In 1 Cor 10, Paul warns his readers about what happened to the people of Israel during the Exodus. Listen to what he says: "These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come." In case you were wondering why we’re studying a text that was written nearly 4000 years ago, this is why. These things happened to them to serve as an example, but they were written down to instruct us. Listen to what he says about what happened to the Israelites: (1 Cor 10:1-10 NRSV) "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. 6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer." He says "Don’t take part in idolatry, don’t indulge in sexual immorality, don’t put the Lord to the test, and don’t complain." Don’t complain? How come that appears in the same list as idolatry and sexual immorality? When was the last time you thought of grumbling as being in the same category as idolatry and immorality. But that’s where he puts it. Idolatry, immorality, putting God to the test and complaining. So why?
Sadly the motif of complaining runs right through the Exodus story. We saw it last week and we’ll continue to see it right through to the end. Have a look at Exodus 16 (p64) "The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Note the difference between complaining and crying out to God for help. God always hears us when we cry to him for help, but complaining is like the whining of a child with nothing to do on a rainy afternoon - and every suggestion we make is turned down, until we just switch off and don’t listen any more. Is that something you’ve noticed in our church here? People who’ll complain about anything that goes wrong: seeking to apportion blame; decrying the current situation. Perhaps you’re one who’s guilty of it. I think you’ll have difficulty finding a church where it doesn’t happen. Just go to a clergy gathering and listen to the conversation, and before long you’ll hear the grumbling and complaints.
But why is it wrong? Why does Paul lump it in with idolatry and immorality? Well, because as a habit of life, as a primary attitude, it’s dangerous; because it has destructive consequences. It poisons our relationships and undermines our faith. There are a number of elements to this:
First, it has a mythologising base. That is, it sets up an imaginary "What if... " ideal world. The first thing the Israelites say is "If only..." If only things had been different. If only we hadn’t left Egypt. Things are so bad here that anything else is preferable.
Related to this is that it falsifies the past. Looking back we tend to glorify the past. "There we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread." Life was much better back then. We had all we needed to eat: meat and bread. In the parallel account in Numbers 11, they mention not just meat and bread, but fish and cucumbers, melons, leeks, onion and garlic. You can imagine their mouths watering as they talked about it. But they never mention the groaning in great hardship that we read about in chapter 3. They don’t mention the slave drivers who controlled their every waking moment. They don’t mention the execution of every male child who was born to them. No, they look back and glorify and romanticise what happened before. You see that in Churches, don’t you? People looking back and saying how wonderful it all was 20 or 30 or even 50 years ago. Complaining that things have changed so much. As though there were never any problems 30 years ago. But we all suffer from selective memory when it comes to recollecting the past.
But the real danger with looking back on the past like this is that it poisons the possibilities of the future. The people grumble against Moses and Aaron and say "you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." The result of their complaining is that their leaders are subject to criticism and the peoples confidence in their leadership is destroyed. They say, we have no hope. We have no future, There’s only the prospect of death.
Finally and most importantly it questions the goodness of God. They say "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt" - by implication rather than out here in the desert. Similarly in ch 17 they complain that they’ve been brought up out of Egypt to die of thirst in the desert. Their complaint, while it’s aimed at Moses and Aaron, is really a complaint against God. It says, God brought us out here to kill us. It undermines their faith in God’s love and it undermines their faith in his power to save them.
The danger with this sort of complaining is that it becomes habitual. It becomes a way of life. I guess it doesn’t hurt to occasionally blow off steam with a bit of a whinge about your circumstances or the choice of hymns or the length of the Vicar’s sermons, but when it becomes habitual, when we learn to respond to our present difficulties by falsifying the past and questioning the motives of God or our fellow Christians, it begins to eat away at our faith in God. We begin to see only the negatives and never the hope that God assures us of. Paul says that for the people of Israel the result of this lifelong habit was that most of them failed to enter the promised land. Now that was probably a good thing, because if they had got there they would have spent the rest of their lives complaining about how good life was in the wilderness, when they had that lovely manna provided to them every day, and quails laid on, and their clothes never wore out. You can just imagine it can’t you?
So complaining is a dangerous habit to get into. Paul warns us against it because, if in the end it undermines our faith in God, it could result in us missing out on God’s Kingdom.
