No Whining Allowed - Part 1

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It was in the 1970’s that there was a popular television program that was a parody of contemporary politics and culture. It was often irreverent and sometimes it was downright hilarious. Perhaps unwittingly it often provided a sort of insightful perspective into American culture. It was a sort of satire of popular behavior. One of the recurring skits on this particular television program was a family named the Whiners. Everything they said, they whined. They whined about this and they whined about that, but everything was constant whining.

Well, if whining was popular in the 1970’s, today it is epidemic. It has become a sort of new national pastime. If you doubt that, just listen when you’re standing in line at the bank or at the grocery store or at the department store. I love to do that because you get an earful, either from the people standing in line with you, complaining about the service or the prices of things or some other person. Or my personal favorite is when you’re standing in line and you’re in a store where the cashiers don’t even acknowledge that you exist, instead they’re carrying on a long running conversation between each other and often that conversation is about the company, the management, the troubles that they’re facing there on the job. You get a real education.

Pick up the newspaper and you read in the sports section about a star athlete. Somebody, just about every day it seems, you read about somebody who’s making somewhere between 10 and 100 times more than the president of the United States and he’s complaining. He’s grumbling because he’s not being paid what he’s worth.

We laugh when we read those things or when they’re parodied for us in the culture but, and it is humorous – to us. But it’s not to God. Grumbling, complaining, whining is not an insignificant sin. I want you to turn, as we start this morning, to 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 10. And Paul here is describing the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel, the 40 years in which they wandered, and he says this in verse 6, he says, well verse 5 he says, “with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.” That’s a euphemism for they were buried. They were laid very low, like six feet below ground.

Now, verse 6 says,

these things happened as examples for us, [that’s a pretty serious example] so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

Those are pretty serious sins, the sins of idolatry, of immorality, of testing God. But Paul isn’t done. Notice what he adds into that mix, verse 10,

Nor grumble [nor complain], as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

Paul is reminding us of the children of Israel and he’s reminding us that one of the sins that God judged them for was the sin of grumbling and complaining. That’s what Paul has in mind when we come to Philippians 2.

This specific issue of whining or what the Bible calls grumbling, complaining, murmuring, is dealt with in Philippians 2:14-18. This week and next, Lord willing, I want us to look at those five verses together. Let me read them for you, beginning in verse 14 of Philippians 2. Paul writes,

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

This passage, this paragraph, is easy to outline. The first part of the section is the prohibition or the command, you could put it negatively or positively, and it’s in verse 14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” Verses 15 to 18 provide us the reasons. Notice it begins, verse 15, with “so that,” for this purpose, for this reason.

Today I want us to look at the prohibition itself and next week, Lord willing, we’ll look at the reasons that he provides in verses 15 to 18. So let’s look at this prohibition. We’re not to do certain things; he says, “Do all things,” verse 14, “without grumbling or disputing.” Now, to understand the intent that Paul has here we have to understand what he’s alluding to. Essentially, Paul has in mind the circumstances surrounding Old Testament Israel and the 40 years of wilderness wandering.

How do we know that? Well, a couple of reasons we know that’s true. One, because the only other place this word grumbling, the only other place Paul uses it in the New Testament is in the passage we just looked at in 1 Corinthians 10 which takes us back to those days. Also, in verse 15 of Philippians 2 he alludes to Deuteronomy 32:5 and that passage is also dealing with that part of Israel’s history. So undoubtedly, when Paul says “Do all things without grumblings or disputing,” he’s looking back at what happened to Old Testament Israel after they left Egypt. Now, why is that important for us, why should we know that? Because you have to understand what Paul is trying to describe for us. He is urging us to look at our Christian lives as a kind of pilgrimage, a pilgrimage much like that of Old Testament Israel. They left Egypt, they were on their way to the promised land. He said, think of your Christian life and experience like that. And when you do, whatever you do, don’t follow the example Old Testament Israel set for us.

Look at Psalm 106. Psalm 106 is one of several Psalms that describe sort of a history, God’s commentary on the events in Israel. And in Psalm 106:24 God says this about what happened in the wilderness,

they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe in His word, but grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the LORD. Therefore He swore to them that He would cast them down in the wilderness, that he would cast their seed among the nations and scatter them in the lands.

