"They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt."
Psalm 106:21
Have you ever said something like, "I'll never forget that as long as I live"? This statement would obviously follow something that was exciting, shocking, or life-changing. That moment made such an impression in your mind and heart that you felt as if it would be indelibly pressed on your soul for the rest of your life. Wouldn't it be interesting to go back to all the times that we said that and see if we truly remembered what happened in that situation?
The children of Israel had experienced for many years the torment of slavery in Egypt. They had endured unbelievable suffering and an attempted holocaust of their people. In God's mercy He sent Moses to be the deliverer of His people. Moses challenged Pharaoh in the name of the Almighty, and God brought great plagues upon the whole nation of Egypt. The children of Israel saw the frogs, the flies, and all of the other things that came about according to God's Word. Finally, on the night of Passover, they placed the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and were delivered from death. It was after all of these things that Pharaoh let them go, and they marched out all the way to the Red Sea. However, they were now pressed between two impossible situations: the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. It is here that we first see the complaining of God's people. Once again, God in His mercy opened up the sea so that they might cross and then allowed it to collapse upon their enemies.
If you do even a brief study of the book of Exodus, you will find a pattern of deliverance by God followed by the complaints of God's people. Each time that they faced any type of hardship or difficulty they turned their hearts and minds back to Egypt. At one point they longed for the good food that they had in Egypt and the luxuries that they could not find in the wilderness. The reality of the situation was that Egypt was a place of bondage with suffering and pain, but they were walking toward a place of deliverance with hope and promise.
How often in a much similar fashion do we forget God's goodness on our own lives? It is because of His mercies that we are not consumed, but if things are not going our way who do we blame? Somewhere along the way we got the idea that God's purpose for existence is to make us happy. We think that He is obligated to make sure that we are comfortably blessed. The problem is that we have it all upside down. We are here to accomplish His purpose, to make Him happy, and to bless Him with our lives. Yes, we are beneficiaries to His love and kindness, but when we start focusing on ourselves we forget God. Let's go to the Father and beg forgiveness for this selfish attitude and be reminded of the great things that He has done in our lives. Let it not ever be said of us that we forgot God our Savior.
May you thank God for His loving kindness today!
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