A small note: This was written as an experiment to try to understand what could drive someone to doubt in the middle of all the amazing grace found in Exodus 4-17.
– Matt
Imagine you and your family are part of a group of people that has been enslaved for hundred of years to servitude and indentured labor. It’s been this way for as long as anyone living can remember and there’s no hope.
All of a sudden, there comes a whisper of a man – one of your people – who is daring to challenge the king that has kept your race enslaved. He claims to have the power of God with him. During the next few months, miracle after miracle happens, pressing the king and his people into a corner. Finally, they relent and let you and all of your race go. You’re free! Four hundred of years of oppression has fallen to the wayside.
All of the leaders realize that this man is important and urge the community to listen to him as plans are made to escape. The community rallies behind the man. Finally, the day comes and you leave the kingdom where your ancestors were oppressed and march off into the desert.
Everything seems great. God seems to be leading you with a pillar of cloud just up ahead of wherever you are during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. Suddenly, whispers and panic arise in the group you’re with. The king has changed his mind and decided to pursue you and your people! To make matters worse, you are trapped with a gigantic lake behind you. Would God lead all of you to a slaughter? Is that what the endgame of all this was? Miraculously, however, a constant wind rises from the east and parts the water into two with dry land in between.
Your people – all 600,000 of you – march through and make it to the other end. You turn back and see that as soon as the king and his men are in the middle of the lake floor, the wind slows and the water crashes all around them, drowning them. You’ve just been saved again! There is no doubt! God is faithful and is making sure that we’re all safe and sound.
Yet… something nags at you. You want to believe that God is for you and is always faithful. He did say he would come for His people, and He did! Look at the miracles! Look at the pillars of cloud and fire! Look at the Sea of Reeds!
But doubt begins to cloud and overtake your mind. There’s no food and water in the desert. Wouldn’t it have been better to be enslaved, but full? Wouldn’t it be safer to stay by the Nile River? Wouldn’t it be easier to work and reap no rewards, but not thirst? You can see how God could deliver us, but can He feed us? ALL 600,000 of us?
You begin to join the chorus of grumbling voices demanding answers. You’re worried about your family. Where will the next meal come from? Where will the water come from? Where are we going? Has God truly thought this through? You certainly can’t see a way out of this. You begin to look back to your enslavement in rose-colored nostalgia. “Life was better then. Hard, but certainly better.”
One morning, you awaken to noise and commotion. Rubbing your bleary eyes, you stumble out of your tent and step into a pile of sticky white flakes. Still half-awake, you mutter a phrase of confusion. It takes you a minute to register that the sandy desert floor everywhere you look is now covered in a layer of these flakes. Your neighbor passes by and asks, “What is it?”
You bend down and pick up one of the flakes and put it in your mouth. It tastes like a honey wafer. Soon, you hear that it is bread from Heaven and instructions have been given on how to gather it. Once you hear that no one is to keep any of it until morning, you laugh at the pure ridiculousness of the instruction. Of course you’re going to gather as much as you can and keep it in a few extra jars for the future! So you gather some extra before it melts away in the hot sun.
The next morning, however, you wake up to a god-awful stench. It is coming from the jars where you kept the extra wafers your family had not yet eaten. You open one of the jars, and to your horror you discover it is full of maggots.
You quickly rush outside and empty the maggots out of the jar. Once the jar is empty, you step back and see that the ground is once again covered with the sticky wafers that some of the people have begun to call manna.
Your heart leaps. Could it be? Does God truly care for each and every one of us? Does He really have a plan to see us through the desert? Your eyes fall from the manna to the empty jar you hold in your hands. Your doubt begins to dissipate. You bow your head in embarrassment as you recall the maggots. Your pride begins to shrink.
As you fall on your knees to start collecting the manna – just enough for that day, no more, no less – you look to the heavens and begin to understand. You are His and He will take care of you, even when you can’t see how He will. He certainly has thought this through in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
As you sweep up the wafers with your hand, you begin to trust and obey.
doubtExodusIsraelitemannamiracleobeytrust
Doubt in the Midst of Miracles
June 7, 2012
Calvary
Comments Off on Doubt in the Midst of Miracles
Matt
A small note: This was written as an experiment to try to understand what could drive someone to doubt in the middle of all the amazing grace found in Exodus 4-17.