Paul says, that’s what happened and I don’t want that to happen to you on your Christian pilgrimage; don’t follow their example.

Now, how does this command fit in the context of what Paul has been saying in Philippians 2? Well, you remember we’ve been looking, we’re looking for a number of weeks in detail at the issue in verses 12 and 13 of sanctification. We are commanded to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” That is, we are to pursue our own sanctification. We’re to pursue holiness. Verse 13, because, we’re to work hard, because “God is at work in you.” God is at work in you both to change your will and to empower you to obey. God is sovereignly at work in us for our benefit. And if God is sovereignly at work, if He’s sovereign in our lives and nothing happens to us outside of His control and plan, both in my circumstances and in me, God’s the one who’s doing all of these things, to complain, to whine, to grumble, is really to question the character of God. It’s to question His power. It’s to question His goodness. It’s to question His wisdom.

So as Paul gives us the command to pursue sanctification, to keep our eyes set on the goal, he says, as you do that don’t grumble and don’t dispute. Why? Because it reflects on God. Notice the command itself. He says, verse 14, “Do all things.” Now again, in the context he’s referring back to our working out of our salvation. He’s talking about the totality of our Christian lives. It’s completely comprehensive. He’s saying look, as you live your Christian life, “Do all things without grumbling and disputing,” completely comprehensive. There is never a circumstance in your life as a believer in which grumbling and disputing is appropriate.

Now let’s look at these two things in detail that we’re not to do, because it’s important. It’s important to God, it needs to be important to us. What exactly are we forbidden from doing? The first word is grumbling, no grumbling. It’s an interesting Greek word. It’s like the English word murmur. It’s onamonopoetic. You know what that means? It means that the word sounds like what it means. Listen to the word murmur: murmur, murmur, murmur. The Greek word is the same way. It’s intended to sound like what it means. It refers to muttering in a low voice as a sign of displeasure, sometimes speaking only to yourself, other times speaking secretly or whispering to others.

This is not a new temptation or sin. It goes all the way back to the beginning. It started with Adam. You know, Adam sins and what’s the first thing he does when he gets caught? He complains to God about the woman God gave him. Well I also found some interesting. expressions of this in the papyri. That is, in the Greek writings of the time. Listen to this, some things never change, in the papyri one manager writes to another: “The gang of workman are murmuring, saying that they are being mistreated.” Sound familiar at your workplace?

You see, grumbling is when you are expressing dissatisfaction with your circumstances, whether it’s under your breath to yourself or whether it’s to others. It’s interesting, if you look back in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for grumbling or murmuring, it is concentrated in Exodus and Numbers during the period of the wilderness wandering. So it’s not surprising that Paul is alluding back to that because that’s where that word occurs most frequently. Let me show you how this plays out back in Exodus. Turn to Exodus 16 for a moment. Because this is what Paul is alluding to when he’s telling us not to do it, it’s important that we understand sort of what’s going on back here in the Old Testament.

In Exodus and Numbers, the subject of the grumbling, that is, those who are doing the grumbling, is usually all of the congregation of Israel. The object of their grumbling is usually Moses and Aaron. I want you to see this; look at Exodus 16:1.

Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. [Now watch verse 2.] The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled [and notice against whom] against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

Now grumbling, and this is, as I’ve traced it through, this is almost universally true, grumbling usually finds its initial attack against your circumstances or other people. When we grumble it is usually against something that’s happening to us or some other person who has upset us.

However, what I want you to see is that ultimately even though we think we’re only grumbling against another person or we’re only grumbling against our circumstances, God doesn’t see it that way. Grumbling God sees as against Him as a personal affront to His character. Notice the same chapter there, Exodus 16, remember verse 2 they were grumbling against Moses and Aaron, so what did God hear? Verse 6, So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?” [Verse 8,] Moses said, “This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning; for the LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not [in reality] against us, they’re against the LORD.”

And that is universally true. In the end, our complaining is always against God because ultimately if God is sovereign then the circumstances and the people that He brings into our lives are under His control. To grumble against them is to grumble against God.

