The Prison of the Victim Mindset: Israel's Spiritual Egypt

At this moment, we can start to realize that something is amiss, something is really wrong. Something is under the surface causing this behavior of Israel. Being in a place where nothing is ever good enough, no matter what that God will do, can do, has done for them, there will always be something missing. For some people, what they have will never be enough. This world is chasing happiness in material possessions, in sins like alcohol or drugs, in relationships. This person needs to make me happy or like Israel, in a wilderness, delivered from slavery, yet now still complaining because of the food. How long must we suffer in this desert? Israel was enslaved in a bitter slavery in Egypt, rightfully so. They were crying out to God to deliver them from these chains. And God heard their cries and came in compassion to deliver them from the bonds of Egypt. But now, as Israel makes their way into the wilderness, they find something new to complain about. And I want you to also hear for yourself the tone of their complaining. It says in numbers 11 4. Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. But now, now our strength is dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at. Reading this, I'm trying to contain my laughter a little bit because the way that they are going about this is like a child throwing a tantrum. They're weeping, oh, how horrible is our life. We just got delivered from hundreds of years of generational slavery in Egypt. But oh, now our life is so difficult because we're in a wilderness and we don't have the nice meat that we used to have. Now we just have this manna, divine food falling out of the sky that's like oily cakes in taste. Ugh. Let's be honest, like Israel's complaining, it seems super strange. At this moment we can start to realize that something is amiss, something is really wrong. Something is under the surface causing this behavior of Israel. Being in a place where nothing is ever good enough, no matter what that God will do, can do, has done for them, there will always be something missing. See, Israel's behavior doesn't make sense to us on the surface because it's not logical, right? Why would you keep complaining considering you're free? But see, they're not being logical right now. They're being emotional. And I say emotional because that's what the scriptures tell us. It describes Israel as So overwhelmed with emotion that they are worried, weeping aloud over not having fish to eat. We have to ask, you know, what is the real emotion and the cause of that below the surface of Israel's weeping. But to answer that, we have to remember Israel's past. Yeah. They were indeed victims of serious slavery in Egypt. They were abused by Pharaoh. They cried out to God, and they in Egypt, had something to weep about. But when they got delivered from slavery, it's almost as if the victim mindset didn't go away. They continued to see themselves as enslaved victims even after the physical chains were removed. And this is where we discover the chains that remained on Israel in the wilderness, and that remains even on many believers today. When Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt, the victim mindset didn't leave them. Their dissatisfaction continued to be someone else's fault. Even the fault of the God who delivered them or the Moses who confronted Pharaoh to set them free. I mean, just think about it from Moses perspective. He gave up everything to save Israel from Egypt, and eventually Israel is now just blaming him for the Egypt that's remaining and inside of them. Moses could deliver them out of physical Egypt, but Moses could not deliver them from what Egypt had created in them. Ephesians 4:31 says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Israel's hearts were still impacted from the physical slavery they experienced. They were bitter, angry, full of slander and malice. And these things infect how we see everything, including our very blessings from God. And that's why Israel despised the blessing that they received, the manna from heaven. And they allowed their past hurt to cause them to burden others. And this is what happens to Moses next, right? Moses is actually now so overwhelmed by Israel, he is going to God, and he is asking God what to do. And we read about this in Numbers 11:11. Moses said to the Lord, why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep before me and say, give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to carry all of this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, just kill me at once if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. First, we see that Moses has a wrong assumption, that just because he has this burden from Israel's weeping for meat that it must be his fault that he has not found favor from God because he's experiencing this, and that this is somehow Moses punishment. For some reason, Moses was depressed, anxious, overwhelmed, even to the point of saying to God, just kill me at once, meaning that he's lost the will to live. That's how heavy this is on him. Moses is being so vulnerable to God here with his burdens, and he's coming to God to reason with him. I mean, that's why he says, you know, where