For those who don't care to listen to the talk but would like to know what was said ... here ya go ...
Avoid Testing God in Your Heart
Imagine the ancient Israelites as they were slaves in Egypt, under an oppressive pharaoh.
God brought nine plagues on Egypt and then announced a tenth; the firstborn would be struck down.
Can you imagine the cry that went out in Egypt when the firstborn died, including Pharaoh's own son?
How grateful the Israelite parents must have been on that day, Nisan 14, 1513, when their sons, their firstborn I should say, were preserved alive because of their obedience.
In response to the tenth plague, Pharaoh told Moses "get up, get out, and go serve Jehovah".
After they left, Pharaoh had a change of heart. He changed his mind and he chased after them.
And thankfulness again must have welled up in the hearts of the Israelites as they passed through the Red Sea and on the other side turned to look, and watched Pharaoh and his armies consumed in the water.
You can only imagine how they must have sang out the words of Exodus fifteen one, "My strength and my might is Jah, since he serves for my salvation, this is my God, I shall laud him".
Perhaps, each of the Israelites as individuals said in their own heart that they would always remain faithful to Jehovah for what he had done for them.
Their thankfulness was short-lived, and was soon replaced by a spirit of discontent, and it manifested itself in three ways.
Let's look at them in the scriptures.
Please turn to Psalm 106 and verse 13 shows the first way. Psalm 106:13 "Quickly they forgot his works they did not wait for his counsel"
You notice that is was not the passing of time that gradually diminished their gratitude, but instead the scripture said "quickly they forgot", the next verse shows point two, that's Psalm 106:14, it says "they showed their selfish desire in the wilderness and went putting God to the proof in the desert." The Jerusalem Bible renders the verse this way: "their desires overcame them and they challenged God". See, their festering, selfish desires led to contempt for God's material provisions.
Now just to emphasize how bad this had gotten, turn back please to Numbers chapter eleven and lets read verses four to six. That's numbers eleven, starting with verse four. "And the mixed crowd that was in the midst of them expressed selfish longing, and the sons of Israel too began to weep again and say 'who will give us meat to eat? How we remember the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, and the watermelons, and the leaks, the onions and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away, our eyes are on nothing at all except the manna'".
Wow! They quickly forgot what Jehovah had done for them, and they showed and utter contempt for the provisions and it caused them to show discontent, dissatisfaction, which is manifested in this third way.
To go back to the Psalms this time to ch uh Psalms 78, not only were they dissatisfied with the food, the material provisions, but notice verse 18 and 19, that's Psalm 78 18 and 19. "And they proceeded to test God in their heart by asking for something to eat for their soul, so they began to speak against God, they said 'is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?'"
This account tells us that the Israelites, they tested God in their heart, some reaching the point of brazenly rebelling against God. They harbored bad feelings against Him, they caused them to murmur against Jehovah, showing no appreciation for his provisions.
And as we read back in Numbers eleven four to six, the Israelites wanted anything except the manna that Jehovah had provided.
Numbers fourteen one to three reports that they even went so far as to say "is it not better for us to return to Egypt? Why is Jehovah bringing us to this land to die? If only we had died in Egypt."
Imagine, they were slaves under an oppressive Pharaoh in Egypt, the world around them was in opposition to Jehovah and yet that is what they wanted to go back to.
When we read accounts like this, how does it make us feel about the Israelites and their attitude? Are we not disgusted by their lack of faith, their lack of appreciation? They showed a gross lack of faith by questioning the Almighty God and His power and His goodness. But, what would we have done, if we were there? Would we have said, "brothers, brothers, this is not right, look at everything that Jehovah has done for us, how He's taken care of us" or would we have gone along with the crowd?
The reality is, we could fall into the same trap as did the Israelites. So today, we cannot allow unwholesome influences to diminish our love and respect for spiritual provisions.
Note three lessons that we can glean from the attitude of the Israelites.
First, as we read earlier at Psalm seventy-eight nineteen, the Israelites cried "is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?"
Now, some today, ask a similar question when it comes to the spiritual food. "Is Jehovah really able to provide for us in this twenty-first century?"
Now can you imagine asking such a question? You see, we should not have an unwholesome view of the spiritual food or the direction that comes from Jehovah, as if he would give us something harmful or detrimental to our spiritual health. Or that his direction is somehow now out of date.
For instance: How do we feel when there is counsel or direction on how we should view higher education? Jehovah's Organization is very clear on this subject, but have we taken a stand, like the world around us, and, reasoned in our minds that that's the only way that we can have a secure future, even if I have to sacrifice my spirituality, higher education is really the way to go?
See have we started to reason that way in our mind? Could we be testing God in our heart by doubting His Organization's view on this matter?
Additionally, how do we view the scriptural precedent for disfellowshipping? Have we taken the view that Jehovah's Organization does not have the right or scriptural authority to take such action?
Now, most of us would never vocally challenge such a scriptural practice, but, could we be testing God in our hearts by secretly doubting the Organization's view on disfellowshipping?
We must guard our hearts against murmuring about any organizational procedures or adjustments in our understandings. If we are not careful in this regard we could become like the Israelites and start to question Jehovah's ability to provide for us.
Instead of murmuring or complaining, notice what we should do, Psalm 86 verses 11 and 12, that's the eighty-sixth Psalm eleven and twelve. "Instruct me, o Jehovah, about your way, I shall walk in your truth, unify my heart to fear your name, I laud you o Jehovah my God with all my heart, and I will glorify your name to time indefinite."
