the Morning Jog: Stuck in Security

Jane Wagner once said, “I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.”

* The weather can be too cold or too hot.
* Our boss is just too this or that.
* Life has thrown a few curves that were not ‘planned’ for.
We could go on and on about any number of things that cause us to grumble about how ‘mis’treated we are.

(Forest Hill, MD)

And yet, we shake our head and point a finger at the children of Israel, wondering how in the world they could complain about being set free from Egyptian bondage. God sent Moses to deliver His people from under the hand of Pharaoh and lead them to a land of promise beyond anything they could imagine.

- They witnessed the plagues brought upon the people of Egypt.
- They walked across the Red Sea on dry land, then saw Pharaoh and his army drown in it.
- They were led by a cloud during the day and fire by night.
- They were given manna from heaven when they got hungry.
- And they even had clothes and shoes that grew as they did, never wearing out. (That’s pretty cool, I might add)

Even after experiencing all of this, they still complained.

In Numbers 14:2-3, Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

How could they desire to return to a place of punishment and slavery after all that God had done for them?

I believe it’s because their slavery was actually their security.

Sheep in Pasture
(Jarrettsville, MD)

Even though the bondage they woke up to every day was punishing and degrading, it brought a security to their lives because they knew what to expect. There was no depending on God because everything they did and received came directly from Pharaoh. Slavery was their security.

How could God see into the future and desire to lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey? Why not just leave them in slavery and bondage?

We point a finger at them, yet when we have to walk by faith and not by sight, many of us complain just the same. God places a call deep within us to break out of our present security into a life based strictly upon dependence on Him. And so we jump. We start out on the journey with such zeal and excitement, and then when our path winds through the valley, we begin questioning whether we should have ‘jumped’ in the first place?