When God gives you lemons

We all wish that life were easy.

That things always went our way.

But life isn’t easy, and it doesn’t always go our way.

Sometimes, things don’t go our way because of what we’ve done.

Other times, we may be suffering for someone else’s actions.

But does that mean God had abandoned you?

I’m sure the children of Israel thought that God had abandoned them when Pharaoh took away their straw, yet still made them make the same amount of bricks.

Exodus 5:15–16 NKJV

Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants? There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

The Israelites seem to have a valid complaint.

The Egyptians took away the straw, but still wanted bricks.

They were even being beaten, even though it was the Egyptians who stopped bringing straw.

Why was Pharaoh punishing them for what the Egyptians had done?

Exodus 5:17–18 NKJV

But he said, “You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.”

Wait, we didn’t ask to go sacrifice to the Lord,

That was Moses and Aaron.

Yet Pharoah is pissed with us.

And we’re the ones suffering his wrath.

Because Moses asked for them to be allowed to go make a sacrifice to the Lord.

Exodus 5:19 NKJV

And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.”

Have you had one of those moments?

When things are not going well, and you realize there is nothing you can do about it?

You get a pit in your stomach, and all you can do is think about how to get out of this mess.

Well, the Israelites may not be able to fix this problem, but they do know who to blame.

Exodus 5:20–21 NKJV

Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Moses and Aaron, this is all your fault!

You have gotten Pharaoh mad at us.

Now he wants to kill us, and IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!

I can see why the Israelites are so mad,

After all, they didn’t ask for this controversy, Moses and Aaron did.

So what do Moses and Aaron do?

Exodus 5:22–23 NKJV

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”

God, why have you brought this trouble on the people.

And why did you send me to make this mess?

I spoke to Pharaoh, just like you asked, and now he’s doing all this evil to your people.

What’s the old saying?

When God gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Well God dropped an entire orchard of lemons on his people,

Let’s see what kind of lemonade He’s going to make.

Exodus 6:1 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

Moses, you just wait until you see the lemonade I’m going to make.

God is going to make some incredible lemonade.

We know the story.

Freedom, God’s Law, miracles, and a land flowing with milk and honey.

But God is going to have to squeeze the Israelites to get this lemonade for them.

He’s going to use His strong hand.

If I were you, I’d duck, because those pits are gonna come flying out of those lemons like bullets.

Exodus 6:2–5 NKJV

And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.

He is the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He made a covenant with Israel, and He’s going to keep His end of the bargain.

He will give them the land of Canaan.

He has heard the complaints of the children of Israel.

But to get the lemonade, He’s gonna have to squeeze.

We know the story,

The plagues, and the punishments Pharaoh gave the Israelites.

And while all of this lemon squeezing is going on, God still protects his people from those plagues.

In other words, it was not God who was squeezing the Israelites, but Pharaoh.

Eventually, Pharaoh relented and let Israels go,

But he was not done squeezing them.

Exodus 14:5 NKJV

Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

We all know how Pharaoh tried to squeeze Israel against the Red Sea,

And how that worked out.

Israel was finally free of Egypt,

Except in their own hearts.

There were still trials, failures, and other squeezing they would have to endure before they sipped the lemonade of the Promised Land.

But none of it would have happened unless they were squeezed.

Receiving “Lemons”

There are many things that happen to us we do not like.

Some are our own fault, like the Prodigal Son.

Others are the result of the actions of others, like the Israelites in Egypt.

We tend to think of these things like lemons.

Bitter, sour, and unpleasant to eat.

But I can take lemons and turn them into my wife’s favorite dessert, cheesecake.

Jesus told us:

John 16:33 NKJV

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Things are going to go “wrong”.

We will have turbulent times.

We will have troubles and tribulations.

The question is, what are we going to do with them?

Are we going to whine and complain as Israel did?

Or will we come to our sense like the Prodigal Son?

Will we complain about the lemons,

Or make lemonade,

Or better yet, cheesecake :-)

I guess the answer depends on where you are looking.

Are you looking to this world and this life,

Or are you looking toward life eternal?

As Paul said in Romans:

Romans 5:1–5 NKJV

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We should glory in our tribulation, knowing what they produce.

Or to align it with my sermon today,

We should glory in our lemons, knowing they produce lemonade.

However producing character takes time.

Meaning not only will we have to wait to build character,

But to taste our sweet lemonade as well.

Conclusion

I know, making lemonade out of lemons is a trite and somewhat condescending line.

But we seem to live our lives like everything is sunshine and lollipops.

Even though we know life doesn’t work that way.

The Israelites would not have received the Promised Land unless they left Egypt.

And Pharaoh was not going to let them go without a fight.

The Prodigal Son didn’t recognize what he had until he had lost it all.

So we should expect that God wants us to have lemonade,

Which means, were going to have lemons.

Because you cannot have lemonade without lemons.

So when God gives you lemons,

Start looking for the sugar and water,

Because now you have the opportunity for some lemonade.