Exodus 16:3b "There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." (Israel was in need. but their focus was on their need instead of on the Lord, on the past, instead of on the Lord. Exaggerating the former "good" life, a life of slavery, in order to emphasize the miserable condition in which they now saw themselves, the people lied to themselves. How often we also tend to look back fondly at places and people who were destructive to us and remember them, instead, as being far different from the reality. While the Egyptians probably did supply sufficient food in order to maximize the strength of their slaves, the slaves' fare, while adequate, was most probably not what they had built up in their idealized recall. Also, with their flocks and herds traveling with them, the people were also exaggerating about starving to death. We often say to the Lord that, in effect, we want Him to answer us in the ways we think are appropriate and timely, rather than uniting with Him and His plans for us. They, often like us, become so consumed with some of the details of our life situations that we aren't fully realistic about both our past and present, and we certainly tend to forget the Lord's interventions on our behalf that have saved and delivered us in countless ways. Like Israel of old, the Lord invites us, rather than spending time and energy in complaining, to put our requests and needs before Him, and to be assured that He provides for us in every way.)
