Grumbling on the Edge of the Promised Land

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 

Numbers 14:1–3

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God's people were grumbling on the edge of the Promised Land. Everything they could have ever wanted was right there for the taking, but they couldn’t see it. They were grumbling when they should have been rejoicing. They were weeping when they should have been celebrating. And all because they lack faith.

They are complaining about things that haven’t happened yet! They are grumbling about made up problems in imagined futures. They’re saying, “We know what’s going to happen if we go into the Promised Land. The people there will defeat us. And this will be our fate: the men will die by the sword and the women and children will be taken captive and live as slaves to these pagans. We’d be better off dead than to let that happen. We’ve got to get out of here!

Here are a few applications from this story for our lives. First, don’t waste your time worrying about made up problems in imagined futures. Matthew 6:34 says, “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” That’s good advice. 

But the people of Israel were not only worrying about how tomorrow’s battles would go, they were actually grumbling against God for what they predicted would happen.‌‌ Which brings us to a second application. Don’t blame God for imagined outcomes. Don’t blame Him for something He hasn’t even done yet. ‌‌Sometimes God allows a problem or challenge to enter your life because He has a plan for it to be your next great victory. So even if all you can see is defeat, trust God and fight the urge to blame Him for things that haven't even happened yet.

How to Complain

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. 

Psalm 22:1–2

This psalm begins with a complaint... an anguished, broken-hearted complaint. In the day of trouble he looks to god for help, but can’t find Him. He cries out to God day and by night, but God doesn’t answer. The psalmist feels forsaken by God.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like God wasn’t answering your prayers or that He had turned His back on you when you needed Him most? When you feel that way, what should you do? These two verses, along with the rest of Psalm 22, begin to give us a guide to Christian complaint. 

Two things jump out to us immediately. First, David complains to God not about God. That’s incredibly important! There is a tremendous difference between grumbling against God and pouring your complaint out to God. You know what we call complaining to God? Prayer!

You don’t like for people to talk bad about you behind your back, so don’t do it to God. Show Him the consideration and respect of bringing it straight to Him. Pour your complaint out to God, not against Him.

Second, we can’t help but notice that the psalmist doesn’t pull any punches. He doesn’t sugar-coating anything. He’s gut-wrenchingly honest with God. He openly tells God exactly how he feels.

‌It’s okay to be honest with God. It isn’t okay to be disrespectful. It isn’t okay to blaspheme or curse at Him or yell at Him or even lecture Him. But, you can be honest with God. He already knows what you are feeling. You don’t have to hide your pain or your disappointment from Him. It’s okay to acknowledge the facts of your situation and it’s okay to be honest about how you are feeling. 

If King David could do it in Psalm 22, and if Jesus could do it by quoting these verses from the cross, then you can to. It's okay to pour out your complaint to the Lord, just do it respectfully.

The Twisted Perspective of Grumbling

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Numbers 11:4–6

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The Israelites are complaining about food in the dessert! They are sick and tired of eating manna every day. They begin to look back on their time in Egypt longingly. They begin to crave the food they had there. In fact, if you look down in verses 18 to 20 you will see that these people actually said “We were better off in Egypt!” and “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ‌‌They preferred the meat of slavery to the bread of Heaven. 

This story shows us a common strategy our Enemy uses to get us to grumble. He distorts and twists our perspective to make us see things the way he wants us to. When the Israelites complained ahout the manna, they weren’t remembering the hardships of their slavery. They weren’t remembering the feel of Egyptian whips on their backs. All they were remembering was the food…the fish and the onions and the cucumbers. In other words, they were remembering only the very, very few positive elements of their time in Egypt.

‌‌And at the same time they were forgetting all the positives of their current situation. They were forgetting that they were getting Manna for free. It was just sitting on the ground waiting for them each morning. They were forgetting that the manna tasted pleasant. It tasted like something made with olive oil. ‌And ‌they were forgetting that God was taking them to a Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, where they’d get to eat all those delicacies again and more to boot. In other words, they were forgetting all the many positives of their current situation, and were thinking only of this one negative.

The Enemy will try to do the same to you. He has done it to me many times. He will trick you into looking at your life from His twisted perspective. He will make you forget all the positives and focus only on the negatives. Don’t let him do that to you or you’ll start to grumble against God. Make sure you are seeing the whole picture. Ask God to help you to get your eyes off the negatives and help you see all the good things He is doing and has done for you.

One last thing, all of this was possible only because the Israelites had grown tired of God’s blessings and had begun to take them for granted. There’s an old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Every single day, the Israelites were witnessing a miracle. Every day God was performing a miracle to feed them in the desert, and they grew tired of it. They lost the awe of what God was doing for them. They lost the gratitude they should have felt for God’s provision. And they began to hate what they should have been thankful for.

‌‌Don’t take the Lord’s daily blessings in your life for granted. Don’t let the Enemy cause you to hate what you should be thankful for.

Walking Towards Suffering

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. 

Mark 10:32a

Jesus knows what awaits Him in Jerusalem. He knows He will be betrayed. He knows He will be arrested and condemned to die. He knows He’ll be mocked. He knows He’ll be spit on. He knows He’ll be flogged. And he knows He’ll die. And yet verse 32 says that Jesus is “leading the way.”

Look at the courage of your Savior! Jesus isn’t a coward who has to be drug to the place of His death by His disciples. Nor is He a foolish man who walks toward His death unknowingly. No! Jesus knows exactly what’s in store for Him yet He’s “leading the way.” Jesus bravely marches toward His death for your benefit. No one took His life from Him. He laid it down.

But now look at the disciples. The passage says the disciples “were astonished, while those who followed were afraid.” ‌‌It seems the disciples are finally starting to understand that Jesus is in danger and that they could even be in danger themselves. That’s why they are so shocked is because Jesus is willingly travelling towards certain pain and persecution.

‌‌It occurs to me that all of us, in one way or another, are walking towards suffering. Suffering, in one form or another, is in every one of our futures. It may be cancer. It may be a financial crisis. It may be the loss of a job or a relational conflict. It may even be death.

The question isn’t “Will you suffer?” It’s “How will you walk toward that suffering when it appears?” Will you walk bravely toward it like Jesus did? Or will you walk toward it in an astonished and terrified way like the disciples did?

So many Christians are surprised, shocked, caught of guard or even overwhelmed when suffering comes their way.‌‌ But Jesus shows us a better way. And we can follow His example because we know that whatever suffering enters our lives has been allowed by God and will be used by Him. Either He will bring glory to Himself by carrying us through this suffering or He will bring us to glory after our death.

Either way, the old song get’s it right when it says, 

Because He lives

I can face tomorrow

Because He lives

All fear is gone

Because I know

He holds the future

And life is worth the living

Just because He lives

(lyrics written by Gloria and Bill Gaither)