Blinded By Frustration Series

Have you ever played one of those arcade games where you operate a claw that can pick up a toy inside? I’ve never played those games (too frustrating for me). But years ago, there was a story out of Wisconsin about a 6-year-old who attempted to get the toy of his dreams out of that machine… and he was not being successful. This 6-year-old got so frustrated with his failure that he finally gave up using the claw and decided on a more direct approach. He climbed inside the machine to get the toy he wanted. He managed to get almost completely inside before he got stuck. The Fire Department arrived and unlocked the game and got the boy out unharmed… but there was no report about whether he got the toy he wanted.

That boy was frustrated (that’s why he acted the way he did) because he wasn’t able to achieve his goal. He got so frustrated he ended up doing something he shouldn’t have done. And, of course, he got stuck.

Our sermon today deals with frustration. One dictionary defined frustration as: “The feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something. And they put the word in a sentence: ‘I sometimes feel like screaming with frustration.’”

Another source compared frustration with anger. Anger is like setting off an explosion of emotion, but frustration is more like a slow burn. And of course, if your frustration lasts long enough, an explosion of anger isn’t far behind.

And that’s what we see in our text this morning. Moses had been leading the Israelites through the wilderness for nearly 40 years, and it seems like every time he turned around they were quarreling and complaining and grumbling.

• When they reached the Red Sea -- with Egypt’s chariots close behind them the people said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Exodus 14:11-12

• Later, they complain about the food they ate. “The whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Exodus 16:2-3

• Then they complained about the water. “The people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?’ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” Exodus 17:2-4

• And when they’re about to enter the Promised Land… they do it again: “All the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!” Numbers 14:2

These people did this over and over and over again and God warned us (as Christians) DON’T DO THAT! “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. I Corinthians 10:9-10

Every time Moses turned around, it seemed like these people were nipping at his heels. And it got so bad at one point that Moses complained to God – “Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers? Numbers 11:11-12

It was really frustrating! And Moses’ frustration finally got to the point that he’d had enough. He was so annoyed and so irritated with them that he did what he shouldn’t have done.

But what did Moses do wrong? God tells Moses: “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you DID NOT BELIEVE IN ME, to UPHOLD ME AS HOLY in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”