GOD IS NOT HAPPY WHEN WE COMPLAIN!

 

Every once in a while, God knocks me off my feet with something in His Word. When it happens, in body or in spirit, I find myself on my knees in His presence, doing business.

 

On one particular day, as I was reading through the sometime-interesting, sometimes-difficult book of Numbers, I came across Chapter 11:1.

 

“And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.”

 

Like a shot, God “knocked me off my feet” and my heart fell prostrate before Him immediately. The lesson: He hates grumbling and complaining. It makes Him angry. It makes Him very angry.

 

Before I even considered the consequences of this new episode of murmuring by the children of Israel in the desert, I did a fairly comprehensive evaluation of myself on the subject and my heart was severely convicted. Before any fear, I was saddened to think that the Israelites had pushed God so far with their whining that He was “very wroth.” My heart responded with, “Oh, God, I don’t want to be a complainer.”

 

Down the page a little ways was another statement that sobered me even further.

 

Verse 10: “Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.

 

The Bible says that when Moses heard every man standing in the door of his tent complaining, he was “very wroth.”

 

How evil to complain against God! How evil, too, to complain against God’s leader! Was I guilty of murmuring against the pastor, against my husband? Not often, but often enough to make me hear God’s whisper in my ear. Then and there, I made a conscious decision to set out upon a path of contentment and support for the leaders in my life.

 

It was not the first time the children of Israel had murmured and that is why, no doubt, the penalty was severe. Many were killed. II Corinthians 10 speaks of the murmuring of the Israelites, (written for our learning, by the way), and if there are any doubts about what God is trying to teach us in the Numbers passage, Paul leaves none.

 

I Corinthians 10:6: Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

 

I Corinthians 10:10,11: And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

 

(Read about the destroying angel in I Chronicles 21:15. Read the whole chapter.  The account is graphic and grave. Our God is a consuming fire and it is a fearful thing to fall into His hands.)

 

Does God commission His destroying angel in this day and age? I think He does. I believe God has dealt severely with me when I have persisted in my sin. Yet, the stories of God’s dealings with the Jews, and the story of the destroying angel in David’s case, are rich with God’s tenderness and mercy and compassion.

 

I respect both His discipline and His mercy. I count both as precious and loving gifts from my Father. Yet, discipline becomes unnecessary when there is a soft and tender heart towards God and a sensitivity to what pleases Him and what does not.

 

God says, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings.” When walking closely with Him, complaining and grumbling and murmuring are replaced with a tender and quiet spirit of thankfulness, acceptance, contentment, and enthusiastic joy at what He has seen fit to bring into our lives.