Exo 16:1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim, and on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt, they came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
Exo 16:2 There in the desert they all complained to Moses and Aaron
Exo 16:3 and said to them, "We wish that the LORD had killed us in Egypt. There we could at least sit down and eat meat and as much other food as we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death."
Exo 16:12 "I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them that at twilight they will have meat to eat, and in the morning they will have all the bread they want. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am their God."
God heard the Israelite’s complaining and acted on them.
Maybe complaining to God is not that bad. Maybe complaining to God about circumstances and money and all that needs and wants is not bad because the scripture says that God hears complaints and acts on them. Like the Israelites and Sarah and Ishmael’s mother, they all complained and God heard them.
Yes, there’s nothing wrong with complaining to God for God hears my complaints. The wrong here is when I think that God is obligated to hear and act upon my complaints positively and instantly. Yes, there’s the error especially if I thought of biblical verses as if the verses were magic enchantments to make God “behave favorably” to my complaints. One theologian says that this kind of thinking about God belongs to the realm of magic and technology. He’s right. Sometimes I think that my God is too small, an idol, an enchantment, a servant at my beck and call.
God hears my complaints and acts on them according to his will and his sovereignty as the true God. Faith is believing in the truth that God is sovereign and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Weekly Bible Devotional
Jacob Wrestling with the ANGEL of GOD
And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him, What [is] thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked [him], and said, Tell [me], I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore [is] it [that] thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Genesis32:23-31
No comments:
Post a Comment