Walking on Water: Living by faith

It seems that God wants very much to test the faith of His people. Its all very easy to say we love God. But its harder to trust Him when things start falling apart.

Take Peter for example. Classic case. One minute he's walking on water towards Jesus. The next, he's taken his eyes off the Lord and fearful of the waves starts drowning.

Dude you're walking on water. Why are you so worried about the waves?

Maybe as humans we are just very focused on our immediate problems. Food, Drink, House, Cash. If we don't get these things, we start falling apart. For many people it is a real problem.

For the ancient Israelites - it was deadly serious. They were runaway slaves, homeless, lost in the desert and being constantly attacked by hostile nations. Even Moses was pretty upset by it all. During our Sunday service, the preacher read from The book of Numbers in the Bible.

"The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

 ⁷ The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. ⁸ The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. ⁹ When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

 ¹⁰ Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. ¹¹ He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin."

 ... ²¹ But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, ... Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"

 ²³ The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."

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You can probably excuse the people of Israel for their bitterness - after all they were uneducated slaves. I can just imagine the cast of Seinfeld - Jerry, George, Elaine, Kramer, mixed in with the rabble, complaining and whining away with a New York accent. Heck, stick a group of Malaysians in a bible camp for 3 days and feed them brown rice, and see them holler.

But Moses... why did Moses despair?

This is a man whom God was speaking to on a daily basis and who was a prime witness in God's miracles. From the 10 plagues to the miraculous opening of the Red Sea, the 10 commandments, yada yada, Moses was there front and centre.

I can imagine Moses turning to the Pillar of Fire and yelling out - "Hey God, I can't feed the people of Israel whom you freed from the world's most powerful nation and helped dry the Red Sea so that they could cross on foot. I'm screwed!!!! Ruined!!!!"

Miracles seem to produce the opposite effect in believers. Instead of encouraging faith - it seems under mind it.

Perhaps its like giving toys to a child. Everyday is Christmas. Every time the child cries, he gets what he wants. Instead of a child who is loving and kind you get a spoilt brat who may quite likely smother the parents in their sleep to get his inheritance money 40 years early.

I'm not saying its easy to trust in God. Looks at Moses. Can we compare ourselves to Moses? He doubted God. If we were in his place, would we have done worse?

As it is written:

"It is by grace that we have been saved. And this not by our own efforts. Grace is a gift from God so that no man can boast."