GodSprings - 06 Jun, 2016

When My Stomach Grumble, Do I Murmur?

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Exodus 16:2-3 (NIV)

 “To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.” These are the words of the 18th century Irish political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke. Every generation complains that its citizens are not as morally grounded and intellectually groomed as previous generations. We tend to see the past through rose-tinted glasses and the present through cracked lens.

Only a month had passed since God parted the Red Sea and miraculously led the Israelites across dry ground to freedom, but all of these grand acts became a distant memory for them. As their stomachs began to grumble, their mouths began to murmur. The Israelites were witnesses as God plagued the Egyptians and protected His people. They watched as God drowned the Egyptian army while they were delivered on dry ground, and they tasted His goodness as He made the bitter waters at Marah sweet to drink. But even after all, that God had done for them, they still complained. How could they do that? Before putting the complete blame on them we too need to realize and remember that we are also just as guilty when we complain.

Complaining is being forgetful. The Israelites were complaining in part because they had selective memories. They chose to forget all the great and mighty things the Lord had done for them, and instead focused on their current problem while forgetting the Great Problem Solver.

Complaining is blinding. The Israelites had allowed their complaining to blind them to the promises of God. In other words, they failed to see the big picture. God promised to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, and He did not bring them out of Egypt just so they could starve to death.

Complaining shows a lack of faith. Someone with a lack of faith is impatient with the timing of God, doubts the providence of His provision, questions the power of His protection, and lacks a personal proximity to His presence. All of this leads to fearfulness, which chokes out the flow of faith in our lives.

But even when we do all these, we find that God is gracious through all we face, even when we complain. God, in His grace, chose not to deal harshly with the Israelites and their sin of complaining. Rather, God saw an opportunity to teach His people a lesson in trusting, and also display His glory to His people so their faith might be strengthened.

We can always find something to complain about. But remember, complaining shows discontentedness with the plans and purposes of God. So, instead of finding fault, let us focus on the promises that God has given to us in His Word. The sooner we learn not to complain, the better off we will be because not complaining shows that our faith is stronger than our circumstances.