Message: Reading through Exodus 16 I couldn’t
help but feel irritated. The people started with complaining and their
complaints weren’t just that they were scared, tired or hungry. Their complaints
were accusations. They accused Moses and Aaron of taking them out into the
wilderness just to die and they started wishing for their life of slavery
because all they were thinking about was the comfort of knowing they always had
food. So then God provided manna and gave very simple instructions in how to
collect it. He told them not to take extra except on one day of the week so
they could have a sabbath rest day. Several of them did their own thing and the
manna molded. All I could think of while reading was those memes that show
failures with the quote “You had ONE job!” I also noticed something else here.
They complained first and then they disobeyed. The instructions weren’t
difficult. They just chose to do what they wanted to do. I really believe that
their disobedience had everything to do with their complaining attitude.
Command: Pray through emotions.
Promise: God will sort out the emotions if we
just bring them to him.
Warning: Unchecked emotions cause complaining
and blaming, which causes disobedience.
Application: In Luke 22 we were also reading about
Jesus praying before going to the cross. He kept urging his disciples to pray,
but it wasn’t for him. He was telling them to pray so they wouldn’t fall into
temptation. I wanted to tie these two things together because when we aren’t
praying, we are vulnerable to whatever emotions we are experiencing. When those
emotions run unchecked we develop an attitude and we make assumptions and
accusations and this affects our obedience. We literally decide our obedience
based on how we are feeling. I thought about how the Israelites were fearful,
hungry and scared, and how that translated into complaining and accusations.
Since they were not taking responsibility for those emotions and were blaming
Moses, Aaron and ultimately God for everything, they allowed it to give
themselves permission to reject the instructions they were given, and instead
to do whatever they felt was best. I have seen this in my own life. Emotions
are indicators but they can’t be trusted for making decisions. I need to pray
through all of it so that my emotions don’t cause and attitude of complaining
and bitterness, which affects my obedience to God. All of it is connected!
