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
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.
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