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

‌

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.

Pause (W.o.W. Rewind)

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

I pride myself on being a hard worker...though some days I wonder if this is more pride and less a fair evaluation of my work ethic. Still I try to live up to the standard of my heroes. I try not to give in when things get difficult or give up when something doesn't quite come together. This is good, but there are limits. It is possible for a person to work himself into the ground. It's also possible to work and work and work and never quite get anywhere. 

The teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes understands this well. He laments the vanity of life, the cyclical nature of our world that makes it hard for any one man to make a lasting impact. 

All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. (Ecc. 1:2-5)

You do the laundry, and the clothes get dirty again. You mow the lawn, and the grass keeps growing. No matter how hard you work there will always be something else to do and what you have done will almost invariably undo itself again. So how are we to live in a world this maddening?!

Our passage for the day gives us insight. We should be careful not to get caught up rushing, rushing, rushing all the time... doing things that don't make any lasting change. Ultimately, we can't break completely free of the cycles of life. In some ways we are stuck on this hamster wheel. We can run as fast as we can but all we'll accomplish is making the wheel spin faster. We aren't really getting anywhere. 

Instead, the teacher challenges us to pause. To look around us and consider what God has blessed us with and what has come out of all our hard work. Take time to enjoy the gifts God has given you, not selfishly, but expressly as gifts from God. Take time to thank Him for these things. You just may find that taking time to pause and turning to God in gratefulness will foster more spiritual growth than all your activity ever has. 

A Rhythm of Praise

Every morning and evening they burn to the Lord burnt offerings and fragrant incense...

2 Chronicles 13:11

They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at evening,

1 Chronicles 23:30

This past week my family went on vacation to the beach. As every parent dearly hopes will be the case, on the very first morning of our vacation our kids made sure that my wife and I were awake a full hour before sunrise! My wife decided to make the best of it and made sure that we caught the sunrise on the beach that morning together as a family.

Later that same day, after a swirl of activity, we found ourselves back on the beach enjoying the sunset. That's when it occurred to me that every single day God gives us these two amazing gifts, these works of art: sunrise and sunset. Yet, I never even notice them. I certainly don't stop to take them in and appreciate them.

This made me wonder, what other gifts is God giving me on a daily basis that I fail to notice? What other blessings am I taking for granted? The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it's probably more than I could count.

How can we change that? What can we do to help ourselves appreciate the millions of big and little ways God blesses us each and every day? Here's where the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, morning and evening might be able to help us.  

In the Old Testament, morning and evening created a kind of rhythm for Israel's worship at the tabernacle and later at the temple. Each morning and evening burnt offerings and incense were offered up to God. In fact, I Chronicles 23:20 tells us that this practice was more than just ritual. Every morning and evening the Levites were to stand to thank and praise God.

I think this gives us a great example to follow as New Testament believers! Why not allow the natural rhythm of our days, and the natural beauty of sunrise and sunset to serve as a prompt for us to thank and praise God? Why not spend time in prayer each morning and each evening thanking God for the infinite number of ways He blesses us each and every day? Blessings that we are so used to that we no longer even notice them. And spend time praising Him for what these gifts and blessings reveal to us about His nature, who He is.

Let's pause right now and take notice. Thank God for something that you normally take for granted and praise Him for what it reveals about His character.

I'll go first. I thank God for the unrivaled beauty of the sunrise and the sunset; and I praise Him for making this beauty a daily part of a world that is often cold and ugly. I praise Him for giving this beautiful gift to both evil people and good people (Matthew 5:45). This shows just how good and gracious God is. And I praise Him that one day sunrises and sunsets will stop altogether because God will give His people a gift far greater: His presence. Scripture tells us that in eternity we will no longer have the sun for the Lord will be our everlasting light, and God will be our glory (Isaiah 60:19).

Pause

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

I pride myself on being a hard worker...though some days I wonder if this is more pride and less a fair evaluation of my work ethic. Still I try to live up to the standard of my heroes. I try not to give in when things get difficult or give up when something doesn't quite come together. This is good, but there are limits. It is possible for a person to work himself into the ground. It's also possible to work and work and work and never quite get anywhere. 

The teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes understands this well. He laments the vanity of life, the cyclical nature of our world that makes it hard for any one man to make a lasting impact. 

All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. (Ecc. 1:2-5)

You do the laundry, and the clothes get dirty again. You mow the lawn, and the grass keeps growing. No matter how hard you work there will always be something else to do and what you have done will almost invariably undo itself again. So how are we to live in a world this maddening?!

