’ll do what I want.

For You Today

Job’s biggest mistake (before he heard that thundering voice from Heaven cataloging an indictment of his ignorance) was to think he’d been a self-made man, that his popularity, wealth, and “goodness” were enough.  He may have been right in the eyes of his neighbors and friends.  That day’s culture and community elected him man of the year every year, until the bad times and boils made their appearance.  Then all Job had was God.  And when he realized that, he realized he had all he needed!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 

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[1] Title Image:  By Hult, Adolf, 1869-1943; Via Wikimedia Commons     Unless noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Job's Story - From Hero to Zero (and Back)

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Thursday, January 3, 2019

To rightly understand the lessons of Job’s life we must consider both the height of his ease as well as the depth of his trouble.  As his story opens, we have the good times:

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.  He was blameless—a man of complete integrity.  He feared God and stayed away from evil.  He had seven sons and three daughters.  He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys.  He also had many servants.  He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.  Job 1:1-3(NLT)

Job was a rich man, but also righteous (not perfect, but always remembering God was God, and Job was not).  The Accuser, Satan, wanted Job…for lunch:

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.  “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.  Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”  Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job?  He is the finest man in all the earth.  He is blameless—a man of complete integrity.  He fears God and stays away from evil.”  Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.  You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property.  You have made him prosper in everything he does.  Look how rich he is!  But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”  “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan.  “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.”  So Satan left the Lord’s presence.  Job 1:6-12(NLT)

The story continues with Job’s children dying in a freak accident, his health, possessions and position in the community being taken from him, and his wife giving up, counselling Job to just curse God and die.  The man went from hero to zero in 25 verses; he’d been the richest, most respected man in the region, enjoying the ease of the good life to a childless beggar, sitting in the misery of dust and ashes, nursing the boils that covered his body, and enduring the snarky harping of his less-than-pleased wife.

The next forty chapters of Job’s story are the meat of humans (Job and his three friends) trying to figure out why bad things happen to good people.  Or, if Job wasn’t a good person underneath, and his life was all a sham, a pretention to Godliness, what, exactly, had this sufferer done to tick God off that bad?

Fast-forwarding to the end of the story, we find God speaking to interrupt heaven’s silence in light of Job and his friend’s questions.  God answers Job with a hard challenge:  Job, if you have it figured out, YOU instruct me; you tell ME how this should end.  And to Job’s credit, he knew when it was time to shut his mouth.  He listened, waited, and kept obedient through the storm of his death valley, and God did what God does – He gave Job a lesson more valuable than his previous riches.  God taught him to look outside the feeling in his gut, to the troubles others face:

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes.  In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!  Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home.  And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him.  And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.  So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.  Job 42:10-12(NLT)

Job learned that the response to tragedy and adversity is trusting God.  Truth be told, Satan understood human nature, and went right for the jugular in pushing all the buttons connected to Job’s trust in God.  He knew that this rich man’s dream life hadn’t been tested with a choice between his wealth and his Creator.  Satan had it figured out that the temptation to sell-out for a few pieces of silver can overcome a shaky faith.  After all, Adam and Eve had caved for just a single bite of what God had and they didn’t!

The one thing Satan never figured out (and perhaps still hasn’t) is that God will allow tests of our strength.  He will at times even allow the beating, bruising, battering ordeal of crosses and tombs.  Every bit of it must pass under the scrutiny of a sovereign God!  Our ever-present question, WHY? Is never answered until, in hindsight, and in trust, we see the marks of God’s guiding presence in what we’ve been through. 

For You Today

God’s purposes are our blessing, and they are rarely understood in the ease of being on top of the heap; sometimes it’s got to fall on us to do any good!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Crabby Kids

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said.  Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.  Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the Lord, the fire stopped.  After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the Lord had burned among them there.  Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt.  And the people of Israel also began to complain.  “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.  “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt.  And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.  But now our appetites are gone.  All we ever see is this manna!” Numbers 11:1-6^(NLT)

The Lord had some crabby kids in the wilderness.  God had sent Moses to get them out of the hands of their Egyptian captors and lead them to freedom.  The trip, even for a huge group, several million strong would have been only a few weeks.  However, their crabby complaining stretched the journey to forty years.  I know what Moses must have felt; I once drove straight through from Florida to New York with three siblings under 12 in the back seat of my car!  During that trip my crabby kids showed me the real meaning of Bill and Gloria Gaither’s song:  He Touched Me.

