Do we test God's patience? Should we lighten up on the Israelites that grumbled in the desert? Is Scripture written for our instruction -- that we might learn from the mistakes (even the real big dumb ones) that they made?
In this chapter we hear that the wole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They said stuff like, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
I guess if we had any degrees of 'right-ness' in our looking back to judge these guys, it might be based upon the fact that these people had seen the hand of God move mightily, and they were also fresh off another miraculous show of God's provision -- the bitter water being made sweet enough to drink by Moses tossing a piece of wood into it. Surely they could have had faith that God was with them and would provide. But like a bad cold, grumbling and negativity can spread like a fire amongst people. I notice this a lot at large gatherings, how one complaint about the food or the service, for example, can spread from one person to the next. It takes guts and a "devil may care" attitude to stop the bad attitude (curse, maybe?) from spreading any more. To reverse the curse, so to speak, by saying, "Give the wait staff a break! They're obviously over-worked or might be having a bad day." I've tried this a few times. No one likes to be the spoiler or be seen as the "Type A guy," but with a little tact and creativity, the tide can be turned with a compliment or positive idea. This, too, can spread amongst people. You know, when the person next to you says, "This movie stinks! The acting is bad and look at that phony-looking CGI effect! How elementary!" It's hard to disagree with that person sometimes, but it can be done. The people in the desert surely tested God's patience, but like a good leader, they made sure to take care of the group. Maybe God knew they were going to grumble or knew they were going to be served by Him ... but maybe at a later time than the people were comfortable with or expecting.
"I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
God sent quails in the evening to settle over the camp, so they could all eat meat every day. Then He sent "manna" in the morning, which settled like dew on the ground. Of course, some people tested the limits and disobeyed the instructions to "only gather what you need -- one mer for each person" and also not to gather any on the sabbath. People who kept too much saw the manna get filled with maggots and stink. This made Moses mad. Some people went out to gather on the sabbath. Moses wasn't happy with this, either.
God also asked them to put some of the manna in a jar to save. It's a miracle that this provision behaved like it did. It rotted after one day, but after the sixth day it lasted for two. And the manna they kept in the jar lasted for years and years and years.
Ever wonder what it tasted like? Verse 31 explains: "It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey." Sounds pretty good.
Going back to the grumbling: Let's just say it's a drag when people grumble against you. Most of the time they have a justified (in their minds, of course) reason to be unhappy, but it's often circumstances that can be overlooked and "gotten over" without the negative comments. It's shows forebearance when a parent, leader, teacher, boss, pastor meets the needs or answers the grumbling of the people. Some leaders have to put up with some petty crap. Some churches hear complaints when they start making announcements at the end of the message instead of between worship and the sermon. Others actually complain about the color of the carpet or the feel of the chairs. Ya gotta have thick skin to lead people. It's no wonder that God refers to us as "sheep." We're pretty stupid sometimes. It's a good thing He loves us (and is a Good Shepherd).
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 4, 2007 09:49 AM