More Than Just a Children's Story

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Old Testament. I'm not incredibly familiar with the Old Testament, except for the Sunday school Bible lessons I heard growing up like Noah's ark, the fiery furnace, and the parting of the Red Sea. Of course I know a few more things, but I don't know it as well as I know the New Testament. I thought went into the class thinking it was going to be all memorizing facts and dates and genealogies. I've gotten a little more out of it than that.

We are currently going through the first five books (the Pentateuch), and to be honest I haven't read most of them. I've read Genesis before and parts of Exodus, but I have never really read the other three. We just finished Numbers and even though I have been reading all of this out of obligation for class, I can tell the Lord has really been working in me after reading these. I didn't see it at first, but the more I read today the more I realized what the Lord was saying.

As you may know, most of Exodus and on is about Moses and the Israelites leaving Egypt, wandering through the wilderness for forty years, and then preparing to enter the promise land. I'd heard it all before, but I had never really studied it. I always had the Prince of Egypt version of the Exodus in my head when I heard it. What the movie didn't show was what happened after they had been out of Egypt for a few days. 

The Israelites complained, and they complained a lot. They were thirsty, so they complained, and God gave them water. They were hungry, so they complained some more, and God gave them quail and manna. There are so many instances of these people complaining and God providing. God even gets frustrated with them from time to time. God delivered them out of Egypt and they whined that they would have rather died in Egypt. God provided miracle after miracle and how to they repay Him? They build a golden calf and worship it. God brings them to the edge of the promise land, promising that they will have it, and they complain that they will never defeat the Canaanites and they refuse to go in. They are standing on the edge of the land of plenty, and after God has proved Himself again and again of His faithfulness and power, they still don't have faith in Him. You figure they would learn that the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,  is a good God.

This is starting to sound strangely like my life.

I realized when I was going through my textbook about all these incidents that I am no different than the Israelites sometimes. I complain so much. God provides. I complain some more. Am I ever satisfied simply with what I have? No. It's pathetic. Why can't I ever be happy with what God has provided me with? Why can't I trust Him to take care of me and provide for me? I always try and take control situations myself rather than surrender them. I complain and God provides and I'm never happy. Sometimes I don't understand why He puts up with my stubbornness, why He doesn't just give up on me. But that's not His nature. His perfect goodness and grace is his nature. His mercy. I thank Him everyday for having mercy on me, cause He knows I don't deserve it. I think that is the one thing this class won't be able to explain: how much God loves us. It can't be explained in words. It can't be explained at all. What an awesome God we have that He would love us despite our stubbornness and complaints and rebellious natures. What a God. 

I think I'll end on that note.

Be blessed,

Mac

ps. Check out the "Keep No Score" album by Sleeping At Last.  I can't get enough of it.