Our passage for the day gives us insight. We should be careful not to get caught up rushing, rushing, rushing all the time... doing things that don't make any lasting change. Ultimately, we can't break completely free of the cycles of life. In some ways we are stuck on this hamster wheel. We can run as fast as we can but all we'll accomplish is making the wheel spin faster. We aren't really getting anywhere. 

Instead, the teacher challenges us to pause. To look around us and consider what God has blessed us with and what has come out of all our hard work. Take time to enjoy the gifts God has given you, not selfishly, but expressly as gifts from God. Take time to thank Him for these things. You just may find that taking time to pause and turning to God in gratefulness will foster more spiritual growth than all your activity ever has. 

The Great Veggie War of 2016

In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was...The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white, and tasted like wafers made with honey... The Israelites ate manna for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan. 

Exodus 16:13b-15, 31 & 35

Over the last few weeks my wife and I have been fighting The Great Veggie War of 2016. We've been knee deep in concocting ways to coax our three year old to choke down asparagus, bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas. We tried punishing her when she didn't eat her veggies. That only made us feel like terrible parents. We tried convincing her that the veggies were yummy. She saw right through that one. Didn't even come close! We tried adding cheese to any and every veggie that crossed her plate. That one helped a little. But most days she cried and fussed like we were force-feeding her radioactive waste.

Don't laugh though. The truth is that most of us aren't any better as adults. How well do you do at eating things you don't like? Most of us aren't too good at it. (Side note- this is a good place to start when considering why our diets always fail.)

Well just imagine eating the same thing for forty years. That's what the Israelites did while wandering in the desert. Every meal, every day consisted of manna and water. Sure, you may get some quail every now and then, but for the most part for forty years your only food is bread and water. Never mind that these were provided miraculously by God for millions of people in the middle of the desert. Many of us would quickly lose sight of that. Bread and water is prison food. In fact, we feed our prisoners better than that these days!

Would you grumble? Do you grumble about what God provides for you?

Let's circle back to that. Let's ask this question first: What does this teach us about God? There is no denying that God is much more interested in accomplishing His purposes in your life and through your life than He is interested in changing His plans to meet your wants and needs. Notice, God's ultimate plan for His people was a land flowing with milk and honey. His plan would lead them to abundant blessing, but there wasn't abundant blessing all along the way. First they had to learn to trust Him. They even went three days without finding water once (Exodus 15:22-27). Talk about trusting the Lord! 

Also, it should not escape our attention that it was the Israel's sin that prevented them from receiving God's desired blessing for them (the Promised Land) sooner. They wouldn't have suffered in the desert for forty years if they had obeyed God and trusted Him.

So again I ask, do you grumble about what God has given you? Are you ungrateful? Do you compare it to what God has given someone else, or to what you used to have? Are you like a small child whining and crying about what God is making you do? Even if we never do it out loud, even if it is only in our hearts, many of us are this way. When you feel this way, remember that just like my wife and I with my daughter; God's plan is ultimately for your good even if you can't see it. God has abundant blessing planned for all those who believe on Jesus. Trust Him. Obey Him. And do so with a grateful heart for such a loving Father.

It's Your Fault God!

But they said, “We will not come! Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves? No, we will not come!”

Numbers 16:12-14

These are the words of two men who blame God for the consequences of their own sin. Two men who love the things of the world more than the things of God. Two men who throw God's kindness back in His face then have the audacity to impugn His goodness. The earth opened up and swallowed these two men, Dathan and Abiram, whole (Numbers 16:31-33). But don't think that you are incapable of falling into the same trap. Scripture tells us that the human heart is deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17:9). So let's take a moment to learn from their sin.

These men were part of Korah's rebellion which took place after Israel was condemned to wander in the dessert for forty years. You'll remember that 12 spies were sent out into Canaan and brought back a unanimously good report from the land. They all said that it was indeed a "land flowing with milk and honey" just as God had said. But in regards to their ability to possess the land, there was a split decision. Only two of the spies believed that God could drive out the inhabitants of the land. The other ten filled Israel with fear. When the people refused to go up and possess the land God condemned them to wander in the dessert for forty years. After they had all died their children would learn to trust Him and would possess the land.

