p. 226 | THEY FORGOT by T. E. BOWEN

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1901

THEY FORGOT

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN

Forgetfulness sometimes proves very serious. It resulted thus to Israel of old, and it will result the same to Israel’s remnant. Mighty acts were performed by Christ in Egypt, that His people, so long held in bondage, might know how powerful was their God. Wonderful things were accomplished to prove to them that the I AM was above all the false gods of the Egyptians.

Then Christ began proving them. He led them to the Red Sea. They knew that a corpse lay in every Egyptian home only a night past; they knew of the great hail, the frogs, the lice, the bloody Nile,—all this they knew; but here was this wide sea, and death by the sword in the rear. “They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even the Red Sea.” They forgot God’s power.

Then for Moses’ sake and His own name’s sake, Christ opened a path through the sea. Before they started, Moses believed that God would do this, but Israel did not believe until they were safely landed on the other side, and saw their enemies drowned in their vain pursuit to overtake them. The record says of them, “THEN believed they His words; they sang His praise.” But this was not the song of faith—the “song of Moses and the Lamb.”

Test after test was brought to them. When God brought them to the borders of Canaan, their home, instead of going right in on the strength of God’s word, and with strong confidence because the pillar of fire and cloud led them there, they sent spies to see if God’s words were true. “Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word.” They forgot the wonders in Egypt, at the sea, the bitter waters, etc.; and because they forgot, they sinned through unbelief.

But what about us? Do we not have all this record? Do we not believe all these written words? We profess to; but when in our experience we are brought to a sea, to a bitter-water experience, and the like, do we by faith trust in God’s love and power, and go forward? Upon this point we have this testimony from the Lord: “God in mercy called them [the Israelites] out from the Egyptians, that they might worship Him without hindrance or restraint. He wrought for them in the way of miracles, He proved and tried them by bringing them into strait places. After the wonderful dealings of God with them, and their deliverance so many times, they murmured when tried or proved by Him. Their language was, ‘Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt.’ They lusted for the leeks and onions there. . . . Said the angel, ‘Ye have done worse than they.’”—Testimonies, Vol. I, page 128. We have forgotten more of God’s wonderful dealings than they had to forget. Let us be repentant of past forgetfulness of His many mercies and exhibitions of power for us, and remember constantly the great Gift of His love, who was slain for our sins, and in gratitude “bless the Lord, . . . and forget not all His benefits.”