The Kiss of Death: Grumbling and Complaining

Numbers 14:1-15:16; Psalm 53; Proverbs 11:4

 

If you murder someone, you might get the electric chair for it. If you commit adultery, a jealous husband might blow your brains out in his rage. And if you complain or grumble… What happens? Are these really all that serious?

 

Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.” With sins like murder and adultery, it’s pretty easy to see how sin brings death. But we don’t really believe, sometimes, that the wages of complaining is death.

 

But complaining brings death. Take a look at God’s response to the Israelites’ complaining:

 

How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, `As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. – Numbers 14:27-29

 

By grumbling and complaining, the Israelites essentially told God, “We don’t want You and Your promises. We don’t trust You. You’re going to fail us. We’d rather have a normal life and a normal death, even if life is hard, than follow You into Your promises because You’re going to get us killed in war!” When they grumbled and complained, they basically told God that they would be better off dead without Him than alive with Him.

 

And God granted their wish. They died in the desert, never receiving the promises of God.

 

Father, life may be hard, but please remind me and all Your children that You are our Father. Remind us that You are good. May we trust You. May we not complain and not grumble against life in Your hands. May the thoughts in our heads and hearts stop being, “There has to be a better way than God’s to go through my life,” and start being, “If God is allowing this, this must be the best way, even if it is hard. Jesus Christ is good, loving and faithful. I will trust Him, no matter what.” May we echo Job’s words, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him” (Job 13:15). Forgive our complaining and grumbling, but more than that, help us to trust in You and continue to walk with us. Bring us safely home to be with You.