This is the context into which these men speak, and it casts light on the true nature of their sin. Look again at what they said. "Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?" They never entered Canaan. The place they are calling a land flowing with milk and honey is Egypt, where they were enslaved and treated like animals! When they use this phrase which was used repeatedly in Scripture to describe the land God had promised to give to His people they are in essence saying, "Compared to where following God has brought us, being slaves in Egypt was like being in the Promised Land." They are unhappy about being stuck in the wilderness, but they wholly ignore that it was their own sin that put them there. Instead of taking responsibility for their sin, they lash out at God. After all that God had done for Israel in their lifetime, how could they possibly have such disdain for Him?

They were deceived. They loved the world and the things of the world more than God. I John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them." Are you mad at God for not giving you the things of the world? Be careful or you may end up despising the holy things of God and pouting that He hasn't given you material possessions, fame, the approval of men, athletic prowess, or an easy life. The New Testament doesn't suggest Christians should expect any of these things. Rather, we should thank God for giving us His Son, forgiveness, grace, righteousness, hope for eternity, a clear understanding of the truth, and the church. Or maybe, like these men, you blame God for things that are actually the consequences of your own sin? Take a long look at the reason you are angry with God. Is He really withholding something from you that you have a right to? The truth is that we have no rights before our Creator God, and though we deserve punishment He has given grace instead. Fall back on that grace today in gratitude.

Count Your Blessings, Count Your Sins

Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.

Psalm 106:47

If you were to list all the ways that you have rejected God's authority in your life, all the ways you have rebelled against Him, been unfaithful to Him, and disobeyed His commands, how long would that list be? In Psalm 106 the psalmist does just this for the people of Israel. He heaps praise on the Lord by noting His goodness to His people in spite of all the ways they forgot Him, tested Him, questioned Him, rejected Him, disobeyed Him, spoke out against Him, angered Him, and took Him for granted. The psalmist testifies that in spite of all the sins God's people have committed against Him, God is still faithful in His love toward them.

Verse 47 is the second to last verse in the psalm and it implies that it was written while in exile in another country. It appears that the psalmist was writing this song of praise to the Lord even as he was experiencing God's judgment for Israel's sin. Repeatedly God allowed surrounding nations to conquer Israel and carry them off captive as a punishment for their sin. Yet when Israel repented and turned back to God, He would shower them with His blessings and faithful love once again. This happened time after time. The psalmist is fully aware of this pattern and boldly asks God to act in keeping with His character again, not because his people deserve it (the psalmist knows they do not deserve forgiveness or rescue) but so that God's name may continue to be praised for His amazingly faithful, wonderful love. At a time when another man might have looked at his situation and blamed or even accused God, the psalmist turns to praise because he knows just how great his sin and the sin of his people is.

I wonder if we do not appreciate God's faithful love toward us as much as we should because we forget just how unfaithful to Him we have been. Take out a sheet of paper and jot down some of the ways that you have been unfaithful to God. Then carefully note all the ways that God has continued to faithfully love you in spite of your imperfection. Take this opportunity to give God praise for His longsuffering goodness in your life.

For further reading:

• Read all of Psalm 106.
• Read Daniel's response to exile in Daniel 9.
• Exodus 34:1-9: Consider the "name" god proclaimed to Moses regarding Himself directly following Israel's sin at Sinai.

Make a Show

Praise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 117

 

 

This is the shortest chapter in the Bible. Just two verses. Yet, even this small chapter calls for a response. The psalmist calls upon the whole world and all the peoples in it to praise God. When the Jews sang this in their worship it must have reminded them that ultimately God deserves and will receive praise from all nations not just the children of Abraham. Paul quotes this Psalm in Romans 15:11 as proof that God had always intended to bring the Gentiles into His family so they might praise Him (see ESV Study Bible notes on Psalm 117 and Romans 15:9-12). The psalm goes beyond simply calling for praise however, by giving us the impetus for praise: the great love and faithfulness that He has shown to us.

 

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance the Hebrew word for "praise" in verse one has among its possible translations to make a show, boast, rave, or celebrate. While the Hebrew word for "extol" can mean to address in a loud tone or commend. Taken together this presents a clear image of what it means for us to praise God.

 

Because of the love and faithfulness God has shown you, you should celebrate Him, rave about Him, even make a show declaring in a loud voice all the good He has done for you. When was the last time your praise of God met this description? I know that we don't want to make a show to draw attention to ourselves, but that's not what this is. The psalmist asks us to make a show to call attention to God! David himself gave us an excellent example of what this might look like when he danced and leapt before the ark of the covenant as it entered Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). So how can you celebrate God's faithfulness this week? What would it look like for you to rave about the goodness He's shown to you and your family? Find a way this week to proclaim loudly how good God has been to you in Jesus.

