The Emotional Character of the Congregation

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? Exodus 17:1‭-‬2 KJV

We’ve been away on ministerial assignments, but we are back. Let’s continue. Most parents will tell you that every child behaves differently. This life character stays with the child a greater part of their life until they begin to learn self control and other effective ways of managing feelings. For some children, their physical age may be fifty, but their emotional age may be that of an adolescent. Its the ambivalence of growth. The last time the congregation was hungry, they had a public display and even threatened to return to Egypt. Now they are thirsty. Non of them remembered what Moses did by going to God. They began to give a disapproval of Moses’s leadership. The AMPC version uses the word ”contend”. The CEV uses, ”Complain”. The TLV uses ” quarreled”. Whatever the adjectives, they were talking to Moses in ”indecent and angry manner”…”loading him with reproaches and calumnies, wrangling and quarrelling with him, and using very ill, giving hard words and bad language”(John Gill). Welcome to leadership. It takes divine wisdom to learn to handle emotional atmospheres of a group, a country or of children. When the led, react, the leader can not. The leader has to find the answer. Moses found the answer.