God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery. You would think they would all be forever thankful and never forget that blessing, yet it seems God had to remind them many times of what He did. They lost faith in God while in the wilderness to the point of wanting to go back to Egypt, back to slavery, where they still may die but at least would not starve or die of thirst.
Exodus 16:2-3 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The 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.” And again, in Exodus 17:3 they seem to have forgotten what God had done and wished they had stayed in Egypt. But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
How many times have we been amazed and truly thankful for what God has done for us, then not long after, it’s as though we’ve forgotten about it. Our focus is on our next crisis, need, or want and we begin to whine and beg God again for His help OR we are tempted to ‘go back to our Egypt’, not having faith even for the little things.
Moving forward in our Christian walk and growing in faith comes with trials and temptations. Many times, when ‘life gets tough’ and we battle temptations, we fail to look towards God. When our focus isn’t on Him, we are not obeying and having faith in Him. At times, like the Israelites, we can begin to think that our past wasn’t as bad as the battle we are in now.
For example, I battle eating disorders. I love food (my Golden Calf – we’ll get to that next week), I love food that is not good for my health such as sugar and carbs (my drugs of choice), and I binge eat (totally out of control). 1 Corinthians 6:19 says: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? Every time I read about the Tabernacle and the Temple in the Bible, I cringe because I think of MY body being the Temple of the Holy Spirit. YIKES! If it were an actual ‘building’, it would be as messy as my closet! (well, that’s a topic for another journal)
With today’s economy it takes planning and effort to eat a balanced healthy diet. There are times when I feel like ‘Going back to my Egypt’, back to my old habits and eat whatever is handy. In fact, I did that not long ago. The result? Sure, the taste and comfort were wonderful for the moment, BUT I not only lost my focus on my health and diet, but I also turned my focus from God, not to mention how sick I felt for several days after, (a sugar hang-over).
God instructs us to not look back, however we do need to remember how far He has brought us ‘out of the wilderness’.
