It is so easy to look at the failures of many of those before us at a different time and in a different place and quickly observe the folly of their foolishness. As of late I have been reflecting on the Israelites and their freedom from Egypt. For a group of people who saw things that nobody else ever saw they sure are quick to forget about the LORD. Consider the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt. For all that could only be described as divinely miraculous, these people soon thereafter forgot about what God had done. And though they advanced between two walls of water at the parting of the Red Sea, these same people shortly after found themselves doubting the same God who did that.
One of the more riveting pictures of their disbelief is shortly after crossing the Red Sea when they found themselves amid the early days of their wanderings in the wilderness. Of course God was directing them throughout this time, but not without much opposition from these people. They begin complaining (Num 11:1-3). Well God was not ignorant of their complaint, He heard every bit of it. And to show His disapproval of that He causes fire to consume portions of the outer parts of the camp. We do well to see this as the corrective action God takes, namely to cause repentance to take place with these people. No sooner though do we read that repentance isn't taking place, but instead they are complaining now even more (Num 11:4-6). At the root of their complaint: a desire to have "meat to eat." Seriously? Yes, that is at the root of their complaint. And in so few words they are saying, "We would rather have meat to eat and be enslaved to the Egyptians, than to live in these conditions with what provision (manna) God has given." What a horrific picture of sinfulness.
Well God has a rather bold indictment against these people. He says, "you have rejected [Me]" (Num 11:20). That is a serious accusation. It may cause us to think we missed something in the narrative, after all they only asked for some meat to eat. But the reality is we didn't miss anything, other than what both they know and God knows. How is this rejecting God then? What the Israelites are ultimately saying is that at any cost they want meat. They will even sacrifice their covenant relationship with God if it means they can have meat to eat. Their rejection of God becomes clear when we put all these parts together. Their complaint rises out of a calloused indifference to the LORD. They had seen all these great signs that are evidence of God's love, care, concern, and faithfulness to them and they are unmoved because as they see it meat is better. Meat is better than God, than the hope and promises that He has made to them, and so they are willing to forfeit everything with Him now and into the future, for the sake of the immediacy of satisfaction now (at least as they see it).
This is so much a real life illustration of what sin is. Sin is indifference to what it is one has seen God do. Sin is forgetfulness about what will be. Sin is a devaluation of what is true and genuine and an overvaluation of what isn't. Sin is despising what has been given and loving and craving what has been taken away. Sin is concerned with the immediate rather than with what is lasting. And in reflecting as such we begin no longer to see these people in this story as so unique, but instead we start seeing ourselves in this story with just a varied reality over all those things we complain about not having and all those things we freely run to when God has already freed us from them and their power over us.
Never have we thought our habitual complaint is truly a rejection of God, BUT IT IS. We don't consider that our discontented heart over all that He's given us is rejecting His goodness, BUT IT IS. We don't consider that our groaning, moaning, twisting and turning in discomfort over what we want that we shouldn't have is rejecting God, BUT IT IS. This is because complaining is not just verbal, it is acted out. And much like them we too find ourselves day after day complaining about all these things and in the process distancing ourselves from the LORD.
But there is great hope. The bad news is that for the rest of time, both we as well as all of humanity will be stuck in this ugly cycle. We will complain and chase after what doesn't satisfy. That is the ugly truth. However, there is hope. The hope of the Israelites was not in their freedom from Egypt, or the provision of manna, or even in finally getting to the Promised Land. And just the same our hope is not in our forgiveness of and freedom from sin, or in the grace of God, or in Heaven. Those things are not ultimate. Our hope and the hope of the Israelites are one in the same. The greatest hope we could ever have is found in the truth of WHO GOD IS and a true experiential knowledge of Him.
The fact is forgiveness means nothing in and of itself. Grace means nothing in and of itself. And Heaven means nothing in and of itself. All of these point to the greatest news that we will find all our joys, delights, hopes, and everything we desire one day fully satisfied IN GOD. Forgiveness, grace and Heaven all find their purpose in that they exist so that man and God might be united. And that is the hope with which every one of us and those who existed before us should set our sight on. In other words God Himself is the biggest, best, most powerful, most freeing and life-giving news of all time. Simply put: God is the GOSPEL. And may we ever learn that our complaint is a rejection of Him.
So let us peel away all these many layers around us. As God took from the Israelites they were left with Him. For them they said, "You are not sufficient for my wants." Woe to the person who says that. As God peels back layers around you and I do we complain, or do we rejoice? If complaining is rejection of God, then our rejoicing is embracing HIM. Our joy will not be in what was lost, of course not. But there we can find our joy in HIM, who in spite of what was lost proves Himself to be every bit worthy and sufficient. What eternity will reveal about Christ, the centerpiece of Heaven (Rev. 21:22), can be learned now by faith in Him. Oh that Christ may help us realize His sufficiency now! Oh that now we would stop our complaint and learn to rejoice in all the riches of WHO HE IS and WHAT IS OURS BECAUSE OF JESUS!