– Matt
Imagine you and your family are part of a group of people that has been enslaved for hundred of years to servitude and indentured labor. It’s been this way for as long as anyone living can remember and there’s no hope.
All of a sudden, there comes a whisper of a man – one of your people – who is daring to challenge the king that has kept your race enslaved. He claims to have the power of God with him. During the next few months, miracle after miracle happens, pressing the king and his people into a corner. Finally, they relent and let you and all of your race go. You’re free! Four hundred of years of oppression has fallen to the wayside.
All of the leaders realize that this man is important and urge the community to listen to him as plans are made to escape. The community rallies behind the man. Finally, the day comes and you leave the kingdom where your ancestors were oppressed and march off into the desert.
Everything seems great. God seems to be leading you with a pillar of cloud just up ahead of wherever you are during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. Suddenly, whispers and panic arise in the group you’re with. The king has changed his mind and decided to pursue you and your people! To make matters worse, you are trapped with a gigantic lake behind you. Would God lead all of you to a slaughter? Is that what the endgame of all this was? Miraculously, however, a constant wind rises from the east and parts the water into two with dry land in between.
Your people – all 600,000 of you – march through and make it to the other end. You turn back and see that as soon as the king and his men are in the middle of the lake floor, the wind slows and the water crashes all around them, drowning them. You’ve just been saved again! There is no doubt! God is faithful and is making sure that we’re all safe and sound.
Yet… something nags at you. You want to believe that God is for you and is always faithful. He did say he would come for His people, and He did! Look at the miracles! Look at the pillars of cloud and fire! Look at the Sea of Reeds!
But doubt begins to cloud and overtake your mind. There’s no food and water in the desert. Wouldn’t it have been better to be enslaved, but full? Wouldn’t it be safer to stay by the Nile River? Wouldn’t it be easier to work and reap no rewards, but not thirst? You can see how God could deliver us, but can He feed us? ALL 600,000 of us?
You begin to join the chorus of grumbling voices demanding answers. You’re worried about your family. Where will the next meal come from? Where will the water come from? Where are we going? Has God truly thought this through? You certainly can’t see a way out of this. You begin to look back to your enslavement in rose-colored nostalgia. “Life was better then. Hard, but certainly better.”
One morning, you awaken to noise and commotion. Rubbing your bleary eyes, you stumble out of your tent and step into a pile of sticky white flakes. Still half-awake, you mutter a phrase of confusion. It takes you a minute to register that the sandy desert floor everywhere you look is now covered in a layer of these flakes. Your neighbor passes by and asks, “What is it?”
You bend down and pick up one of the flakes and put it in your mouth. It tastes like a honey wafer. Soon, you hear that it is bread from Heaven and instructions have been given on how to gather it. Once you hear that no one is to keep any of it until morning, you laugh at the pure ridiculousness of the instruction. Of course you’re going to gather as much as you can and keep it in a few extra jars for the future! So you gather some extra before it melts away in the hot sun.
The next morning, however, you wake up to a god-awful stench. It is coming from the jars where you kept the extra wafers your family had not yet eaten. You open one of the jars, and to your horror you discover it is full of maggots.
You quickly rush outside and empty the maggots out of the jar. Once the jar is empty, you step back and see that the ground is once again covered with the sticky wafers that some of the people have begun to call manna.
Your heart leaps. Could it be? Does God truly care for each and every one of us? Does He really have a plan to see us through the desert? Your eyes fall from the manna to the empty jar you hold in your hands. Your doubt begins to dissipate. You bow your head in embarrassment as you recall the maggots. Your pride begins to shrink.
As you fall on your knees to start collecting the manna – just enough for that day, no more, no less – you look to the heavens and begin to understand. You are His and He will take care of you, even when you can’t see how He will. He certainly has thought this through in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
As you sweep up the wafers with your hand, you begin to trust and obey.
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