Numbers 11:19-20 provide an amazingly vivid picture of how we humans can complain to the point of angering God.
“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?”’”
These words sent to the Israelites through Moses make it quite clear that God was deeply irritated by the Israelites’ whining about how life was “better” in Egyptian bondage.
The people neglected to recall the frequent beatings, long days of back-breaking work and loss of all civil rights. It seemed that the only things they recalled from generations of brutal slavery were the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic (vv. 5-6) they weren’t getting in the desert.
Even though God was meeting their nutritional needs with daily manna sent from heaven — at no cost to them — that wasn’t good enough.
They wanted meat and were going to gripe to high heaven because they weren’t getting it.
They would get it, all right.
Verses 31-32 describes how God sent a massive number of quail that promptly died when flying over the camp, so many so that the dead birds were three feet deep “all around the camp” for a days’ walk in any direction.
Wow.
To a bunch of whiners, the idea of eating only quail as meat for years probably became mentally and emotionally nauseous.
But they wanted meat and that’s what they received.
It’s quite a pathetic testimony to human nature, isn’t it?
Our challenge after reading such accounts is to avoid griping as if it were the plague.
God has done so many good things for us that we don’t deserve.
He has saved our souls from eternity in hell, if we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.
The last thing He needs to hear — or wants to hear — is whining about how our job isn’t fun or about how our spouse isn’t as funny or as romantic as other spouses or about how we wish our kids or our siblings or our pastor were more like the successful ones we see in the lives of others.
The fact is that if we’re breathing, we’re blessed.
Millions of people take their last breaths every day, most of whom will not be spending eternity in heaven.
If you’re saved, you’re ahead of the game.
Remember that and resist any temptation to gripe about something that you believe is less than perfect.
If anybody has a right to gripe, it is God. Because you and I are WAY short of perfect.
Listen, it’s not right to anger the God who delivered you from bondage and provides what you need to serve Him.
Let’s remember that the “manna and quail” provided by God through our tight budgets are a whole lot better than nothing.
Let’s remember that their are billions of people around the world who would trade places with us in a moment.
“Thank you, God, for your grace..”
“And thank you for forgiving our whining whenever we slip into such behavior.”
As always, I love you
Martin
