Do you know what the Israelites started doing three days after they left Mount Sinai
as they started making their way to the promised land?
It was the exact same thing they did three days after they walked through the Red Sea.
Remember, God divided the waters for them?
And you know what it was that they did three days after, in both settings?
They started complaining.
They didn’t want to be there anymore.
They wanted to go back to the way things were.
They wanted what was familiar,
but now they were on a path that wasn’t familiar at all.
They started complaining just three days in.
Why did they start complaining?
Because new journeys can sometimes be really hard.
After three days.
We’ve been at this pandemic thing for like seven months.
We’ve been in this election cycle for like three and a half years.
[laughs]
And it’s really just gotten more intense lately.
So if you’re having a hard time with this,
you can take it easy on yourself.
The Israelites had a hard time with it with
with their new journey after three days. You can take it easy on yourself.
And you can take it easy on your family,
and your friends if they don’t always react the way that you want.
As we’re going through all of this,
you can take it easy on the people that you work with if
they don’t always make decisions that you’re happy with.
You can take it easy on the people who are trying to make the best decisions they know how to make.
People in government,
people who oversee schools and churches and communities.
This is new territory for everyone.
And it’s hard and we’re far away from whatever used to be normal,
and we’re probably never going back.
But when the Israelites started complaining,
God reacted.
He reacted because,
well, he reacted by getting angry.
Like so angry it says that he sent fire down from the heavens
and he sent it to burn up the outskirts of the camp where they were camping.
It seems that he wanted to remind them that
they have a God who is really powerful, who can do absolutely anything.
Who can lead them on any journey and,
and their complaining was a sign that they had forgotten that.
They weren't trusting him, they weren't trusting his power, they weren't trusting his love, and
and whether or not you’re guilty of doing that,
you’ll just have to
just have to look inside your own heart and,
and just be honest with yourself.
And if you found that that’s the case that
part of the hard time that you're having with this, part of the
sour mood that you sometimes get in, is because you’re not remembering that our God is so loving,
that our God is so powerful.
And just pay really special attention to how God reacted to their complaining.
Yeah, he got angry, and he sent the fire. He showed them he could do anything, but
he could have sent that fire anywhere.
And he sent it to the outskirts of the camp where it wouldn’t touch any of them.
He spared all of them.
So he had a right to be angry.
He was still gracious.
He was still loving.
He was still determined to lead them all the way to the promised land, just like he said,
just like he will for you.
Our God is more powerful than any pandemic.
If he wanted to stop it in a moment’s notice he could.
He’s more powerful than any person who can get elected as president of anything.
It’s a wonderful blessing that he’s promised to use that particular position,
people who oversee earthly governments,
to serve you in ways that he knows is good.
Our God can do anything.
And what does he choose to do with his power to do anything?
He chooses to love you.
He chooses to love you
by going through the fires of hell himself if that's what it would take.
And he did
so that you and I and
all of God’s children
can rest well tonight.
Rest well tonight, my friends,
because our God who can do anything,
will always love you
and be more gracious to you
than we would ever deserve from him.