I've finished up reading in Exodus this week.  I think it might be one of the most exciting books in the Old Testament, maybe in the Bible, period.  Ruth is probably still my favorite book, but I really like Exodus.  I love history, and I have always felt like a good history is told like a great story, in a vivid way that you can picture what happened.  Exodus is that way, and boy do I love imagining the first 12 chapters in particular.  When I was a kid, Daddy and I use to love to rent or check out or watch "The Ten Commandments" all the time.  Charlton Heston as Moses was amazing.  It's a long movie, but I always thought that it was a great portral of the book of Exodus, and I'll confess, I still mostly see Heston, when I read about Moses.  When I was older and the "Prince of Egypt" came out, I liked that one too.  And I'll even confess when I was reading about the plagues in there this time through, I caught myself sort of humming the song from the movie.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to see the power and wonder of God on display in such an amazing way?  He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He Is God and that the Egyptian gods, were nothing.  He showed power over land and water, over the heavens, over beast and men, over health, over life and death.  Each plague showed His power over all areas of our lives.  How can we doubt that He can do any and all things that He so desires?  Then in the next several chapters, in less than 15 days, the Children of Isreal complain and grumble three separate times - first about the Egyptians coming to attack, then about the food, and finally about water.  I have thought before, how after seeing what they saw could they continue to doubt and complain.  But I have realized we are the same way.  How many times have we seen the Lord work providentially in our lives:  covering bills when we were unemployed and had nothing left, when we were sick and the outlook wasn't good, when we saw no hope in a situation?  Then how quickly do we forget, and begin to worry and fret and complain the next time we find ourselves in a situation that we don't have the answers too?  Why don't we skip the complaining phase, and go to our Heavenly Father?  As neat as it would be to have seen those things, I must confess I've seen him do great works in my life.  I hope to spend more time praising him like the Isrealites after they crossed over the Red Sea, and less time complaining by Marah's bitter stream.