There is something many of us do very well. Some of us are highly skilled in this area. In fact, it comes almost second nature. Would you like to know what we do so well? This thing that so many of us do excellently is called grumbling. No matter how long God has provided for us we can always find a reason to complain. If the lines are too long, or the food is too cold, or the computer isn’t fast enough—we complain. If the weather is too hot, or too cold, if the sky is gray and not blue—we whine. If God has given us wonderful things it seems like some of us almost start looking for something to grumble about.
It seems that there are times when it is legitimate to grumble. If we don’t have enough clothing, shelter or water it would seem legitimate for us to complain some. When our stomachs get empty, they complain on their own. When we are thirsty our bodies respond with a pasty kind of sensation in our mouths. When we listen to our bodies complain we try to meet the need. We go get a glass of water. We eat a meal or a snack.
At this point we can make a complete connection with our ancient friends the Hebrews. These were the people God had Moses lead out of the land of slavery and through the Red Sea with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left. In Exodus 15 we catch up with them on their astonishing journey. But that astonishment is starting to wear off.
Read Exodus 15:22-24.
The Israelites had a legitimate need. For nearly three days they had been walking in the desert without water. The Red Sea was quite far behind them at this point. They believed that it was Moses who led them away from the water and into the desert. This was a real need. Clearly someone was at fault, and it had to be Moses. Or at least that is who they blamed this on.
Moses had a very good response to the grumbling people. Did you see what he did? He cried out to God and God had an answer just waiting for their cry. In Exodus15:25 we read: Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. Ah, what sweet relief! But this was just a taste of what was to come.
It is at this point that God tried to teach the Israelites something very important. Listen carefully to what he said, in the remainder of verse 25-26. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
Wow, what a great deal—sweet water and clear directions! What more would a people want? What more would a huge band of traveling ex-slaves need in the desert? Water and shade. Look where they end up next. In verse 27 we read: Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water. Ah, an oasis! What a great place. Everyone was laughing and talking, the children were running and playing again. The food just tasted better, their feet weren’t tired any more. This was the Club Med of the Shur Desert. But that wasn’t where God needed them to be. A tiny oasis is not nearly as wonderful as an entire promised land. So, off they went again.
Read Exodus 16:1-3.
First it was water and then it was food. Their stomachs were grumbling big time. This, too, seems like a legitimate need, as surely any perishables they got from the Egyptians would have been expended by this time. Let’s check back on what else they brought out of Egypt just a month previously. In Exodus 12:27-28 it reads, “The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.” We get a sense of the size of the need indeed, but they had herds and flocks with them. It seems that they could have had plenty of meat to eat. But they certainly would not have eaten all of those animals in a month because they were, as any good rancher knows, needing to keep enough stock to reproduce and sustain those that produced milk and gave birth to offspring for future production and food sources—sustainability is nothing new! But, they had moved from stationary slavery to nomadic life. Certainly they could have survived on what stock they had to spare. Their want—and dare we say it their lack of trust in God who had just delivered them from slavery—was so extreme that they wanted to die, and they wished they were back in brick-making slavery. At least there they had pots of meat to spare!
The Israelites were not more than forty-five days away from Egypt and already they wished they had died because they felt so miserable! Forty-five days. God had just brought them a short distance from the Club Med and they had to find a scapegoat or two. They not only grumbled against Moses, but then they added Aaron in on the joust. But, again, God had a provision already in mind.
Read Exodus 16:4-19.
Moses and Aaron knew that he and Aaron were scapegoats. So, they direct the people to the appropriate complaint department. They were just the middle managers. The Boss, the One who brought them out of that horrible life of slavery, is the One who is really in control. Larisa Levicheva wrote:
Perhaps the point of the test was for His people to see what they would do when given a choice. In Egypt, they had no opportunity to make choices. As free people, they would need to learn to make choices and live with the consequences of the choices they made. The covenantal relationship that God wants to have with all of His people is a real relationship, one that is always affected by the actions and attitudes of each party.[i]
God’s nature is full of grace and mercy. He saw these dear people with legitimate needs. He knew that they were just tired and cranky. And he still wanted them to learn to trust him more—to choose to believe that no matter how bad the circumstances appeared he would give them exactly what they needed. Had he not provided sweet water, twelve springs and an oasis?
