17th June 2024

17th June 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 15:22-27 focus v22-24)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Fickle, someone who is fickle is characterised by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious. In means something is not fixed or firm; liable to change; unstable; of a changeable mind; not firm in opinion or purpose; inconstant; capricious. Fickle is the human heart. You might disagree with me on that but look to what is happening here in the passage before us. It has now been three days since the people saw the Lord’s judgment on the army of the Egyptians, as they crossed through the Red Sea and the sea then consumed the army that followed them. Three days since they were filled with praise to the Lord their God for the salvation that he had brought them, praising the Lord for how he was their warrior, their saviour, how there was no one like him. Three days since they were fully and finally redeemed by the Lord their God from the tyranny of the Egyptians who had enslaved them for four hundred years. They were now a redeemed people, they no longer had to look over their shoulder, live with the fear that the Egyptians would come after them again for the Lord had taken care of that but now three days later they turn from praise to grumbling. 


It is one thing to sing praise to the Lord at his salvation it is another entirely to live in response to what he has done when the rubber hits the road. What we have before us in this passage is the first step on the journey as the people of God have experienced his salvation and now are learning to live for the Lord their God. They are moving from a people living under the cruel bondage of the Egyptians to serving the Lord whose yoke is easy and his burden is light (Mt 11:30). This new life wasn’t going to be an easy transition for they had lived their entire life as slaves but now they were being given a new existence, one where they were the Lord but that would come with its own challenges. 


In this passage we are reminded of the fickleness of the human heart, while we should live in gratitude of what the Lord has done as he has brought salvation to us we are often consumed with the challenges of living as the people of God in a fallen sinful world, a world where life is far from how we would want it or desire it to be. Here we are shown how to follow the Lord when things come our way that are difficult, when pain comes, when we face death, when hardships are experienced along the way and trials seem to come one after the other. 


Three days after they had been filled with praise to the Lord for what he had done they have turned to grumbling. We might think to ourselves that’d we’d grumble, we probably would, so what then is the issue here? The issue with their grumbling is that they were failing to trust in the Lord, they doubted his provision to him, what they should have done was to cry out to the Lord but instead they grumble against the Lord’s representative, don’t shoot the messenger springs to mind. What they needed to do was to trust that the Lord would provide for them, I’m not disputing the very real effects that dehydration had on them but they were quick to turn from praise to complaining. 


The truth whether we want to accept it or not is that we can be just the same, we can turn from praise to complaining, we sing praise to God, speak of his wonderful goodness and it doesn’t take us three days it just takes me going on an extra ten minutes this morning and most of you’d be at it. We can be quick to praise the Lord with our lips and if say something you don’t like there would be the grumbling. It happens in our lives, we move from giving thanks to the Lord to grumbling when it doesn’t go the way that we want it, when the rubber hits the road, when there is a bump in the road. We are quick to forget the goodness of God towards us, how he has shown us such great love, his grace and compassion and we find ourselves facing something unpleasant we wend up grumbling because the Lord hasn’t lived up to our expectations. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 67. Which is the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
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