I Forgot…so what have you done for me lately?

Some troublemakers among them wanted better food, and soon all the Israelites began complaining. They said, “We want meat! We remember the fish we ate for free in Egypt. We also had cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” –Numbers 11:4-6 (NCV)

God used Moses to help free the Israelites from around 400 years of bondage and hard slavery in Egypt. God supernaturally provided for the Israelites along the way, giving them with manna — a special food — and water. No one went hungry. But, a year into the journey towards the Promised Land, they began complaining about the food. The Israelites wanted meat. They remembered the good old days of the free fish and veggies from the land of Egypt and longed for them. However, they seemed to forget that those days were anything but good. They were slaves!!. They were days the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance. The Israelites had quickly forgotten the generations of misery in slavery to the Egyptians.

We might be tempted to wonder how the Israelites could be so ungrateful. God was providing for them. Still, I don’t think we’re much different from them. (If you think we’re different, just imagine eating oatmeal — at every meal — for a year!)  I know I grumble about way too many things.  It’s easy for us to forget how God has taken care of us in the past. It’s easy for nostalgia to creep in and make the past look better than it was and to blame God for what we think we need today — but aren’t getting. There’s an old saying that’s so often true, “Be careful of what you desire, because you just might get it.”

The Israelites grumbled and complained, “We want meat.” So, God gave them meat. It wasn’t in the way they expected or had hoped for. But they got what they asked for. God sent quail into their camp for a whole month. He sent the quail, not as a blessing, but as judgment because they had rejected Him and complained about leaving Egypt. There were quail three-feet deep on the ground all around the camp. A plague broke out in the camp and many people died.

Yikes!  What about you? Have you forgotten the many blessings and provisions God has given you in the past? Do you find yourself grumbling, “What has God done for me lately?” Let’s learn from the example of the Israelites of old. God calls us to be thankful people, people who remember His goodness and trust in Him to provide.

Blessings,

Thora