Aaron Psa
Faith, Manna, and Grumbling Against God
In 1 Cor. 10:10 the Christian is commanded to not grumble (NASB). Taken in context (1 Cor. 10:1-11) the passage is telling us not to follow the example of the children of Israel in the things they did of which grumbling against God was one and which thing seemed to be a national pastime. If you read the book of Exodus you soon learn they were continually grumbling against God. They were a dissatisfied and unhappy lot and their dissatisfaction was with God.
There are some people who cannot be made happy or so it seems. The children of Israel under God's guidance with Moses being his spokesperson have been brought out of Egyptian bondage with the promise that they are headed to a land of milk and honey that God will give them (Ex. 3:16-17, see also Ex. 6:6-8). Those of age are all aware of this mission they are on and aware of the promise of God.
When God says he will do a thing that thing is certain to come about for God cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and he has the power to do all things (see Gen. 18:14, Jer. 32:27 NKJV). The promise, however, was not unconditional as they later found out. They had to trust and obey neither of which they did. They had a sure thing going but blew it through no one's fault but their own. I stop here just long enough to say there is a lesson in that for us if we will heed it.
Were the children of Israel happy in Egypt? The Bible says, "The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor." (Ex. 1:13-14 NASB) They had enslaved them (Ex. 1:11). This does not sound like a good life to me but I point this passage out for you need to remember it. To hear the children of Israel tell it later in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land you would have thought Egypt had been a Garden of Eden. Yet, while there they were not so enthralled with it.
The grumbling against God began at the Red Sea (if not before for an argument can be made that it began even before the first plague based on Ex. 6:9). At the Red Sea the Holy Spirit said through the Psalmist that the children of Israel "rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea." (Psa. 106:7 NASB) They looked off into the distance and saw Pharaoh's army, became terrified fearing for their lives, and said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." (Ex. 14:11-12 NASB)
They did not yet see God as being their Savior nor did they throughout the course of their earthly lives. They did not trust him for deliverance. They were grumbling and complaining. The lack of faith will do that to a man who does not trust in God for salvation.
After the end of that crisis they came to be in want of drinking water at Marah and the Bible says, "the people grumbled at Moses." (Ex. 15:24 NASB) Since Moses was merely God's man and had no inherent power of his own a complaint against Moses was in reality a complaint against God as Moses will make clear a little later. But, again God comes to their rescue and resolves another crisis for them even though they are displaying a lack of trust in him. These things are being pointed out to establish a pattern one sees with the children of Israel – a distinct lack of faith in God despite his promise to bring them into a land of milk and honey. If he is going to bring them into such a land he is surely not going to let them die in the wilderness. Can they not see or understand this?
They then come to the Desert of Sin. They have not yet arrived at Sinai. Here the complaint is this: "The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Ex. 16:2-3 NASB) Did I not tell you earlier that to hear the children of Israel talk you would have thought they were living in the Garden of Eden back in Egypt? This would not be the last time you would hear them talk like this either.
Moses soon lets them know they are really grumbling against God, not himself. He says, "Your grumblings are not against us (Aaron and Moses – DS) but against the Lord." (Ex. 16:8 NASB) "What are we, that you grumble against us (Aaron and Moses – DS)?" (Ex. 16:7 NASB)
Are the children of Israel on the verge of starvation? Hardly! They brought out of Egypt with them large herds and flocks. The Bible says, "a very large number of livestock." (Ex. 12:38 NASB) Also they have not been in the wilderness or desert that long at this point in time. Besides faith would have and should have told them by now with all of the prior experiences they had had with God that he would provide and care for them. Did it? To ask is to answer.
One cannot grumble against God and think that God will not hear it (a lesson for us today). Moses said to them, "The Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against him." (Ex. 16:8 NASB) He hears ours too. God himself testified, "I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel." (Ex. 16:12 NASB)
God decides to provide for them the manna from heaven, "I will rain bread from heaven for you," (Ex. 16:4 NASB) but also decides to use it as a test to see "whether or not they will walk in my instruction." (Ex. 16:4 NASB) That instruction dealt with the manner of collection (an omer per person – Ex. 16:16 - with twice as much on the day prior to the Sabbath – Ex. 16:22), its frequency (daily except for the Sabbath), and its storage (none to be left overnight save for the night prior to the Sabbath – Ex. 16:19, Ex. 16:23). Did they obey? No!
