Proper Praise
We have a note of praise here in Exodus 15. I think it is very important that we take
notice of who is receiving the praise here.
The song gives glory to God because God was really the only one who
acted the whole way through the exodus story.
Exodus may have begun with the people groaning to God because they feel
God is too distant and unconcerned about their problems, but the whole rest of
the story of Exodus thus far has been all about God’s action.
Note the aspects of God that are lifted up here. They praise God for His redemption, His
guidance, and His victory. They look
forward into the future with hope towards the day when God will lead them
eternally. When things go right, it is
certainly easy to go on and on in praise of the Lord God Almighty!
Bitterness Ensues
Of course, the passage then carries on into a story of
complaint. This is all too often a
reality as well. We love to dwell in the
things in our life that are going wrong.
Not happy with the great victory that the Hebrew people just witnessed,
they complain about the lack of God being able to meet their temporal needs. No less than three days prior to the
complaint they watched God deliver them from what their minds conceived of as
certain doom. Now the Hebrew people are
already again in despair.
I really think this is just human nature. The joy of God’s presence wanes far more
quickly than the despair of fear, loneliness, and imperfection. We carry and share the stories of when God is
with us much less often than we think about the stories of when we feel like we
are alone.
Of course, I wonder how much of this has to do with our
priorities. We despair at life most
often when our priorities have shifted away from God and God’s ways. We despair when we have slipped back onto our
agenda and our desires. Here we see the
Hebrew people slipping back into their neglected needs and they lose sight of
the very God who can fulfill their need.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
Water is very important. I’m not
saying the Hebrew people didn’t have a legitimate concern here. But what I am saying is that the approach of
the Hebrew people shows their misstep in action. Rather than lift up the concern to God as a
person of mature faith while asking God to give them strength to wait upon God,
they grumble. They grumble against
Moses. I can hear their complaints
already. “Why did we follow this
mad-man? Why did we ever listen? At least in Egypt we had water to drink!”
They Turn on Moses, Too
They demonstrate their lack of mature faith when they turn
on Moses at the first sign of trouble.
In fact, this is actually the second sign of trouble – and they turned
on Moses at the first sign, too. When
Pharaoh was coming after them, they turned.
Here they turn again.
Thus far, two significant events have happened in the story
since the resolution of the last plague. The track record is not good. Immediately after the people have left Egypt
free, redeemed, and wealthy they are now grumbling and demonstrating their immature
faith.
You see, people of a mature faith wait upon the Lord. People of mature faith pray for patience as
they remain loyal to God. People of a
mature faith rally the troops, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and fall
to their knees to honor God in thick and thin.
People of immature faith complain and grumble and revert to their own
humanity whenever things don’t go right.
I suppose another way of saying immature faith is “circumstantial
faith.”
I’d like to think that I display mature faith. From time to time I actually do, Lord
willing! But I also know that I periodically have my bouts of circumstantial
faith as well. At least now I have been
reminded of what the symptoms of an immature faith looks like. When I find myself turning on God and not
having the patience to desire to wait upon the Lord I know I am in trouble. And that is always a good lesson to learn.
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