Now, before you’re too hard on the children of Israel, realize that they did have what would look on a human level like a legitimate concern. I mean after all, they were hungry and they were thirsty in the desert. But they sinned because they doubted God and they cast aspersions on His character. This word murmur, this word complain, both in the Old and New Testament, both the Hebrew and the Greek, means to express resentment, dissatisfaction, anger and complaint, by talking in half muted tones, either to yourself or to someone else. Now, I’m sure there are only two or three people under the sound of my voice this morning that ever struggle with this issue, so I apologize to the rest of you.

This attitude is clearly forbidden in Scripture. We saw it in 1 Corinthians 10:10, “Don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” Listen to Lamentations 3:39, “Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?” Listen, you don’t have anything to complain about. Look how God has dealt with you in grace and mercy. You’re getting a lot more than you deserve. When we murmur it’s always because we think our rightful expectations are not being met.

You see, something happens, sometimes it’s trivial. Let’s just be honest, a lot of times our complaining is about trivial unimportant things, or at least that’s where I find myself. I find it a lot easier when the major issues and troubles and tragedies of life strike, to acknowledge God’s sovereign purpose and to humble myself under His plan. But when the trivial occurs it can be a little more challenging. For example, you’re in a hurry to get somewhere and every light is red. Or, if you’re like me, you choose, again, the slowest line in the grocery store. Someone with a bigger S.U.V. cuts you off and slows you down.

But other times the circumstances are much more serious. You’re told that you or a family member has cancer. Your company lays you off. You have a miscarriage. Your spouse leaves you. A parent or a spiritual mentor, someone you love dearly, dies prematurely. If we listen to ourselves we can easily develop self-pity, we can buy into a sort of victim mindset. And when that happens, whether it’s in a trivial situation or whether it’s in a life tragedy, and we begin to buy into the victim mindset, how do we respond? Our first response is, God it’s just not fair, it’s not fair. You see, complaining is our natural response when we believe our rights have been violated.

Turn to Matthew 20, Matthew 20. You see this in a biblical parable that Christ tells. You remember, and I won’t take time to go through the whole thing, but you remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard. They are standing out there, they are day laborers. Now, you don’t see that a lot in Texas, at least I haven’t seen much of that. But in California, on my way to work every day there were intersections where there would be, the corners would be filled with day laborers standing there waiting for somebody in a truck to drive by, pick them up to go do yard work or whatever kind of work they needed for that day.

So there were day laborers standing around waiting. The master of the vineyard comes along in the break of dawn and says, okay, you guys come with me, I’ll pay you a denarius, which was a day’s wages, and so if you want to work, come with me. And so a group went. He comes back again at different times. Notice verse 3, “the third hour,” that’s nine am. Verse 5, “the sixth hour,” that’s noon. And “the ninth hour,” that’s three o’clock in the afternoon. And verse 6, “the eleventh hour,” that’s five o’clock in the afternoon. He comes back and in each one of those times he gets more workers for the vineyard.

Well, the sun starts setting and it’s time to settle up with the day laborers as the Old Testament required, to settle up with them that day. And so he tells his foreman, he says listen, I want you to start by paying those who started at five o’clock in the afternoon, and I want you to give them a denarius, a day’s labor, a day’s wages. And so you can imagine the glee of these people who were waiting around hoping for work, didn’t get it until five o’clock, and then they get a whole day’s wages for their couple of hours of work. So the guys in the back of the line who started first thing in the morning are thinking, okay, you know, let’s, we must be figuring in some inflation here because if they got paid a denarius, then what are we going to get paid? Wow.

Well, it’s a story about the grace of God and as he makes the conclusion, verse 16, “the last shall be first, and the first last,” the grace of God is applied equally in spite of desert. But what I want you to see is how human the response is of those who were hired first. Verse 10, “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a day’s wages.” They’re going, wait a minute, I worked all day! This guy started at five o’clock, he’s getting paid the same thing. It’s not fair. Verse 12, or verse 11 rather, “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner.”

You see, their perceived rights had been violated. You see the same thing with the prodigal son’s older brother. You remember? In Luke 15, how the brother, the prodigal comes home, he gets a party, the father greets him, it’s a wonderful illustration of how God greets lost sinners, joy in heaven because of that. But the older brother represents the Pharisees in the story and they weren’t happy that God was showing grace to those they didn’t see deserved it. So what happens? The older brother, verse 28, becomes angry and he “was not willing to go in” to the party. I’m going to take my dolls and go home; I’m not going to be a part of your party.

and his father came out and began pleading with him. And he answered, said to his father, “Look! For, [never good when it starts that way] Look! For so many years I’ve been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, that I may celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.

