Saturday December 21st, 2024
« Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused »
1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.
2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched.
3 So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them.
4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?
5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium.
8 The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.
9 And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
10 Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased.
11 So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me?
12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers?
13 Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
14 I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.
15 If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and do not let me see my wretchedness!”
16 So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17 Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.
18 Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.
19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,
20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”
Ingratitude is a sin, and many people, including children of God, are guilty of it.
- Ingratitude was the cause of the original sin in the garden of Eden.
Before God created man, He planted a garden and put everything there.
The man just woke up to find that there was abundance everywhere.
God said to Him, “Everything you see here is yours; there is only one tree I don’t want you to touch, that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.
- The tempter then came and said, in essence, to the woman, “Forget all the things that God has given you, just focus on that one thing that you can’t have.
Don’t be grateful for the rest”.
She obeyed him, ate the fruit and gave some to her husband who also ate it.
This made God send them out of the garden and they had to start toiling to grow their food afterwards ( Genesis 3).
Their ingratitude led to them losing everything God had provided for them in Eden!
It is dangerous not to be grateful to God for all that He has done for you because more than anyone and anything else, He is really worthy to be praised.
It is ingratitude to focus only on what we do not have yet and ignore all other benefits the Lord has blessed us with.
There was a very wealthy man who was also a great socialite. Unfortunately, he had a stroke – the kind that can take away a man’s voice. He was taken to the best hospital in London and it so happened that I was visiting the city around the same time. We had a mutual friend who asked me to come pray for the man. When we arrived at the hospital, he was sitting up in bed with his wife by his side, but then she stepped out briefly. After I had prayed for him, he tried to pass across a message to us by gesticulating. It took us about 30 minutes to understand that all he was trying to say to us was that his wife would soon be back.
Now, look at yourself.
You don’t need thirty minutes to make a simple statement.
You can talk, you can shout, you can even sing.
Why then don’t you thank God for the gifts and benefits He has given you while you trust Him to provide those other things you are yet to receive?
As we read in our Bible text for today, ingratitude can lead to destruction; it is a sin.
Be grateful for what you have.
Prayer focus – Father, I am sorry for being ungrateful all this while; please have mercy on me. Now go ahead and thank Him for all He has given you.
Author – Bishop Enoch Adejare Adeboye; General Overseer of the RCCG
Soul-restoring, mind-recalibrating Praise and Worship sessions – Evangelist Jemps Benoit ; Minister Paola Médi
Life changing Christian stories : Supernatural Stories