am I to get meat to give to all of these people? How can I make them happy? And at the same time, Moses is not cursing God for this trial. I want you to see all of that because it's so important, his humility in coming to God. And God sees all of this. God responds to Moses. And God is not offended at the fact that Moses is expressing his, his desperation or his reasoning. And God reveals to Moses that he's not punishing Moses. Rather he wants to show Moses that he has the answers to all of Moses burdens. And I want you to notice how God deals with Israel's victim mindset and this never ending black hole in Israel's heart that seems to never be able to be satisfied. And we see God does this. We see in Numbers 11, 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, Gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you, and I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that's on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. So the way that God deals with Israel's complaining is through strong accountability. Bringing in these elders to help carry the load of Moses. And these leaders will not only help carry the burden, but will do what leaders do, keep accountability and order in the camp of Israel. And ironically, if we go a little deeper below the surface of Israel's complaining, accountability is the greatest fear perhaps of the person who thinks that they are a victim. I mean, Israel, they're thinking they are a victim. Because even though they're outside of Egypt, slavery in a wilderness of freedom, they're still, oh, poor us, poor us. Weeping, weeping, oh, if we only had meat to eat. Victim, victim, victim, Right. You know, yeah, they were truly abused and shamed as slaves in Egypt. And yet now we see that emotional wound of shame is still present in them and is at the core of this victim mindset that they are in. And shame is a dangerous thing because it can cause us to become resistant to that accountability. Because accountability turns on the lights. It shows and exposes what's going on and calls for change. And accountability can feel scary, right? Because the feeling that we've done something wrong with brings those emotions of shame to the surface. And it takes humility, it takes a choice to face our wrongful actions. And in this case, Israel's lack of gratitude for the manna from God. And you know, this manna, it's not a juicy steak, it's not nice Egyptian fish, but it's divine, it's from heaven, and it's good for their souls. I want to submit to you that this is how Christ is for us. He's a carpenter from Nazareth. I mean, that's what the people said, right? Has anything good ever come out of Nazareth? Don't judge by appearances. Judge of righteous judgment according to God's word and not men's opinions. See, the opinions of men, the opinions of Israel in the wilderness. They crucified the carpenter from Nazareth among murderers eventually. And yet three days later, he resurrected from the dead. And the world couldn't be more wrong about him. Israel was super wrong about the manna that God was giving them from heaven. And they would be super wrong about the carpenter from Nazareth that they would crucify who came to save them and the world. Be careful of the victim mindset that causes you to want to point a finger at someone else, because that's what Israel did to Yeshua. They blamed him. They said that he's the problem that we have in our midst. He's the one that we need to get rid of. If we get rid of him, the world will be better. That's what they tried. They were so wrong. They couldn't be more wrong. And so this is what they're doing in the wilderness. Let's get rid of the manna and our life will be better. Just give us the things of Egypt the and our life will be better. See, Israel is like a child who has a birthday party and receives a gift and throws a weeping tantrum because he's not getting the gift that he wanted. Such is Israel's entitlement with the manna. When a child throws a tantrum, there are two types of parents. The one parent says, oh, I'm sorry, dear, you didn't want this toy. You wanted the more expensive one. Well, let's go right now. We'll buy you the more expensive one that you wanted, pleasing the entitled child. Or you have the parent who disciplines the child for his entitlement. The one parent treats the child like a victim, walking on eggshells to please the child in any way possible. And the other parent recognizes that the child is in the wrong. And that parent doesn't walk on eggshells. See, in the moment the child hates discipline, the child despises it. And many parents are scared of disciplining the child because the child doesn't like it. And so the parent just kind of like scoots around it whenever the child's upset. But if a child is disciplined, one day he will love his parent for it. And now I want you to see how God does this. How does God deal with Israel? Sweeping in number 1119, we read God say, you shall not eat meat just one day or two days or five days, or 10 days or 20 days, but a whole month you will just eat meat until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome for you because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, why did we come out of Egypt? As you can see, God didn't walk