You see, his perceived rights had been violated. What he thought he deserved had been violated. When we murmur against God, it’s just like these examples, we murmur because God isn’t doing the things the way we think He should, or He isn’t treating us like we think we deserve.

You see, what’s really happening when we complain is we have become God’s judge. We’re saying, God, You messed up. My standard of fairness has been violated and I know better than You know. I’ve got a better plan. Well, God takes complaining against His plan and His providence very seriously.

Look back to Numbers again. Let me show you how God responds to complaining and grumbling about His purpose. Numbers 14:27, God says, “‘How long will I bear with this evil generation, or congregation rather, who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me.’” Remember now, they were usually centered against Moses and Aaron but God saw them as directed at Him personally because He’s the sovereign; He’s the one really in charge. Verse 28,

“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.’”

And He did it. All of those who were older than 20 years of age died in the wilderness, except the two who brought back the favorable report. God said, I’m done, this is it, took it very seriously.

Notice Numbers 16:41, the same thing, “on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” This time it’s because of the death of Korah and those who were involved in his rebellion. And he said, they said, “‘You are the ones who have caused the death of the LORD’S people.’” I don’t see how they connected that dot, but that’s the conclusion they came to. And look at the LORD’S response. He comes down, verse 42, the shekinah cloud, came down to the “tent of meeting,”

Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent and the LORD said this to Moses, “Get away from the congregation, that I may consume them instantly.”

And then Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, Moses says, “‘Take your censer, fill it with fire from the altar, lay incense on it; bring it quickly to the congregation, make atonement for them, for wrath has gone forth from the LORD, the plague has begun!’”

God takes questioning His wisdom, His plan, His providence, very seriously. And let me just give you a danger here. There’s a danger of never thinking that you complain. You see, people who struggle with complaining hardly ever call it that. They’ll say, well, you know, I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out the obvious. I’m not complaining, I’m just speaking for everyone else. I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out the ridiculous decision that someone in charge made.

I saw this this week as I was reading. Josephus, the Jewish historian, was describing in his writings the events at Merah, you remember, when the people complained and God judged them as a result of it. But he kind of redefines the story a little bit, he retells it, and he redefines murmuring, which is what God said they did, as “an urgent appeal for help.” That’s how we do, we redefine it into something else. But God says, no grumbling.

There’s a second wrong response to our circumstances that Paul mentions back in Philippians 2. He says, no grumbling and secondly, no disputing. The word disputing literally means, to think through. You’ll recognize the English word in the Greek word. The Greek word is dialogismos. Our English word dialogue comes from it. It can be an argument with someone else, but in this context, especially with grumbling here, it’s best to see it as a sort of internal dispute. It’s an internal skepticism, questioning, or criticism. It’s a mental dialogue which ultimately calls God into question. Bishop Lightfoot in his commentary calls it “intellectual rebellion against God.” You see, disputing God is questioning His actions. It’s putting God and what He’s doing on trial in which you are the judge and jury.

Now, let me give you the comparison of the two words. To grumble, this first word we looked at, is to be dissatisfied and discontent with your circumstances. It’s often focused on your circumstances or on other people even though, eventually, as God says, it’s against Him. But to dispute is to direct that dissatisfaction against God by calling His plans and His acts into question, either with Him personally in prayer or with those around you, or even in your own mind, disputing with God. Discontentment and dissatisfaction, left unchecked, will always lead to disputing with God. This is when you say: God, I disagree. Why are You doing this? This isn’t right . This isn’t fair. You get the word that some disaster has struck in your family and your response is, it’s not fair God! Disputing, arguing with God.

The clearest biblical example, there are several, but the one that I want you to see this morning is Jonah. Turn to Jonah 4. Here’s a prime example of inward dissatisfaction and grumbling growing into full blown disputing with God. You’re familiar with the story of Jonah, of course, how God called him to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. Assyria was the nemesis of Israel at that time. Assyria was filled with violence. In fact, if I had time to recount for you, they were a terribly violent people. They would be like the modern day terrorists’ country, terrorist nation, where all kinds of things brutally happen.

