They were slaves for 164,250 days. They endured beatings, tortures, murders, and oppression on a daily basis lasting for generations. The people of Israel were crying out to God for a miracle.
Finally, their prayers were answered. Miracle after Miracle come to show the power of God until Pharaoh relented and freed them all. Under the leadership of Moses, all 2 million of the Jews leave their shackles and walk out of bondage for good. Led by a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day they stepped into the freedom they had prayed so long for.
Pharaoh did pursue them with all of his military might, but God swallowed any fear Israel may have had with the crashing waves of the parted Red Sea. The walls of water that once created a safe passage to the Jews now turned their pent up fury back onto the Egyptian army leaving the people of Israel standing in awe on the shore.
In that instant, God displayed to Israel His love, mercy, grace, trustworthiness, and wrath in a flick of His finger.
But...
It only took 3 days for them to begin to forget.
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" - Exodus 15:22-24
It only took 45 days for them to completely forget.
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." - Exodus 16:1-3
They forgot...it happened that quick.
I am much like the nation of Israel. In fact, in some ways I'm much worse!
I can think of countless times that I forgot about how good God is to me after 3 minutes let alone 3 days.
Can you relate?
- How quickly after your marriage is miraculously saved do you doubt that God can get you a job?
- How long does it take for the memory of the doctor saying "the tumor is gone!" to fade as you question God about the bully at your son's school?
- How easy is it to change your prayer from "Thank you God, for letting me swerve in time!" to "Thanks a lot God for not letting me be able to afford that TV!"
Israel went from standing in awe on the shore line to standing in the corner with a pouty lip and empty sippy cup. We will praise God when He is powerful enough to cure our Cancer but doubt that He can pay our ComEd bill.
We all need to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to suffer spiritual amnesia. We must never forget about all that God has blessed us with in the past as we consider our present struggles.
Don't let the size of our God change with the size of our problem.
Think big and keep Him big!
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