We have all known fatalistic people. Some people just can’t seem to help themselves. If the sun comes out after a long period of cloudy days, they’ll say it’s too bright! Spring is too rainy; summer is too hot; fall is too damp and winter is too cold! They want a white Christmas of snow and then curse it when it snows in January. They could have the perfect job; comfortable office; great co-workers; awesome boss; far above average pay and just received a pay increase; and find fault with the company’s vacation policy and condemn the blessing!
Elbert Hubbard was a nineteen century philosopher who summed it up quite nicely:
ON LOYALTY & APPRECIATION
If you work for a man, in heavens name work for him! If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents. If put to the pinch; an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn and eternally disparage; resign your position, and then when you are outside, damn to your heart's content. But I pray you, as long as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution -- not that -- but when you disparage a concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself. More than that, you are loosening the tendrils that hold you to the institution, and the first high wind that happens along, you will be uprooted and blown away in the blizzard's track -- and probably you will never know why.
People who lack a thankful spirit and have no appreciation for their blessings are offensive people to be around. They make the worse team players, because it is always all about them. They lack the ability to give. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy, he states a warning about the “End Time,” that is to say our time and day:
2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, (4) Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (5) Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
God puts the unthankful in a group of rather unsavory people who are undesirable and should be avoided!
UNTHANKFUL ISRAEL MOANS… “BETTER OFF DEAD!”
It started in Egypt when they had to gather their own straw for bricks; then it resurfaced at the Red Sea and will become their attitude until they cross over the Jordan River, into the Promised Land; “The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron.”
Exodus 16:3 KJV And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
The LORD truly is gracious to His people. He is the same yesterday (as with Israel); today (with us); and forever (into the future). God has been merciful to me. Yet there have been times that God has moved my life into a new direction that was not welcomed at first. Maybe you have never experienced this; but in the past; there have been times when the LORD has had to literally pull me into His blessings kicking and screaming. We tend not to like change and new things; unless it is our idea.
So Israel is moaning this time about how better it was to be in Egypt as a slave; serving with rigor; but having the flesh pots to eat their full. Once again the LORD is gracious and provides them food from Heaven.
Exodus 16:6-8 KJV And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: (7) And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? (8) And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
God, twice daily, performed the miracle of feeding His people. In the morning the manna was on the ground to be collected and in the evening, quail came.
Exodus 16:13 KJV And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
Exodus 16:31 KJV And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
The manna was a substance that lay upon the ground like a fresh light snow. It could be gathered and just eaten as is; or it could be dried, ground and turned into bread. It only appeared six days a week and would rot if kept over night; except on the sixth day of the week, God instructed them to gather twice as much; a two day supply and a weekly miracle occurred that preserved the manna through the Sabbath Day. God said don’t look for manna on the Sabbath. What did some do; exactly that; they went out, on the Sabbath to gather; and the LORD was angry.
Exodus 16:28-30 KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? (29) See, for that the LORD hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. (30) So the people rested on the seventh day.
Spoiled by easy living, most readers here have probably never even baked bread. If you have, you would be in even a smaller group of those who would buy wheat berries and grind their own flour. Even while in Egypt, flour was most likely ground in bulk for multiple days or even a week or more. Not so with manna; it had to be gathered and ground every day and leftovers were rotten by morning. It came only six days so that the habit of keeping the Sabbath as a holy time of rest was engrained in the Children of Israel, that they are still known today as a people who remember and keep the Sabbath. Like any religious group, there are liberal factions; that have stayed away from their orthodox faith.
If daily bread bakers are few in present day, hunters are even fewer and daily hunters probably not at all. Until you have had the experience of killing game foul; dressing it out and cooking it; you probably have no concept to the work and cleanup this involves. For the Children of Israel, they had to slaughter/butcher daily.
Living for ten years, on a homestead where we raised chickens, geese and goats; slaughtering and butchering was a great experience; but it is much nicer to go to the grocery store of butcher market. Buying ready to cook meats under cellophane is my preference.
God provided for the Children of Israel in this way for the entire forty years that they wandered in the wilderness. The day that they crossed over the Jordan, the daily food ended.
Exodus 16:35 KJV And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Prayer: LORD God Almighty Father, thank you for taking care of all of my daily needs. Help me LORD to be faithful in thankfulness and always lead me to that which you are blessing; in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Copyright © 2011 Thomas C. Blake
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