And Jonah, when he heard that God was sending him there, he was grumbling in his heart, he was dissatisfied, and he so much didn’t want to go there that he jumps on a ship to go to Tarshish, the opposite direction. But he didn’t want to go there, not because he was afraid of what the people there might do to him or something like that. No, he tells us why. Turn to Jonah 4, because his dissatisfaction, his discontent, his grumbling, grows into arguing and disputing with God. Notice verse, let’s look at verse 10 of chapter 3. Jonah preached and “when God saw their deeds,” that is, their repentance, “that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them.” And he didn’t do it. It’s wonderful!

No, it’s not. Verse 1, chapter 4, “But this greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.” Not the usual response of an evangelist when an entire city turns to God. Verse 2, he prays to the Lord and he said, LORD,

“Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? [This is exactly what I told you would happen God.] Therefore in order to forestall this, [to keep this from happening,] I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life for me, for death is better to me than life.”

See what’s happening here? Jonah didn’t want God to extend mercy to those people because they were such terrible people and they were such enemies of Israel, and they had wreaked such havoc on the nation. And he was dissatisfied. He was grumbling in his heart. He was discontent with that. He takes a ship and heads to Tarshish. And then, because he doesn’t deal with the root issue, even though he agrees to go to Nineveh because of, he was pretty well compelled to. And that’s the direction the fish spit him I think, on the way to Nineveh. He didn’t deal with the root issue and so eventually it comes out in disputing with God.

You ever dispute with God? You ever have tragedy strike in your life and question the purpose and plans of God? Argue with God about what He’s doing? God makes it clear that we are never to dispute with Him about what He does in our lives or the lives of others. Daniel 4:35, Nebuchadnezzar says, “‘God does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can ward off His hand nor can anyone say to Him, “What have you done?”’” Why did you do that God? It’s not the right response. Romans 9:19-21, talking about election, the writer of Romans says, “doesn’t the potter have a right over the clay?”

You see, we’re offended because of our rights. We don’t have rights. The Potter has a right with the clay. Whether you’re talking about divine election or whether you’re talking about the circumstances of our lives.

Now, Paul says, no grumbling, no disputing. Let me just ask you, what are the two most common forms that our whining and complaining takes? I want to just briefly look at that in the few minutes we have remaining. What are the common forms that our whining and complaining take? Turn back to Numbers 11. You can see it in the children of Israel and the example that Paul’s alluding to here. First of all, we tend to grumble and dispute with God about His providence. That is, the circumstances of our lives, the things that occur in life.

Notice this in Numbers 11:1, “Now the people became like those who complain,” that’s the, in the Septuagint that word complain is the same Greek word as in Philippians 2, “they complain of adversity.” Adversity means evil or misfortune. It was used to describe extreme tragedy or difficulty. What was their difficulty? What was their adversity? It was desert travel. It’s interesting, look back at verse 33 of Numbers 10. They had only been journeying for three days and they are complaining about desert travel. This is the ancient equivalent of, are we there yet?

You know, imagine you have trouble with your one or two kids sitting in the back seat, or five kids or whatever, saying, are we there yet? Imagine Moses and Aaron with 2,000,000 in the back seat. Are we there yet? Now what are they complaining about? What is this adversity? I love what Matthew Henry writes. He says,

Interpreters inquire what they complained of, and truly, when they were furnished with so much matter for thanksgiving one may justly wonder where they found any matter for complaint. It is probable that those who complained did not all agree in the cause. Some perhaps, complained that they were removed from Mount Sinai where they had been rest for so long. Others, that they didn’t remove sooner. Some complained of the weather [always true]. Others of the route they were taking. Some perhaps thought three days’ journey was too long a march. Others thought it wasn’t long enough, because it wouldn’t bring them to Canaan. When we consider how their camp was guided, guarded, graced [that’ll preach] and what good food they had, and good company, and what care was taken of them in their marches that their feet should not swell nor their clothes wear out, we may ask, “What could have been done more for a people to make it easy?” And yet they complained.

Matthew Henry writes, “Note those that are of a fretful discontented spirit will always find something or other to quarrel with, though the circumstances of their outward condition be ever so favorable.” You don’t have to have a good reason. If you struggle with complaining, you can find something to complain about. What’s sad about these children of Israel is that they forgot that their troubles were only temporary. They were only three or four weeks from possessing a land God said flowed with milk and honey.

