In the Wilderness: Exodus 14

The Israelites cross the Red Sea in Exodus 14. (Click on the link if you don't have your Bible close.)

And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Exodus 14:11-12

Remember these complainers... the ones who dreamed of freedom. Recall their cries to the Lord for deliverance from the Egyptians. Egypt was no picnic. Day after day in the hot sun making bricks to build Pharoah's kingdom. Slave masters who dealt harshly with those who weren't pulling their weight. They prayed and God answered. He sent Moses.

Remember these complainers... the ones who experienced plague after plague. Recall how they painted blood on doors and were protected as every first born male in Egypt died. They endured all for the sake of freedom, for the moment when Pharoah would let them go.

Remember these complainers... how much they wanted out of the circumstance in which they lived.

It hasn't been very long since they left and already they have forgotten the complaints they made about Egypt and now they're complaining about their new circumstance. This was a complaining generation and we'll see as we continue to read, they never stopped. In the end it will cost them everything.

Are you a complainer? Someone who sees the negative in every situation and tells someone about it. There is another way. Another way to think and speak and believe, because all this complaining the Israelites did... the complaining we do... it is really our unbelief bubbling to the surface.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

When we listen to ourselves talk we will quickly see what's going on in our heart. The Scripture in Luke is clear. What's happening in our hearts in abundance will flow out of our mouths.

Today, consider the words coming out of your mouth. Take notice as you speak to others, even yourself. Are your words positive or negative? Do you find yourself complaining? What are your words revealing about the things going on in your heart?

Pray about the things revealed. Instead of deciding to only speak positive words, ask God to change your heart and your words will soon follow.