Friday, February 22, 2013

Complaining




COMPLAINING
 
You know, I thought I would take this study on a slant some will not expect. There is an adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but it should also have a caveat that too much squeaking, even after greasing, may result in unwanted or unexpected consequences. Consider all the complaining that went on when the Israelites left Egypt, and how Moses and God responded; you may find this a good read!
The first complaint of Israel, and understandable, was Pharaoh's army in Exod. 14:1 - 31. I say understandable because the people were weaponless, they had just gotten released from slavery in Egypt, and now the army of the same captors was coming for them. How did Moses respond? He encouraged Israel to trust God! "And Moses said unto the people, 'Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.'" (Exod. 14:13 - 14) God used the Red Sea by dividing it for the Israelites, and to annihilate the Egyptian Pharaoh and army by restoring it to its former composure, so quickly, the captors drowned! It was an understanding God that rescued His people. They had not seen any of His miracles in 400 years of bondage, and they needed to experience that wondrous sight of the Red Sea doing something so unnatural as dividing and then reconstituting in a manner that it could only be because of the power of God!

Okay, so now they're on the other side of the Red Sea, and even the remant of Egypt cannot possibly reach them, they have seen the power of God, and now they complain about bitter water. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?'" (Exod. 15:22 - 24) Now Moses prayed in a cry to the Lord, and the water was made drinkable, if you continue to read the selection to verse 27. The Israelites at this time were encouraged to be obedient to the Lord, that they might not receive plagues like those in Egypt.

So what happens next? Complaint #3! Gee, if we keep squeaking, we get satisfied! Spoil me! But you know, when the Israelites were murmuring using the names of Moses and Aaron, they did not realize they were murmuring against the Lord. So Moses rebuked the people in these words: "'At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that He heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?' And Moses said, 'This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against Him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.'" (Exod. 16:6 - 8) Now although the people did indeed murmur, and not realizing against the Lord, until Moses explained to them, yet the Lord gave them manna from heaven! There are perhaps some who might not understand this train of thought that when the people complained against Moses, in doing so they were complaining against God, so let us look upon another part of Scripture to understand better. "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people." (Exod. 22:28) The way to interpret this is in this way; God puts an individual into power over a nation; they are His representative to that people! If God wants to punish a nation, He gives them an individual who will indeed punish them according to their transgressions! Yoohoo; America? Are you listening? Egypt, are you enjoying your new ruler? How about Syria? Likewise, a righteous ruler is a blessing from God, and how would you come to receive such a wonderful ruler? "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chron. 7:14) Part of the healing is in the ruler's decisions, don't you think? I think I've covered complaining about leadership well enough here...

Okay, we've gotten back to the complaining about water again; a basic human need, and Exod. 17:1 - 7 covers this episode in the desert. Moses responded as usual, with a cry to the Lord, and He responded with water out of a rock at a smite from Moses' staff, but Moses also noted this complaint in this manner; "And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, 'Is the LORD among us, or not?'" (Exod. 17:7) Pretty strong words in a complaint, to the almighty God! Let alone they gave Moses fear of being stoned! "And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, 'What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me." (Exod. 17:4) An awful lot of grumpy people, don't you think? But even more to the point, this people continued not to trust in the Lord to meet their needs, didn't they? Else, why would they complain with vileness in their talk and their treatment of Moses, God's representative to them?

Now a fifth time the people of Israel complained, and this time about the desert life and its hardships, and God wasn't happy about this complaining! What did He do? "And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and His anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them." (Num. 11:1 - 3) Now why do you suppose God reacted this way? Put yourself in His place! Moses afflicted Egypt with all these miraculous plagues to prove God was with him, then God demonstrates 4 miracles outside of Egypt to this people He made His own, and what do they do? Demonstrate a lack of trust, and rebellion! If you had children that rebelled against you, how would you handle that? The Lord handled it on a level that God could handle it on! As usual, Moses again handles it with prayer to God for the burning to cease. Notice how Moses prayed on the people's behalf? Now we will see this command in the New Testament, also!  "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16)