How often do we find ourselves in the midst of our own wilderness experience and we lose sight of the reality that it’s for a short time. You know, if it’s for our entire lives, what does Paul say in 2 Corinthians? He says, listen, whatever affliction you’re facing now, it’s light and it works for you “an eternal weight of glory.” Lloyd Jones writes, “God will sometimes put you in places you don’t like. There will be days when you will not seem to have any water to quench your thirst. There will be days when the food will not seem to be interesting. You will find that there will be occasions when you will say, ‘Why this? Why has God brought me to this? God says he loves me and he’s my Father, so why is this happening?’” There’s only one Biblical response and that’s what James tells us, “Brothers, when you fall into various trials, count it,” or consider it, “all joy,” pure joy. Why? Because “the testing of your faith produces endurance.” And endurance will prove to you that you’re the real thing.

There’s another common source of complaining; not only complaining about God’s providence in our lives, but God’s provision for us. These people did that. Notice what God’s provision for them was, verse 7, they had manna. Psalm 78 tells us that manna was the food of angels, the bread of angels. It’s described here as being, and in Exodus 16:31, you can look up the two verses, you put the two together and it’s described as being white like a coriander seed. In other words, it was used as a condiment, much as poppy seeds and sesame seeds are used today. And it was like bdellium. In in other words, it had a sort of gum-like resin quality. It tasted, verse 8 says, “of cakes baked with oil.” And in Exodus 16:31 it says it tasted “like wafers with honey.” It’s kind of the ancient equivalent of Golden Grahams, if you will. The process, verses 8 and 9 it was spelled out, it was ground up, boiled, and made into cakes.

Now, before you’re too hard on the children of Israel for complaining, realize at this point they have eaten manna for a year. Now, I’m sure the first, second week it was like, wow, this is pretty good stuff, tastes good, it’s easy to gather, it’s there, and it’s angel food. Isn’t that exciting? But you know, day 363, 364, 365, it’s manna, manna, manna, so they complained.

Notice verse 4, “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires.” The rabble simply are those non-Israelites, both Egyptians and others, who travelled with them from Egypt. This was a mixed multitude. You can bet there were a lot of different reasons for these people being there. Everything from those who were truly converted to the true God of Israel as they watched the plagues unfold in Egypt, to those who were just along for the ride. Some who were petty thieves and criminals running from the law, you know, just like we see when we see the boat lifts and other refugees. It’s a mix. So this rabble create discontent.

Then notice verse 4, “also the sons of Israel.” It often happens this way in the culture around us. The culture tempts us to be discontent with what God has provided. Notice, “The rabble,” it says, “had greedy desires.” In the Hebrew it literally says, “they craved a craving.” They had a craving flung on them. For what? For food. Specifically, verse 5 says, for fish, cucumbers, melons, onions, leeks, and garlic. Anybody having that for lunch? You know, I could understand it if they were craving fried catfish, hushpuppies, a good Texas steak, but leeks and garlics?

It’s interesting, when you look at 1 Corinthians 10 it says, “they craved,” what? “Evil things.” And yet, here it says they craved food. Why would God say that was an evil thing? Well, you have to compare the two accounts of Exodus and Numbers. In Exodus, when the people asked for food, when they complain about food, God gives them manna. Here, God has an entirely different response, a response of judgement. Why? Because in Exodus there was a genuine need. They didn’t have any food; they needed food. In Numbers, they’re not complaining about not having food, they’re complaining about not enough variety in their food. They’re complaining about God’s provision.

I love the revisionist history. Notice verse 5, “we used to eat free in Egypt.” Yeah, well, they left out a pretty crucial point. It’s only been a year since they left Egypt, they forgot that they were slaves; that’s why they ate free. Notice verse 6, our, literally our nefesh, our whole person is dried up, our soul is withered; we’re withering away to nothing with this manna. What’s God’s response? Notice the interesting conversation that takes place between Moses and God in verse 21. “Moses said,” you know, God promises to feed them,

Moses says, “The people, among who I am, are 600,000 on foot; [in other words, those are just those marching,] yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”

He says, God you’ve made a promise I can’t deliver on! Verse 23, this is a crucial point, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Is the LORD’S power limited?’”

