1

Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

The Backward Glance

Exodus 15:22-17:7

Introduction
Perhaps there is nothing more grating to parents than their children’s complaining.
Whether it’s whining, fussing, bellyaching, whimpering, moaning, or griping, it’s all the
same: “Do we have to?” “Why are you making us do this?” “Is that it?” “Not meatloaf
again.”

And although the words themselves are enough to invite a parent’s wrath, I think it’s
the non-verbal communication that really gets you. The tone, facial expression, and body
language all come together to form the relational equivalent of scratching your fingernails
on a blackboard.

When we hear and see our children questioning our decisions for their meals, their
play, their clothes, and their time—when they complain about the circumstances that we
have laid out for them, it is almost impossible for a conscientious parent not to be deeply
offended and indignant over such behavior.

Now there are right ways and wrong ways to respond to it. At the very least, we
want to be sure that we do not act out of irritation or impatience or ungodly rage. More
than that, we want to be sure that our indignation is borne out of a deep reverence for the
Lord.

Notice that I’m not saying that it’s wrong to feel angry about such behavior—
complaining deserves such a response. But what I am saying is that it is absolutely essential
that our indignation flow from righteousness; “for the anger of man does not achieve the
righteousness of God” (Jas 1:20). It must be godly anger; or, as I’ve just said, it must be
indignation borne out of a deep reverence for the Lord.

As we rightly move to discipline our children for their complaining we need to see
their sin as first an affront to God. For when our kids complain or grumble or whine or fuss
against us, they are in reality filing complaints and registering grievances with the true and
living God. This is because the Lord has placed us in authority over our children and
commanded them to obey and honor us. God therefore directs children by means of their
parents.

So when our kids grumble and complain against us, it must be understood and felt as
grumbling and complaining against the Lord. It is an expression of a lack of trust in God
for his provision to them. And we know that this kind of behavior is manifestly wicked.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 2

How dare any of us question God! A complaint against authority is a daring act of cosmic
treason, of rank unbelief that deeply offends the Lord, so it should offend us as well.

Now you know just as well as I do that it is a struggle to respond to our children’s
whining from the posture of a defender of the character of God. Nevertheless, what I want
you to see this morning is that though your anger may sometimes be fueled by
unrighteousness (“How dare my child question the sovereignty of me!”), that ungodly anger
is not simply unrighteousness, but a perversion of what is right. Our sinful irritation at the
complaining of our children is a perverted version of the truth, of the real reason why we
should find grumbling so offensive.

Discontentment is the expression of a heart that refuses to trust in the Lord. It is a

manifestation of a heart of unbelief. So complaining is itself a lack of faith in God; it
questions God’s goodness, his intentions, his power and his wisdom and his sovereign love.

Israel’s Sin of Complaining

And it is discontentment that marked the life of the Israelites throughout their
wilderness wanderings. The psalmist says of them that “they did not believe in His word,
But grumbled in their tents; They did not listen to the voice of the LORD. Therefore He
swore to them That He would cast them down in the wilderness, And that He would cast
their seed among the nations And scatter them in the lands” (Ps 106:24-26).

The beginning of their complaining is found in this morning’s text. Turn with me in
your Bibles to Exod 15:22-17:7.

As you know, this passage records the events immediately following Israel’s
deliverance from Egyptian captivity. What takes place here is put in proper perspective by
Asaph. He says,

How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in
the desert! 41 Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
42
They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the
adversary, 43 When He performed His signs in Egypt And His marvels in the field of
Zoan, 44 And turned their rivers to blood, And their streams, they could not drink. 45
He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which
destroyed them. 46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper And the product of
their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hailstones And their
sycamore trees with frost. 48 He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones And their
herds to bolts of lightning. 49 He sent upon them His burning anger, Fury and
indignation and trouble, A band of destroying angels. 50 He leveled a path for His
anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague, 51
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, The first issue of their virility in the tents of
Ham. 52 But He led forth His own people like sheep And guided them in the
wilderness like a flock; 53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea
engulfed their enemies.

Exodus 15:22-17:7 preserves three of these initial acts of rebellion in the wilderness in
the form of three complaints cf. 15:22-24; 16:2-3, 8; 17:2-3, 7:

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 3

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the
wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were
bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying,
"What shall we drink?"

The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and
Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died
by the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we
ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this
whole assembly with hunger." …Moses said, "This will happen when the LORD
gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the
LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we?
Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD.”

