You saved Israel and brought them out of Egypt, not because they deserved it, and not because they were so appreciative, but for the sake of your name, to make your power known. You interact with people who don't want to change, because you love them and want what really is best for them. You interact with nature, causing the Red Sea to dry up just when the people needed to escape from enemies pursuing them out of Egypt. You led them, you saved them, you redeemed them away from their enemies who had enslaved them and hated them. Their adversaries drowned, and people momentarily believed you and sang your praise.
It didn't last.
How quickly they forgot what you did. How impatient they were to go where they wanted to go and do what they wanted to do. Wait for God's counsel? What if the Red Sea escape was a fluke, a one-time occurence? We are sick and tired of this life! We have needs! We want better food!
So you gave them the meat they clammored for, and they ate so much it made them sick.
You gave them a human leader, and they became envious of Moses and Aaron, his brother. So the earth opened up to deal with some, and fire broke out to consume others.
You were giving Moses guidance for them, and they were making a golden calf to worship instead of You. They were willing to exchange their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot You, their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt and through the sea. They became spoiled, wanting to see miracle after miracle as a normal way of life. Entertain us! Impress us! Show us that again! Moses stood between You and them.
They didn't like the land You led them to. They didn't believe they could go in and take it, as You said they could. They sat and grumbled in their tents, trying to drown out Your word.
So you said you would throw them into the wilderness, that You would throw their children among the nations and scatter them throughout many lands.
And their response? We will follow other powers, they said. So they ate sacrifices offered to the dead, and provoked You as though you would do nothing.
When the plague broke out among them, Phinehas stood between You and them. Phinehas took a righteousness stand, and the plague of the people was stopped.
But did they stop demanding their own way?
No. The people rebelled against Moses at Meribah, and he spoke rashly to them. So Moses was punished.
You told them to destroy the peoples in the new land. Did they? No. They chose to mingle with the nations, to learn their practices and serve their idols. This disobedience proved to be a snare to them. Rather than destroying the people You told them to, they sacrificed their own children to demons. They polluted the land with innocent blood. They became dirty, filthy in their actions, and thought nothing of being unfaithful to You who made them unique.
You were angry. You abhorred the responses and actions of your people. So you stepped out of the way, between the people and the results of their actions. You let nations that hated these people rule over them. You allowed their enemies to oppress them. You would have intervened many times, but the people only ran all the faster after counselors who encouraged rebellion away from You. So they sank down further in their iniquity.
But You saw their distress, and You heard their crying, and You remembered the covenant You had made with their fathers for the sake of the people. You have more love and more kindness than we can imagine. You made the captors start looking on the people with compassion.