August 15, 2013

Numbers 14:2 — And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

I’ve been in a meeting today with some folks that are getting great benefits out of the products and services my company has sold them. They’re not really happy. Now don’t get me wrong, we’re note reflect — far from it, but we’re pretty good. The people we were talking to have got really good value. So what was going on?
God had led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He had brought them through the wilderness. He had brought them to the border of the promised land. So we’re the people going to trust Him, march forward and claim their inheritance? I think you know the answer to that one! No, they were going to murmur! They were going to blame Moses and Aaron, quit, and go home. By my count this was one of at least twelve occasions on which the Israelites lost faith in The Lord and murmured against His chosen agents. What was wrong with them?
Here’s the problem. It’s all about perspective. Instead of looking at what God has done for us, and how far we’ve come we look at where we would like to be. Instead of comparing what we have with what we had, we compare what we want with what we have.
Murmuring, grumbling, complaining … We all do it. Is that so bad? Isn’t it just human? Well, yes, it is “just human” — but yes, it is “so bad”. In fact it’s a sin.
Douglas Wilson describes our humanness beautifully, “God gave us minds to think with and hearts to thank with. Instead we use our hearts to think about the world as we would like it to have been, and we use our minds to come up with rationalizations for our ingratitude. We are a murmuring, discontented, unhappy, ungrateful people. And because we think we want salvation from our discontents….”
In our ingratitude, we pervert the purposes God has for our lives. We don’t trust Him when He says that He has a plan for our lives. We don’t accept that He will make all things work together for our good. As another writer said, “To swear is wicked because it is taking God’s name in vain. To murmur is likewise wicked for it takes God’s promises in vain.”
There’s not much, in the end, that I can do about ungrateful customers. There’s nothing at all I can do about the murmuring Israelites! I can do something about me. I am resolved to have a more grateful heart. If you catch me murmuring, remind me to compare where I am with where I used to be and where I’m going with where I might have been!