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The Types of Redemption
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When you get hurt, and when you feel like everybody owes you something and didn’t come
through for you, or they didn’t treat you right, you won’t come right out and say it, but you’re
harboring and nurturing this grudge against God. God didn’t come through for you. “He didn’t
do what I asked Him to do.” Never mind that you won’t do what He told you to do. You’re going
to be mad because you don’t think He did what you wanted Him to do. God has never been your
problem. He has never let you down and never will.
Say this:
“I’m not a griper.”
The people spoke against God and against Moses. They said, “Why have you brought us up out
of Egypt to die out here in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we are sick and tired
of this light bread.” What are they talking about? Manna. “We have manna cakes for breakfast.
Then it’s a manna sandwich for lunch. It’s manna for supper and manna snacks… it’s just
manna, manna, manna. I am fed up with manna. I’m sick of manna.”
Anyone who has flesh could have had that thought come through their mind, and have had that
feeling. If you’re dumb, you’ll say it. You’ll yield to it and start talking that way, and griping.
But that’s being darkened in your understanding.
What would they have had to eat if they didn’t have this manna? There are no grocery stores out
there in the desert. They would have starved to death long ago, and whose fault was it they had
been eating manna for all this time? It wasn’t God’s fault. If they would have obeyed Him, they
would have already been through there and into the Promised Land, eating peaches, figs, and
watermelons, and barbeque in their hammocks, right? They’d be having ice cream. It’s their fault
they’re not already through. But for unbelievers, that’s part of their problem. They don’t want to
accept responsibility for their life being the way it is; they want to blame somebody else. So they
blamed Moses. “You’re the one who brought us out here. Why? Why did you bring us out here?
You brought us out here to die.”
Well, it didn’t please the Lord. “So fiery serpents came into the camp and started biting the
people.”
It’s no surprise that there are snakes in the desert, but what is significant is that they had no
problem with any of these snakes month after month. We saw it when He delivered them out of
Egyptian bondage. There was a protective barrier around them. The plagues would come through
the land, but when they got to the border of Goshen, they just ran up against something. God
knew about force fields long before
Star Trek
, didn’t He? He had one over them, and it kept out
the snakes and the scorpions and the disease. Do you believe God can keep a protective barrier
over you right now?
Say this out loud:
“It’s on me. I live in it. The protection of God is round about me. It covers
me.”
Believe it. Remember our part in Psalm 91, again and again? I will
say
of the Lord, “He is my
Refuge, and my Fortress, and my Protector, my God. In Him I trust.” Why would you say that?
He is the Apostle and High Priest of what comes out of your mouth, your confession.