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we
may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you
test the LORD?" 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against
Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our livestock with thirst?"…He named the place Massah and Meribah
because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD,
saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"

In light of what the sons of Israel experienced not only in Egypt and at the Red Sea
but also at Marah and again in the wilderness of Sin and again in the wilderness of
Rephidim—in light of God’s deliverance and continued care, it is utterly amazing that they
could be so rebellious and prideful and unbelieving! Speaking with respect to the claim that
they had been delivered from captivity so that they might die by starvation, one
commentator says, “Only the most callused heart or the most stupid mind could conceive of
such a ridiculous charge.”1 And he’s right.

They had absolutely no reason to complain. Oh, they had reason to be concerned—
days without water and food in the Middle Eastern desert is not a small matter. But they
had no reason whatsoever to complain. They had seen too much and experienced too much
by way of God’s deliverance to resort to such ungodly behavior. They had absolutely no
reason to complain.

And even though it is absolutely true to say that sins of discontent flow from the river
of unbelief, this is not always as helpful as it might be when it comes to our repentance. As
Christians, there is not a single one of us who in the inner man wishes to remain in a state of
complaining unbelief. We want to confess and forsake our sins. We want to bask in the
mercy of the gospel.

In order to do this, it is essential for our repentance to be intelligent. Though it is

certainly true that unbelief lies at the root of the tree of our complaints, the sin of unbelief is

1
Peter Enns, The NIV Application Commentary: Exodus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 324.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 4

too general to turn from intelligently. We need to be more specific. In the moment
following our complaint, we need to ask, “What in particular am I refusing to believe about
God?”

Now at first this may seem difficult to ascertain. You may be thinking that it is
revolutionary in itself just to think of your complaints as a manifestation of unbelief. And it
may very well be. But if we cannot specify what it is about the Lord that we are refusing to
believe, we will be left with a pathway of repentance with more than one branch.

I can confess that I am expressing unbelief by my grumbling, but then when it comes
to the “putting off, putting on”—putting off sin and putting on virtue—part of repentance,
we won’t know where to begin. How do I put off unbelief? And how do I put on faith?
Many options will seem attractive, but only one is right for you in your individual situation.
The way you discern your own pathway to repentance from complaining is to ask, “What in
particular am I refusing to believe about God?”

Now in order to answer this question we need to look to the content of our
complaints. In other words, to answer this question we need to ask, “What am I
complaining about?”

The Content of Israel’s Complaint

The content of our complaints will help us unearth some of the specific areas of
unbelief in our hearts; for when we complain we question different aspects of God’s
character, failing to believe specific things about all he is for us in Jesus Christ. Our
complaints may betray a heart that does not trust God for his goodness or his wisdom or his
faithfulness or his power.

Now although all of Israel’s complaints recorded here in Exod 15:22-17:7 can
provide us with examples of the specific areas of unbelief I’ve just mentioned, I’d like to
focus on just one of those complaints for this morning’s meditation, the one found in 16:3.
Read it again with me: “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us
out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

There are two aspects of God’s character that come under the judgment of the people
of God, two things about God that they are refusing to believe.

First, they are refusing to believe that God is faithful. The last part of v 3 makes this
abundantly clear: you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly
with hunger. Does this accurately reflect the reason why Israel is traveling in the
wilderness? Were they delivered from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm
just so that God could starve them to death? Of course not.

No, the Lord was in the process of delivering from Egypt to the Canaan in accord
with his promise to the patriarchs. In Exod 6:6-8, the Lord says,

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 5

I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of
the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem
you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 Then I will take you
for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians. 8 I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.

So when Israel declares the reason they are in the wilderness to be to starve to death,
their complaint is much more than hyperbole; it is reflective of their sin of unbelief—in
particular, their refusal to believe that God keeps his promises. They are refusing to believe
that God is faithful.

Not only that but, second, they are also refusing to believe that God is all-sufficient,
that only he can satisfy their hearts with good things.

Look at the beginning of v 3: Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the
land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full. Here the
sons of Israel are envisioning their families sitting together around the pots of meat and
enjoying its bounty. They are envisioning the time in the past when they ate bread to
satisfaction…back in the land of Egypt.

