Do NOT complain against God!
For over 400
years, the Israelites had been living in the fertile land of Goshen in Egypt.
Now they were gloriously delivered from bondage, but were traveling through the
wilderness. Instead of focusing on their glorious redemption from slavery, they
soon started complaining against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, which were
actually complaints against God (Exodus 16:7-8). They focused on their physical
needs little knowing that God was teaching them to trust in God’s provisions
alone. Then the whole congregation of the
children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And
the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the
LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate
bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill
this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:2-3). God heard their
complaints and provided them bread in the morning and meat in the evening
daily. And the LORD spoke to Moses,
saying, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them,
saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled
with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God’” (Exodus
16:11-12). After a while they started complaining for water (Exodus 17:3), and
God provided them plentiful water to satisfy their thirst from the rock (Exodus
17:5-6).
This
complaining continued all the way throughout the wilderness journey even until
the Israelites reached the outskirts of Canaan. Eventually God became very
angry at the endless complaints of the Israelites and consumed many of them
through fire (see Numbers 11:1-15), and finally decided that none of the people
who complained would enter the Promised Land except for Joshua and Caleb (see
Numbers 14:26-35). Such a tragic ending
to the people of God who could not reach their destination because they were
constantly complaining and not trusting in God!
Apostle Paul
taking examples from the Old Testament exhorts us clearly that we should not “complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the
destroyer. Now all these things
happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon
whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:10-11). Again in Philippians
2:14-15 he warns us: “Do all things without complaining and
disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God
without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you
shine as lights in the world”
Let us never complain against God – no matter what adversities come in our lives!
