Grumble and complain. Whine and moan. We all know some people like that, and they sure are not pleasant to be around. If we’re not careful, we can fall into that type of behavior. One complaining person is unpleasant. Two or three in a group is miserable. How about multiple thousands of whining, grumbling people? That is what Moses had to deal with, and today’s Scripture is one such occurrence, along with his and the Lord’s response.
When our Scripture passage from the Book of Exodus opens, the people of Israel had just recently been led out of Egypt and crossed the parted waters of the Red Sea. Biblical scholars believe that there were about 600,000 adult men. Add about equal number of women and you have 1,200,000, and then even more when you include all of the children. That is a lot of people complaining, as it says the whole congregation complained against Moses (vs. 2) !
What were they complaining about? The Lord had just led them out of Egypt, out of centuries of slavery there. They had witnessed all of the ten plagues, which God had spared them from, and He had parted the waters for them to easily cross and escape the armies of Egypt. They were complaining about not having enough to eat. They moaned and grumbled to Moses saying that they had pots of meat and bread to the full back as slaves in Egypt. I think that was a big exaggeration, as I am not thinking that as slaves they had “pots of meat” to eat every day! (vs. 3).
What characterized the people as a whole was an attitude of negativism. They quickly forgot all of God’s miracles. Difficult situations often lead to stress, and the cause of stress is often a lack of trust in God to take care of us. God had protected them from experiencing any of the plagues that He brought on Egypt. He had led them out of slavery, and yet they did not trust that He would provide them with food. The people kept looking to the past, saying that things were better then. Were they really better? Is slavery better than freedom? They had no trust! Only complaints and whining! If we focus on the past, it won’t be long before complaints start oozing from our lips.
Their complaining about not having enough to eat, their short-term memory loss would be short-lived, because these whining people would witness not just God’s provision for them, but also remind them Who had brought them out of Egypt (vs 4-6). When they complained to Moses, they were really complaining against God. He hears and sees everything in our lives, including our grumblings. When we complain about our circumstances, we are really complaining against God, who has complete control over those circumstances.
So, what was the food that the Lord provided the people of Israel? In the evening of that day, the Lord provided them with quail, enough quail for well over a million people! Then every morning for the next forty years while they were in the wilderness, He provided them with manna (vs. 13-15). Manna was a gift from God. It came every day, and was just what they needed. It satisfied a temporary physical need. In John 6:48-51, Jesus compared Himself to manna. Jesus is our daily bread, who satisfies our eternal spiritual need. Manna prefigured the descent of the True Bread - Jesus, that if a man eats of it he shall live forever.
“Manna” is a Hebrew word which means “what is it?” It was remarkable for its size, shape, color, taste, and variety of uses. Also for its daily appearance at dawn, its tremendous abundance, that it bred worms at the end of each day except on the 6th day, and that it disappeared permanently as soon as the people of Israel entered Canaan.
The provision of manna every day shows us that we can trust the Lord to provide for our needs every day. We can and need to look to Him to provide for us each day. The fact that the manna, if stored up for the next day, became moldy and filled with worms, teaches us that yesterday’s blessing will not do for today, nor today’s for tomorrow. We must feed on Jesus and His Word daily, as He reveals Himself in the Scriptures.
Are we doing nothing but complaining day and night? The Lord knows our heart, and whether we need an attitude adjustment or not! For forty years He put up with the Hebrew people’s whining and murmuring, and was not pleased. He is not pleased if we show an ungrateful heart, either. Are you trusting in the Lord each day to provide for you? Do you look to Him for both your physical and spiritual needs? Jesus is the true Bread from Heaven, which came down to earth. Turn to Him for salvation today!
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