An account in Exodus finds Moses’ people grumbling at their accommodations in the wilderness. They are in the wilderness due to rebellion and yet Moses cries out to God, asking to supply them with food and water. He is instructed by God to strike his staff on the rock and water would flow. Did they need another intervention, another miracle? Well, the folks who drank from this streaming rock had already been rescued from slavery, through a parted sea! They continued to worship other gods-idols, and so remained dissatisfied, demanding, and disloyal to the Creator of all. Boy-oh-boy, if we saw such a miracle would we not believe in that God?
Spiritual Bondage and dissatisfaction go hand in hand. The shadow of death entices us to desire things that will lead us to dissatisfaction and death. The very things we desire; turn against us if not from God. Allow me to take you back to when I was wandering in the wilderness.
Finding myself in jail due to drug dealing. I grumbled and minimized the crime I committed. Grumbling due to my losses, and not seeing my children, after I forfeited that right. I needed bail money and a ride home. My mind remained focused on a different Higher Power while trying to figure out how to get the next substance. A substance that would lead me back to oblivion: away from this harsh treatment.
I did not know that in this same wilderness, men and women behind bars were being presented a program of recovery that leads to God or some would receive the message of salvation, straight from the bible for the first time. and believe! Causing a change of events; a perception of cleanliness on the inside-burdens relieved, moments of clarity, a path out of their hell, even if it is rocky and tangled. We would witness a difference in their eyes, a difference in their manner and speech, leaving behind dishonesty for attempts at honesty.
Outwardly, they are still in the cell, still in the wilderness, still facing the same consequences and yet these men and women are changed. We know today, many addicts will turn away from the bondage while still in the wilderness. Turning from drugs, discovering new lives, by turning towards their Creator.
Which is easier, to believe that there is an active living God, through water coming out of a rock or through modern-day miracles?
