?DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU, INSTEAD BITE YOUR TONGUE,? NUM 11:18-20
JOKE---Two guys are walking through a field when they spot a full grown bull as big as a pickup truck. They freeze as the bull turned his head and scraped his front hoof on the ground to acknowledge he was about to charge. They both took off running just as fast as they could. The 2 ton bull did the same. They could feel his hot snorting breath breathing down their necks when the first guy yelled to the second: ?John, this bull is gonna git us fer sure! You better say a prayer fer us!? John replied, ?But I don?t know any prayers to offer!? Stan says, ?John after all them prayers yo mama? makes you pray at the house, you can?t think of one!? ?Listen, any old prayer will do, we are about to become toast!? So with the bull running straight at him, John prayed the only prayer he knew, ?Lord for what we are about to receive, let us be truly thankful.?
INTRO---On Thanksgiving we all take turns passing the bowls filled to the rim with good food! What is interesting is that before Grace is said, it is polite and even desired to put your hand across someone else?s plate in order to pass the food. But once the bowls are all passed and Grace is said, something happens? The zone between your elbows and from your shirt-stuffed napkin to the Gravy boat in front of you becomes off limits. In fact after Grace if you foolishly put your hand in front of someone?s mouth or plate, you will draw back a nub.
PRAY---
TRANS---As we open our text this morning, we see just 3 days have passed since God gave the Children of Israel his Covenant Law are on their way to the Promised Land and it has just been 3 days since they had left Mt Sinai. They have Moses as their leader and God as their Provider and Guide. In spite of all the things going right for the Children of Israel they still found something to complain about. And that is just how it is sometime, it does not matter how much God blesses someone they still find fault. Why is that? There are 3 pieces of advice in our Scripture this morning.
I. DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
A. Look at v. 4---There is at least one troublemaker in every congregation.
1. My Bible calls them ?The Rabblers.? The KJV calls them the "mixed multitude" but the Hebrew word here clearly indicates these people were a group of outsiders who were stirring up trouble.
a. Who were these outsiders? In Exodus 29 we learn that there were many non-Israelites who decided to leave Egypt with them.
b. How did they manage to stir up trouble?
2. Look at v. 9---How effortless! Every morning God literally showered His children with Heavenly food.
a. But in v. 6 we see these ungrateful troublemakers were filled with sinful desires for foods other than what God provided.
b. Here their ingratitude reaches its peak with an insulting reference to the manna which was the undeserved gift of God.
3. The worst thing about v. 6 is that the inclusion of the word "eyes" to the complaining words of the Israelites implies that they were looking right at the free gift of God lying on the ground as they complained.
ILLUSTRATION---That is like you inviting me to your house to enjoy Thanksgiving diner as an outsider with your family. And upon arriving, I take one look at all the nourishing, satisfying turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato pie, and saying, ?Yuk, make me a steak!? Some people are just never grateful for anything and they bite the hand that feeds them.?
I. DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
II. DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT LEADS YOU
A. Look at v. 10--- Now the complaining and groaning has turned to bitterness and weeping against Moses.
1. By now these complainers decide to make Moses the target of their complaining and anger.
a. My friends, let me educate you about trying to overburden, hurt or discredit any Shepherd that God places over a flock.
1) Whether it is a pastor, or a deacon, God?s word warns 1 Chron. 16:22 and Psalms 105:15, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm."
ILLUSTRATION---How many of you have children? What happens when a small child starts to get into something he or she shouldn?t. You wave your finger and say ?NO!? The child immediately withdrawals it?s hand and maybe even cries. But what happens if the child turns right around and does the same exact thing? You punish the child. Well that is what was about to happen to Israel, because they turned right back around and started complaining again.
2. In v. 11, I want you to notice the burden and stress that Moses is feeling.
a. Here this poor man Moses is crying out to God, ?Why oh Lord are you treating me so bad that you would put the burden of leading these ungrateful people on me.?
1) I know what Moses is going through here, in my ministry I have also felt this burden.
2) IN fact almost every minister has.
3. Look at v. 12, Moses is so depressed about the people that even he begins to complain to God.
a. Moses asks, ?Did I create these unthankful people?? No! he answers.
1) ?Am I some kind of wet nurse that I should treat these grown men and women who know better like little babies?? No!
2) ?Why oh Lord do they day and night demand every moment of my attention??
3) Folks you may not realize it but this is the cry of many pastors today.
b. Why do some people constantly want to be the center of all attention in the Church and not God.
1) We may never know!
c. But I do believe that some people just want to be able to point to themselves and say look how I have the pastor jumping at my every command.
I. DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
II. DON?T BITE THE HAND THAT LEADS YOU
III. IF YOU HAVE TO BITE ANYTHING BITE YOUR OWN TONGUE
A. Look at vv. 18-20---Has anyone ever told you to watch out for what you pray for, you just might get it?
1. Again in v. 20 God refers to the outsiders who are the chief complainers and rabble rousers leading the people astray.
a. He charges them as having rejected the Lord and leading others to follow their sinful appetites instead of the Will of God.
b. As a result God says to them, ?Since you have cried and cried about your sinful appetites, prepare yourselves completely for tomorrow, because tomorrow, you are going to get what you want! You are going to get meat today, meat tomorrow, meat every single day until it comes out of your nose!