In the rest of chapter 16 we can read how God provided abundantly for the entire nation of Israel. Every morning of the week they got a special kind of meal they called manna. In the original language this is called “Mahn hu” which translates to “What is it?”, or as one commentator wrote – Whatcha-ma-call-it. They gathered this foreign substance from the desert floor, and it tasted like coriander and honey. Coriander is a slight citrus and warm tasting spice used widely across that region and in other areas of the world. Each person was to gather an omer, which is roughly the dry weight equivalent of nine cups. This was apparently what God knew could sustain a human being for a day. In Numbers 11:7-9 [ii] we learn more about manna. “The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.” It sounds pleasant and good. And it must have been because God provided it.
Then that night thousands and thousands of small birds descended on the desert floor—quail they are called—small birds, easy to catch and tasty to roast. There still is a natural occurrence of this kind of thing—quail brought inland by the wind in the thousands, exhausted and falling to the ground. And even though this is documented a scientific fact, let’s not miss the remarkable provision for well over 600,000 people in one night. God gave them what they wanted with the deep hope that “you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (v. 12)
Water, shade, bread, meat. What more could a person want? Matthew Henry wrote, “Never was there such a market of provisions as this, where so many hundred thousand men were daily furnished, without money and without price.” Ah, but they had already discovered that grumbling was an effective method of getting attention. And they really did not yet know that God was their Lord!
Read Exodus 17:1-3.
Are we getting a little uncomfortable here? This sounds a lot like some of us! Just after God provides in some wonderful way, we forget to trust him and start complaining again. Do we wish that we could respond differently to these kinds of situations? Perhaps we need to wish that we would. Moses did again what a great person of faith would do. He prayed. He took their complaints to the One who could do something about their situation. And God did what he is glad to do.
Read Exodus 17:4-7.
There is an actual scientific fact at work here. In the desert you can find rock with water in it. The water has dripped into a hollowed-out area inside the rock. The walls of the rock become thin. Then if the rock is struck in just the right place it will shatter and the water will come pouring out. The great wonder and mystery in this story is that the rock produced enough water for thousands and thousands of wandering and grumbling people! God provides wonderfully and excellently—and he does not require our grumbling to do it.
There are places in our lives named Meribah. God is over those places. And there are places in our lives named Massah. God is also over those. Do we wish that we could go back to some of those places and redo the event by not grumbling, not complaining, just trusting our Wonderful Lord?
There is a principle here that we must learn and take down deep into our hearts. God is trustworthy and has our best in mind. We can choose to trust God to work things out. If our stomachs rumble with hunger, we can pray and ask God to give us the food that we need. And then we can wait with anticipation for the precise way he will do that. We need to trust him more.
If things are not going quite the way we had hoped they would or there just seems to be too much pressure or sorrow, we can seek God’s peace in the middle of the storm. We can remember what God has done for us in the past and hold our critical and anxious tongues so that God may be glorified in the present.
When we fall back on that thing that we do so well we can choose again to trust God with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Then in all our ways he will direct our paths, our thoughts, our words and our prayers.
Did Jesus ever complain? We can read about him getting angry. We can recall him being sad. And we can pay close attention, we remember the times he rebuked religious people for their bad attitudes and wrongful theology. He called them a “brood of vipers” and “white-washed walls.” But we do not see any time that he actually grumbled
We can read where he wept in the garden asking God to release him from the horrible burden of bearing the guilt of our sins. We can read where he cried out in pain and anguish from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” And we can read how in the next breath he said, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” His was a cry of terrible pain and grief and a cry of trust and submission to his Father who does all things well. His Father, our Father, the Israelite’s God and our God provides exactly what we need at just the right time.
We all have a challenge before us today. When we consider the suffering of Christ we are reminded of the anguish of our Lord, but not of any guile or grumbling. The prophet Isaiah knew the truth about our God of the grumblers and foresaw the truth about our Lord. These are the words that he penned long before Christ was nailed to that cruel cross. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)
As we reflect on the character of God through the story of the Israelites, we must also heed the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote so fervently and so strongly about this matter. He knew that God is the Lord of the grumblers and that through him all things are possible.
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
Philippians 2:14-15
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13-14
© M.R.Hyde 2022
This is an expanded and revised chapter from Who is God?: A Devotional Journey Through Genesis and Exodus (The Trinity Book 1).
[i] Illustrated Bible Life, Fall Quarter, The Foundry Press, 2022.
[ii] Commentators are split on whether the account in Numbers is a different event or the same event retold. Psalm 105:27-45 relates that the Israelites grew sick from eating this quail, which may indicate a separate event, as Exodus 16 does not include theses details. In addition to this, the Israelites in Numbers further their complaint by saying that they are sick of all the manna they have been eating.
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