Grumble Rumble is a website that allows you to air your complaints. It claims: “Our goal is to help you improve your life surroundings and reduce your stress by providing an easy, simple platform to register and resolve complaints.”
If there had been a website like this during Moses’ time, the Israelites would surely have been among its key patrons. Three days after they marched out from Mount Sinai they started to grumble (Numbers 11:1-3). A short time later, they were grumbling again. We want our garlic! And like little children deprived of their toys, they sat at the door of their tents and held pity parties (Numbers 11:4- 10). The next incident came up in Numbers 12:1-2. This time the complaint was about leadership.
Israel had developed a pattern of grumbling. By the time we reach Numbers 14, it was “the last straw.” God was gracious and longsuffering, but the time finally came when enough was enough. Israel reached that point at Kadesh. The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat Me with contempt? Will they never believe Me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11).
The Israelites had witnessed the 10 plagues that God brought upon Egypt. They had seen God part the Red Sea before them. They had seen and heard the evidences of God’s majestic presence at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16-19). And in the Sinai wilderness, God had performed daily miracles as He cared for His chosen people and their livestock.
Let’s avoid the Israelites’ example. When we complain, we lose sight of all the good things God is doing. Ultimately, we lose faith and drag others down with us. No grumbles. No rumbles. Humble gratitude is what God deserves from us.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Ecclesiastes 12:1-14
More:
Read Psalm 106:24-27 and Hebrews 3:7-19 for additional commentary and insight on the events at Kadesh.
Next:
How can you replace your grumblings with praise and thanksgiving? What does your grumbling reveal about your true view of God?
GChoo on May 21, 2012 at 8:07 am
Poh Fang, thank you for reminding us not to lose sight of all the good things that God had done for us and will continue to do for us.
We are so like the Israelites and i must admit i am like them too, more so in the past. I think that is because i was so busy doing with what i want in life than to seek God most of the time. I used to forget the answered prayers and even His divine intervention. However, when i make it a point/habit to be close to His Word daily i realised how much God had been with me in the past. It is just in my busyness that i never gave it a thought. The easiest thing is to be a complainer and losing sight of all that He had done for me.
I am so grateful that God has been so gracious and merciful to me even though i have not put Him first in my life before. God is still performing miracles in our lives. Do we give ourselves the time to stay close to His Word, reflect and think about what God has done and is doing in our lives …??? I try to remind myself.
When we seek God daily, we know He is indeed a GREAT AND TRUE GOD. He is worthy of our praise and reverence in all circumstances.
tom felten on May 21, 2012 at 10:48 am
Good thoughts, Gchoo. It’s true that our grumbling affects our fellowship with God—but it also affects our relationship with others. When we grumble and rumble around unbelievers, we’re not revealing the peace and joy found in Jesus! In fact, we can turn people away from Him.
pohfangchia on May 22, 2012 at 9:22 pm
I was reminded recently that our grumble and rumble is a reflection of our heart condition for “out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
Hence, as one writer puts it, “Until our hearts are completely purified by God in heaven, we must set strong guards at the gates of our mouths and fight daily battles to restrain the overflow of our sinful desires.”
tom felten on May 23, 2012 at 8:41 am
Great verse, Poh Fang. I’m so glad for the work of the Holy Spirit—convicting us when wrong word choices come to mind and compelling us speak words of grace and beauty! Let’s yield to His leading today.
daisymarygoldr on May 29, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Pertinent post, Poh Fang! Especially in a Church age when people are being encouraged to go ahead and file their complaints. As if God is an elected official with a complaint department. This is the mindset of a democratic culture that believes God is a civil servant who will do their every bidding. Get real people.
Unlike such erroneous teachings, Paul exhorts us not to “grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed” (1 Corinthians 10:10). It is significant to note that God destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp (Numbers 11:1). You see, “Fringe dwellers” are the ones who usually complain about their hardships. And who is this group that was following along the fringes?
Notice Numbers 11:4; it was the foreign rabble (the non-Israelite mixed multitude) that followed the Israelites out of Egypt, that first started to lust. And then the people of Israel also began to complain. Obviously, not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people.
Similarly, not all who are born into a Christian family or nation and go to Church are truly Christians. Jude warns us about grumblers and complainers, who had wormed their way into the churches and are living only to satisfy their desires. Grumblers insult God and He will surely execute judgment on all who have spoken against Him (Jude 1:15).
Back then, Job complained because he did not have the revelation of God in His written Word. Today people complain, because they do not read their Bibles to know God. “The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects,” said Lord Jeffrey.
Grumbling is an expression of downright disobedience (Psalm 106:25) and reveals the spirit of rebellion in those who complain and rail against God. It is to question God’s sovereignty, justice, goodness and love. God’s grace is considered with contempt, by those who are convinced that He failed them when they hurt most.
When we cry out against sickness and suffering what exactly is the insinuation? Is God is the cause of our suffering? Instead of being grateful to Him for working out all things for our good, we grumble to accuse God of not being competent enough to care for us. In other words the created thing is telling the Potter that He is not perfect. What brazenness?
A complaining spirit influences others to protest against God and in the process drags them down to destruction. Therefore, be careful with whom you fellowship, and separate yourself from the group of grumblers. When in trouble or pain, may we take our every need to the Lord in prayer and with thanksgiving let us humbly present our petitions to God.