Some left manna overnight (Ex. 16:20) while others (or some of the same) went out on the Sabbath to gather (Ex. 16:27) even though none was to found and they had been told ahead of time this was not to be done. That is why they collected double the amount on the day prior to the Sabbath.
The children of Israel neither believed God nor obeyed him. Why go out on the Sabbath to gather when you have been told by God's spokesperson, "on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none?" (Ex. 16:26 NASB) Would you go out if you believed God? Why leave the manna overnight when God's spokesperson has said unto you, "Let no man leave any of it until morning." (Ex. 16:19 NASB) One always has to bear in mind as well all the miracles of God that he has already performed before the eyes of these people both back in Egypt and also at the Red Sea and at the waters of Marah. Will nothing convince them to trust in and believe in God?
God saw clearly what was going on. He said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?" (Ex. 16:28 NASB) He was speaking of the children of Israel rather than to Moses as an individual.
Is there a lesson for Christians living in the twenty first century in this? If one studies the Bible carefully, both old and new testaments, he will find that obedience was always directly associated with faith. Commonsense tells us as much. Why would you obey if you do not believe? Disobedience is just the natural consequence of a lack of faith. This was the plague the children of Israel suffered from one could say almost from the get go. It is also a plague many who claim to be believers suffer from today.
Why are some who claim to be Christians and saved disobedient to God's command to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Heb. 10:24-25); why do some go through life claiming faith but never submit themselves to being baptized (Acts 2:38); why do some claiming faith never open the pages of the Bible to read it (2 Tim. 3:16-17)? A man does not have faith in God (of the kind God is looking for) without obedience, neither back in the days of the children of Israel or today. "Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction." (Rom. 15:4 NASB) We often disobey because we do not believe enough to obey. A common idea is God said it but we do not believe he meant it enough to punish us for violating the command. I have listed only 3 examples in this paragraph but the number could be vastly expanded.
The children of Israel's lack of faith eventually caught up with them to the point that they were denied entrance into the Promised Land. "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 not able to enter because of unbelief." (Heb. 3:18-19 NASB) The inspired writer clearly ties faith in with obedience in this passage. Faith is the force or the engine that drives obedience. You obey when you believe.
To finish up I mention but briefly two other incidents that surround this event. (1) "The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud" (Ex. 16:10) for all to see. Why this did not put the fear of God into the children of Israel I do not know but they could see it and still be disobedient. It seems they had lost the fear of God unless his power was being directed at them forcibly. Are we like they were? What would it take to get you to fear God if you do not now? When a man has no fear of God there is no hope of him obeying God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." (Prov. 1:7 NASB)
(2) God provided them at that time not only with manna but also with quail as meat. It was manna in the morning and quail in the evening (Ex. 16:8, see also Ex. 16:13). They ate manna in the wilderness for 40 years (Ex. 16:35) but it seems like the quail that came at this point in time, a time not long after leaving Egypt (around or on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt according to Ex. 16:1), and before they got to Mt. Sinai, did not continue but for a time. How long we do not know.
The reader can easily confuse this with the quail God sent to them at a later date after Mt. Sinai when they had grown tired of manna and began grumbling and complaining again and for which God in anger struck them with a severe plague. You can read that account in Numbers 11:4-6, 18-20, and verses 31-35 and also in Psalms 78:27-32.
I am an American baby boomer born after WWII but remember very well my grandparents and parents who all lived through the Great Depression of the 1930's in the depths of poverty. My grandparents on one side were extremely poor. People did not complain to God then about what they had to eat. They gave thanks and were grateful for what they had. How about you and I today? Will we grumble or give thanks? What do you think God's will for us is – thanksgiving or grumbling, faith or doubt, obedience or disobedience? "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning." (Rom. 15:4 NKJV)
About the Author
All of Denny's articles, over 100 audio sermons by Waymon Swain, a free online Bible correspondence course, plus access by links to many other Bible study resources can all be found on Denny's web site dennysmith.net.
AARON PSA FINAL.mov
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