Josh Benner

Tag: exodus

  • Grumbling: when we forget God’s goodness

    Grumbling: when we forget God’s goodness

    In the Book of Exodus, God had worked in mighty ways for the Israelites. He had brought a series of plagues against the Egyptians. He dramatically parted the waters of the Red Sea. Once the Israelites were in the desert, God continued to lead. But through a series of uncertain events, the Israelites continued to respond by grumbling.

    They ran low on water. Israel grumbled. God provided water. They didn’t have food. Israel grumbled. God provided food. After all that the Lord had done, the people should have trusted that God would provide.

    But their struggle is one that we too can have. In spite of all of the ways how God has provided for us, blessed us, sustained us, in a time of adversity, it can be easy to fall into grumbling and doubt.

    But this isn’t God’s desire for us. He wants us to live in faith.We can be so quick to forget what God has done, how he’s blessed us.Forgetting can lead to unbelief and faithlessness.Let us actively remember the blessings of the Lord in our lives.

    We forget about his past blessings and forget about his future promises.And so we grumble.God is the Lord of our past, present, and future.God has promise all of his children a wonderful and glorious future.And between now and then, he has not abandoned us in the desert.God is God of your life today.If you’ve placed faith in Jesus, you know that you’re a sinner, saved by grace, and know that Jesus saved you, you have that to thank God for.Ad that’s the most important thing of all.He redeemed you.

    He saved you from the penalty of sin. To remember that the Lord is good. The Israelites lose sight of that.To remember that God made everything and that everything belongs to him.You’re here today. Which means that God has provided for you up to this point in your life. For some of us, it might not have always been easy.There might have been times of real hardship.But we’ve made it to this moment.It’s easy to forget.For some of us, when a blessing gets answered, we might celebrate for a moment, but it can be easy to just move on to the next thing to stress about.And we can go through so much of our lives grumbling, complaining to God, feeling like he hasn’t given us enough.

    For the Israelites, they’ve seen God act in mighty ways, but then they go right back to worrying.The Israelites face difficult situations. And they choose to grumble instead of trust.Part of the root of a grumbling heart is one that loses sight of the sovereignty of God.I mentioned earlier that it was God who had led Israel to their circumstance between the Egyptians and the sea. It was no accident.It was God who was leading the Israelites in the desert. It’s so easy to lose sight of the divine hand of God at work in our lives. Israel did. In our passages, they actually don’t even grumble directly to God. They actually grumble to Moses and his brother Aaron.As if it was their fault.Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of God.And while they might have directed their complaints to Moses and Aaron, the real displeasure of the people was with God.God is God of all circumstances.

    Job 12:10 refers to God and says: in his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

    Grumbling is a lack of trust in God. Grumbling is feeling like God hasn’t give us enough. It’s a sense that perhaps God isn’t good.Grumbling is turning away from God. It’s complaining to others, it’s ignoring the goodness of God, and is not rooted in the truth of the character of the Lord.We don’t like the unknown.

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  • The gospel in the exodus journey

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    The exodus journey is the seminal event of the Old Testament. It’s the story of God miraculously delivering the Israelites from slavery for the purpose of bringing them to the promised land.

    The Old Testament constantly calls upon the Israelites to remember what God had done. For Christians today, there are a number of parallels between the exodus and the gospel. The Israelites were in slavery in Egypt. We were enslaved to sin and Christ redeemed us.

    During the wanderings in the desert, the Israelites complain and rebel. For Christians,  we continue to struggle and rebel. God redeemed Israel to bring them to the Promised Land. And Jesus is bringing us into a land too. To a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem.

    Both the exodus and the new covenant of the gospel are commemorated with meals. The passover meal was celebrated annually, as a reminder for God’s deliverance in the exodus event and for him sparing the Israelites. With the gospel, we celebrate the Lord’ Supper, communion which is a reminder of Jesus body that was broken for our sin and his blood that was shed for our sin.

    Exodus was in fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham for land and to Moses for deliverance from slavery. The gospel is fulfillment of God’s promise of providing a Messiah, a king from the Davidic line, a perfect and spotless lamb to be sacrificed.

    In both stories, we see victory in a place where it appeared to be defeat. Israel was caught between the Egyptian army and the sea. It seemed there was no way out. In the gospel, Jesus died on the cross, where it looked like that was the end of Jesus’ ministry. In both stories, what appeared to be the end was just the beginning.

