5. Though they remembered God’s past miracles for them, how did this affect their faith in the future? Psalm 78:18-20.
NOTE: ‘Murmuring and tumults had been frequent during the journey from the Red Sea to Sinai, but in pity for their ignorance and blindness God had not then visited the sin with judgements. But since that time He had revealed Himself to them at Horeb. They had received great light, as they had been witnesses to the majesty, the power, and the mercy of God; and their unbelief and discontent incurred the greater guilt. Furthermore, they had covenanted to accept Jehovah as their king and to obey His authority. Their murmuring was now rebellion, and as such it must receive prompt and signal punishment, if Israel was to be preserved from anarchy and ruin. “The fire of Jehovah burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.” The most guilty of the complainers were slain by lightning from the cloud.’ Patriarchs & Prophets, page 379.
6. What was missing in the Israelites’ relationship with God and what impact did this have on the way they treated God? Psalm 78:22-23.
NOTE: ‘The waywardness of the children of Israel in the midst of all God’s dealings with them, has astonished the world; and yet probably no nation in the world, subject to the same allotments, would have been more obedient to their heavenly Father. When they were led out of Egypt with miracles and wonders, and were miraculously preserved in the wilderness when they drank of water from the rock, and did eat angels’ food; when it rained flesh as the dust, and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea; when God gave them of the corn of heaven, and sent them meat to the full; and they were preserved from all their enemies; then they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation; they tempted Him in their heart, and were not estranged from their lust. So when the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote their chosen men, consumed their days in vanity, and their years in trouble; for all this they sinned still, and believed not His wondrous works. They did flatter Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with Him. They limited the Holy One of Israel, grieved Him in the desert, tempted Him in the wilderness, and forgot all His wondrous works.’ Joshua Himes: Signs of the Times, July 20, 1842.