The Twisted Perspective of Grumbling (W.o.W. Rewind)

 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.

Faith Fights Fear

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Mark 4:40

The disciples were taking Jesus across the Sea of Galilee in a boat when Scripture tells us that a ‘furious squall’ came up. Waves were breaking over the boat to the extent that Mark 4:37 says it was “nearly swamped.” The disciples were terrified! And you can hardly blame them. Their lives were in danger. I would say that fear was an appropriate response to their situation.

But look at how Jesus responds when they call out to Him for help. The passage says Jesus “got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Then He asked the disciples, “Why are you so afraid?”

The disciples' fear was perfectly reasonable from a worldly perspective. And yet Jesus rebuked them for their fear... because it showed a lack of faith. In vs 40 Jesus asks them, “Do you still have no faith?”

You see, if the disciples had trusted God more, they would have feared the storm less. If they had truly believed that God was in control of all things, they would have known that nothing could happen to them apart from His will. And if they truly had faith that Jesus was the Messiah, they would have known that that storm couldn’t be the end of Him.

Now, let’s apply this to our lives… Why are you so afraid? Is it possibly because you lack faith? The simple truth is that the more you trust God, the less you’ll fear the storms of life. The more certain you are that God is in control, that not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from His care (Matthew 10:29), the more you’ll trust that no harm can come to you apart from His will

Consider what the psalmist says in Psalm 27:3, “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.” What was it that gave the psalmists such freedom from fear? It was faith! Faith fights fear! So... trust the Lord! And have no fear.

Set Apart

And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Luke 1:80

It wasn't normal for a young person in the first century to live in the desert, but because of God's special calling on his life, John the Baptist did just that. In doing this, he imitated the prophet Elijah who lived in the desert and was fed by ravens during the famine.* 

And more than just imitating Elijah, "in the Old Testament, the wilderness was the place where God met with His appointed messengers."** For example, it was in the wilderness that God met with Moses at the burning bush. And it was in the wilderness that God met with His people and gave them the 10 Commandments at Sinai. So, John likely lived in the desert not only to emulate Elijah but also to commune with God and to keep himself separate from the world. 

Now, in my opinion some of the monks of the Middle Ages took this mindset too far. I don’t think you should go live in a cave and not see another living soul for years on end. But that isn’t the error that most Christians in our day and age fall into. We aren't in danger of separating from the world too much but too little.

Let John the Baptist serve as a reminder that we are called to live separated lives. Christians ought to be holy, set apart, and different from the world around them. As 2 Corinthians 6:17 says, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

Let’s strive to live that kind of Christian life.

* Martin, John A. “Luke.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.

** Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Do More for Jesus

The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Matthew 25:40

Jesus makes this astonishing statement in the parable of the sheep and the goats. Yes, we minister to the needs of the lost as well so that we might lessen their suffering and have an opportunity to share the gospel with them, but it isn’t love for the lost that is our identifying mark as Christians. It’s our love for other believers. True sheep love other sheep. This reminds us of what Jesus says in John 13:34-35. 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

People should be able to look at us and judge our Christianity based on our love for other believers. And that’s exactly what Jesus does in this parable. He identifies His sheep by their love for other believers.

Now, this isn’t talking about earning salvation. We aren’t saved by loving believers. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. No, this is evidence of our salvation. When we are saved, we become a part of the family of God. And one of the marks that God places on us is our love for that family. Those who love Jesus, love His children. Thus, our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ marks us out and sets us apart as members of the family of God.

This a test of salvation that you can apply to your own life. Do you love God’s people? Do you love the church? Is their evidence of that love in your life? Are there any believers anywhere who are better provided for or ministered to because of you?

Find ways to love on Jesus by loving on and serving His people... His church. Give generously to your church. Invite the new person at church over to your house for a meal. Visit those who are homebound or in the hospital or in a nursing home. Take meals to the person who just had a surgery or a death in their family. Pray faithfully for them. Weep with them when they weep, and rejoice with them when they rejoice. 

When you do these kinds of things for other believers, Jesus takes that personally! He says, “whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.” I want to encourage you to start thinking about it like that. When you minister to another believer or to the church, don’t think of it simply as doing something for them… train yourself to think of it as doing something for Jesus. Let's do more for Jesus!