Churlish behavior is the consummate definition of ingratitude for what you have.  Humankind has made that something of an art form, never being satisfied for more than a nanosecond over what God gives.  Impatience in the wilderness makes you crabby!

In the wilderness the people churned-up complaints against Moses for a lack of meat and veggies.  They wanted leeks, onions and garlic; God provided them manna from Heaven.  Where once they worried about eating at all, as soon as God gave them a food source that completely met their need, they graduated to demanding five-star dining.  Thus it has always been for us.  Those of Adam’s race are not thankful by nature.  

·       Adam and Eve weren’t thankful with a perfect garden environment and a perfect relationship with God; they had to have the kind of knowledge God possessed. 

·       Cain was not satisfied with all the produce of the ground, he killed his brother because his brother possessed favor with God, and he wanted that! 

·       King David wasn’t happy with all the riches and power God had given into his life; he had to add another man’s wife to his collection.

John D. Rockefeller was the world’s richest man in the last decade of the 19^th century.  When asked once, "How much money is enough money?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."[2]  Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street in Washington with his two boys in tow, both of them screaming their lungs out.  A passer-by asked him, what’s the matter, Mr. President?  It is said Abe’s answer was:  What’s the matter?  What’s the matter with the whole world…I have two children and three walnuts!

Most of us will never know the riches of a Rockefeller, or the power and prestige of a King David or Abraham Lincoln.  We will never have a perfect environment like Adam and Eve.  And if those rich, powerful, and blessed people could be churlish and ungrateful in all they were given, what makes us think a little more than we now have will make us any happier?

If the task of parenting were to alter course a wee bit in our culture, from teaching children they can have/be anything they want (which is the nauseating phrase I hear – and have also used), to:  you can be exactly what God wants you to be if you listen and obey Him…it seems contentedness would be a lot more common in the human family.

For You Today

As the children of Israel learned in the wilderness, longing for the things of your former captivity only makes you cry; onions have a way of doing that!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy:  Pixabay.com

[2] New World Encyclopedia

So...Why Didn't the Apostle Paul Have a Bodyguard?

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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again.  Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes.  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.  Three times I was shipwrecked.  Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.  I have traveled on many long journeys.  I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers.  I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.  I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.  And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.  I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.  I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food.  I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 

2 Corinthians 11:23b-27^(NLT)

I’m not sure the Apostle Paul would have had a bodyguard standing over him at his book signing at Barnes & Noble.  Well, he did write a considerable chunk of the New Testament, which certainly has been a best-seller for quite some time.  But Paul’s royalties were never deposited in earthly banks.

When you read Paul’s account of what life was like on the missionary trail of the first century it is somewhat different than that of “American” Christianity.

In the 21^st century there is severe persecution happening in parts of the world most of us have never/will never visit; we read about it or see news clips of the violence.  But in the good ol’ U.S. of A. our brand of persecution centers around whether or not you can stand in the pulpit on Sunday morning, or if the music is too loud, and not what you are accustomed to hearing.  Heaven forbid the temperature in the sanctuary is too hot or cold.

It’s quite different from the beatings, shipwrecks, dangers, toils and snares Paul faced – to the advent of American rock-star pastors with bodyguards.

It is little wonder the sheep wander from the fold.

But Paul predicted this too:

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.   2 Timothy 4:3^(NLT)

I believe what Jesus had in mind for his followers was going a little farther-in than the itching ears…all the way to the heart and will.  This is what must be bent in the direction of Christ’s sacrifice.  Genuine sheep-followers of the Great Shepherd don’t wander…they serve.

For You Today

When tempted to complain about your church, pastor, fellow parishioner, or even the temperature setting in the sanctuary, remember what that old time preacher, Vance Havner once said:

Faith that is fickle at the first will fizzle at the finish!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: By cliff1066 @ flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

It's Monday Again

Monday July 15, 2013

I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done.  I will wait for your mercies in the presence of your people.  Psalm 52:9 (NLT)

My daughter-in-law reposted this picture on Facebook.  It’s how I feel a lot of Mondays! Especially following a Sunday when I’ve preached three times and didn’t get home till almost 10pm.  

