Numbers 11:1 –
Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the LORD heard everything they said. Then the LORD’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.
This chapter hit me hard this morning! How many times have I complained to the Lord this week? Yesterday alone I was complaining while digging out a waterline which was tangled in the roots of a huge oak. I whine about money, work, projects, time, taxes, sleep and whatever else I can. I don’t just be like Paul and live content that the Lord is with us always … while in jail.
Think about it, Paul never complained in his writing. He was a well to do person before his conversion to following Christ. From there he left the known and safe to preach the Gospel. This landed him in prison more than once and had him in some very difficult situations. Did he complain? Did he whine about being hungry or in prison? Or was he content and joyful about whatever came his way?
God has some amazing things planned for us, if we submit. I can say for almost 40 years I have been a follower of Christ, kicking and screaming along the way. I should be content with the fact that no matter what happens in my life, God has my back. No matter how thick that root pack gets, we can be content that God has our back. We need to rely on this and “arrest” the complaining before it becomes a problem.
Where this verse gets me is God’s anger towards the complaining. They want meat and God gives it to them. For thirty days they have so much they get sick of it. I think of the movie Brewster’s Millions, where a poor man inherits a fortune from his long lost father. In order to get the whole inheritance he needed to spend $30 million in 30 days and have nothing at the end to show for it. We need to watch our complaining or we may reap way more than we sow, to the point of complaining about the excess. Think about how many times we hear people complaining about something we want? Our faith MUST rest only on God and not the “stuff” in this world.