Hello friends,
Let’s read a few verses together (do read intently).
25-26 Moses said, “Now eat it; this is the day, a Sabbath for God. You won’t find any of it on the ground today. Gather it every day for six days, but the seventh day is Sabbath; there won’t be any of it on the ground.”
Exodus 16: 25-30 MSG
27 On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather anyway but they didn’t find anything.
28-29 God said to Moses, “How long are you going to disobey my commands and not follow my instructions? Don’t you see that God has given you the Sabbath? So on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. So, each of you, stay home. Don’t leave home on the seventh day.”
30 So the people quit working on the seventh day.
When one reads this at first, it’s easy to get frustrated with the Israelites thinking, “Why can’t they just obey God?” He just led them out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea. They should trust him by now.
But, we must not be too quick to judge the Israelis. It would help if you remembered where the Israelites were coming from.
They were enslaved people for over 400 years in Egypt with intense hard work. They don’t understand the concept of “rest” or not hustling for food.
So, I can understand why they acted the way they did sometimes. Their experience in slavery is still more significant in their mind and body than the great acts of love and mercy God had shown them recently.
The concept of being sons, chosen race, God’s own people, is so strange to them. Slavery and second-class citizen are more of their reality.
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to the Israelites. It’s a thin place where you wrestle with your new realities and identity in Christ vs. the old identity and realities you’ve lived in the past (sometimes, the past is just a few minutes ago).
And God asks, “For how long will Esther (insert your name)not trust me and obey me?” It’s not because God doesn’t understand my wrestling and struggles, but He wishes that I will daily embrace my new realities & identity in Christ so I can fully enjoy what it means to be a Son.
The devil doesn’t care if you claim to be a son of God as long as you don’t understand what it means.
But God doesn’t want you to be in your Father’s house, yet you’re acting like a slave or a thief because you think there’s no provision, no rest, and you have to work tirelessly to earn it all. No.
We must learn from the Israelites. Because if we don’t, we will find ourselves wishing to go back to Egypt very soon, back to slavery, because it’s familiar and the slavery/poverty mindset has been ingrained in us.
Worse, we would find ourselves right outside the gates of God’s promises to us, and fear would make us cower because we still think ourselves to be slaves and mediocre compared to people we consider “Better” than us. We think, “I can’t sit at that table. Those people are better than me. Who am I? I’m nothing.” We kick against growth and transformation with lots of complaints, grumbling, and self-pity because we are focused on our past/present view of ourselves rather than the One who has redeemed us, made us co-heirs with Christ, and sat us in heavenly places.
So, yeah. I understand the Israelites and why they acted the way they did, but I refuse to follow in their footsteps.
I’m no longer a slave.
I’m a son of the Most High God.
The LORD of the Heaven’s Armies is my protector.
He himself is a wall of fire around me (Zechariah 2:5)
He is the glory within me, and I shall not fall.
He is my refuge and my strength.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
My ever-present help.
(Ref. Psalm 46)
My King!
Thankful to be a Son of God, and it’s time to start acting like it.
Ps. Get into the word of God and know your new identity and thy God. Renew your mind so you can speak the written words against every limiting thought & identity from your past that tries to exalt itself.
Begin from the book of Ephesians.
Your life is blessed.
God loves you immensely.
Shalom,
Esther Love.
Growing God's Eternal Family 