Demolishing Strongholds: Enslavement Series

Opening illustration: Play the video: “Big But”

Introduction: A chapter of complaining's. First, at Taberah, vague murmurings are heard throughout the camp. Then at Kibroth-hattaavah, a stage further on, the vague murmurings take shape in bitter complaint because of the fare to which the congregation was now confined. Manna, I get nothing but manna! While the people were harping on this grievance Moses also lifted up his voice in complaint. "Why has the Lord dealt so hardly with him as to lay on him the burden of so great a company? Better kill him out of hand, and not let him see his wretchedness!" Consider this scene at Kibroth-hattaavah. It is not pleasant to look at, especially when one becomes aware that it is a glass in which are to be seen passages in one's own history which one would gladly forget. Scenes not pleasant may nevertheless be profitable.

What enslaves us to strongholds?

1. Having a Complaining Spirit against God and His Anointed (vs. 1-4)

Whenever we give way to a spirit of complaint about our circumstances, we deny God's providence over us. For the children of Israel to grumble about their adversity in this circumstance was effectively to say, ‘We don't think God is a good, reliable, provider.’ Their complaint about their circumstance reflected their belief about God.

Remember, your actions always show you your theology. All of us can talk a great game in our theology. We can read and be up there with the best of them. We can talk about Calvin's doctrine of providence, Hodge and Rutherford's brilliant insights into the sovereign over-ruling providence of God, but when we hit our trials we will show what we really believe about God's providence. And when push came to shove, Israel did not believe in God's providence, and they showed it by the way they complained.

When we complain we tend to spread a spirit of complaint amongst the people of God. Our complaining spirit is never merely a personal issue. It can have a devastating effect on the people of God. Grumbling also amounts to a denial of God’s providence.

Can you imagine the children of these adults in Canaan sitting around in their homes, in their villages at the great festivals, saying to one another, “Do you remember the days when the God of our salvation fed us bread from His own hand so that we wouldn't starve in the wilderness?” But here they are in the wilderness with the heavenly Father feeding them from His own hand, and what are they doing? They’re wishing that there was something else. They’re wishing that He would give them something else. They’re undervaluing this enormous provision which in ages in the future the people of God would look back in wonder at how God provided for two million people or more in the wilderness. How in the world could that be done! He did it from His own hand, and yet here they are undervaluing the provision of God. How quick we are to do that in our dissatisfaction with what we have and what we don't have.

Illustration: Isn’t it amazing that the mixed multitude grumbled because they could not eat the very things that the doctor tells some folks to avoid – things that make you burp! I must confess that I’m a bit of an expert on grumbling about food. When I was a student in college, one of the items the cafeteria served for breakfast was “oatmeal.” As I recall, that “oatmeal” tasted about like I think manna did. Well, anyway, one day as I was waiting in line, I wrote in a “g” in front of the “oatmeal” sign: = “goat-meal.”

Breaking away from the stronghold of complaining:

Do not complain because of the hardships, God designs them to train us for maturity. In 1 Cor. 10:10 Paul says “… nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”

Before we even know it, we are bound by the spirit of complaining. How can it be demolished?

2. Having a Spirit of Living in the Past (vs. 5-10)

Apparently, the Israelites’ memory of Egyptian generosity is flawed. While they were in Egypt, a new Pharaoh became alarmed at Israel’s growing population, so he prescribed increasingly oppressive tasks to wear down the Israelites. The Egyptians “made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve” (Exodus 1:14). When that failed to keep the Israelites in check, the Egyptians tried to have all male Israelite infants killed (Exodus 1-2). Egyptians also beat Israelites (Exodus 2:11). Life in Egypt was hardly the cornucopia of blessings that the Israelites now remember.