#DailyDevotion Who Are You Grumbling Against And What For?

Ex. 16:4 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. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 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, 7 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?” 8 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.”

 

The Israelites had been grumbling to Moses and Aaron. They didn’t like their circumstances. It’s like they completely forgot what their life was like in Egypt. Why when Moses was first on the mountain with the Lord, their cries were going up to heaven. Obviously things were not as rosy as they were trying to paint it.

 

Now the Lord had brought them to this place to humble them but it doesn’t look like it’s going to well. You would think if they had a problem they would turn to the Lord for help in prayer but instead they grumble against the Moses and Aaron and in doing so they grumble against the Lord who gave them Moses and Aaron. Do we also grumble against the Lord’s anointed? Do we grumble against those whom the Lord has given us to do the ministry in our midst? Do we pray for them instead and ask the Lord to work through them? Do we give thanks to God for them? Unless they are actually doing something wrong we’re probably not complaining about them so much as, like the Israelites grumbling against the Lord what he have given us.

 

Nevertheless, the Lord is kind to the Israelites and overlooks their grumbling. He answers the prayer they should have prayed and promises to give them meat in the evening and bread in the morning. The Lord will provide for them their daily bread. As it says in the meaning of the fourth petition, “God gives daily bread to everyone, even all wicked people. But we pray this that we may realize it and receive it with thanksgiving.”

 

And the Lord was also testing the Israelites to see if they would listen to him. They were to gather a portion of the day each day but on the sixth gather up twice as much because there would be none on the seventh. Well the first couple of weeks that just went fabulously. Well not really. There were some who would not listen. But after 40 years in the wilderness they finally started to get the hang of it.

 

So what is the Lord wanting you to do? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust God has put his seal on him and in him we have life everlasting given to us for free. This is not as easy as one might think. We do like to try to put our own two cents in occasionally. But no, look to Jesus alone as your salvation, life and light.

 

Lord God, Heavenly Father, grant us grace that we may humble ourselves before you and receive all your benefits and give thanks and most especially grant us such faith in your Son Jesus Christ, that in him we may have eternal life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.