Yes we should plead with Jehovah that he instruct us, so that we could serve unitedly, and continue to glorify His name.
Yes the scriptures highlight that this is not about us, but this is about our serving Jehovah, walking in His way, in His truth. Meditating on the scriptural reasons for such clarifications or organizational procedures will help us to receive them in a spirit of meekness, with true humility.
May all of us whole-heartedly appreciate that Jehovah is a generous host, who provides a full table of spiritual food for the world-wide brotherhood.
Now that leads us to our second lesson that we can learn from the Israelites. As we read at Numbers 11, they had contempt for the manna, they demanded more variety.
Now how may that manifest itself today? Well, some feel that the spiritual food received from Jehovah's Organization is not enough, they need more. And so some have taken it upon themselves to try and provide more. A few have pursued independent group studies of Biblical Hebrew and Greek in order to analyze the accuracy of the New World Translation. Others have created websites and chatrooms for the purpose of exchanging and debating scriptural views. Still others feel the need to produce online services, hold conferences, produce publications or material to supplement what is already provided through Jehovah's Organization.
Now as a reminder, Jesus said at Matthew 24:45 that he would appoint a faithful and discreet slave to provide food at the proper time. Now what's interesting about this is that verses 46 and 47 state that if the slave was faithful in carrying out their assignment, Jesus would appoint them over all his belongings.
Imagine, thinking that we would know better, or that we could somehow supplement the rich spiritual food coming from Jesus' faithful and discreet slave, those whom he has appointed.
With that in mind, the slave class does not endorse any literature, meetings, or websites that are not produced or organized under its oversight. There is only one official internet website wherein one can find all the information they need to know about Jehovah's Witnesses including the abundance of downloadable publications, and that is jw.org.
Yes, we can be confident and secure in knowing that Jehovah God provides everything that we need. So if we all look to that one source, well, notice the result, turn please to first Corinthians chapter one, and notice verse ten, that's first Corinthians 1 verse 10, "now I exhort you brothers through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought."
Here we appreciate that we have gained our present understanding of the Bible by feeding at the table of Jehovah, looking to his channel of communication. And if we recognize the channel that Jehovah God is using it will promote satisfaction and an unparalleled unity which will help all of us to remain stabilized in the faith.
A third lesson we can learn from the Israelites is that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, showed disrespect for Jehovah's arrangement and decisions. In fact, they started to feel that nothing that Moses was doing was good enough, so they rejected him. And what was wrong with that? Moses was Jehovah's appointed leader. These three rebels perceived what they imagined to be a problem with God's arrangement. Their disgruntled, contentious, rebellious, disrespectful attitude became so inflamed that they caused others to turn away, turn against God's appointed representative.
Well how did Jehovah feel about this? Numbers 16 verse 30 tells us. Turn back there and lets read it. Numbers chapter 16 and verse 30. "But if it is something created that Jehovah will create, and the ground has to open its mouth and swallow up them and everything that belongs to them and they will have to go down alive into Sheol, you will then know for certain that these men have treated Jehovah disrespectfully."
Other Bible versions said that these men provoked Jehovah, they spurned Him, they defied Him, they rejected Him. Yes, Jehovah took their disrespect personally. Rejecting his appointment was tantamount to rejecting Him.
The lesson?
Doubting theocratic appointments, even in our hearts, could weaken our confidence in decisions being made. The November first 2006 Watchtower, page 23, paragraph 7, made this simple statement: 'submission to Christ also involves our showing proper respect for the men used by him to take the lead in the work he is now doing."
So think about what that means. If we question theocratic appointments, or don't show respect for the appointed men in the congregation, that could lead to our being like, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. At first maybe they questioned Moses and Aaron's ability to lead in their own heart. Then they started to vocalize it, then they started to wonder 'why not us, we can do that job". But then it got much bigger than that. They actually took a brazen stand against Jehovah's arrangement and it cost them and all that sided with them their lives, as reported in Numbers 16.
You see, we cannot be truly demonstrating our submission to the head of the congregation, Jesus Christ, if we are not showing respect to those he is using. We do well to examine our hearts in this regard, this will help us to guard against any critical thinking, which could easily evolve into an apostasy. You see apostates, again like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, they complain constantly, they rebel against the truth, and they reject what Jehovah provides. Our paying attention to such apostate propaganda or negative comments, can cause us to doubt those taking the lead and the value of the spiritual food coming from Jehovah. That doubt will lead to disaster.
Jesus clearly stated our obligation to be loyal when he said as recorded at Matthew 12 verse 30, "he that is not on my side is against me".
Brothers and sisters, friends, ancient Israel had every reason to be thankful, instead they let a spirit of discontent rob them of their relationship with Jehovah God. May we, each and every one of us, use this as an opportunity to thoroughly examine ourselves. Meditate on how Jehovah is blessing His Organization. As Jehovah's people, he gives us everything we could ever need and more. Think deeply about how Christ's brothers are diligently caring for his earthly belongings. They take the lead in the preaching, arrange meetings for worship, publish Bible based literature in over 630 languages. Every time we sit down at Jehovah's table, we have a banquet of beautiful and life-sustaining spiritual food. This convention is proof of that.
May we avoid testing God in our hearts, instead, may we all thank Jehovah for the great things that He has done, and let us be determined to serve Him in truth with all our heart, now and forever.