on eggshells around Israel and he disciplined them in a very unexpected manner. He gave Israel exactly what they were asking for and an abundance so that they can take responsibility for their own actions. He didn't protect them from the consequences of their actions because God knows that being overprotective and taking responsibility for someone else's mistakes means that they never get to learn the lesson to for themselves and they never take responsibility for themselves. And one day when Israel eventually sees that they were wrong to complain, they'll start seeing that God was right all along. Now I hope that you can see some lessons here not only in how God teaches us, but how we should also not over protect other people from from consequences of their own actions. In the real sense, this is why we need to discipline our children. This is why when people have serious sins that they commit, that we should allow there to be consequences for that and not protect them from everything because otherwise they will never learn. See, we live in a culture today where we don't hold people accountable anymore and people despise accountability. And this is also what was happening with Israel and it desperately needed to change in Israel. And so it also needs to change today. And so I just want to give a word for someone out there today. I want to submit to you that there are Moses and fellowships, families and communities out out There who can no longer bear the burden of the complainers, just as Moses couldn't bear Israel, and just as Moses involved outside help, according to God's instruction, that is needed for us as well. Today, God has given us structures and accountability structures, leadership structures, in order to help us actually navigate all of the trials of life. We see that there is man who is the head of his household. We see that in fellowships there are elders that are instituted. And we see that when all of this functions, everyone is accountable as believers submit to one another, as Ephesians 5 says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. But now there's a question that really needs to be answered in this story, and that is, why did God not just implement this structure of elders for the sake of Moses from the beginning, right? Why wait for Moses to get so overwhelmed and burdened before giving him the solution? And I want to submit to you. It's because sometimes we need to experience what things are like when. When we try it our way first. Moses tried it his way first. He tried to bear all the burden himself to figure it out himself. And then he just figured out, like, I can't. I can't deal with this anymore. And then in that moment of vulnerability where Moses was before God, that's the moment that he gets to fully appreciate the power of God when it shows up. And that's the same for all of us. When we've had a season where God's power and blessing have just felt like the default in our life. Like it just. We've just had a good time, right? Like, we've just been floating along, right? And then we get so used to God's presence, His power, his blessing, it's almost like we even forget he's there. Because things are going so well, we may even start attributing some of it to ourselves and our own ideas. We lose appreciation for Him. And then there comes a moment, a time, a season of lack of. And then it becomes really jarring. It's like, whoa, what just happened? And we look to heaven, where our help comes from, and we grow more dependent and in love with him all over again and more than ever before. And it becomes well with our soul. See, sometimes things are going really well, we think, because, you know, well, we have everything we need worldly fulfillment, right? And actually we're starving in our souls and we don't even know it. And then the moment that things don't go as well out here, suddenly we. We get to look inside and realize, actually, things haven't been well for a long time. And then we in the process of crying out to God, we get healed. And this is what God wanted to show Israel. That you guys, if I just give you exactly what you want, you're never gonna actually look to heaven from where your help comes from and be satisfied with the manna from heaven. That is enough to satisfy. And that's our Christ. God wants you to realize that he's enough to satisfy. And Egypt, that's just all superficial. And so, as we discussed, Israel still had the chains of Egypt in the wilderness. And at the root of these chains is the fact that Egypt has corrupted the people of Israel's identity. And the people saw themselves as a victim of Egypt, even outside of Egypt, instead of a victor in Christ. Do you see that this is an identity problem, how they saw themselves? Because how you see yourself will be the identity from where you live. And if you live as a victim of your past, even real past abuse, you will forever remain enslaved. But if you move into your new identity that Christ puts on you, taking off these chains and saying, now, you are a son of God. You're a victor in Christ. You're no longer enchained by the past abuse. You are no longer enchained by your past sins. You are no longer who people have said you are in light of what you have done in the past. No, you