Do You Grumble And Complain?

Do You Grumble and Complain

Numbers 21:5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

We all know the familiar story of sitting in traffic and the frustration of having to wait. Or, maybe you are asking yourself, “how many times do I have to eat leftovers this week?” Or, your child is asking for another pair of shoes to go with the five others that fit just fine.

Why is it so easy to grumble and complain? How can we have the proper perspective to make us grateful instead of grumpy people? Let’s look closer at this ancient story found in scripture to get our answer. Many years have lapsed but the human hearts reading this timeless truth are still the same.  

1.      Not grateful for what we have

If you have never read the Bible all the way through, I will encourage you—at minimum—read it through yearly. We are forced to grapple with these truths by reading the Bible annually to see our human nature reflected in its pages. The historical recounting of Israel’s desert wanderings found in Numbers 21 has a huge back story that we can’t miss in order to understand the context of this text.

Israel had been brought out of slavery by the mighty hand of God, striking Egypt with ten plagues and bringing Israel across the Red Sea to watch Pharoah their previous slave master and his army drown right in front of their very eyes. A few months later, after all they had experienced at the hand of one true God, they began to ask for another God to worship from Aaron while Moses was up on the mountain. Aaron made two golden calves to worship. They chanted that these were the gods that brought them out of Egypt. So it goes from bad to worse.

They scout out the land that God promised they would possess, and they became fearful and spoke against the two servants Joshua and Caleb, who trust God and His promises to give the land. Because of this stubbornness, Israel circled in the desert for forty years, longing for more variety of food and unending wells of water, and a variety of drinks. When we get to the bronze Serpent, the broken side of human nature is on full display.

They did not trust God. They did not want to worship God. They were not grateful for what God wanted to give them if they trusted Him. They were not appreciative of what God was providing for them through Manna to eat every morning. When we are not thankful for what we have around us at this moment—that God has graciously allowed us to have and steward—we will automatically grumble.

The traffic jam will get under our skin versus being thankful that we have a car at all. Leftovers will be a drag if we are not thankful that we can keep our food in a cool metal box to preserve it until we can get home to eat. Our kids will complain about not having the right color shoe to go with their outfit when they are not thankful for the other shoes that prevent their feet from getting blistered and cut.

Before you make yourself better then the old Israelites, look long and hard at what you should be grateful for today; before you begin to complain about what you don’t have for tomorrow. The second thing Israel let slip in their hearts and minds is what I will cover next.          

2.      Not grateful for what we have been freed from

How easy and quickly we forget things when we get caught up with the worries of life that God wants to help us through. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5) Israel was so quick to forget the slavery that God brought them out from under.

Christians today quickly forget what circumstances God has brought us through. Like me, your life is full of past mistakes that His grace has forgiven. We can look at life rightly and have the gift of repentance and faith daily. Grateful hearts remember what we are freed from and the one who gave that freedom.

No matter how bad it is, we cannot allow the here and now to rob us of the truth that He will never leave us or forsake us. This was Israel’s problem, Christian, don’t let that happen in your life. The problem you face today is tiny compared to eternity in heaven that cannot be taken from you; remember where you have come from and where you are going. Please don’t forget that you have eyes watching everything you do and say. Even if you don’t have kids, your co-workers, family, and friends watch you. What are they seeing? Finally, there is one more point I will discuss. Israel was ungrateful.

3.      Not grateful for our healing

If you read the whole historical narrative in Numbers 21, Moses was commanded by God to fashion a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and all who were bitten by the serpents would be saved from certain death if they looked upon it. God did not have to be gracious to a grumbling and grumpy group of people like Israel; however, He gave them the grace they did not deserve. This bronze serpent should point us to a better healer.

This is a special type that pointed to the better antitype Christ being hung on the tree of Calvary. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John12:32)

Jesus is the better bronze serpent. He has healed us from our sin debt against God, freeing us from addictions, lust, habitual anger, outburst, etc. We need to remember what He has brought us out of and not forget the broken pieces of our lives that He put back together to make us whole. When we are grateful for the healing that He has brought into our lives, the freedom that He has given us, and what we have currently, we don’t have time to get mad in a traffic jam or when we must eat fantastic food the second time. Then our kids, co-workers, and family see patterns that can convict them of their lack of thankfulness as we live our lives with grateful hearts for what He has done and currently gives us.

The last point will be for our monthly champions. I will discuss more Old Testament types that found their completion in the New Testament. If you want to become a monthly champion to receive extended articles, podcasts, and videos, click here. Until next month go out and proclaim the Gospel to see a life transformed.