For those of us IN CHRIST we can boldly assert: We have God! We have the Creator of all that we look upon and delight in. We have God! The infinite, unending One who far outshines the brightest of lights we otherwise gaze upon. We have God! The never decreasing, never growing, but even now and forevermore Perfect Being. And this understanding will aid us not to complain, but to rejoice evermore IN HIM.
For those of us IN CHRIST we can boldly assert: We have God! We have the Creator of all that we look upon and delight in. We have God! The infinite, unending One who far outshines the brightest of lights we otherwise gaze upon. We have God! The never decreasing, never growing, but even now and forevermore Perfect Being. And this understanding will aid us not to complain, but to rejoice evermore IN HIM.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I disagree that complaints are sins. How many of the biblical "heroes" cried out to God, complaining to him about their current situation, begging him for intervention? Was the psalmist sinning when he wrote so many complaints to God, petitioning for a change in circumstance?
ReplyDeleteI understand that we need to be grateful for the unending love of the Father, and the enumerable gifts that He's given us, but I have a hard time believing that my prayer for my brother's health is a sin because I'm "complaining" to God that he fell ill.
This is a fair critique and one I was expecting. What I am saying is that somewhere at the root of every sin in a discontent with what God says is good, right, proper, satisfying, and what it is God says about what we CAN have. We are ultimately disagreeing with that (and so with GOD HIMSELF) by our actions when we sin, which is not always then a "verbal complaint" but is every bit the same attitude as what is verbalized. Secondly, you are right in understanding a bit of the "complaint Psalms" because there is an aspect of complaints, in the Psalms, where it appears justified. You might call it a righteous anger. In that regard the complaint is in agreement with God, about what isn't right. In that case such a "complaint" is justified. Thirdly, there is also an aspect in which this righteous anger seeks what is ultimate. Egypt wasn't ultimate, God was/is. They were willing to sacrifice what was ultimate then over what was temporal. I am not here (in this article) dealing with those that are ultimate or final (that is a second article). For instance, if anyone of us as believers is saying, "Come Lord Jesus," we could be accused of complaining because we are asking for the cessation of life as we know it and the entering into the life that is to come. Shouldn't we just embrace the fact that He will eventually come and in the meantime embrace what He has decided to do? My point is I can pray that prayer without it being considered a complaint. But I think there needs to be an entirely different sense in which we define this complaint. I might argue it is not even a complaint (nor the likes of praying for healing). So here goes - Complaint, as I am defining it through the article, is a desiring after LESS THAN WHAT GOD HAS FOR US. Or otherwise it might be said that complaining is desiring after that which God says you cannot have. And every time I desire less than what God has or what God has said I cannot have, I complain. And every time then I complain, I sin. So if that is a complaint, then begging for intervention, or desiring after a healing, or the return of Christ is not a complaint, but a delight in what is to come ultimately. That is because it is something God says I can have, eventually. Prayer is then a mere wrestling with God over how quickly this may come. I might even argue there needs still to be another category of such complaints, as more a perplexed state of humans engaging with their understanding of the Divine. As it stands though in the text in Num 11, they are desiring everything that was of what was not ultimate, and desiring what God specifically told them they couldn't have, even if it were to the sacrifice of their very relationship with God. That is at the root of all this. It is their willful sacrifice of God, for temporal, fleshly, physical delights, over what they most needed (God Himself). It might be otherwise said that what they are doing is much like what a person who comes close to Christianity, close to believing, but instead of seeing all the benefits and blessings in that focuses instead on the losses and forfeitures.
ReplyDeleteIs my prayer request for a new job, which is a temporary comfort, worth sharing with the church, when the mere sharing of it (if it is not the will of God), would be a sin? Much like the Jews had manna, I currently have a job, and much like the Jews wanted different food (meat), I want a different job.
ReplyDeleteHow am I to approach the Throne with confidence when I'm asking for anything other than "Thy will be done"? My failed, human understanding of the Will of God would make me fearful to ask for anything else...
My point is that the blanket statement that anytime we desire more than what God has given us is a sin makes any desire for self betterment a sin. If God has put me in a slightly overweight body with an acceptable job and a family of 3+1, is it a sin to want to change any of that?
The situations you are referring to are an entirely separate category strictly because they are done in a manner wherein you are seeking God through prayer. Automatically you reveal the condition of your heart, namely that by praying you know God, and want God, and delight in pursuing Him. These people in Numbers 11 didn't do that. They merely complained and set their sights on Egypt, which indicates utter abandonment of God. If in our prayers we complain and ask for relief, or change, we do so because we know God, want God, and delight in what He wants, otherwise we wouldn't pray. I never said that we desire "more than what God has given" is sin. Rather what was said is that sin is desiring "LESS than what God offers, or has given" (which relates to HIM being superior to the meat they wanted and freedom He provided). And the other aspect where complaining is sin is where it "desires things that God has said they/we cannot have."
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