Numbers 11:1-35

There are certain sins that we seem to tolerate in our lives that God demonstrates a zero tolerance policy.  One of those sins is complaining.  We are so quick to find fault with the circumstances in which we find ourselves and we have a hard time keeping our mouths closed about our discontent.  When that happens we inevitably start murmuring and complaining.  The children of Israel had just started on their journey after building the tabernacle but it did not take them very long to start complaining about this new reality in their lives.  God does not take this lightly and takes steps to show all of us how much He hates complaining.

THE PROBLEM OF THE PEOPLE: It is so easy for us to be forgetful of the problems of the past when we are focused on the problems of the present.  The “good old days” were really never as good as we make them out to be.  The people are on the move for the first time, the stress level must have been up, the exhaustion level must have been up and the level of patience must have been down.  Whatever the cause the people began to complain and God began to punish the people.  The people responded by complaining even more.  They were now tired of eating the manna that God sent every day.  They were remembering the food that they had in Egypt where they had onions and garlic and not just the plain old bread.  The problem was that they forgot all about the slavery, killing of their children and the beatings that they had to endure in Egypt.  Our memories are always imperfect and very selective.  We must learn to cultivate gratitude in our hearts for both the past and the present in order to protect our hearts from the tendency to complain.

THE PRAYER OF MOSES: The complaining of the people was exhausting to Moses and he, in turn, took his complaints to the Lord.  I really think that it is much better for us to complain to God than it is for us to complain to one another.  God knows how to handle our complaining and we will not influence Him with our negative attitude.  He is also the One who knows what to do about it all.  Moses was ready to resign if he was expected to handle all of this on his own.  Moses is honestly expressing to God just how He feels and I think that God is please with this.  How often do we complain about our circumstances to others before we ever take the matter up with the Lord?  The truth is that we would much rather complain than pray.  Moses may seem a little brazen in his praying, but I think that God prefers this over our hypocritical prayers that sound great but do not reveal the reality of our hearts.  

THE PROVISION OF GOD: God takes action due to the prayers of Moses.  He instructs Moses to divide the load of leadership.  He also tells Moses that He will provide meat for the people to eat until they are sick of it.  That seems hard to believe at first, but God was striving to show them that their hearts were the problems and that they must learned to be satisfied with God’s provision in their lives.  God’s punishment of sinful attitudes and actions is truly a means of His provision.  We must learn to look at God’s work whether it is enjoyable to us or not and see it as God’s means of making provision in our lives.  God knows our needs and He is willing and able to respond accordingly.  He expects us to trust Him happily so that we can protect our hearts from the sin and consequences of complaining.