A Questionable Legacy
When we encounter anything contrary to our comfort, for most of us the knee-jerk reaction is to complain about it to anyone and everyone who will listen. We complain loudly and bitterly and often. Even if complaining really doesn’t change anything, it gives the illusion of action—not passively taking whatever is troubling us lying down.
The children of Israel had the act of complaining down to an art. A mere three days after seeing Pharoah’s army drown in the Red Sea (Ex. 14), they found themselves at Marah, where the water was bitter and undrinkable (Ex. 15). I can almost hear their reaction: “Moses! What are we to drink? This stuff is nasty! What are you going to do about it?” Fortunately for them (and us), God is gracious, and when Moses cried out to him for help, he showed him a piece of wood to throw into the water to make it palatable.
Act II of the same play occurs midway through the second month after fleeing slavery in Egypt. While in the Desert of Sin (been there?), they started remembering the meat and spices they had to eat in Egypt and wished that they were dead instead of in the hard place they found themselves. Moses and Aaron tell them that they would soon know that the Lord brought them from Egypt because He would provide them bread each morning and meat each night (Ex. 16). Moses made it clear that they were grumbling against God—not Moses or the circumstances in which they found themselves. Ouch! The lesson to carry away is that when we complain against our circumstances or about people that God has placed in authority over us, we are really grumbling and complaining against God, who sovereignly placed us in that circumstance with those people for His glory.
Unfortunately for the children of Israel, they continued their pattern of grumbling and complaining against Moses (and thus God even though they failed to recognize it). As they traveled they found something to complain about almost everywhere they went, even though God sent them there and heard their cries for deliverance time after time. Moses called their grumbling putting God to the test (Ex. 17). When we test God, we are only hurting ourselves just as the children of Israel did. The desert they complained about became their prison—an entire generation died there, and they left behind a legacy of grumbling and complaining and doubting the great “I AM.” It makes me question the legacy I am leaving behind me as I walk through the circumstances that God has providentially placed in my life.
The children of Israel had the act of complaining down to an art. A mere three days after seeing Pharoah’s army drown in the Red Sea (Ex. 14), they found themselves at Marah, where the water was bitter and undrinkable (Ex. 15). I can almost hear their reaction: “Moses! What are we to drink? This stuff is nasty! What are you going to do about it?” Fortunately for them (and us), God is gracious, and when Moses cried out to him for help, he showed him a piece of wood to throw into the water to make it palatable.
Act II of the same play occurs midway through the second month after fleeing slavery in Egypt. While in the Desert of Sin (been there?), they started remembering the meat and spices they had to eat in Egypt and wished that they were dead instead of in the hard place they found themselves. Moses and Aaron tell them that they would soon know that the Lord brought them from Egypt because He would provide them bread each morning and meat each night (Ex. 16). Moses made it clear that they were grumbling against God—not Moses or the circumstances in which they found themselves. Ouch! The lesson to carry away is that when we complain against our circumstances or about people that God has placed in authority over us, we are really grumbling and complaining against God, who sovereignly placed us in that circumstance with those people for His glory.
Unfortunately for the children of Israel, they continued their pattern of grumbling and complaining against Moses (and thus God even though they failed to recognize it). As they traveled they found something to complain about almost everywhere they went, even though God sent them there and heard their cries for deliverance time after time. Moses called their grumbling putting God to the test (Ex. 17). When we test God, we are only hurting ourselves just as the children of Israel did. The desert they complained about became their prison—an entire generation died there, and they left behind a legacy of grumbling and complaining and doubting the great “I AM.” It makes me question the legacy I am leaving behind me as I walk through the circumstances that God has providentially placed in my life.
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