Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” Exodus 16:8

In the UK, it could be said that grumbling is a national pastime… blame it on the weather! The unpredictability of rain or if we’ll be warm enough without a jacket, is a constant source of complaint to us. We have made grumbling normal, and wear our grumbling like a badge of honour!

Are you a grumbler by nature? What things cause you to seek the ear of a willing listener? Then indulge in some proper ‘woe is me! Things would be better if…’ 

As a nation, and I’m talking specifically about England now, we love to have a collective grumble against something or someone… my older son often talks about “Twitter thinks this” or “everybody is saying”, by which he means his generation on social media have banded together to have a good old grumble or complain about their issue of the day.

In England, we like to complain about our national sports team coaches and wax long and lyrically about the quality of the team they field and why the coach or managers are terrible at their job. We just love grumbling against them regarding the quality of their leadership, or their inspiration-less, lacklustre tactics and player-selection or team configuration. The grumble spreads into willing ears, and other people are sucked in to agree. 

Royal Speculation

On a more serious note, one of the most horrible pieces of grumbling against ‘the system’ was earlier this year. Princess Catherine had not been seen for a while and speculation about her and Prince William began to run wild. This culminated in grumbling about them as future leaders with a failed marriage. The depth of the grumbling was so intense that the shocking statement about Catherine’s battle with cancer was released to the shame of the general public. Grumbling diminishes the grumbler and seeks to destroy those who are being grumbled against. It has been good to see the recent video of the family together now that Princess Catherine is post-chemo.

In times of success, the grumbles evaporate and people settle down — no longer prone to spinning wild rumours and casting a gloss over a terrible past situation in which they argued, the Israelites argued, they had been better off. “Oh for the good ole days of being enslaved in Egypt with big pots of food readily available to us!”

Moses and Aaron were leading God’s people and enduring through the grumbling. They were delivering on God’s plan. They had much evidence of God’s faithfulness to provide, redeem, and equip his people for the freedom he had promised. But as a body, it became easier to trust the truth of the discontent and fear of their fellow-traveller rather than in the God who had made a way through the Red Sea and delivered them from their enemies. The grumbling was a reflection of their relationship with God. They did not trust Him.

Short Memories

Within moments of their giddy relief from being set free from the tyranny of enslavement in Egypt, the community of Israel started to panic and to grumble because the memories of their previous situation suddenly took on a golden sheen. Forgotten were the conditions and the enslavement. The beatings and the killing of their own children. Forgotten also was God’s faithfulness in bringing them out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership and God’s rescue of them at the Red Sea when the Egyptian Army was hard upon them and there was no escape. This mighty rescue that was to be remembered for generations was ironically forgotten within 3 days by the original people!

God has not left them high and dry even after the big moment of the Big Rescue of the Exodus, it is not within God’s character to abandon his people, but is IS within the rebellious nature of all people to find a reason to grumble against God, God’s leaders and to talk against them, often saying cruel and unwarranted things… Moses still petitions God in the face of the grumbling, and God is faithful to honour Moses’ prayer.

It is necessary to ensure we each have a right relationship with God in order to have a good posture before him and to therefore be able to hold your nerve in times of difficulty. Righteousness, or right relationship with God does not grumble against God, but trusts that God has this and holds this situation of need as indeed He holds every situation of need.

The Truth

God’s grace is one of abundant generosity. In the face of the grumbling he rains down bread from heaven. This is hugely humbling! This whole deal on grumbling is making me check myself when I hear the grumblings begin. Do I want to be a righteous woman of faith? Or the one who quickly wrings my hands in despair and heaps judgement for my predicament on God?