A word to the whiners
Numbers 11 - part 1
20th September 2006
I recently preached a 3-point sermon (yes, even I do that occasionally) on Numbers 11. This weeks' column is on the first of these three points. The next two columns are likely to be on the others. They're called "a word to the leaders" and "a word to the exhausted". I hope they're a blessing to you.
First, we read:
Numbers 11v1-3
Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger
was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down.
So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the LORD had burned among them.
We learn two things from this paragraph.
Firstly, God is slow to anger, but He does get angry eventually. If we whine and complain bitterly enough, and often enough, then God will rouse Himself in judgement sooner or later.
Secondly, the outskirts of the camp is a dangerous place to be. Don't stay on the periphery of the church, don't always sit at the back, don't spend too much time with the disaffected. The spirit of complaining and dissatisfaction is contagious. Much better to throw yourself into the work of the church, find a way to serve, be one of the people who give of their time and energies to the work of the gospel and the encouragement of the church. Stay free from the spirit of whining.
Numbers 11v4-6
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!"
We can be so quick to forget the lessons God teaches us! Not long after fire from The Lord had burned up some of the outskirts of the camp, the "rabble" among them started complaining again! Are you one of the "rabble"? Are you always discontented and complaining? Or do you always give glory to God and build up and bless His people?
They were complaining about the boring nature of the diet God had provided for them. It was boring - they had nothing to eat but manna - morning, noon and night. But they'd forgotten that this was God's miraculous provision for them. More important, they'd forgotten that God had freed them from slavery in Egypt, and destroyed their enemies at the Red Sea, and that He was bringing them into the Promised Land.
So it is with complaining Christians. Have we forgotten that God has set us free from slavery to sin and death? Have we forgotten than Jesus has triumphed over our enemies at the cross and stripped them of their power over us? Have we lost sight of the fact that God is bringing us to eternal bliss with Him in Heaven?
And have we forgotten all the times in the past when God set us free from situations that seemed to be impossible?
Sometimes, the Christian life can feel boring and unfulfilling. Sometimes, it's "manna, followed by manna, with a side serving of manna". Sometimes all you get to see when you look out of your tent flap in the morning is another set of sand dunes. Sometimes you wish you could be certain that God's deliverance from your problems was coming soon. But we don't know WHEN God will set us free from the problems that beset us. We just know that He will. We get to the top of the next sand dune, and what do we see? Another sand dune! But we don't know if the next one will be the last - maybe God's deliverance from what's troubling us now will be tomorrow, or maybe years away. But we do know (or should know) that He is good, and He is well able to deliver us.
The Sinai desert was hot, boring and uncomfortable. But if they'd obeyed God and kept themselves from whining, they would have arrived in Canaan in just a few weeks!
This week, we're only looking at the verses that apply to the whiners. So we move on to:
Numbers 11v18-20
[The Lord said to Moses] Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation
for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We
were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.
You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,
but for a whole month - until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it - because you have rejected the
LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'
In judgement, God decided to give the people what they ask for - until they loathed it. Sometimes, what we think we want is not actually something that's going to be good for us. And when we get it, we find out how unsatisfying it really is, and we come to loathe it. Of course, that's why God didn't give it to us in the first place. But God can sometimes discipline us by actually giving us what we want - so that we'll learn not to crave what God doesn't want us to have.
Why did God bring this judgement? After all, didn't Moses also complain to God from time to time? Didn't David, and Jeremiah, and many other great religious leaders complain? God answers this question - He says it's "because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"
Every Christian can come before God and ask Him why life is as tough as it is. But when we get as far as saying "Why did we ever leave Egypt?", that is, "maybe it would have been better for me never to become a Christian at all!", then God's anger is aroused. When we talk about going back to our old godless lives, God is offended. How dare we talk about His great salvation in that way?
Hebrews 10v29-31
How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot,
who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the
Spirit of grace?
For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So let's watch our hearts and our tongues.
A bit further on, we read:
Numbers 11v31-34
Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to
about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction.
All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No-one gathered less than
ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp.
But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned
against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other
food.
God did what they asked. They had more meat than they could eat. But God also brought disease and death. It is indeed a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I know this column is a bit heavy. I just want to encourage any of my dear brothers and sisters in Christ - if your life is so difficult at the moment that you feel like giving up, if you want to complain to God and tell Him you wish you'd never been saved, if you're about to turn away from Him and His great salvation, I plead with you. Remember what He has saved you from. Remember what trials He's already brought you through. Comfort yourself with the thought that the problems you face will one day disappear - and that day may be soon!
May God Himself grant you perseverance in the face of your difficulties - whatever they are. And may His grace and mercy deliver you from your trials soon.