Am currently reading Exodus in my annual trek through the Bible, and am at the yearly point where I’m simply aghast at how whiny and insipid the Hebrew nation is (the one circa 3500 years ago, I mean: the one Moses and Aaron rescue with 101% help from Yahweh).
It also drives home how difficult it is to convince a non-believer in the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Consider what these people saw:
} Ten plagues, all visible to everybody: frogs, water becoming blood, pitch darkness and so forth.
} The worst of the plagues, the death of every first born, was so amazing and memorable that even today it’s commemorated in the Passover celebration.
} The parting of the Red Sea, and its subsequent collapsing upon the Egyptian armies following them. (They even sang songs about that one!)
} The oases which God created for them... or transformed for them, like the one they named “Marah” because of its bitterness at first (until He sweetened the water).
} The manna from Heaven which appeared like magic six days per week (and spoiled on cue when it was time for a new batch to fall).
} And the quail which flew in on cue when their whining for meat grew loud enough.
} Even their miraculous victories in battle, like the one in chapter 18 against the Amalekites, won when Moses held his staff aloft (and ONLY then - they had to help him after he started to get tired!).
And YET...
Whenever they felt the slightest discomfort - when the million-plus travelers didn’t enjoy at least Motel Six conditions in the middle of the desert - they whined and cried about how Moses (not God, mind you!) had brought them to the wilderness to die. If that weren’t bad enough, the first time Moses left them for more than a few days - doing their work, in fact; climbing Mount Dinai to take dictation from God for the rules to live by - they decided they needed a God they could SEE.
Enter the Golden Calf.
In Exodus 32, they decide Moses isn’t coming back so they convince Aaron to boil down the gold they voluntarily give him (gold they only had, mind you, because God had arranged their departure in such a way that their Egyptian neighbors GAVE them their gold to get out of town!) and make an idol. An idol, of course, God had JUST TOLD THEM NOT TO WORSHIP.
So, if these people who literally lived with the God of the Universe traveling alongside them for more than a year, didn’t believe in Him.... why is it so hard to comprehend that you and I might have friends we know and love who also refuse to see God for what He Is? If the nation of Israel can be so blind to the evidence of the love and grace and goodness and power of the Lord Almighty, so can any person living in 2018 in a sin-riddled culture on a planet ruled by the “prince of the air”.
If a non-believer is ready to come to Christ, he’ll come. If he or she isn’t, then that’s not such a shock that you should feel insulted or upset. If and when they’re ready, they’ll be saved. Just keep trying. You might or might not be the person who brings them that final step to salvation - and perhaps they won’t make it to salvation before He Comes again, tragically - but you’re doing what He instructed us to do. Share the Gospel with all the world.
Starting from where you live.
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