Now, this is an absolutely crucial point for you to get. God’s point is this, there is no lack in His ability to provide meat. The reason, and let me personalize it for all of us, the reason God has provided for us the way He has, has nothing to do with a shortage in His power. Instead, it has to do with His plan. God has a plan. They’re not recognizing that.

Look in Deuteronomy, you see God’s plan. You want to know why manna? Why manna for more than a year? Actually, it didn’t really stop, manna didn’t, until they got into the Promised Land and they started eating of the produce of the land, according to Joshua. Why? Deuteronomy 8:3, as that second generation is ready to go into Israel, God says, through Moses, “He humbled you, let you be hungry, fed you with manna which you did not know nor your fathers know.” Why? “That He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Listen, God had an eternal objective He was trying to accomplish. He wanted you to appreciate the importance of His word over the temporal issues of life. Verse 16 of the same chapter, “In the wilderness He fed you with manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you,” and I love this, “to do good to you in the end.” Moses says, God had a good purpose, He had a good plan, but you didn’t trust Him. Instead, you complained.

You chafe under God’s providence, the trials in which you find yourself? Are you tempted to complain about God’s provision, either in your finances or your spouse or in your job or in your church? Complaining is a deadly serious sin. Let me take us back, just to ask this question. We’ve been talking about sanctification and putting on in place of putting off. We’re to put off complaining, what are we to put on? What’s the virtue we should put on? According to Numbers 14:11 it’s unconditional trust in God. God says, they didn’t believe in Me. You want to not complain? You want to stop complaining and stop disputing with God? Learn to trust God.

How do you learn to trust God? Well, let me, we don’t have time to look at them, let me just give them to you, you can read these on your own. Here’s how you build trust in God that keeps you from complaining. First of all, number one, remind yourself of God’s character. You see that in Isaiah 40:27- 29. Remind yourself of God’s character. When the children of Israel started complaining about their way, that God didn’t understand, God reminded them through Isaiah about His character: that He was in control, that He was wise, that He was strong. Rehearse God’s character and it’ll keep you from complaining.

Number two, remind yourself that God is the one working for you. In this context of Philippians 1 and Philippians 2, remember, we learned in 1:6 that God is the one who started the work in you, that God is the one who will complete it; 2:13 He’s the one who’s working now in you. As Romans 8:31 says, “God is for you.” Rehearse that reality and it will give you confidence that God isn’t out to get you, God isn’t ignoring you, God is for you.

Number three, remind yourself of God’s greatness and your smallness. You want to develop trust in God that will keep you from complaining? Remind yourself of the greatness of God. Read Job 40:1-14 where God says to Job, listen, you’re questioning Me? You’re questioning My providence even though I’ve devastated your life? Are you God? Can you do what I can do? Do you understand what I understand? When you and I are prone to question and complain we should remind ourselves of who God is and who we are.

Number four and finally, remind yourself that God’s chief concern is your sanctification, not your happiness, ease, and comfort. Remember the context of the verse we’re looking at today, “Do all things without grumbling and disputing”? The context is, God working in you to produce the image of His Son. God is at work in you to make you holy. And He will do that, whether it makes us happy and it gives us a comfortable life or not. Paul says, you’re on a journey, but don’t be like Old Testament Israel, don’t be like them, who spent 40 years outside the Promised Land. Don’t repeat their mistakes. Learn the lesson from the 2,000,000 Israelites whose bodies still to this day, lie buried in a Middle Eastern desert because they grumbled and complained about God’s plan and His purpose. “Do all things without grumbling and disputing.” Let’s pray together.

Father, thank You for how Your Word speaks to our hearts, how it cuts us. Thank You for the kind cut of conviction that helps us see how we sin against You. Lord, forgive us for our complaints, whether against the trivial issues of everyday life or those monumental times of difficulty in tragedy when You bring us to the end of ourselves. Lord, help us to see that the problem is not a lack in Your power, it has to do with Your plan. Help us to embrace that plan and Your purpose and to do it with joy because we trust You.

Lord, I pray for the person here this morning who lives in a perpetual state of grumbling and disputing with You because they’re not in Christ. Lord, help them to see what their end will be, not merely physical death, but eternal death and separation from Your presence, and help them this morning to turn from their sin and embrace Jesus Christ in whom is life eternal. It’s in His name we pray, amen.