Saturdays are busy days, verdad que si? Y pues, reading my bible on weekends is a bit different for me than the rest of the week. Asi es, I’m usually too busy to spend time on the slow lane and leisurely read. Me da vergüeza to admit it. Anyway, today I slowed down and I’m glad I did, it’s always an incredible time to sup with Jesus. Sup: To eat slowly by spoonfuls. Hijole! On weekends I tend to gobble up and swallow up whole chapters without chewing. Gracias a Dios that he helps me to slow down.  

I was moving along reading, and I kind of  stumble over a passage, but I kept moving forward. I had work to do. Pero that phrase, “the people began to complain…” that word that tripped me was still pulling on me. Porque? You see I always take these moments personally. Mira,

Complain: to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault:

Numbers 11:1 (NLT) Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lords anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.

Here’s a blurb of the backstory. In a very dramatic fashion, with signs and wonders the Hebrews are no longer slaves. God begins, through Moses, to set up laws and regulations for them to operate by. Now that they are no longer under Egyptian culture, they needed to establish a new government.  It took a long time, things dragged on because they had to sit and wait for Moses to get the entire plan from God. (Look up the book of Numbers in the Old Testament) Luego, when it is finally all said and done, it’s time to go and “take the land” that God had promised them. Pues, it turned out that moving was also going to be a slow process. Imaginate how hard all that waiting and waiting for them, it must have made them restless. Isn’t deliverance supposed to be like Bam? Listo! Live your best life Now! Instead they were now they could barely move toward that promised new life.  

Yikes! They complained. Doesn’t everyone complain? Well I was kind of indignant saying, Do you blame them? Pero fijate,  when they complained about the hardship, pain and suffering of slavery, God heard them and sent them a leader to emancipate them. This was a legitimate complaint. Later, in Numbers chapter 11, their complaining turned to whining and fault finding. Asi es, they murmured about the free food they were getting and about their leader. Quizas they complained about being bored, just sitting around and waiting? Bottom line is that this complaining came out of ungrateful and unbelieving hearts. Primero, they didn’t appreciate the incredible miracle God did by delivering them out of more than 300 years of bondage. Luego, they still did not believe in this unseen Omnipotent God and they showed it by their irreverent actions! They pointed an ungrateful finger toward Moses and God, “If you really cared…” It seems like they wanted to put him in the same place as the Egyptian gods that had infiltrated and diluted their faith. 

I asked God why are you pointing this out to me? And he hears me. No creas, it’s hard sometimes to wait on God. Praying for things that are not unrighteous or selfish, hoping, waiting, watching for a specific answer to my prayer. These times are hard for me, so I run to God’s pavilion for his strength and protection. These times sanctify me, they expose sin in my heart, sometimes I am ignorant of wrong mindsets and strongholds, or I want to suppress or hide it because it’s easier.

En conclusíon

Reading my bible is different and when I slow down, gracias a Dios. It prepares me to face the giants in my life and I chew slowly digesting His Word, it makes me so grateful for his great bounty.