And when they came to Marah, they could not
drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter:
therefore the name of it was called Marah.
And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree,
which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were
made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he
proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD
thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these
diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I
am the LORD that healeth thee. [Exodus 15:23-26]Murmuring or complaining is one of the sins that are overlooked quite often. A lot of times people go out of their way to focus on the "much bigger sins" such as murder and adultery that we overlook the sin of murmuring and complaining, but the Lord doesn't not over look it or give this sin a free pass. It is just the opposite. It's an unseen destroyer of the believer! The sin of murmuring and complaining started a plague that killed thousands of Israelites! [Numbers 16]
In this chapter, we read how the Israelites, who were to a great extent thirsty, looked only at the fact that the water they had come to was undrinkable because it was bitter. Look how fast they forgot God, who had brought them out of Egypt, from their slavery and led them out from there with signs and wonders. They had, not long before witnessed the Lord’s parting of the Red Sea and obliteration of those who had enslaved and imprisoned them. But they still, so quickly returned to looking only with their natural eyes at the problem in front of them. They were completely forgetting the miracle working power of their God! They murmured against Moses, but to tell the truth, when you stop and really look at it, they were really murmuring against God? Moses once again interceded for them, once again showing them the faithfulness of God. Instead of going to the Lord the Israelites would rather cry and complain. People are the same way today. Some things never change.
Sad to say, people in
today’s world are just like the Israelites. People focus on their despairing
situations with their physical eyes, and not with the eyes of a person with faith.
Some people can receive a miracle one day and the very next day they are
complaining about something else. This very thing (murmuring and complaining)
is truly a sin that we all must guard against.
We cannot allow the sin of
murmuring and complaining to grow and expand in our lives. It can very easily
become a vice-like grip! The same wonder working power God used to led the children of Israel
out of Egypt and into the promised land, is still at work today, so
we must not hinder God by our complaining. Our country is in some pretty dark times right
now and a lot of people, including me, complain about how things are when we
should be on our knees asking God to deliver us. HE WILL DO IT AGAIN!
3 comments:
I agree. It is time to quit complaining and trust in God. God bless you.
Excellent post.
The only time I ever got attacked on the road by someone was in North Carolina. I was standing on this on-ramp on I-95 in Lumberton, NC. These two guys walked up to me and jumped me. The big guy tackled me and kicked me in the mouth several times until this car pulled up and this guy got out of the car and told those guys to beat it. The two guys ran off. I thanked him and he drove off. I had a bloody nose and that was about it.
This attempted mugging only happened once in my 15 years of hitchhiking (it happened in 1999). So why did this happen? My sin. When we are in sin, the Lord lifts the hedge of protection around us and then the devil can attack us anyway he wants to. What was my sin? Grumbling. I had been complaining to the Lord that I was sick of all this hitchhiking and why did He want me to hitchhike so much. The only problem with that is that it was/is God's will for me to hitchhike for various reasons--the main reason--OBEDIENCE TO THE LORD.
To make a long story short, I got picked up by the sheriff and they arrested the two guys who jumped me. As we drove to the sheriff's office, the Lord spoke to my spirit and said, "The Lord chastens those whom He loves." When I talked to the judge at the sheriff's office, I told him what the Lord told me and he said that he had just read that Scripture in the Book of Hebrews the night before. Confirmation.
I sometimes wonder how long the Lord will have me hitchhike. Jesus Christ is Lord over my hitchhiking; I am here to obey orders. "Not my will, but Thine be done."
But was the cry of the Israelies in this case really a sin? Surely crying for help is not a sin. They were about to die from thirst. The disobedience referred to in Numbers 16 was different.
But I agree with you we should be humble and patient. In fact this is the nature of the true Christian as different from the proud who thinks the love to him from God is proved by his worldly success.
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