The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 31st August by Robin Hawkins
Reading: Exodus 15:22-27
You'd think that after all the Israelites had seen God do, that their faith would have been riding high for anything. It's hard for us to understand because we're not facing the same life and death situations as they were. That desert was barren, hot, and inhospitable. But there was water at Marah; and for three days they trudged through the hot dusty sand with the hope of water when they got to Marah. How would you feel if, when you got there, it was undrinkable?
This journey they were on, is so like ours. There's some of you been out of work for a long time. It's been tough, and you've had to scrape and make do. Then comes the promise of a job. Hope at last. An end to this desert of "Never- Enough". You see the job there before you - then suddenly, it's not there. The employer changes his mind.
Perhaps there are others who have long wanted children. It has been the cry of your heart to have a family. Then there's the great news as the wife becomes pregnant - only to suffer the gut-wrenching grief of miscarriage.
Older ones among us may have been looking forward to retirement - until the retirement fund due to mature doesn't perform as well as we'd hoped.
This is all about disappointment, and how we handle it. Having hopes dashed. It's not as if we haven't seen God move in our lives before. We've received his blessings. We know He loves us. Perhaps that creates an expectation of how God ought to bless us. But God is always wanting to stretch our faith in new ways. We are being discipled by Him, and it is never going to be an easy road. God will test our heart attitudes, and our reactions, because He's much more interested in what's going on inside us than what we do and say outwardly.
We have always got a choice when things go wrong for us. We can allow our hearts to become bitter and angry against God. Or we can let those circumstances drive us deeper into God, and watch Him make that bitterness sweet.
The Israelites took the first route. They allowed their disappointment to turn into bitterness against God, and they grumbled. What is it about grumblers? They complain about everything. Nothing's ever right for them. They have an incredibly negative outlook on life. There's no gratitude, no faith, no trust. They are full of unbelief. In the light of that it's a bit embarrassing for me to have to admit that some years ago, I asked the Lord one January what He would most like to change in me over the coming year. To my surprise, He said, "Stop grumbling!" I'd never seen myself as a grumbler, but when I thought about it, I began to see what He meant.
You'll notice that the object of their grumbling was Moses, not God! Leaders, take note! It goes with the territory, I'm afraid. But it's a symptom of immaturity. This is not how the spiritually mature are to behave. The Book of Hebrews teaches us that we are to respond to leaders in a way that makes their work a joy. The spiritually mature are humble, teachable, and ready to come under authority. Those sort of attitudes will be a joy to any servant of God, seeking to lead.
So suddenly faith has evaporated for the Israelites. They were filled with unbelief, and Moses has to bear the brunt of it. You know, it's easy to have faith on Sunday mornings. There's no pressure here. This is about learning to have faith under pressure. We could all do with some of this. But once again, Moses stands in the gap for them. He doesn't rebuke them. He understands that their need is very real. Dying of thirst is a real possibility unless God steps in. So once again, it's Moses faith that is all that stands between life and death for the Israelites. His response is to cry out to God in prayer and intercession. I want to you to note that this was not a casual or quick prayer. His whole heart was in it. It was a powerful, passionate petition. It arose out of desperation - the realisation that God was the only one who could meet their need, and that they would all die if He didn't.
When we learn to pray like this, I am certain we will see more mountains moved. We have this problem in the West that we are so self-sufficient, that we rarely need to cry out to God with this kind of desperation. If we want clean drinking water, we turn on a tap. It's true that we're all under more financial pressure than we were a year ago, but if that's the worst we face, we're still a great deal better off than most parts of the world. How do we learn to pray with this desperation? We could start by asking God to show just how spiritually poverty-stricken we really are? It's so easy to be blinded to our need. It's one thing to admit with our minds that we're in need. It's another thing entirely to be moved to weep over our sin, unbelief, and independence from God.
However, once again we see that prayer is not the total answer. I don't know how long Moses cried out to God, but he went on until God spoke. He PUSHed. Pray Until Something Happens. What happened was God told Moses to do something. Now I meet people who people who pray - it's true, but then sit back and expect God to do everything. There is an element of truth in that, but it's not the whole truth. As we discovered two weeks ago, there's a time to stop praying and get moving - and that's what happened here. Moses was told to do something rather silly - he had to take this branch lying on the ground, and throw it in the water. He might have asked, "What good's that going to do?" But he didn't. He was obedient, and stepped out in faith, even though he risked looking rather silly in front of all the people; but it was only then that it became sweet and drinkable.
So what might God ask us to do? Peter had toiled all night and caught nothing. You can hear the weariness in his voice as he protested thus to Jesus. But he obeyed - and threw his net out one more time, but on the other side of the boat. Suddenly his bitter disappointment became sweet, as he hauled in the catch of his life.
What might Jesus ask us to do in the face of disappointment? To go on trusting in His love and control over our lives - for a start. We express that best through thanksgiving and praise. It's the opposite of grumbling. There's always something we can give thanks for, if we look for it. Imagine Paul & Silas, whipped, bleeding, hurting, chained up, hungry and thirsty, in the deepest part of the gaol in Philippi, nursing a sense of injustice at their treatment. If anybody ever had reason to grumble, they did. Instead, they're praying, and singing hymns of praise to God. So what are you up against at the moment?
Then there was Joseph. Why did he have to spend so many years in an Egyptian gaol? I don't know. God definitely took him by the long route. He could have ended up so bitter, but he never lost his confidence in God's faithfulness. Time and again we read, "The Lord was with Joseph." He'd not been abandoned - and neither have we.
Once we're assured of that, there's no point in murmuring against our leaders like the Israelites did against Moses. I confess a vested interest here. Murmuring doesn't do anything but undermine, and if we undermine leadership, we destroy it, and end up with no leaders. Neither will we end up with God's blessing! If we prayed for our leaders for as much time as we grumble about them, we'd have a much stronger church!
So how are we to handle disappointment? How can we develop a faith that stands firm under pressure, when things don't turn out as we expect? The answer is simple, but not always easy: Trust & Obedience, Praise and Thanksgiving. PUSH on - Pray Until Something Happens. Look up to the Lord, not at what is going on around us. It's from the Lord that our deliverance will come. That's what we have to learn. If it's a long time in coming, maybe it's because we're depending too much on things around us. Or maybe it's simply not God's time for us yet. Either way, Rejoice, and keep on rejoicing. Trust, and keep on trusting, and always be ready to move out in obedience.
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1