Numbers 13. Anticipation saturated the air as the Israelites waited on the edge of the Promised Land for their chiefs to return from spying out the land. After 40 days of waiting, they gathered, eager to hear the report. But it wasn't the news they wanted.
"We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are... all the people that we saw in [the land] are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim..."
Giants were in the land, bigger and stronger. They were the stuff of legend (Gen. 6:4), and after months of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites were in no condition to confront these people, let alone drive them out of the land. Looking at the situation before them, the chiefs honestly felt they were in no place to enter the land.
True to character, the Israelites complained. "Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night. And the people grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?'"
In Egypt the Israelites complained of their oppressive conditions under slavery. After experiencing miraculous deliverance from that bondage, they complained about not having the food and water they enjoyed during their captivity. God answered their complaint by providing water from a rock, and bread from heaven. They complained that it was monotonous, and God gave them quail. Now, after being delivered and miraculously sustained through their journey across the desert, they complained that they would die in the Promised Land.
The grass is always greener. In my own life there will always be something to complain about, no matter what my circumstances are. Everywhere I have ever been there were things to complain about. Where I find myself now I can also find things to complain about. And the reality is that even if I get to where I would like to be, there will be things there that I could complain about too.
As I was considering that reality, Paul's words to the Philippians came to mind: "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Paul could face any and every situation with contentment because He knew and He believed that God would provide the necessary strength to face it all.
Not so the Israelites. Their complaints revealed their lack of faith. Had they believed that God would give them the strength and means necessary to take the Promised Land, they would not have complained about the size of the inhabitants.
"...they are stronger than we
are... all the people that we saw in [the land] are of great height.
And there we saw the Nephilim..."
Even when facing such genuinely difficult circumstances, knowing Paul's secret would have made these facts no big deal. The God who had miraculously freed them from bondage, bringing the most powerful nation on Earth to its knees, the God who had fed and sustained their multitudes in the wilderness with heavenly food, this same God would go before them. He is infinitely taller and stronger than the Nephilim, and He would fight where the Israelites could not. He would provide the strength to meet their weakness.
But they did not believe, and their complaint was so much more than ingratitude, it was the
first symptom of the fatal disease of unbelief, a sickness that condemned a generation to die in the wilderness, apart from
God, never entering the Promised Land.
"For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt with Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."
The author of Hebrews uses this account as an ominous example of what happens to those who persist in unbelief. He warns his audience that if they do not believe and keep on believing, they will be condemned just as that generation of Israelites was condemned. To die in the wilderness is to die an unbeliever and not entering rest is the equivalent of failing to attain to salvation.
Seeing these connections this morning sobered my thoughts about complaining. When I look at my life situation and find things to complain about, I am not merely being ungrateful for what God has given me already, I am demonstrating a lack of trust in His promises and a lack of faith in His ability to keep them. But complaining is more than just a failure to have faith, it could be cause for condemnation.
We are justified by faith. Our salvation depends upon it. Unbelief is the ultimate sin, and the seed from which springs complaint. After making this connection, Paul's exhortation to the Philippians takes on a weightiness I never attributed to it before:
"Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me."
Complaining is at the top of the slippery slope of unbelief, with eternal condemnation waiting below. The warning signs are there; complain at your own risk.Labels: Bible/theology, journal/quiet time, reflections