Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. (Exodus 2:23)

Remembering The Good Old Days

The time of the Egyptian bondage for the Hebrews was a time of oppression and slavery. Brutal slave drivers ruled over the people, wearing them down with arduous labor. The Hebrews were forced to build cities for the king. There was no mercy given to the children of Abraham. Their lives were bitter with hardships. As slaves of the king, the Hebrew people were forced to make bricks and do all the work in the fields. Pharaoh demanded his people to crush the spirit of the Hebrews. They were mistreated, abused, persecuted, and afflicted with heavy burdens. As the burdens became great, the people of cried out with groans and cries of affliction to God.

God sends Moses to deliver the people from their bondage. When Moses first meets with Pharaoh, the king rebuffs the request of Moses and Aaron. He punishes the people by telling the taskmasters of the people and their officers that straw will no longer be provided for them to make bricks. The Hebrews must gather their own straw, and the quota of bricks would not diminish. Pharaoh afflicts the people with a greater affliction. When the people did not meet their quotas, they were beaten. Angered by the affliction, the officers of the children of Israel complained to Pharaoh, who demanded they gather their own straw and never diminish the required quota. As the officers were leaving the presence of Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron. They complained to God’s messengers they had put a sword into the hands of the Egyptians to kill them. Their lives had become intolerable.

The spirit of the Hebrews was filled with anguish and the cruel bondage of their Egyptian taskmasters. Life for the children of Israel was a painful and miserable existence of bondage and fear. Burdened under the weight of the Egyptian demands, the Hebrews groaned to the Lord for deliverance. Through His power, God delivered the people with a strong hand showing His glory to Pharaoh and the Egyptian nation. The Hebrews also saw the power of God in the plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptian army, and miracles throughout the forty years of wilderness wanderings. What the people of Israel failed to remember was the bondage of their servitude in Egypt.

When the people stood before the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army prepared to destroy them, they cried out to Moses in fear, complaining he should have left them in Egypt. They said life was better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. God delivered them. A few months after escaping Egypt, the people complained against Moses and Aaron because they had no food. They told Moses they would have rather died at the hand of the Egyptians as they sat by pots of meat and ate bread to the full. If they recalled their former days, they would have remembered how much affliction Pharaoh put on them. Those were not days of full pots of meat and bread. The bondage of Egypt was harsh, and the people suffered. Complaining to Moses, they longed for what they thought were the good old days – which were not good at all.

The Hebrews complained at Rephidim. God gave them water. When the people came to Taberah, they again complained to the Lord, and He destroyed some of them. They complained they wanted meat to eat as they remembered the fish they used to eat for free in Egypt. And they remembered all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. Almost every time the people grew weary, they would complain to Moses and the Lord about how good their lives had been in Egypt and how terrible their lives were now in the wilderness. They did not acknowledge how God delivered them, how He provided quail and manna in abundance for them. The only thing the people could do was complain about missing the good old days. There was nothing good about the days before. They just remembered things differently.

It is easy to dwell in the past and believe the former days are better. For Israel, the latter days of their time in Egypt were filled with the harsh dominion of taskmasters. When they complained to God, they tried to act as if the former days were glorious. They wanted to recreate their suffering as a time of great feasting. Nothing was further from the truth. The fickle hearts of people can complain to God with their mouths full. Trying to think of days gone by as better denies the glory of God, and for all He has done. Living in the past – clouds the mind to see the power of God. It is not a good idea to drive using the rearview mirror. More often than not, the good old days are not as wonderful as imagined.