You should know that though this is the first time that a complaint like this is found
on the lips of the people of God, it is not the last. It is a recurring them in their minds as
they journey through the wilderness. Turn in your Bibles over to Num 11:1, 4-6, 10, 13,
16-18:

Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing
of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of
the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the
camp….The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of
Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? 5 "We remember the fish
which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and
the onions and the garlic, 6 but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to
look at except this manna."….Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout
their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was
kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased….“Where am I to get meat to give to all
this people? For they weep before me, saying, 'Give us meat that we may eat!” The
LORD therefore said to Moses, "Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of
Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring
them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 "Then I
will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon
you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with
you, so that you will not bear it all alone. 18 "Say to the people, 'Consecrate
yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the
LORD, saying, "Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in
Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat and you shall eat.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 6

What is happening here in Numbers and back in Exodus is that the people of God
are romanticizing their time in Egypt. They are looking back and thinking that they were
better off before the Lord delivered them from captivity because they are not enjoying the
comforts of Egyptian cuisine. In other words, Pharaoh was a better provider than the Lord
their God. He was able more fully to satisfy their hearts with food than the Lord.

Now at this point it is important to say that the Israelites speak the truth when they
say that their food situation was better in Egypt than it is in the desert. The fish and the
cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, the pots of meat and
bread to the full—now they have nothing. Or at least they have nothing yet.

Beginning in Exod 16:13 the Lord breaks in with manna from heaven and quail from
the sky. He feeds them in the wilderness. Still manna and quail is nothing like the
succulent and varied fare of Egypt, but it nevertheless shows the people that the Lord will
give them each day their daily bread, that he will satisfy them with all the food they need.
But more than that, the manna shows them that he wants to satisfy them with good things.

Chapter 16, v 35 reminds the readers that the manna was provisional; it was only to
continue until the people entered the Promised Land. The manna was meant to hold them
over until they could get to a good and spacious land, to the land flowing with milk and
honey (3:8). In this way the manna shows the Israelites that the Lord wants to satisfy them
with good things because it points them toward the Promised Land by its provisional
nature.

Moreover, the taste of the manna points them toward the Promised Land as well.
Notice v 31: The house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white,
and its taste was like wafers with honey. Do you think it was accidental that the Lord
caused the manna to taste like wafers with honey? Israel is headed toward the land that
flows with milk and honey and on the way they are given food from heaven as a daily
reminder to their taste buds that they are headed toward a lavish abundance.

Leviticus 25:19 says, “Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your
fill and live securely on it.” And Lev 26:5 says, “Indeed, your threshing will last for you
until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your
food to the full and live securely in your land.”

So in the midst of their experience in the wilderness, God breaks in with manna that
tastes like honey to prepare the sons of Israel for the abundance of the Promised Land;
abundance which, by God’s blessing, will far outstrip any culinary enjoyments of their past.

Still, the text we read from Numbers 11 shows us that many years of manna from
heaven in the possession of hearts of unbelief does not yield its intended effect. Instead of
reminding Israel that their faithful God is the all-satisfying source of every good thing the
reminder becomes monotony—a monotonous drone that in their minds, only the delicacies
of Egypt can drown out.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 7

Israel’s Outrageous Claim

What is it that allows them to say such things? How can they believe that it would
actually be better to be in Egypt than on the way to Canaan, no matter how difficult the
journey? I mean, even Egyptians themselves envied the land of Canaan. The 18th century BC
Egyptian Sinuhe describes says: “It was a good land named Yaa. Figs were in it, and
grapes. It had more wine than water. Plentiful was its honey, abundant its olives. Every
kind of fruit was on its trees. Barley was there, and emmer. There was no limit to any (kind
of) cattle.”2

But it’s not the objective richness of the Promised Land that makes Israel’s complaint
so incomprehensible, it is what their experience was like in Egypt that makes it even more
outrageous.

Yes, you had pots of meat and full bellies when you were in Egypt, but while you
were there you were in bondage under a cruel dictatorial regime for over ten generations!
They’re saying, “Being in Egypt wasn’t all bad—the food was good.” This is tantamount to
an ex-convict saying, “I prefer prison to freedom because the food was better.”

This aspect of Israel’s complaint may seem to turn on the idea that they are
preferring slavery to freedom. And we might think that their grumbling is insane because
no one in his right mind would choose slavery over freedom. But let me suggest to you that
this is not what makes their complaint so outrageous. Remember, we are Americans—we
live in the land of liberty. Freedom is a virtue of our culture. But not all freedom is the
same.

Can you imagine circumstances in which you might prefer slavery? Think of a
situation in which you could be free and miserable but enslaved and happy. Take, for
example, Exod 21:1-2, 5-6.

"Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: 2 "If you buy
a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a
free man without payment….But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife
and my children; I will not go out as a free man,' 6 then his master shall bring him to
God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce
his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

Or how about something a little more New Covenant? Before we are Christians we
are free from the yoke of Jesus Christ, but we are miserable and weary and heavy-laden.
But once we become a child of God, we are no longer free from the yoke of Jesus, we take it
on ourselves; nevertheless, under the bondage and direction of Christ, we find rest for our
weary souls.

So it seems that the absurdity of choosing slavery over liberty, that the foolishness of
that choice that the Lord is setting before us must be found in something else.

2
ANET 19.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 8

Well, allow me to suggest to you that the reason I might assign greater value to
freedom over slavery is because of the consequences associated with each. That is, the
choice is not between freedom and slavery in the abstract, but between what attends that
freedom and slavery in the specific circumstances in view.

Remaining in bondage to a master who treats you with respect, loves you and your
family, and provides abundantly for your needs is one thing, but remaining in bondage to a
master who treats you inhumanely, who hates you and your wife and especially your
children, who is bent on destroying your entire race, but who provides a great menu…well,
that’s another.

What this means is that the Israelites’ romanticizing of the past is the product of an
implicit belief about that past (and their present and future). What they believed in the
moment of their complaint was that life in Egypt was in reality more satisfying than life
with the Lord in the wilderness. Clearly, they were not comparing slavery with freedom.
They were comparing two kinds of satisfaction—the kind of immediate satisfaction of pots
full of meat and bellies full of bread and the kind of delayed satisfaction of a land flowing
with milk and honey, of a good and a spacious land, a land in which they will be the Lord’s
people and he will be their God forever.

So then, here in Exod 16:3 we have seen two aspects of the character of God that the
people are refusing to believe: first, that the Lord is faithful; and second, that the Lord is all-
sufficient. Put differently, this complaint by the people of God manifests their unbelief—
they do not believe that God is faithful to his promise and they do not believe that God is
the only one able to satisfy their hearts with good things.

The Heart of the Matter

Now then, before we move on to talk about what intelligent repentance from such
unbelief might look like, I need to make two points. First, these two aspects of God’s
character are not meant to be understood as discreet from one another in this context.
God’s faithfulness to his covenant promise and his position as the all-sufficient source of
every good thing are inextricably linked with one another in this morning’s passage.

Look again at v 3: The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the
LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread
to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly
with hunger."

Notice that the reason why the sons of Israel glance backward with fondness on their
time in Egypt is that God has broken his promise to deliver his people to the abundance of
the Promised Land. It says, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt when we sat by
the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us…. In other
words, “If you had satisfied us with good things like you promised we would not look to
Egypt to be satisfied with the good things of the past.”

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 9

So in this context the faithfulness of God is faithfulness to make good on his promise
to satisfy his people with the delights of the Promised Land. What this means is that there
are ultimately not two things that the people are refusing to believe, but one; namely, they
are refusing to believe that God is the all-sufficient source of all good things.

Second, not only is it important for intelligent repentance to know that the people are
refusing to believe his one thing: that God is all-sufficient; but it is also important for
intelligent repentance from such unbelief to know that the people’s refusal to acknowledge
that God is the only one able to satisfy their hearts with good things is simultaneously a
refusal to believe that God himself is the ultimate good thing with which he wants to satisfy
his people.

Why do I say that God himself is the ultimate good thing with which he wants to
satisfy his people? Well, the answer is found in the reason God gives them manna and in
the reason he gives them the abundant produce of the Promised Land. God gives his people
these good things—one a foretaste, the other the fulfillment—he gives them these good
things precisely so that they will see him as what they really need to be satisfied.

Deuteronomy 8:3 sums it up: “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you
with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you
understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds
out of the mouth of the LORD.”

And Deut 30:19-20 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I
have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that
you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His
voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you
may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
to give them.”

It is not the manna or the land that is the people’s life—their life is the Lord, a reality
that the manna and the Promised Land were intended to convey.

Intelligent Repentance from the Sin of Complaining

So then, in order for the people of God intelligently to forsake the complaining of
Exod 16:3, it is important that they understand that their complaint, their backward glance,
flows from the notion that God they need something other than what God gives and more
importantly, who God is in order to be satisfied. Therefore in order to repent they need to
begin by believing the truth that God is greater than any of the treasures of Egypt, that he is
even greater than any of his gifts.

