1. How many of you would say you have a good memory? How about a bad memory?
I definitely have a bad memory. I find myself forgetting things all of the time. I have to write stuff down or put it on my phone so I do not forget. It is actually really annoying. My wife always jokes around saying that I am such an old person because I am always forgetting everything and that I cannot hear anything (I am deaf in my right ear for those of you who do not know).
On a more serious note, I am constantly finding myself forgetting about how great God is. It is a truth that I know but find myself getting distracted by life and all the negative things happening. I think this is a common thing for many believers. We often forget how good God is and all that He has done for us.
2. How would you describe goodness?
3. How would you say that God is good?
I have been a Christian for 13 years now. That is crazy to realize! I started following Jesus when I was a junior in high school. Since then, I have learned so much about God and have seen Him move in so many incredible ways. Yet, I still find myself forgetting His goodness. I find myself getting caught up in everything else and forgetting all that He has done for me.
In a way, this makes me think of the Israelites in the Old Testament. These were God’s chosen people. God would continue to help them and show Himself as He promised. Over time, the Israelites would continue to forget the things God had done for them. They would forget God in His goodness and His power. I want to examine some of those things.
This is going to be a very brief overview of the Israelites’ time from slavery in Egypt and being in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.
Read Exodus 2:23-25.
4. What do we see in this text?
5. Why is it important to know that God hears and knows?
We see that God then brings us Moses to be His leader of His people. Aaron helps him. They go before the Pharaoh of Egypt and warn that the Lord will bring ten plagues upon the land if they do not set the Israelites free from slavery.
Here are the plagues that happen:
- Water turned to blood
- Frogs cover the land
- Gnats everywhere
- Swarms of flies
- Egyptian’s livestock dies
- Boils on all the Egyptians
- Heavy hail
- Locusts cover the land
- Pitch-black darkness
- Firstborn of Egyptians dies
It is important to know that most of these plagues affected the Egyptians and not the Israelites. God gave them specific commands to listen to and if they did, they would be safe from these.
We see, after all of these plagues, that the Israelites are finally set free and are led by the Lord on their exodus.
- God directs His people where to go by a pillar of cloud and fire. Exodus 13:21-22
- Pharaoh changes his mind and takes his army to get the Israelites back. God parts the Red Sea for the people to get across and swallows up the Egyptian army into the sea. Exodus 14:21-22
- God supplies them bread from Heaven as they are in the wilderness with no food. Exodus 16:4
- God supplies them water from a rock. Exodus 17:5-6
- God speaks to Moses and the people on Mount Sinai. God also gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Exodus 19:16-21
God supplied everything that the Israelites would need on their journey. They saw God move in ways that others have never seen. They saw the raw power of God unleashed on the Egyptians. They witnessed God leading and creating out of nothing for them. They were able to hear the thundering majesty of God at Mount Sinai. These were just a few of the many examples.
The problem is that, through every step of their journey, they chose to complain and wanted to turn away from God. How crazy is that? They witnessed firsthand God’s miracles, and yet, we see them wanting to go back to their slavery in Egypt.
Here are a few of the times we see this happening:
Exodus 14:10-12
Exodus 16:2-3
Exodus 17:1-4
These are just a couple of glimpses that we see of them complaining and forgetting who God is. They quickly forgot all of the things the Lord had done for them. We find them wanting to blame God instead of trusting in Him and His goodness. Even in their grumbling, God still provided for them. He still cared for them. He still loved them.
God is so good. He is always good. He is always faithful. He always wants what is best for us. Sometimes, that is not the way we see it. We often look at the Israelites like they are a bunch of dummies. We just need to look in the mirror to realize that we are exactly like them. We often forget the goodness of our God. We forget the good things He has done for us. We forget how He is for us.
I want you to take a few minutes on your own and think about the goodness of God. Think about all of the good things He has done for you in your life. I want you to write these down so that you can always remember these things.
Too often, we forget how good God is. We forget what He has done for us daily. We let the distractions of life pull us away from what He has done and the truth of His Word.
Read these verses as they show us the goodness of God. He is good. Let us fix our eyes on that truth. Let it shape the way we live.
Psalm 31:19
Psalm 34:8
Psalm 107:1
Psalm 145:8-10
Romans 8:28
James 1:17
The whole Bible is full of His goodness. He wants you to know who He is. He wants you to know how He loves you. He wants you to know that He is for you. He wants you to know Him. Let us cling to the Word of truth and His goodness.