God performed mighty miracles for
all the Israelites to see. He performed the ten mighty plagues and
He led them out of Egypt by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night. He was absolutely visible to them and He proved
to be totally trustworthy as everything He told them had come to
pass. Now He ordered them to camp along the shore of the Red sea
opposite Baal-zephon and He even warned Moses that the Egyptians
will come to attack them, but that He will save them.
Now after all this reassurance one
would expect the Israelites to fully trust in Him and to rely on
Him to save them. After all He had promised to bring them to the
Promised Land, so it would seem totally logical to me that they
should hold on to that promise, after all the miraculous deeds that
He had done. But look what happened the moment Pharaoh and his army
arrived on the scene whilst they were camped along the shore:
'The people began to panic, and
they cried out to the Lord for help. Then they turned against Moses
and complained, "Why did you bring us out here in the wilderness to
die? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? Why did you make
us leave? Didn't we tell you to leave us alone while we were still
in Egypt? Our Egyptian slavery was far better that dying out here
in the wilderness!" Exodus 14:10 - 12
They had a total nervous breakdown!
They took their eyes off from God and focused totally on the
problem facing them. They even became irrational, implicating that
Moses on his own forced two million people to leave Egypt against
their will! That is ridiculous, but that is exactly how human
nature reacts when they are confronted with problems. They pass the
buck!
Remember that Adam did it too. He
said that it was Eve's fault that they ate of the forbidden fruit
and Eve said it was the snake's fault. They didn't take
responsibility for what was happening to them.
We do the same thing when we are
faced with problems. We take our eyes off from God and we pass the
buck blaming someone else. We do it a lot of the time. Plus we
exaggerate our problem most of the time. Sometimes we need to see
our problems in the correct perspective too. With God by their
side, the Israelites had nothing to fear! And we don't have
anything to fear either. God is bigger than our problems.
We must learn valuable lessons from
them and try to apply it to our own lives. First of all, keep your
eyes focused on God, your only true Life-Source. Secondly don't
blame anyone else for the situation you are in and thirdly see your
problems in the right perspective. Normally the problem is not as
big as we think it is, especially if we have God on our side. Sit
quietly and think rationally about it and things will fall into
perspective and God's Holy Spirit will give you guidance on how to
deal with your problem.
Thank you Lord for teaching us so
many things in Your lovely Word. You are amazing and we only want
to have eyes for You and see that our problems are small compared
to Your mighty power. Thank you Lord. Amen