THE ISRAELITES.

This is one of those stories that has me at the verge of pulling my hair out! 😑. So when I first read the story of the Israelites through the Exodus, Numbers, Kings and Judges stories, I understood in my very small way the extent of God's love for us. I say my very small way because even to date I am still blown away by all the new revelations of God's love for us.

So on with the story... After Joseph, his brothers and all that generation died, Exodus 1:1-7 The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Remember the promises of God to Abraham Genesis 12:1-3 and 17:1-8. So just like God promised Abraham, the Israelites are multiplying immensely. So what does Pharaoh do? "Look, the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happened, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land..." So out of fear the Israelites are oppressed.

Where does fear come from? "God has not given us the spirit of fear..." So who is it that enjoys throwing fear all around? Ah, you guessed it...the pesky devil is back! I see this stunt as him trying to frustrate the promise given to Abraham. I mean how can the Israelites become a great nation when they are bound to slavery?

So the Israelites went through the wilderness to get to the promised land. Their stubborn/ stiff necked selves caused that whole generation that left Egypt to not enter the promised land! They even caused Moses to not enter it. Now I will mention several verses that I encourage you to go read for yourself, this is but a very brief summary.

The Israelite's rumblings!

Exodus 5:1-22_ after Moses spoke to Pharaoh the first time so the Israelites could be set free, Pharaoh instead increased their labour. The Israelites in turn blamed moses for it.

Exodus 14:10-12
So the Israelites have witnessed the miracles performed in Egypt, now they are on their way, Pharaoh is in hot pursuit, their reaction to moses; because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness...!

Exodus 15:22-25
The Red sea has parted before them, the Egyptian army has literary been swallowed by the waters...but there is a problem, surely the God who did all that can't cure a little water from bitter taste! Can He?! So they complain...

Exodus 16:1-4
"Oh, that we had died by the hand of the lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out of this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger!"

Exodus 17:1-4...water!

Exodus 32: The golden calf.
So they have witnessed the ten plagues, the parting of the red sea, the falling of Pharaoh's army, bitter water turned sweet, they live on manna from heaven, they are led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night...I mean how much more can God reveal himself to these people? They of course aren't satisfied or convinced or are just evil because they create a golden calf for themselves! God's reaction to this deed is in verse:7-10!. Anyway, long story short, 3000 men died that day.

Numbers 11-now they want meat, the manna they eat is...let's just say quail was provided in plenty, only it came with a plague!

Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron, "has God only spoken to moses? Has he not also spoken through us?" Miriam suffered leprosy for seven days...

Numbers 14, 16, 20, 21...

I could go on and on. Do you get my point? Is God to blame for anything that happened to these people out there? How many times did He prove himself to them yet they even went ahead to build a golden calf for themselves? I feel insulted and I am not even the one they rejected!

It is so easy to judge the Israelites, yet we are just like them. Very quick to forget what the Lord has done for us, choosing paths He didn't send us on then place the blame on Him when things don't work out the way we want!

Where in the Bible has God sent someone somewhere then God chickens out at the last minute, therefore leaving His servant out to dry? Not once! He has proven time and again that, wherever He sends you, He goes with you.

This topic is: it's not God's fault, what path have you chosen then when things didn't work out you start blaming God?

I will give one example of myself, sometime last year, my husband and I decided to start a business. After several discussion on what to start exactly, we settled on a bookshop. I prayed over it as often as I could. Even called it "By Grace Bookshop" I mean it was by God's grace that we had started our own business right?

Wrong!

The business closed three months later. Three months! I had prayed and believed even committed it to God, why was it closing? I went into full on stress mode. Why did God let this happen? He knew how much I wanted to get out of the house. So why did this happen?

God, What do you want from me? I did everything right!

These were the questions I asked God. I was in such a bad place that when I caught a cold, I sneezed blood for three straight days! Finally I went down on my knees, ready to listen and not accuse, that's when He answered. He said: "but I gave you talents!"

Then it dawned on me, God never said we should open the bookshop and trust me I had asked what we should do with the money. He even never gave me a name for it, "By Grace" was my way of shoving it into His hands so He could see I was doing right.

😢

Was it God's fault that my bookshop closed? No! I chose my own path, tried to shove God into my misguided plans and blamed Him when it failed.

Thank you for reading. God bless you all.

Always

June. 😘💞💞💞