Israel Meets With Difficulties
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sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have
brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with
hunger.”
They had not as yet suffered hunger; but they feared for the future.
In imagination they saw their children famishing. The Lord permitted
difficulties to surround them and their supply of food to be cut short,
that their hearts might turn to Him who had been their Deliverer. If in
their want they would call upon Him, He would still grant them tokens
of His love and care. It was sinful unbelief on their part to anticipate
that they or their children might die of hunger.
It was necessary for them to encounter difficulties and endure
privations. God was bringing them from degradation to occupy an
honorable place among the nations and to receive sacred trusts. Had
they possessed faith in Him, in view of all that He had wrought for
them, they would cheerfully have borne inconvenience, privation,
and even real suffering. But they forgot the goodness and power of
God displayed in their deliverance from bondage. They forgot how
their children had been spared when the destroying angel slew all the
firstborn of Egypt. They forgot the grand exhibition of divine power
at the Red Sea. They forgot that their enemies, attempting to follow
them, had been overwhelmed by the waters of the sea.
Instead of saying, “God has done great things for us; whereas we
were slaves, He is making of us a great nation,” they talked of the
hardness of the way and wondered when their weary pilgrimage would
end.
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God would have His people in these days review the trials through
which ancient Israel passed, that they may be instructed in their prepa-
ration for the heavenly Canaan. Many look back to the Israelites and
marvel at their unbelief, feeling that they themselves would not have
been so ungrateful; but when their faith is tested even by little tri-
als, they manifest no more faith or patience than did ancient Israel.
They murmur at the process by which God has chosen to purify them.
Though their present needs are supplied, many are in constant anxiety
lest poverty come upon them and their children be left to suffer. Ob-
stacles, instead of leading them to seek help from God, separate them
from Him because they awaken unrest and repining.
Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend;
all heaven is interested in our welfare. Anxiety and fear grieve the