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Israel Meets With Difficulties
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when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
They had not yet actually gone hungry, but they feared for the
future. In imagination they saw their children starving. The Lord
permitted difficulties to surround them and their supply of food to
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be cut short, so that their hearts might turn to Him who had been
their Deliverer. If they would call on Him in their need, He would
still give them evidence of His love and care. It was sinful unbelief
on their part to think that they or their children might die of hunger.
They needed to encounter difficulties and endure hardships. God
was bringing them from corruption and shame to have an honorable
place among the nations and to receive sacred trusts. If they had
had faith in Him, remembering all that He had done for them, they
would have cheerfully accepted inconvenience, lack of food, and
even real suffering. But they forgot the goodness and power of God
in delivering them from slavery. They forgot how their children had
been spared when the destroying angel killed all the firstborn of
Egypt. They forgot the grand display of divine power at the Red Sea.
They forgot that their enemies, in trying to follow them, had been
overwhelmed by the waters of the sea.
Instead of saying, “God has done great things for us—we were
slaves, but He is making us into a great nation,” they talked of how
hard the journey was and wondered when their weary journey would
end.
God wants His people in these days to review the trials through
which ancient Israel passed, in order to learn how to prepare for the
heavenly Canaan. Many look back to the Israelites and are amazed
at their unbelief. They feel that they themselves would not have
been so ungrateful. But when their faith is tested even by little trials,
they reveal no more faith or patience than ancient Israel did. They
complain about the way in which God has chosen to purify them.
Though their present needs are supplied, many constantly fear that
poverty will come on them, and their children will be left to suffer.
Obstacles, instead of leading them to seek help from God, separate
them from Him because they bring out unrest and discontent.
Why should we be ungrateful and distrusting? Jesus is our friend.
All heaven is interested in our welfare. Anxiety and fear grieve the