Their repentance from such unbelief would therefore flow from the renewing of their
minds with those “things” that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord. And specifically, with
those things that pertain to the Lord’s all-sufficiency. Saying no to complaining becomes
much easier when there is a realization that complaining is just a symptom of a deeper
malady.

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 10

Do you see why saying, “Oh Lord, forgive me for complaining. Please strengthen
me so that I will not complain again”—do you see why saying this only goes so far? It
doesn’t move beyond the superficial to the fundamental reason why I’m complaining and
grumbling against the Lord. And since it doesn’t get to the root, the fruit will continue to
flourish. You will feel like you never make any progress—because you won’t! You need to
get to the heart of your behavior.

And this is precisely the approach we need to take when it comes to our own
complaining. At this point, it seems needless to say that we fall into the same kind of
unbelief. If we didn’t, the Apostle Paul certainly would not forbid grumbling “as some of
them did” (1 Cor 10:10). If we didn’t fall into the same sins, he wouldn’t have told the
Corinthians that these Old Testament events “happened as examples for us, so that we
would not crave evil things as they also craved” (1 Cor 10:6).

So we are made of the same stuff as our spiritual fathers in the wilderness. We, too,
manifest that we are refusing to believe that God is all-sufficient by our backward glances to
our time in Egypt.

You will, of course, remember that the writers of the New Testament see the
Christian life in terms of the Exodus. This is especially apparent in the epistle to the
Hebrews. In Hebrews 3-4, the writer establishes the church as living its life in the desert
awaiting its final deliverance to the Promised Land of eternity. Thus, in Christ, we have
been delivered from Egypt, are led by the Lord through the wilderness, and are heading to
the Promised Land. And like our fathers we experience some of that future life in seed
form—they by the Sabbath and the manna—we by the indwelling presence of the Holy
Spirit of promise.

All this is to say, that it is perfectly appropriate for us to look back on our life before
Christ, our life before our deliverance, as a time in Egypt. We were under bondage to sin
and the devil. Like our spiritual forebears, we can manifest our heart of unbelief with a
longing backward glance. We can long for the empty delights of servitude.

Our failure to believe that God is our all-satisfying source of satisfaction manifests
itself in our many versions of the complaint that romanticizes the past, that longs for the
joys of Egypt.

Š Do you ever say, “I wish I could do what I used to do; I had so much fun back
then.” I think of being an unbelieving fourteen year-old and spending Sunday
watching football on television, enjoying the afternoon with a friend, eating spaghetti
and meatballs. When I am feeling weary from life in the wilderness, rather than
running to the all-sufficient source of satisfaction, I look with nostalgia on my life
before Christ.

Š Do you ever feel bitter, saying, “If I hadn’t have become a Christian I could have
been a professional athlete, made a lot of money, enjoyed fame and sensual

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn

 11

pleasures, etc.? Early in my Christian life this was an especially difficult

manifestation of the “pots of meat and bread to the full” complaint. When things
weren’t going well, when I continued to live in obscurity, I thought that if only I had
pursued acting—I thought, “I know I could have been rich and famous—known by
all.” Rather than resting in the satisfaction of the Lord’s “Well done, good and
faithful servant” in that moment of complaint I was willing to settle for “Well done,
good and faithful servant of sin.” More than that, my failure to pursue my dreams
made me angry, bitter, withdrawn, depressed, sad.

Our complaints may not have the same words as the one here in Exod 16:3, but they
have the same sense, the same orientation. They betray a heart that refuses to believe the
truth that God is all-sufficient, that he is able to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts
with the best possible gift he can give us—himself!

Do not believe the lie that life before Christ was somehow more satisfying than life
after. The people of Israel would have been well served to remember that their former life
was not a time when they were better off. They were dreadfully miserable under Egyptian
bondage.

We, too, were miserable before the Lord opened our eyes to the beauty of the gospel.
Our happiness was a sham and our joys empty. Now that the all-sufficient God has shared
himself so as to satisfy us fully, to our utmost capacities in Christ, everything else pales in
comparison. “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes
refuge in Him!”

Brothers and sisters, stop looking backward to your bondage as though it were joy.
It was not. It was the passing pleasures of sin and nothing more. What you and I have in
Jesus Christ is far better than any pot of meat. Amen.

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.solidfood.net

Exod 15:22-17:7: The Backward Glance © 2005 by R W Glenn