3 days

  Sometimes, we wonder what God is up to.  We wonder where God is, especially in our pain and suffering.  We cry out to the heavens, wondering when God will act.

  In Exodus 16, we begin with a victory song.  Both Moses and Miriam celebrate the victory the Lord has achieved over the Egyptians.  The Lord closed up the sea on the army of Pharaoh, and all the people of Israel witnessed God's amazing deed.  We're told, in Exodus 14:31, that the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and his servant Moses.

  What happens next?

  3 days later, out in the wilderness, the people started complaining.

  3 days.

  By day 3, the people were already anxious that the Lord wouldn't provide for them.  They were already on the lookout for evidence of God in their midst, and when they couldn't immediately find it, they started complaining.  This pattern repeats itself, over and over again.  God delivers the people from something or someone, and just as soon as the next obstacle arises, the people seem to have forgotten completely all that God has done, and this leads them not to trust in the continued grace and provision of God.

  

  Our task, then, is to remember.

  By remembering all that God has done in the past, we are reminded to trust that God will still provide, that God still cares and that God will not abandon us.

  Remember, then, all that God has done.  When the next obstacle arises, may you trust fully in God because God has proven himself to be completely trustworthy.