Our IFs and WHYs

"...If only we had died in the Lord's presence with our brothers!"

"...Why have you brought the congregation... in this wilderness to die...?"

"Why did you make us leave... and bring us to this terrible place...?"

Assumptions. Complaints.

That is what Numbers 20:3-5 tells us. 

When the Israelites had went out of Egypt, they experienced scarcity of water.The reaction - they complained to God about their situation. They even compared what life was like in Egypt before. The response - God commanded Moses to hit or strike the rock. Then the water gushed out. 

This was the scenario in Exodus 17, which was the same happening in the book of Numbers some time after more than 40 years. 

Same problem. Same reaction. BUT DIFFERENT COMMAND THIS TIME.

God instructed Moses to speak to the rock. And because of this, Moses did not enter the promised land.

See what happens when we choose to assume and complain. Our plight and skepticism are just a dot compared to the vastness of God's wisdom. Are we in anyway wiser than the Lord? 

Obvious answer for an obvious question. 

Yet, this is always obviously neglected, too. 

God is all-knowing. Isaiah 55:8 cements this truth to us! We cannot comprehend God's thoughts, nor get even an inch of it. But the blessing of it is that this God of unfathomable wisdom can be trusted that He knows all things, and that He had planned them beforehand that we may walk in them. That's how personal He is. He even illumines our mind in understanding His purpose in and for us. 

So instead of complaining, let us think Christ-centered-ly and choose be that grateful person God is desiring of us to be. It doesn't deprive us of our right as His children who can come to Him. However, let us use that right to know what is God's will for us, His good and perfect will, so that our hearts will overglow with gratitude and rejoicing! 

May Christ's light radiate in and from us!