The Israelites seemed never to learn. Into comlaining again they go in Num. 11:4 - 35, and this time they are complaining of being tired of manna, a continuous daily miracle that they observe 6 days a week; they divulge that they now have a lust for meat; and meat they receive! At this point Moses is frustrated with these people who behave as spoiled children, and asks God to kill him in his overwhelmed state of being. God gives him the assistance of 70 elders from among the Israelites, and God also gives the people what they ask for; IN GREAT QUANTITY! He gave them a full month's worth of quail to eat! And from the Lord to Moses to the people it was said how the Lord had heard the people's complaint in their despising of their God, that they should have fond memories of their captivity in Egypt, merely because they ate out of the variety of consummables there, but not remember also the bitternes of their bondage! So God took His vengeance on this people that lusted the meat of the quail in their despisement of the manna (and thereby God also!), and struck them with a plague for their insolence!

Now the people of Israel came upon a land filled with a giant people, according to Num. 14:1 - 35, and the scouts sent to look over the land came back with a faithless report, save Joshua and Caleb, and they instigated rebellion, and insubordination, and even wanted to make someone a captain for returning to Egypt! Now Moses, of course, set himself to standard operating procedure, that is, he prayed. But God in His wrath disallowed all the people of that generation 20 years old and up and they died in the desert before reaching His promised land, because they provoked Him so to wrath. But still this stiffnecked people did not learn from these experiences...

There was a man amongst the Israelites named Korah, apparently jealous of the position of Moses and Aaron, and he roused 250 renowned men of Israel, princes all; (Num. 16:1- 35) and they spoke against Moses and Aaron to their faces! Moses responded as always with prayer to God, but also toward the men with rebuke and anger! As simultaneously Moses closed his lips in pronunciation of how God would respond to their rebellion, God immediately opened up the earth below the rebels, and they were consumed in a giant sinkhole! But the foolishness of this people seemed to know no bounds, and the people would complain further!

Num. 16:41 - 50 tells of this next complaint by the Israelites, and actually it was more of an accusation than just a complaint. They accused Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord's people! Who can charge God with sin, or who can convict Him of it? "
Which of you convinceth Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" (John 8:46) This time God pronounces He will consume the people with a plague, and Moses responds by sending Aaron to atone for the people's sin, but alas, 14,700 people lost their lives in this new rebellion on an old issue that should've been allowed to die completely in the bowels of the earth the first time!

So what should we say of a people who complained of lack of water twice, and were satisfied by God twice, and yet a third time they complain on the same issue? In Num. 20:1 - 13, for the third time Israel sings the same old bitter song, complaining of lack of water. Moses received instruction from God, but in his frustration with this people who have repeatedly shown so much stiffnecked rebellion and distrust, as he rebuked Israel, so also he struck the rock twice with the staff, instead of obeying God's instructions to merely speak to the rock, and God found sin in Moses' actions in that he disbelieved God, and so he, too, was denied entrance into the promised land.

There is one last complaint to cover regarding Israel. "And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, 'Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Num. 21:4 - 9) This last response from the Lord is a form of prophecy, because those who believe on the Christ hung on the cross shall have eternal life, free from the bite of sin, just as those bitten by the fiery serpents who believed God and looked on the brass serpent hung on a pole by Moses survived being bitten!

And what can we learn from all this complaining that the Israelites did, and the responses from Moses and God, and the results thereof? Consider what Jesus said concerning worrying about the worldly needs of the body: "
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matt. 6:25 - 34) Are we Gentiles (heathens), or are we God's children? Do we pray with care and reverence to God for our needs and wants, or do we speak to Him as though He were at fault for our condition, and as in rebellion against Him? Let us seek His kingdom, even though we go through trials and tribulations, and cry out to Him for mercy when things are tough, and not grumble against Him or those He appoints over us. Let us have faith that He is the great Jehovah jireh, the providing God, and that we will persevere whatever befalls us because He loves us so!

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