    It was entirely the work of God in freeing his people from slavery in Egypt. And the gospel is entirely the work of the Lord in redeeming us from the penalty of sin.

    Both events are undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable, unimpeachable proof of God’s love. God loved Israel. And God loves you. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have enteral life (John 3:16). God shows his love that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

    This event, Israel was constantly called to remember. Because it showed God’s love, it showed his goodness, it showed that he was for his people.

    We see that in the gospel.

    We sin, we have struggles, we have baggage. And everyday, we have opportunities to sin, to respond without faith, to question the goodness of God.

    But instead what we must do is to remember his goodness through the gospel. To remember that Jesus saved us, that he redeemed us.

    To remember that God delivers his people from slavery to freedom. For Christians, because of what Jesus did on the cross, that we have the promise of eternal life. We serve a good God.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

  • The life of faith and settling for less

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    Originally published August 14, 2018

    In Numbers 32, the Israelites are pursuing the Promised Land when some of the tribes decide that they would prefer to stay outside the land.

    The chapter begins with: “Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock (Numbers 32:1).” The passage goes to their request to stay in the land: “And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan (Numbers 32:5).” (more…)

  • The sin of speaking for God

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    The Third Commandment
    “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
    -Exodus 20:7
    The third commandment involves more than just not using God’s name in profanities. That’s part of it but it’s not the whole picture.
    In its historical context, it seems that part of the meaning of the third commandment involved swearing oaths in the Lord’s name. A person could make such an oath and yet fail to follow through, and God doesn’t want his name invoked with falsity.
    However this commandment is more broad than only applying to oaths.
    It also involves misusing the Lord’s title.
    Psalm 29:2: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
    In the beginning of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus addresses God the Father and says:
    “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (Matthew 6:9).
    God’s name is to be hallowed. It is to be spoken in reverence.
    There are still Orthodox Jews who won’t say the word God out of concern that they’ll never say his name with due reverence.
    We must keep in mind the awesome holiness of the Lord when we invoke his name.
    The Westminister Confession of Faith puts it well:
    The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.
    But another way how people speak the name of the Lord in vain is by misrepresenting God theologically.
    People often attempt to speak for God. People will say what God’s standards are for love but it can misrepresent God’s holiness and justice.
    People speak for God in comparison to other religions.
    People who don’t seek to honor God speak for what God does or doesn’t accept.
    This is a terrible blasphemy against the Lord.
    We misuse the name of the Lord when we speak for God in ways that are not true to how God has revealed himself in scripture.
    We see that at the heart of the original sin.
    God originally gave one commandment.
     “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).
    But his words were twisted.
    Genesis 3:1: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
    He never said such a thing.
    But then Eve responded by further misrepresenting the words of the Lord.
    Genesis 3:2-3
    2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
    And the serpent undermines the consequences that God had spoken.
    Genesis 3:5: “You will not surely die.”
    Listen to the ways people talk about God. It’s a pattern that constantly happens.
    Twisting his words. Speaking on his behalf in false ways.
    Terrible sins.
    In undermining the consequences of God’s word, we make God out to be a lair and there is no deceit in the Lord. He is true to his word.
    This is part of the reason why it’s so important to have such reverence for the scripture.
    Because people are imperfect but God’s word is perfect.
    2 Timothy 3:16-17 says: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
    Unfortunately, our society has little Biblical literacy today.
    As we continue to study the Israelites, we will see that it had consequences for them and we suffer consequences in our world for a lack of reverence and training in God’s word.
    So in the first three commands, we get glimpses of the position where God is to be in our lives: first. We see glimpses of the reverence for how God wants us to approach him.
    Originally published June 1, 2018 as “Not taking the Lord’s name in vain – more to it than just bad words.” 

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe!

    Josh Benner has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has served churches in Minnesota and Illinois. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in St. Louis.

     

  • Why we need to pursue God everyday

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    Do you have an area in your life today where you’re tempted to doubt God’s goodness?
    Life is hard. There are challenges we face.
    For some of us, it’s health. For some of us, it’s in the relationships we have. Maybe there’s a lot of conflict either with a friend or a neighbor or a family member. But things are just really tough. And maybe you’re in a situation that you just don’t like.
    In the Exodus, the Israelites constantly complain about not having enough, things not being good enough, life not being easy enough.
    For the Israelites, God works all of these signs and wonders. Miraculously redeems them.

    (more…)