I feel that way when a friend and church member is in the hospital at Chapel Hill struggling to come out of a coma.

I feel that way when my strength is gone.

Then I come to my senses and remember what the prophet Jeremiah remembered as he penned his great lamentations^(3:23)…God’s great compassion brings fresh mercies on me every morning (even Mondays!).

So…how are you today?

Is it, morning by morning, new mercies I see?  Or is it that second cup of coffee you’re depending upon?  Coffee’s not evil…trust me.  But you can do better than coffee today!

God's Grumbling People

²The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  ³The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”  Exodus 16:2,3  (NRSV)

Today’s story follows Moses and the children of Israel leaving Egypt for the Promised Land.  They left in April, now it is May and the food the Israelites carried on their backs is gone.  It’s a forced march with empty backpacks; except for the heavy gold and jewels they got from the Egyptians (and none of that is edible).  And there is not a Winn-Dixie or Food Lion in sight; just sand!  We find the children of God trudging towards the Promised Land, but looking back over their shoulders to the abundant food they left in Egypt.  The talk on the trail may have been of freedom, but in their mind’s eyes, Israel’s children were still slaves.

They talked freedom, but thought slavery.... Canaan and Egypt were in the same valley but in extreme opposite directions. To reach one, you had to turn your back on the other...[1]

Choices

There were really only two choices (besides laying right down there in the dust and dying).  Choice number one was to return to Egypt.  Not a good choice; Pharaoh would have killed half of them and made the other half do twice the work.  The other choice was to trust God. 

The Israelites understood hardship, pain and death; after 430 years as a nation of slaves to the Egyptian dynasty, they knew suffering.  Now they were following a prophet carrying only a stick and promises from some God you couldn’t see.  They were travelling towards a never-seen land supposedly “flowing with milk and honey” – these slaves were nervous about the future.  They had no food, no direction, no hope, and the dust and heat were on their last nerve; who knew what was going to happen?

Fear Turns to Grumbling

Their fear turned to grumbling – complaining, if you will.  So God sent manna as a test to see if the complainers would then begin to follow Him if their bellies were full; they didn’t!  As soon as they got the bread, they complained there was no peanut butter to go on it (well, almost – see Numbers 11 where they longed for the fish and onions).

That’s not too different from church congregations; many of them today are not growing, fading away to nothing.  They call a pastor to lead them, and then complain about everything he does.  Then, if the church doesn’t grow in spite of their complaining they blame the new pastor for not having vision.  That’s a bit different from how Paul saw it:

¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you.   Hebrews 13:17(NRSV)

The people of Israel blamed Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to “die in the wilderness”.  That wasn’t a fact – they survived.  But they were afraid, and fear turns to complaining about what leadership is doing. 

Complaining is a form of blaming others for what you don’t have, or what you didn’t get, or for just plain not being happy; it’s usually not rational…A cartoon showed an irate woman at the church door:  Don't you offer to shake my hand, preacher, until you're ready to apologize for not having the sensitivity to know what I'm offended about![2]  

Complaining is a sure sign of amnesia, when people have forgotten how God has provided for them.  For the children of Israel freedom was losing its shine when the cost of that freedom became their reality – they had to learn to trust and follow God rather than their familiar slavery patterns back in Egypt.  It is much easier to accept a little certain misery rather than an unknown freedom. 

One other thing about complaining, it is contagious.  Notice verse 2:

²And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:  the WHOLE congregation!

Just a few weeks before Moses was their hero, leading them out after four centuries of slavery; now everybody’s mad.  It is no wonder that later God just wanted Moses to stand back so He could incinerate the bunch. 

I don’t think there is a single thing that causes a church to bog down quicker than a spirit of complaining.  It is amazing how it affects reasonable people.  People begin taking sides – the technical term is “polarization”.

If you’re tempted to complain about the leaders in this church, just consider that your complaining will be dividing people, polarizing God’s church – then remember this part of Solomon’s proverbs:

¹⁶ There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, ¹⁹ a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. Proverbs 6:16-19(NRSV)

That thing about sowing discord among the brethren – it is listed number seven.  That isn’t an afterthought.  Listed as the seventh indicates the height of what God hates.  God hates a person to stir it up in His family. 

