“Why me, Lord?”
Exodus 16
Take a look at this picture. Have you seen it before? (Picture is of a man eating a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and bowing in thanks) You will find this picture hanging in many homes as a reminder that we should always be thankful for our daily bread. The story that behind this painting goes like this. In a town in northern Minnesota an older man who was homeless, knocked on the door of the home of an artist. The artist was talented but he was struggling to sell his painting and make a living. The homeless man had come to beg for a bite to eat.
All the artist had was a simple meal to offer of soup and bread but he invited the man into his home to share what he had. As the artist was getting something from his refrigerator he turned back and saw the old man bow his head in prayer. And this created an image in his mind, an image of thankfulness and gratitude and contentment. And that is when he painted this picture. Can you imagine for a moment being homeless, having no money in your pocket, no way to provide your most basic need—food?
That describes the situation of the Israelites as they were traveling through the desert to get to their new home in Canaan. They were rapidly running out of water and they had no food. Now it is believed that the size of this group of Israelites numbered about 2 million people.
Question. Have you ever been hungry before? You say well I’m kind of hungry right now…coffee and a donut would be great. I mean really hungry. When someone gets hungry and has not been able to eat for several days they can often become very grumpy. Some of us get that way if we don’t get to eat lunch on time. So can you imagine what this must have been like to be leading a group of about 2 million grumpy people. That was the job Moses was facing.
No store to go to…no Publix, no WalMart to go to…no time to stop and plant a garden and besides that they were in the middle of the desert. The Israelites believed that God was leading them to a new land but they didn’t believe 100% of the time. When things were good they would stop and praise the Lord and worship Him. And at that time they were happy with the leadership Moses was providing. But as soon as things turned bad they did exactly what you and I do……they began to complain. The Bible says they began to grumble. It is a truth that I realized years ago and you know it to be true as well.
Here it is. (1) People who grumble can always find something to grumble about. Here they were in this journey—they had come into the wilderness—they had been traveling for about 5 days—just freed from slavery under Pharaoh… v. 2 then puts it this way. Then the whole congregation of Israel complained again Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Look at v. 3.
At this point we realize that the Israelites had learned a sum total of nothing from their past experience. And unfortunately we are the same way. Trials come along and we fall apart, we lose trust in our leadership and we lose trust in God. And all we know to do at that particular time is to complain. So why do we do that? Well basically grumbling is a gratitude problem. In other words we just are very grateful…..we’re not content with our lives. We grumble when pain or problems enter our lives. And we do it because we don’t think we deserve for these things to happen to us. We think that instead of pain we should always have pleasure; we think that instead of adversity we should always have prosperity. The truth is we need to take a moment and review the past and remember all of the things God has done. Stop and count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Hmm. That could be a song.
Last Friday I came in to the church office, two of our volunteers were here and I started telling them about all the stuff that was not going well, I just spent 400.00 on my car, our washing machine seems to be going out and now it looks like the car needs more work, one of the volunteers had a problem with her water softener and it had broken down even though she had already had it worked on and the other was having to move because of the damage from our recent tropical storm and before you know it we were having a nice little pity party. Why? Because I started it. After we were done I told them I was preaching on complaining today and I needed to practice.
When we begin to think this way it is a good thing if we would just stop and ask ourselves Lord what have I done that is worthy of even having a washing machine, a car, a water softener and a home? Why did you bless me with these things? Why do I have things and many others have nothing. Lord why have you spared me from so many
tragedies when others are never spared? Why me Lord? We grumble because we are not content. (2) And the cure for grumbling is to stop and count your blessings, not your problems.
The children of Israel had developed what I would call a perception problem. They were basically saying we want to go back to the good old days…but if we are honest the good old days were not as good as we make them out to be. The Israelites said in the good old days when we were in Egypt we sat by our pots of food and we ate all we wanted---anything we wanted. The truth is they were living as slaves doing back breaking labor every day and likely they had very little to eat. But you see there was a problem with how they perceived their past. They were no longer being realistic.
You see the problem with grumbling is that it’s contagious. Like a virus it was spreading through their camp…it spreads through families, it spreads through churches … it is highly contagious. Look at v. 2. “then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained” and what had begun with a few had now spread through the whole camp.
(3) Write it down. Testing is a part of life. When one test ends, another starts. This is one school from which you will never graduate. This is what I mean. V. 4 says then the Lord said to Moses “Behold I will rain (down) bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them as to whether they will walk in my law or not.” I find that very interesting. God says “I will meet your need for hunger but the meeting of that need will bring another test.”
Let me ask you…..have you found that to be true in life? I have. We find ourselves in the middle of some predicament that we simply cannot escape. We can’t find a way out. So God says I’ll provide the way out . I’ll show you the way out. So we accept this new direction God is giving us in life and then what happens? We get a whole new set of tests and trials. We are relieved of one problem only to gain another one. V. 4 tells us that this daily gift of Manna was intended as a test. (4) Write it down. The gathering of manna was a test of their obedience. God will often bless us and then watch to see what we do with the blessing. God was watching to see that if He their needs whether they would be thankful or not.
But they continued to complain. They continue to vent. You know it’s not whether you win or lose it’s where you place the blame. And the problem was they thought they were simply venting their frustrations on a man…. Moses, but in reality they were grumbling/complaining against God. Vv. 7-8.
(5) Complainers are never satisfied with what they have no matter what God gives them. It is a “heart” problem. God meets their need. Vv. 13-15. Manna is described as being “like white coriander seed and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” The book of Psalms calls it angel food. The angels would bring it to the
people each morning. They didn’t have to work for it, they didn’t have to grow it, they didn’t have to prepare it…all they had to do was eat it but the still didn’t like it.
(5) Complainers are never happy with what they get and no matter how much they get, it is never enough. Never. Because the issue is the heart and the heart has to change. I asked our Bible study group Wednesday night to try something. For 24 hours do not speak a negative word. Can you do it? If you ask a recovering alcoholic and they said I can’t do it or someone trying to stop smoking ….and they couldn’t…here’s the deal. They are still addicted. Is it possible we can be addicted to complaining? Is it possible that we actually enjoy it? As blessed as we are.
"Pastor Jack Hinton from NC, was leading music for a worship service held in a leper colony on the island of Tobago. There was time for one more selection. He asked for a request, and a woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around." "'I saw the most hideous face I had ever seen,' Jack says. The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. Most of her lips had rotted away." "'She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?'"
"Overcome with emotion, Jack left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, 'Jack, I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again.” “Yes, I will,' Jack replied, 'but I'll never sing it the same way again.”
