God Delivers on his Promises (Ex 15:19 – 16:36)
Billy Milton - October 9, 2005
Introduction
Use the bottle of wine illustration and invite everyone to have a morning ‘whine’ before I start to speak. Gets us in the mood to listen to this passage about the children of Israel grumbling and moaning all the time.
READ each of the following:-
15:24 – “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
16:2-3 – In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron…
16:7 – “God has heard your grumbling against him…”
16:8; 16:9; 16:11; 17:2-3 etc.etc.
Have you spotted the theme here, yet? There’s a powerful amount of grumbling going on here, isn’t there! Let’s just remind ourselves of where they have only so recently come from and what they have just experienced. For many, many years they had been under the cosh in Egypt. Their sons have been murdered at birth, their men and boys forced into cruel, backbreaking slavery in the building sites of Egypt and …apparently life was better back then!! Get real!! Their memories have become warped. “There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted..” Yeah, like Egypt was a gourmet experience!! Jamie Oliver would have loved it! No, they have lost the plot and their thinking is flabby and it needs to be challenged! Egypt was not a holiday camp.
And, as if that wasn’t all – they have just witnessed one of the greatest miracles of all time. Pharaoh and all of his army were drowned in the Red Sea whilst they walked through on dry ground. Incidentally I heard the story of a young preacher who was trying to debunk the myth of Moses and the Red Sea. He explained to his audience that it wasn’t really a miracle, that it was actually the Reed Sea and they just waded through about six inches of water to safety. God didn’t do a miracle. An old man shouted out, “Thank God for the miracle!” The young preacher said, “No, sir. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There was no miracle,” and he repeated the explanation for the old man’s benefit. To which the old man replied, “Thank God for the miracle!” This exchange was repeated over again a few times until the young man in exasperation shouted out, “You’re not listening at all. Why do you keep on thanking God for a miracle? What miracle are you talking about? To which the old man replied, “Thank God for the miracle – the whole Egyptian army drowned in 6 inches of water!”
The Israelites had witnessed first hand this amazing miracle and just a very short time later they are moaning. How stupid is that? How ungrateful is that? How like us is that? What is their problem? In essence, what is their problem? Well actually it’s a problem that they share with the vast majority of Britain today. Tell me what it is?
Yes, they had lost the GRATITUDE ATTITUDE. Do you know what that attitude is? It is the decision that we make every day to say thank you to God for all that we are, all that we have and all that we are able to do. Years ago I watched Oprah Winfrey and she was devoting a show to the theme of gratitude. It was fantastic. She finished the show by urging everyone to go out and get a journal and every day write in it three things that they were grateful for. Pretty soon you have a journal full of grateful statements which, when you read, will remind you of just how great and good God is. I immediately went out and bought three journals for each member of my family to get them started. I wanted to give them this gift of gratitude. Just to get the kids started I very helpfully made the first entry for them.. to give them the idea. “I am just so grateful that I have such a wonderful dad!!” What do you think the first entry was in my wife’s journal? Yeah, you’re already there!
I want to suggest to you that the big problem for the children of Israel, and for us today on many occasions, is that we lose ‘the gratitude attitude’. Young children have it automatically but we tend to lose it and become cynical before we get to be very old. We need to regain the gratitude attitude. On Monday I went for a 19-mile run – as you do! Part of my marathon training for which you can still sponsor me. At about 14 miles I was running quite freely, the weather was perfect and I was feeling optimistic. I was suddenly overwhelmed by this feeling of gratitude and, after checking that no-one was watching I began a hundred yard celebration – whooping and hollering as our American friends would say – punching the air and yelling out, “Thank you God” and naming all sorts of things that I was grateful for – my health, my new red running top, my athletic ability, limited as it is, my jelly babies, my wife and family who are supporting me, the lovely country to run in. If anybody had seen or heard me I’m sure the blue flashing lights would have arrived soon afterwards and a gentleman in a blue uniform would have invited me to step into the back of the van and slip on this white jacket with sleeves that tie round the back. But I just felt so grateful it exploded out of me.
When was the last time that you stopped and just gave God thanks? 1 Thess 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” People, from time to time, come to me and ask, “How can I know God’s will for my life?” Folks – here it is in black and white. God’s will is that you develop a gratitude attitude. How do we get started? Well I’m going to give you the chance right now Turn to your neighbour (one of you be A and one be B) and tell each other 3 things you are grateful for. Once you have both shared, I want you both to applaud each other and keep applauding ‘til I say to stop. Yes, you can cheer if you like! GO turn to your neighbour and start.
How does that feel? God knew what he was doing when he commanded us to be grateful!
Now notice something else. What was God’s reaction to their grumbling and whining? Did he get angry and threaten to wipe them out for their ungratefulness? No. Did he cause a mighty storm to blow through the camp and wreak havoc amongst them? No. Did he threaten to abandon them? No. This is so cool. In Ex 15 he cured the bitter waters of Marah immediately. In Ex 16 when their memories have gone a.w.o.l. and they are moaning about missing the abundance of Egypt – he feeds them with quail and manna from heaven, that very night! Folks, this is our God! We whine and moan and he soaks it up and blesses us right back. Time after time we complain about this, that and the next thing and God blesses us right back. Don’t you just want to say thank you?
The problem is, when we start to focus on our problems we lose out on one of the greatest privileges of being a Christian – our heavenly Father’s care and love and it also saps us of our joy. Have you ever wondered why Paul could write things like, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.” Phil 4:4 It was because, regardless of his circumstances, he was able to maintain a gratitude attitude.
Now, I know that some of you are going through the mill just now. I know that some of you don’t lay down your head at night without shedding a tear. I in no way want to make light of your present afflictions but I do want to say that, with the full authority of the Bible behind me, lift up your head and say, “Thank you Jesus for …” and then you fill in the blanks. I promise you, if you do nothing else this year but develop a gratitude attitude, your life will be transformed.
Why don’t you make a promise to yourself to start your Gratitude Journal today? Do it – don’t wait until the 1st January. Don’t even wait until tomorrow – start today.
Paul wrote again in Phil 4:8 , and with this I draw to a close, “Finally, dear sisters and brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent and praiseworthy – think about such things.”
They may have been dumped in the desert because of their own fear; they may have been causing Moses to tear his hair out; they may have been whining non-stop – but God still loved them and he provided for them..until they finally reached Canaan’s land and entered into the fullness of all God had for them. Last time I preached I said to you to get out of Egypt. Today I say, “Get out of the desert!” You don’t belong there anymore than you belonged in Egypt.
God delivers on his promises – let’s say thank you together right now.