ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 48 -Numbers 11-13 (The Danger of Complaining)
"Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Numbers 11:4b-6)
It has been over a year that the Israelites have been eating the manna or bread from heaven when, in our text above, they started complaining about it and craved for the food that they ate in Egypt. We read in the same chapter that “the anger of the LORD was greatly aroused…” (v10b) The people’s complaint also affected Moses greatly so that he too complained to God about having to bear the responsibility for all the people himself (vv11-15).
Interestingly, our whole Scripture reading (chapters 11-13) for today records not just the complains of the people about the food and of Moses about his responsibilities, but also of Aaron and Miriam about their want to share authority with Moses and of the ten out of the twleve spies Moses sent out who discouraged the people to fight their enemies.
The consequences to those who complained to God were devastating. Those who despised the manna from heaven got what they wanted when God sent quails that caused those who ate it to die. God took Moses’ annointing and spread it among seventy of the elders. Miriam became leprous. God killed the ten spies who brought a bad report. Except for the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, who believed that God will give them victory over their enemies, all the rest of the people died in the wilderness and their children whom they said will be victims were the ones who were able to enter the promised land.
The apostle Paul wrote about all these tragedy that has befallen the Israelites in the wilderness: “And do not become idolaters as were some of them. nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:7-11)
Sadly, many who claim to be Christians, think that complaining is their right and that God is okay with it. Some even think that God gave them their spouses so that they can have a live person whom they can unload all their complaints to. That is a big mistake. God says that we should be wise and learn from the deadly examples of the Israelites who perished in the wilderness; why? Because they complained.
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