But look at how God treats the people of Israel. As so often happens, he responds with infinite patience and loving kindness. He sends them bread from heaven and meat in the form of quails. He isn’t going to let them starve. Nor is he going to let Moses’ leadership be undermined by this group of grumblers. His power is sufficient that he can even provide them with food in the desert.
But notice that his provision of food comes with a barb in it. Look at what he says in v4: "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not." The bread from heaven is both a provision and a test. Will they respond in faith, or will they ignore his instructions. The rules are simple. Everyone is to take enough for their own family for the day and no more. God will provide them with enough food every day. On the 6th day they can take twice as much because there won’t be any to collect on the Sabbath.
Now notice that this isn’t simply a test of whether they can follow instructions. Like when you get that new video recorder home and you have to work out how to tune the channels, and set the timer to record and you discover that the person who wrote the instruction manual was very fluent in some language other than English. No, it was more than a test of their comprehension. Nor was it a test to see whether they were worthy to receive the manna. Rather, it was a test of their faith in God. Did they really believe that God would provide the same thing tomorrow; and the next day; and the next day; and so on. And after it had been coming for a month would they believe that it would keep coming for another month, or would they worry that it might be running out. It’s a bit like Jesus’ instruction to us to be ready for his return. It gets harder and harder to be expectant when 2000 years have passed and nothing has happened. Well, sadly, some of them fail the test. v20: Some of them kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. Notice, by the way, the result of their fear and lack of faith. They collected enough for the day, but because they were afraid they didn’t eat it all. Instead they went to bed a bit hungry, just in case the manna wasn’t there in the morning. And of course in the morning it was well past it’s use by date. It’s true, isn’t it, that so often fear and lack of faith stops us from enjoying the good things we receive from the Lord. We’re scared to enjoy them in case they go away, or in case we use them up and we don’t get anything else. But God is trustworthy. Each morning, we’re told in v21, everyone gathered as much as they needed, and on the sixth day there was twice as much there, so they could collect enough for the Sabbath as well. God was trustworthy. He could be trusted to provide even for their observance of the Sabbath, when they couldn’t collect food because that constituted work. And the Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to land that was settled.
Before we finish, look at what God tells Moses to do with some of the manna. (Ch 16:33-34 NRSV) "And Moses said to Aaron, ’Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept throughout your generations.’ 34As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the covenant, for safekeeping." The manna was kept so that when the people looked back in later years they’d be reminded of the truth of what happened. God knew very well that their memories would be selective when it came to remembering what had happened, so he made sure that some of the manna would be kept to remind them of God’s provision for all their needs. I guess the manna might also have acted as a reminder of their lack of faith and their lack of obedience to God’s commands. God wants us to remember what has happened in the past, because it helps us live in the present. That’s why we have his word written down for us. That’s why he’s preserved the records of his dealings with his people throughout history. That’s why we have the record of Jesus life told in such a clear way in the gospels.
Finally, we couldn’t leave this episode without referring to the gospel reading from John 6 where Jesus’ feeds the 5000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish. The gospel writers clearly see this act of Jesus as being a revisiting of God’s provision of Manna in the desert. But later in John 6 Jesus makes it even clearer when he begins to debate with the crowd about the significance of what he’s done. He says to them: (John 6:32-33 NRSV) "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then he goes on to say "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." Like the people of Israel in the desert, Jesus’ hearers are faced with a test. Will they take him at his word and believe that he’ll feed them with the bread of life, or will they doubt and look elsewhere for spiritual food. The question is yours as well. In fact I would suggest that there’s never been a time when this question was more relevant. Will you look to one of the hundreds of spiritual alternatives available around you, or will you trust Jesus, will you trust God for all you need for your life? Have you asked him to come and fill you, to provide all your needs. Or are you like the Israelites, only willing to complain about how tough life is, or about how others have done you wrong, and how good life might have been if other circumstances had prevailed? Jesus said I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly. All we have to do is accept his free offer of eternal life.
Let me encourage you, when you look back on the past to look back with honesty, not with selective memories; and then let me encourage you to look forward to the future, confident in God’s promise to care for you. Finally let me encourage you to follow God’s instructions about how to live because you’re confident you can trust him to do what he’s promised he would do. May we be people who keep on following Christ, without complaint, without turning away, until he brings us at last into the true promised land, the new Jerusalem.
