“Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to
Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our
brothers fell dead before the LORD. Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this
wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of
Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there
is no water to drink!” Numbers 20:2-5. NIV
We are instructed by the Lord to go on to perfection or maturity. “So let us stop going
over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become
mature in our understanding. Surely, we don’t need to start again with the fundamental
importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.” Heb.6:1. NLT. One
thing that grieved God with the children of Israel was that despite their numerous
encounters with Him they failed to progress from the babyhood stage in their
relationship with Him. We can see this in our text.
One general characteristic of babies is their irritability with every discomfort such as
hunger, wet diaper, or when they need to sleep, etc. Everything is about themselves and
they do not consider that their mom may not have slept or eaten. We see this in our text
which is one of several places in the scripture where the children of Israel murmured
and grumbled in the face of one problem or the other. Like babies they forgot what God
did for them not long ago. The scripture instructs us to endure hardness as a good
soldier of the Lord (2Tim.2:3), give thanks to God in (not for) everything (1Thess,5:18)
and not to forget all His benefits (Psalm 103:2). Walking in obedience to these
instructions in all circumstances is necessary in order to move from babyhood towards
spiritual maturity.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
Do not look at things including the challenges of life through the eyes of the world but
through the lens of the Word of God.