Today we leave the book of Exodus and pick up with the book of Numbers. We continue to follow Moses and the Israelites through the desert march toward the promise land.
If you notice, today we begin in chapter 11 of the book of numbers with verse 4b. In the church, we do that often. We split verses.
It is important to always read what goes before and what comes after the selected passage to get a better and more wholesome approach to the particular content contained.
Today, it is important to look at verse 4a especially.
In 4a we discover it was the foreign elements among the Israelites, the riffraff, which is a better translation of the Hebrew asafsuf that begins to complain and insight the bitterness within the Israelites.
They were the ones longing for fish and vegetable gardens in the middle of the desert. They were the ones cranky and griping for the food of the earth and displeased with the food of faith.
They were the ones who were throwing a tantrum in the desert that filled the Israelites with contempt toward God and Moses.
The riffraff, the smallest group of people, caused the bitterness to sweep over the desert land. The Israelites could have stood up and challenged the riffraff. They could have been firm in their faith and supportive of Moses. They were the ones who were in the know and yet they let the one's who didn't know take the lead. How unfortunate!
We, the people of faith, are the ones in the know and how many time we let others dictate the reality or determine the course of action. How often we stand back silent, a silence that screams loudly in the face of God who ask us to be his voice on earth.
We must always keep an eye out for the riffraff and let our voice rise to the front.
prayer
"Father in heaven, when your strength takes possession of us we no longer say: why are you cast down my soul? Now that the surging waves of indignation have passed over us, let us feel your healing calm of your forgiveness. Inspire us to yearn for you always, like deer for running streams, until you satisfy every longing in heaven."
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