Provision and Ungratefulness (Bible Study by Beth Moore)

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 Provision and Ungratefulness

In week 2, day 3 of A Woman’s Heart:  God’s Dwelling Place, we study about God’s provision and the ungratefulness demonstrated by the Israelites.  Our first reaction might be, “Are you kidding?”  He brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery, and you complain?”  But do we not do the same thing?  Do we not often demonstrate the same attitude of ungratefulness?  Are we not sometimes ungrateful for our circumstances even after God brought us out of worse places?

So far, we’ve learned about the Israelites journey through the desert areas of Shur where they were delivered from the Egyptians through the Red Sea, Marah where God turned their bitter water into sweet refreshment, and Elim where they were brought to water springs and date palms.  You would think the Israelites would reveling in appreciation and gratefulness.

However, now they are brought to the land of Sin.  That’s what it is called, Sin.  By the time the Israelites reach the land of Sin, the whole congregation is demonstrating an attitude of ungratefulness.  The people complain to Moses.  They tell Moses that they would rather be back in Egyptian bondage where they would eat well, rather than be led through the wilderness with “only manna.”

Imagine that God has quenched your thirst and provided you with fresh bread after going days without food and water.  He continues to feed you with cold water and fresh bread for days, weeks, and maybe even months.  Without God’s provision, you would have died, but He has provided this for you.  After a while you grow tired so you complain to God.  This is it?!  This is all I get?!  I would rather be back where I was.  I’m so tired of drinking only water and eating only bread every day.  I want to go back!

Hard to imagine?   But it’s what the children of Israel did and it’s what we do all the time.

My favorite Beth Moore quote from this part of this study:

In the wilderness of sin, God set a test before His children.  In essence, He responded to their grumblings like this:  “I have shown you My presence again and again.  I have intervened on your behalf with signs and wonders.  I have healed your bitter water and have led you to the palms.  I have also let you go hungry so that you would know that it is I who feeds you.  Now I will put you through the hardest test of all:  I will let you grow accustomed to My presence.  I will feed you from My table daily and prove who you really are.  Will you grow in awe or will you grow cold? - Beth Moore

When God provides for us daily for a long period of time, will we remain grateful or will we grow tired of His provision and resort to ungratefulness?

To reap the benefits of Beth Moore’s entire Bible study, A Woman’s Heart:  God’s Dwelling Place, get your copy here.

Read all posts in this series here.

If you're doing the study by yourself or hosting it, you'll need the leader kit which contains the DVDs.  You can get that here.

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Bitterness (Bible Study by Beth Moore)

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 Bitterness

We begin today’s lesson by learning that while wandering in the desert, the Israelites were thirsty for water.  They were in the Desert of Shur.  They had been without water for three days.  They finally found water in Marah, only to taste its bitterness. Can you imagine?  They had already experienced a long journey, led by a cloud during the day, a fire at night.  They had escaped the Egyptians by traveling through a miraculously parted Red Sea.  They had now gone without water for three days – through a hot, dry desert without water for three days!  They were likely dirty, tired, hungry, and so thirsty. Then, when they finally found water, they tasted only its bitterness.  But here, after such a wearisome journey, God met the children of Israel’s need for water.  In Exodus 15:25, we read that Moses cried out to the Lord and God showed him a tree.  When Moses threw the tree into the water, the water became sweet.  There was another tree that turned bitterness to sweetness . . . many years later . . . at Gethsemane.  Jesus was nailed to a cross made from wood that was once a tree.  At the moment of Jesus’ death, the bitterness of all the sins of the world became sweet as God made a way to once again dwell with His children through the sacrifice of His Son.

He (God) introduced Himself as Jehovah-Rapha by demonstrating His power over the most common disease from which His children would suffer – bitterness. – Beth Moore

Bitterness is a spiritual cancer, a rapidly growing malignancy that can consume your life. – Beth Moore

Only Jesus can heal bitterness.  When he brings us through the barren deserts of circumstances which bring us to the point of forgiveness, His desire is that we not only be healed, but that we meet the Healer who is Jesus Christ.

To experience the entirety of A Woman’s Heart:  God’s Dwelling Place by Beth Moore, get your copy here.

Read all posts in this series here.

To complete the study alone or to host the study, you'll need the leader kit which contains the videos.  You can get that here.

This item is available here.

The Wilderness: Bible Study Series by Beth Moore

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We’re in week 2 of our Bible Study, A Woman’s Heart:  God’s Dwelling Place by Beth Moore.  Today’s focus is on God’s desire for His children to depend on Him, not themselves.  When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, God provided for them.  In the wilderness, God showed Himself as their provider and healer.  The children of Israel wandered in a real wilderness – a desert, a barren land, a harsh land that can be compared to our spiritual wilderness.  The same provider and healer who led the children of Israel through their long journey through the wilderness of the Middle East meets us in our spiritual wilderness and shows himself as our provider and healer.

The Wilderness

Some of the main points I took away from this lesson:

God’s supernatural provision for humanity is most recognizable when we find ourselves in a wilderness devoid of self-sufficiency. – Beth Moore

Our own insufficiencies are only invitations to experience the super natural sufficiency of a universally powerful, personally responsible God. – Beth Moore

In Deuteronomy 4:32-40, we learn about several ways God revealed Himself to Israel.

1.  They heard the voice of God speaking in the fire.
2. He took for Himself a nation by trials, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, and outstretched arms.
3. He let them hear his voice.
4. He brought them from Egypt by His great power.
5. he drove out nations greater and mightier than them and gave them their land as an inheritance.

God revealed himself in such supernatural ways because He loved their fathers before them and so that they might know that He is Lord and there is no other but Him.

God intervenes for His people.

He goes before us, follows behind us, safely inside the realm of His protection . . . Everything God did with Israel in the realm of the seen, He does with us in the realm of the unseen . . . The same God who made His presence known to the Israelites in their wilderness is just as fully Jehovah-Shamma, “the Lord is present”, in ours. – Beth Moore

God reveals Himself victoriously to those who allow Him.

I highly encourage you to go through the entire Bible Study, A Woman’s Heart:  God’s Dwelling Place.  In order to protect the copyrights of Beth Moore, I only summarize the the things we learn and certain key points.  You are missing out on so much knowledge, truth, and wisdom if you neglect the entire study.  To get your copy, click here.

Read all posts in this series here.

If you plan to host the study or go through it alone, you'll need the leader kit here.

This item is available here.