ILLUSTRATION---Now I don?t know about you but I have never had meat come out of my nose. One time at my 13th birthday party, my buddy Eric put a whole piece of cake in his glass of milk and we dared him to drink it. When he started drinking it, I made a funny face at him and he passed an entire piece of birthday cake through his nose. But trust me even that was painful. No I think meat would be a tough one!
2. Now Moses had no idea how God was going to supply enough meat for a month for over 600,000 people but he went back to camp and told the people what God said anyway.
a. God poured His Spirit of leadership out on 70 elders from among the people to help Moses deal with the people.
1) When the Spirit of the Lord hits them, they begin to proclaim the Word of the Lord just as Moses had done.
2) Joshua saw it and got jealous for Moses? sake.
b. Joshua tells Moses to stop the leaders of the people from preaching the Word of the Lord.
c. And Moses replies, ?Nonsense, I wish everyone had the Spirit of the Lord in them so that they would then follow the Lord instead of these dangerous trouble makers who seem to sprout up in every congregation.?
3. Finally the day had arrived when the troublemakers would get their reward.
a. A gentle breeze blew across the Sinai Peninsula carrying quail birds just 3 feet off the ground.
1) My friends, those quail still migrate each year 3 feet off the ground across the Sinai Peninsula today!
b. I also want you to notice in v. 34 that they gave that very place a special name.
1) You might think they would call it ?Land of the Quail Sandwich,? or ?The taste like chicken place,? but they didn?t.
c. Do you know what they named it?
1) Kibroth-hattaavah---It means ?Graves of Lust.?
2) Do you know why?
3) God gave them all extreme food poisoning and they vomited and vomited until the meat came out of their noses, then they died.
4. My friends, if you are a murmurer or a complainer or a trouble maker or a rabble rouser in the Church, if you are one of those who love to burden the pastor or make accusations against the Pastor or the deacons, look at what happened to those people who did the same thing.
a. Each and every one of them was struck down by the mighty hand of God and were buried in their very own Graves of Lust.
CONCLUSION----A young man came upon a tiger trapped in a poacher?s pit. The young man was a very kind person. He found a large tree branch that had fallen on the ground and pushed and pulled it to the side of the deep hole.
"Watch out Mr. Tiger" yelled the young man as he pushed it down inside. The tiger sprang up the branch and out of the deep hole.
"Ah! that’s better" said the tiger pleased to be free.? The young man felt suddenly very nervous, standing next to the large tiger and decided to leave.
"I must be going now. Good-bye Mr. Tiger" he said.
"Not so fast" said the tiger. "I’m going to eat you".
"But, but, you said you’d be grateful if I helped you" stammered the young man.?
"I am grateful" said the tiger. "But it was humans who dug that hole to trap me and since you’re a human I am going to eat you".
"That’s not fair" cried the young man.
"I’m a tiger and that’s what tigers do. Eat people" growled the tiger.
"I helped you and now you’re going to eat me just because I’m human" said the young man. "I think we should ask some one else to judge if that’s fair or not"
The tiger agreed and they went to look for someone to act as a judge.
They found an Ox and told him the story. "I think it’s fair for the tiger to eat you" said the Ox. "Humans treat us Oxen very badly. We’re made to work all day and when you want to, you kill us and eat us"
The tiger moved closer to the young man, who quickly yelled "Let’s make it two out of three".The tiger agreed and they went to look for someone to act as a judge.
The tiger agreed and they went to ask the biggest tree in the forest. "I think it’s fair for the tiger to eat you. You humans chop us down whenever you want to and set fire to the forest and burn us".
The tiger looked pleased and showed his big teeth as he smiled at the young man.
The young man was so frightened his legs began to shake. He saw a hare hopping along. "Please Mr. Hare, help judge if Mr. Tiger should eat me".
The hare listened to their story then said "Before I can judge I must see exactly what happened".
They all went to the deep hole where the young man had rescued the tiger.
"Now show me exactly where you were" the hare said to the tiger. Anxious to hurry up and eat the young man, the tiger jumped down into the hole.
"Was this branch in the hole?" asked the hare.
"No it wasn’t" answered the tiger. The young man and the hare pulled the branch out.
"My judgment is that it’s not fair for you to eat the young man" said the hare. "Just because it was humans who dug the hole doesn’t make it fair for you to eat him. You should have been grateful for his help".
The hare hopped away and the young man hurried off to the village leaving the ungrateful tiger howling in the deep hole.
My friends God our Father has set us free the Jesus Christ?s death, burial and resurrection, instead of complaining about what we don?t have, or who is responsible for all our troubles, this Thanksgiving shouldn?t we at least be grateful to receive salvation?
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