A sobering lesson about grumbling …
My thoughts today are taken from Numbers 14 in The Old Testament.
Today, as in every generation, we are surrounded by challenges on every side. I don’t need to enumerate them, we all know what they are. Your challenges/problems and troubles may be different than mine, but nevertheless we all have something we could complain about. Am I right? This post is meant to be a devotional, and I think it might make for an interesting group study. So first, read numbers 14, think about your current life and then ask yourself the hard questions.
- Are we guilty of the same sin of unbelief as The Israelites?
- Are we “afraid of persons, places things or the “thems” in your life?
- Am I afraid of losing my job, my standard of living, my home, my mate, my children, my position in whatever area of authority or power I possess?
- If someone was to put me in a column of grumblers vs. obedient and thankful believers which column would I fall under?
- Do I exhibit more a spirit of fear and negativity rather than faith and a stalwart belief that God is a God who watches over me and has only my good in his plans for my life, even when those plans don’t make sense to me?
- Have I/we lost our belief and trust that God will give us the strength to “devour” our enemies, whomever or whatever that enemy is? Or, have we now come to the point in our land and in our lives that we will decide to follow after leaders who have not submitted their own plans and pursuits to The Lord’s commands.
- Do we see The LORD as many saw Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb in their day?
- Do we see The Lord as irrelevant, impotent and well frankly just not cool at all?
The answer as a nation is frightening isn’t it?
Below is my summary of the account given in The Old Testament Book of Numbers 14.
The Lord came to the rescue of Israel and led her out of bondage through his chosen servant and the people’s leader, Moses. After the initial thrill of being liberated wore off came the day in an day out journey toward the PROMISED LAND. However, over time, all the Israelites (except two) were dissatisfied with Moses and Aaron. ALL, yes the scripture reads “all” were grumbling and complaining about having to live out in the desert, their living conditions and lamenting about “Why is the Lord letting us down”. This is frightening because we know there were millions of God’s chosen people wandering the desert and ONLY TWO believed that God was still in control and had nothing but good intentions toward them. They were so disgruntled they all decided they wanted to choose another leader. The only men loyal to God’s plan for the Israelites, were Joshua and Caleb (J&C). J & C saw the great dissatisfaction of the multitudes and warned the people not to rebel against the Lord. Further they reminded the Israelites that The Lord was with them, and if they pleased the LORD, they would devour their enemies.
Nevertheless everyone wanted “out of this situation” and incredibly would have gone back to Egypt. They wanted to stone the leaders. Naturally, this roused the anger of The Lord and he threatened to destroy the grumblers. But Moses interceded and reminded The Lord (as if he needed reminding) that the God of Israel would become a laughing stock and be looked upon as impotent to bring about his promises to Israel. Moses entreated The Lord to show his strength by extending forgiveness, to which the Lord agreed, yet with conditions. The people would be forgiven their great sin & yet anyone who was 20 years or older would suffer the consequence of never seeing the promised land. And those children under twenty would be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years until the last of their parents died.
The Lord had tired of their grumbling spirit and said “I will do to you the very thing I heard you say” [see numbers 14:3]. The men responsible for spreading the bad report died of a plague and the others decided too late to repent. The Lord had forgiven them, but was no longer with them to give them victory over their enemies or to would bring them into the promised land. How tragic!
As I read God’s words I am reminded that God does not change. I believe God wants us to obey him, trust him and rule our spirit as much today as he did in the days of Moses. Yes, I know we live in the age of “grace”, but lately I’ve been thinking about how much negativity there is in the world, yes even in the church and often, if I’m to be honest, in my own life.
- If I was an Israelite, whose side would I have chosen?
- Would I have wanted what seemed to be the easy way out and head back to Egypt where I thought my life was better?
- Would I have sneered and grumbled at following what many thought was a crazy old fool, Moses, who kept promising “things will be better”.
- Would I follow a man who seemed more like a religious nut than a sane leader?
We’ve all heard it said that negativity spreads much faster than positive thoughts. What’s clear to me however is that even if there are MILLIONS of people all believing what seems to be obvious, God often does not deal in “the obvious”. God often tests us, tries us and as many scholars have pointed out, this is not because God does not need to know us better, it is that he is growing our character and WE need to know the areas that need work in our lives.
Thought to ponder:
What’s to become of us here in this land can also be clear. No matter how bad things look we must, as that old childhood hymn states trust and obey. We must submit our spirits, our thought life and our wills to God and to those whom he has set over us. It is not up to us to figure everything out. That’s God’s job. I’m happy my job description isn’t as complicated as his. We MUST keep our eyes focused above on God’s promises for life. Even “if” we are in the vast minority [and in these
So who will you listen to in these last days? What leader will you follow? Will you follow Jesus, and those who rightly follow Jesus, or will you look for an alternative source of comfort whose words seem easier to follow? Be encouraged. God will always bless faithfulness. Always. It may not seem so at the moment, but I’ll say it again, God will always bless faithfulness. Grumbling not only sounds bad, it feels bad. It leaves us feeling angry, bitter and empty. The opposite is true for having a thankful and trusting heart isn’t it? When we express gratitude instead of grumbling something mystical and miraculous happens to us. Even though our situation hasn’t changed, our focus shifts from our situation to “his” solutions.
The lesson here is clear, and a good reminder for us all:
- Grumbling brings disfavor.
- Trust brings blessing.
It has been rightly said, “God is a gentlemen” and he will always give us the choice.
You may still ask “but what about when bad things happen to good people”? I recently became aware of a beloved missionary to Haiti, Pastor Serleus Simon who was tortured and murdered. His wife was assaulted also, but thankfully is now safe in the U.S. What about all the promises of God? Why didn’t he come through for them? You can be certain that that old serpent, the evil one, satan has his demons out in the world whispering the very same lies to his children as he did way back in the desert as they followed Moses. What then do we tell God’s people when trouble comes?
Well that my friend is my next post.
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Angela Fish Chan 
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