Grumbling and Complaining

Key Scriptures

10:11-34    On day twenty of the second month of the second year after leaving Egypt, the cloud of the Lord’s presence lifted up from its place over the tabernacle.  Following it, the Israelites journeyed from the desert of the Sinai Wilderness to the place it stopped in the Desert of Paran. …It took three days of marching from the mountain of God’s revelation in Sinai; all the while the chest of the Lord’s covenant was in the forefront as the people followed the cloud of God’s presence to the next encampment. 

11:1-3   After reaching their destination…the Lord was angered to hear the people complaining about the hardships they had to endue. Holy fire came forth and singed the edges of the encampment, causing the Israelites to beg Moses to intercede. He did by praying to the Lord who then caused the fire to cease. The Israelites named the area Taberah (burning) for the fire God sent around them there.

11:4-15   Among the people was a disaffected group who longed for the diet they used to have in Egypt. Their complaints spread among all the people who began asking, “Why are we given only manna? The diet we had in Egypt—meat and fish with vegetables—was so much better!  Moses could not help but hear all the complaints and, sensing God’s displeasure, knew there was trouble ahead. Moses prayed to the Lord, asking “What have I done wrong that you allow this difficulty to come upon me? I don’t deserve this kind of treatment. Why have I been put in charge of a people like this? I am not their mother and I can’t suckle them like babies until we reach the Promised Land. How in the world am I supposed to find the meat they desperately crave? It’s all too much for me. …I’d rather die by your hand today, Lord…than have to deal with all these people.”

11:16-20   God’s reply to Moses was this: “Collect seventy men from among Israel’s elders and assemble them at the tabernacle where I will speak to you. The Spirit who empowers you will be given to these elders so that your heavy responsibility for the people of Israel can be shared among them.  Then you are to tell the Israelites to consecrate themselves and be ready for tomorrow when meat will be provided for them to eat. …Tell them, “Your grumbling and complaining has come before me and now I will give you what you want. Only it will not be just food for one day; you will have meat for a full month—until you’re sick of it—because your grumbling about having to leave Egypt is a direct rejection of the Lord your God.”

11:24-29   Moses followed God’s instructions, gathering the seventy elders before the tabernacle. Then the Lord descended in a thick cloud, speaking to Moses and dispersing the power and glory of his Spirit upon them all. And the elders began prophesized fervently, but just on that one occasion. However, two of the men Moses had chosen stayed behind in the camp, not joining the others at the tabernacle. Yet the Spirit descended upon them as well and they also began to prophesize. Hearing their proclamations, one Israelite youth hurried over to tell Moses what was happening. Moses replied to him, “No need to be jealous on my account. If I had my way, all of God’s people would be prophets. I wish the Lord would give his Spirit to every living Israelite.”

11:30-34   Moses and the elders then returned to camp as the Lord caused a mighty wind to arise, bringing in quail from the direction of the Gulf of Suez. The number of quail was so great that they formed a flapping mass three feet deep and a full day’s walk in all directions. The people began collecting the quail and did not stop until the end of the next day, gathering enormous quantities for food. …But the Lord’s anger toward the Israelites burned like a consuming fire and a deadly plague broke out among them, taking many lives. Afterward the people named that place Kibroth Hattaavah, which means “graveyard of uncontrolled cravings.” 

Basic Message

In the form of a hovering cloud, God led the People of Israel away from Mt. Sinai and deeper into the wilderness. The people felt hardship and longingly recalled the food and comforts they left behind in Egypt (or so life in Egypt seemed at that point). Certain people began to complain and soon grumbling engulfed the entire camp. They wanted meat, not manna. God was angry at the people’s rejection of him in their longing for what they left behind. Moses also became upset and began to complain himself, questioning God’s appointing him as leader and intermediary for such a people. 

God responded to both Moses and the people. He gave the people meat in the form of hordes of quail brought in by the prevailing winds off the Gulf of Suez. They had more meat than they could possibly desire, and would soon enough wish for other fare. Many of the people died from a plague that soon broke out among them. God, in response to Moses’ distress, gave him help in the form of seventy leaders upon whom his Spirit was dispersed. The seventy prophesied as a display of their anointing to assume some of the duties that God had previously only empowered Moses to perform. Moses was obviously satisfied with the mass anointing, proclaiming that he wished all God’s people would have the Spirit’s empowerment.

Comments

*   The notion that God gets angry is strange and confusing to some. As discussed in an earlier section, we Westerners are accustomed to the Greek-derived concept of an unemotional, distant God—the Unmoved Mover of Aristotle. Many Eastern religions also conceive of the divine in impersonal terms that entail karma or universal energy existing without personhood. Obviously words fail us and can only vaguely represent the reality of who God is and the nature of his personality. But how could God, as understood in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, have his being and express his divine love without intense passion of some kind?  And if God is a being who expresses love toward humankind, there must be other emotions he feels and expresses for all the wrong—and often horrid—things that humans regularly do. 

Human anger may not provide the best parallel to describe this side of God’s emotional response to acts of the human race, but it is accurate enough to convey the important understanding that what we choose to do can and does elicit a response from God, whether positive or negative. Too often we just want a big Teddy Bear god who will love and support us but make no demands. So we creatively conceive the type of God we want (or think we do) without giving serious consideration to the fact that if God truly exists, he is who he is, outside the constraints of our desire-driven imaginations. Our real task is to drop all of our pre-conceived notions so we can get to know him as he really is.

*   Along the same lines of misconceiving who God is, we must also be careful what we pray for. The danger is that we just might get it. We think we know what is best for ourselves and others, and often orient our prayers to get what we think we want. But as the story of the Israelite craving for meat shows, God may give us what we want along with all the unintended consequences that attend the request. We are all vulnerable to the illusion that if we had more money, and preferably lots of it, then all would be well. God generally ignores such prayers, knowing that wealth brings with it a trainload of trouble. Wealth has a way of corrupting the human heart. Thus, as with the Israelites, God usually only gives us what we need (our “manna”; our daily bread) and not what we want (the cravings of the “good life” in Egypt). 

*   As the story indicates, human cravings for material things of all sorts (whether plain meat or a Caribbean vacation home), is a vain attempt to fill a void that God himself is meant to occupy. When the Israelites complained about their circumstances, God responded that they had rejected him. Complaining is always an indication that the heart is off course, that the need for God’s presence is misunderstood as a need for something else. Complaining is the verbal expression of a poverty of the soul. Its opposite, praise and thanksgiving, is a good indicator that the heart is full of the One who is meant to fill it.

*   When things turn bad, God has a habit of making good come out of the situation. The grumbling and complaining of the Israelites caused Moses to plead with God to relieve him of his duties as leader of a wayward people. Instead, God had Moses appoint seventy leaders upon whom he then poured his Spirit. Moses’ wish, that all would have the Spirit of God upon them, anticipated the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would descend upon all the disciples of Christ collectively. Afterward, they would be empowered to live out the Gospel in love, power, and confidence (their calling as disciples), just as the seventy leaders under Moses were empowered for the task that lay ahead of them—leading the people of Israel to more fully reflect the presence of the Living God in their midst.

Biblical Themes