 

 

For further reading...

• The Psalms speak often about praising God in front of other people. See Ps 35:18, Ps 68:26, Ps 96, Ps 107:32, & Ps 145:10-12 among others.
• Read about David making a show of himself to celebrate the return of God's presence to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 6

A Father's Discipline

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord...Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you...He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 5, 16

When we suffer we must remember that God is a loving Father who disciplines us for our good. Sometimes this discipline is in response to our sin, a punishment. Other times it is discipline in a different sense of the word like a father teaching his son the discipline he needs to work hard and hold down a job. Sometimes God "disciplines" us in preparation for the good future He has in store for us. So it was with the people of Israel. As they walked through the dessert and hungered for food it wasn't discipline for some sin they had committed, rather it was preparation for the future. God was teaching them to look to him alone to supply their needs. God did this "so that it might go well with them" in their future. He knew that if they were to fight for the Promised Land and drive out the nations who were much stronger than they were, then they would need to have perfected the skill of trusting Him and looking to Him to supply their needs. 

It is the same with us. It is very easy to get frustrated with God when difficulty comes into our life, but the truth is that these challenges often cause us to grow in new ways. These challenges actually end up providing an opportunity for us to build up the endurance, strength and wisdom we will need in the future. We must remember that God is preparing us for a bright future just like He was the Israelites. Not only does He have plans for each of us here on earth (Ephesians 2:10), but He is also leading us to a "Promised Land" of our own - Heaven. Until the time that we receive this promise in full, He is working in us to conform us more and more into the image of His Son. He is purifying us from sin and teaching us to find our joy in nothing other than Him. But we can rest easy knowing that all the tests that He allows in our life were put there so that "in the end it might go well" with us (Romans 8:28). 

When was the last time you thanked God for difficulty in your life? Today take a moment to praise God for his Fatherly discipline in your life? 

For further reading...

• Romans 8:18-30- Predestined to be conformed into Christ's image.
• Genesis 50:19-20- See what Joseph said about all the suffering he had to endure in life.
• Matthew 4:1-11- See how Jesus used this passage to encourage Himself when He was experiencing a difficult time of His own.

Be Thankful: Serve!

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Mark 1:23-25, 29-31

In the above passage, Jesus shows His hearers, in very tangible ways, that the kingdom of God has truly come. He does this by driving demons out of those they possess and healing illnesses. Though I wouldn't quite call activities such as these routine, they were a quite common part of Jesus' ministry. The reason for this is quite simple. The Bible tells us what the kingdom of God will be like (Isaiah 29:18, 35:5-6, 53:4-5, 61). It's the world as it should be. In the kingdom no one is demon possessed, sick, lame, blind, or deaf. So one way that Jesus can prove that the kingdom of God has truly come in Him is by driving out demons and healing the sick. So this is exactly what he does! And Jesus is able to do this because He has the authority to do so. Jesus is God incarnate, God in human form, the God/man, Immanuel (God with us). He has authority over demons and over disease and so He goes about setting His children free from these shackles that sin has placed on them. 

I love that the Bible records the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, because in such an understated way she shows us how we should react to this shackle-removing work of Christ. Once Jesus heals her, what does she do? She immediately sets out to serve Him and His disciples. Our response to Christ's work really is that simple. When Christ sets us free from what entangles us, whether that be sin, illness, demon possession, or something else, the appropriate response of a thankful heart is faithful service. Thus, in Peter's mother-in-law we have an excellent picture of what all of us as Christians should be doing. Are you thankful for what Jesus has done for you? If so, have you found your place of service in the kingdom? Since Jesus is no longer on this earth, the best way we can serve Him now is by serving His bride the church, and through that service to aid the church in bringing more and more people to a saving knowledge of Him. Are you showing your thankfulness by serving the people of God?

For further reading...

• Luke 10:9, 11:20- Notice the close connection between the healing of the sick and the driving out of demons with the acknowledgment that the kingdom of God has come near.
• Matthew 11:2-6- Notice what proof Jesus gives to John the Baptist's disciples that He truly is the Messiah.
• Isaiah 29:18, 35:5-6, 53:4-5, 61- Read some Old Testament Passages about what kind of kingdom the Messiah would bring with Him.