are now a son of the kingdom of God, a new creature, a new creation. That it means that you can operate from a place of victory because he has overcome the world. And so I want to ask you today, how do you see yourself? I want to conclude with this. I want you to recognize that just as Moses couldn't fix Israel, your alcohol, your drugs, your tv, your food, your video games, your TikTok, your Netflix, your friends, your mom, your dad, your therapist, your husband or your wife can't fix you. If you have Israel's pattern of victimhood in your life, then the only way for there to be change is through radical acceptance that the part of Egypt that has shamed you and that you're still carrying inside is part of the problem that has been following you throughout your life into every place. And that is extremely hard to confront sometimes. And so hard, in fact, that it's probably the single most powerful reality that many people will never be able to face and that will keep them bound for the rest of their lives. But you, if you're seeing this in your life, watching this teaching, then now is really a time to cherish. Now is really a Time to say, God, I'm seeing something here today. Maybe there's just something I mentioned that's connecting with something in your life, right? And if there is something like that, then be like, wow, God, like, thank you. And if there is nothing, then praise God for that, right? But if there is something, then grab ahold of it. Because as long as we live in denial, this idea that everyone else is the problem, as Israel was trying to blame everyone else and never looking inside, as long as that happens, we'll remain as enslaved as Israel were enslaved and their own freedom. See, sometimes freedom, the physical freedom, it's not enough for us because there's a deeper slavery that we need to see and deal with. Don't let your past form your future. God has good plans for you. He wants to have you be in a place of goodness, of gratitude, of satisfaction, and a place where you are truly fulfilled. Don't let your calling and your character be influenced or formed by what people have done to you or life's difficult circumstances. Rather, let it be formed like clay in your Father's hand by surrendering to God all things, repenting to him of all things, and letting him change your life. You can run away from every situation, but you cannot run away from yourself. The Samaritan woman, she was seeking satisfaction from well to well, person to person running away. But there was something that she couldn't run away from, and that was the thirst that she had. And just ask Moses. He also knows well about this because he also tried running away. He thought running away from Egypt is going to solve all of his problems, right? He ran away from his own murderous deeds that he committed there. But one day, Moses had to look into the fires of the burning bush to see who he actually is. He had to not only flee Egypt, but also leave behind the identity that Egypt placed upon him. That identity of being a shameful, rejected prince. But Moses, staring into the forest of the burning bush, realized that he's not a shameful man, but a son of God. And that's the day that he got set free. And so if any of this resonates, look into the fires of the burning bush, for then you will look upon the very image of what you were made after. For you were made in the image of God. Look upon Christ, look upon his life. Then you will see your own identity. Then you can be set free from what men have done to you, said about you, and have told you who you are. Don't listen to their opinions. Listen to God's words. A son, a Daughter, a victor in him that you have been made to be carrying the fires of his Holy Spirit, to become a minister, a fire to become one who is like Moses, going forth and bringing freedom to Israel, to people around you, people who are still victims and enslaved and who can be set free by the power of God, too. But it begins with recognizing I need to find God for myself in the wilderness, at a burning bush, instead of just running in circles because I don't want to confront the fact that I still have slavery. Father, I pray for anyone who's listening to this, who's come to terms with this understanding, realization that there's something inside of them, whatever that is, that needs to die, that needs to be surrendered, that you want to heal. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for the freedom that you give us, not just physically from our shackles, but spiritually, emotionally, that we can live and walk free and be completely satisfied by the manna you've sent. That is Yeshua, the Messiah, the true bread. I praise you, I thank you and I ask that your Holy Spirit would set free anyone listening to the sound of my voice and heal them supernaturally right now. Right now, as a surrender. I thank you, my Lord, that you provide all good things to us. And I thank you even, Lord, where you have allowed there to be a season of lack so that we can know where our help comes from. Praise the name of Yeshua. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me here today. May the Father bless and keep you. Subscribe to this channel and I can't wait to see you in the next one. Shalom, Sam.