BiblicalInsights.net

     How do you move, provide for, and keep 3,000,000 people happy?  They have to be fed.  They have to have water for themselves and their animals.  They have to be protected from their enemies.  God demonstrates His goodness in the miraculous provisions for the children of Israel during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings.  Consider the following details of God’s goodness.
     God provided manna for the people for forty years!  Let’s assume that the number of people in Israel was 3,000,000.  Do you know how much manna was needed to feed them each day in the wilderness?  One scholar has estimated that they needed, 4,500 tons of manna every day.  If this is true, and if you take into account that God fed His people every day for 40 years, this means 65,700,000 tons of manna supernaturally appeared on the ground.  God is good.
     How many quail do you think it would take to feed that massive group of Israelites?  It would take 90,000,000 quail for 30 days if one quail was provided for each Israelite.  Imagine the scene in Israel when millions of quail showed up in an unlikely place!  God is good.  (Figures taken from Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems From the Greek, pp. 695-699).
     Do you have any idea of how much water it would take to support 3,000,000 people?  You have to take into account the animals as well.  It would have required 15,000,000 gallons of water every day just to meet their basic needs for survival.  For one week the supply would be 100,000,000 gallons of water.  Multiply this by 40 years and you have a staggering amount of water miraculously provided by God.  God is good!
     The clothing and shoes that they wore during this time never wore out!  In Deut. 8:4, Moses writes, “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.”  God is good!
     Israel saw and experienced the goodness of God on an unprecedented scale for 40 years.  Yet, the book of Hebrews records that they tempted God (Heb. 3:9).  To tempt God is to put God to the test of faithfulness to His nature and His word.  It betrays doubt and skepticism.  Will God do what He says or will He not?  But, tempting God reveals that they were not confident that God would take care of them.  They should have trusted God, instead they tempted Him.  They should have feared God, instead they forgot Him.  They should have loved God, instead they left Him. 
     After 40 years of mighty demonstration of God’s presence and power among them, they forgot God.  In Judges 2:10 and 13, the Bible reveals that “there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”  “And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”  God’s goodness is met with ingratitude and unbelief! 
     The warning not to forget God is applicable to us.  We live in the midst of abundance.  We experience the goodness of God every day.  We must not stop trusting God and start trusting in the material things that He has provided.  “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12).  Don’t forget how good God has been!