Grumble Or Grow Series

Several years ago (2009), Louis C.K. was on Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show, where he described today’s entitlement culture. He said in our culture, “Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy.” Take a look (show Louis CK video).

Louis talks about how he was on a plane that offered in-flight Wi-Fi access to the Internet, one of the first planes to do so. But when it broke down in a few minutes, the man sitting next to him swore in disgust. Louis was amazed, and said to O'Brien, “How quickly the world owes him something that he didn't know existed 10 seconds ago.”

Louis then talked about how many of us describe less-than-perfect airline flights as if they were experiences from a horror film: “It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn't board for 20 minutes! And then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes!”

Then he said mockingly, “Oh really? Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight? … Everybody on every plane should be going, ‘O … wow!’ … You're sitting in a chair in the sky!” And then he mocks a passenger who, trying to push his seat back, complains, “It doesn't go back a lot!” (Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqkZ1sBDJhg)

It’s easy to complain even in the good times, but what does that get you? Well, let’s see what complaining got the nation of Israel after God miraculously delivered them through the Red Sea. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 15, Exodus 15, where Israel teaches us an important lesson in good times and bad.

Exodus 15:22-24 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah [which means bitterness]. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (ESV)

The bitterness of the water reflected the bitterness in their hearts. They had gone three days without water. They’re about to drop when in the distance they see an oasis. Their parched lips and dry throats can already taste the cool, clear water, but when they finally arrive and bend down for a cool, refreshing drink, they come up spitting out salt water.

No wonder they grumbled, but how could they so quickly forget what God did for them just three days earlier?

Exodus 15:25a And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet (ESV).

They may have forgotten God, but God did not forget them. In His grace, He made the water drinkable. Then He gave them a test.

Exodus 15:25b-26 There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer” (ESV).

God promised to keep them from Egyptian diseases if they listen to Him.

Exodus 15:27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water (ESV).

God abundantly provides for His people!

Exodus 16:1-3 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And 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” (ESV).

There they go again—grumbling! They not only forgot how BAD Egypt was, but also how GOOD God had been to them. But even though they forgot God, God did not forget them.

Exodus 16:4-8 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD” (ESV).