“When Israel saw the great power which the Lord has used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.”

So the whole ten plagues thing? apparently that didn’t make the people believe in the Lord. And the whole Passover thing? that didn’t make the people believe in the Lord. What about that pillar of cloud and light protecting them from act? well, that didn’t make Israel believe in the Lord. But when God wipes out the army of Israel’s oppressors only then do the people believe in the Lord? This is a tough crowd.

But maybe I’m giving us too much credit. We also quickly forget the amazing things God does for us. We move out of trial and into blessing and we forget the hours of anguish we spent calling on the name of the Lord to save us. Our trials end and our reliance on God wanes.

I always appreciated the asceticism of the desert fathers. The people who would gave up everything and lived in the desert to focus God. The people who would sit for years on a pillar because the trial helped them maintain their reliance upon the Lord.

The greatest act of worship may be learning how to believe in God in the midst of blessing. I suspect very few of us are good at that.

Abussos (Abyss) describes the place where demons dwell.  To subscribe to this podcast please go to iTunes and subscribe to “The Koine Greek Word of the Day Podcast”.