By comparison God’s Word also shows how to do the opposite – how to be cooperative.  There are [at least] five cooperation points to see:

Cooperation Point #1:  Decide to Trust God.

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)

When the children of Israel finally stopped banging their collective heads against the wall, this is what they did; they agreed to trust God.  It took them forty years of wandering in the desert, but it did happen, and they stopped complaining against their leadership, and they finally began to move together as a family. 

I know that not all churches or families or businesses will move at the same rate; God has not given everyone the same capabilities.  However, I don’t know of a single church that cannot grow if they band together to trust God and work at it.  I don’t know of a single individual or family that can’t make progress by deciding to trust God more and stop complaining. 

Cooperation Point #2:  Plan Ahead to Worship.

The manna was to be gathered for 6 days a week.  And on that 6^th day they gathered two day’s worth.  Get the idea?  The 7^th day was for rest and worship.  Beloved, I know there are folks who have to work Sunday mornings or evenings…I’ve never known a single person who had to work 24 hours/7days/365 a year.  God made a plan for our lives that includes work, rest and worship.  If you’ve got a better plan, take it up with Him – I don’t want to hear it!  I would rather trust God and cooperate with Him. 

Years ago I was going to be a career insurance executive.  My superior told me I had to work “18 days a week” if I wanted to make it big.  I was going to make it big.  I had no time for the Lord, family or rest; I was making a ton of money and a name for myself.  But my life began to fall apart; I wasn’t even thirty and my marriage was in jeopardy; I hardly saw my kids.  Business went sour for a while and the bills mounted; the kids were sick all the time.  The pressure became unbearable.

Then God got hold of my life, and I realized things were bad, not because God hated me, or I was having a run of bad luck – things were coming unglued because I would not cooperate with God.  I came back to the Lord; we began to attend church – regularly; we began to tithe and serve. 

Beloved, I don’t have a pile of money, but I eat regularly and I have dear friends within the body of Christ.  And I know love!  Worship will bring those things. 

Cooperation Point #3:  Gather Every Day – Early!

Having the promise of God is not supposed to take away your responsibilities.  In fact, it awakens the true believer as to how he should go about handling his real responsibilities.  The children of Israel had a legitimate need – food.  They could have spoken to their leaders without grumbling and murmuring.  The Bible tells us:

⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.                                     Philippians 4:6(NRSV)

Most of us don’t have physical food problems – unless it’s too much!  The real malnutrition epidemic among Christians is leaving the spiritual manna on the ground; people are starving their souls for God’s word. 

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.                                                        John 6:35(NRSV)

Make certain you have your daily manna-time with Jesus. 

Cooperation Point #4:  Don’t Hoard Your Manna.

In our text it tells us that when the people first saw the manna some of them attempted to go into the grain storage business.  God made sure they couldn’t do it.  If they tried to hold some over for the next day it rotted and turned wormy in their pots.

Our spiritual needs work the same way.  Many folks are attempting to live on yesterday’s manna.  Friends, living on yesterday’s spiritual experiences as if they are today’s adventure with Christ will starve your spirit.  It will turn your service for Christ into a wormy leftover. 

The reason God gave the children manna fresh every day was so they would learn to depend on Him daily and not wander.  It is the same with you.  Your daily dependence on Him spiritually is vital to your vitality as a servant of Christ.  You need to go to Him every day!

Cooperation Point #5:  Don’t Grumble – Eat Your Manna.

Enough has been laid before you today about grumbling.  So, without beating the horse to death here, let me share one last observation.  God’s people failed the test time and again because they refused to trust God and cooperate with Him.  In spite of it all God still provided for their needs.  That should tell us what our main choice is with our attitudes:

God’s provision for YOU in life can be either a powerful affirmation of your faith as you trust Him without grumbling

or

it can be a constant reminder of your fear and faithlessness.

The choice is up to you. 

Do you want to serve God cooperatively….or just grumble until Jesus comes back?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

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[1] Your Eyes Are On Canaan, But Your Mind Is In Egypt! , Kirk DeVine, on SermonCentral.com

[2] Cartoonist Gary Pauley in Leadership, Vol. 13, no. 2.