Grumbled against Moses and Aaron

“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” (Exodus 16:2)

 

Moses and Aaron the brothers were the leaders who made exit from Egypt the people of Israel. People, who had exodus, rejoiced praising the great power of God Jehovah at first. But soon after, they would often complain and resent from time to time. This time, they made a fuss with the matter of eating. So they could get food to eat every day after all, but God wanted them to keep well the laws which had been given to them. It is proper to pray for getting what need, but the Lord does not like the attitude of putting grumbles first. Even if it’s a grumble against a person, it’s toward God in the end, so we need to avoid it.

 

To make change Pharaoh’s evil heart which tries to stop Exodus of Israel, God had done harm ten calamities to the land of Egypt and its people. Pharaoh was eventually forced to yield so allow Israelite to exit out of the land of Egypt, but he soon regretted and changed his mind again. So Pharaoh’s army had chased Israelite in order to make get them back to Egypt, but they were pitiably buried at sea in the Red Sea. Even though they saw such miracles with their own eyes, the people of Israel blamed every time. If anyone can look at their life honestly, they would find a fact that Israelite’s resentment is not new at all. Then from now on, to do objectify yourself, and try to watch for carefully. When we go through difficult things, when hungry, when cold or hot, we would have to think of those who are having a harder time than own self, instead of complaining.

 

The importance of food for man, it goes without saying. Also the common words of ‘busy to make ends meet’ spoken in daily living, is the ordinary truth of common people. Nevertheless, we must follow Jesus’ words as follows, “Do not worry saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ and ‘What shall we wear?’” All men are creatures of the Lord. God not only made men, but governs all lives of men. That means, He is the Lord in charge of all, life, death, disaster, and blessings. If so, a person has only to work with gratitude and sincerity for the work given to oneself. The main cause for certain problem to somebody is that while not doing listen to God’s words, believe, or follow the words, but they are lazy or do wrong deeds. The behavior of the person causing the problem is all as wrong as that way.

 

It is a deserved and normal attitude for anyone, to demand what he or she needs. What the dead have in common is that they don’t breathe, they don’t eat, they don’t move. Prayer is the act of asking the Lord God for something too. If you sincerely pray, God will grant your demands. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount, the chapters 5~7 of Matthew, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Believe in Jesus, the Lord of salvation, and live obeying His lessons, and you will realize practically what the experience as result by prayer is. A person who gives up without even trying can’t get any results. Certain master entrusted one, two, five talents to each of the servants. Later, when the master was going to settle the accounts, the person who had received one talent brought back the one talent had buried in earth. Because complained that the servant had received less than others, not only he aroused the anger of his master, but also even that he had received was taken away.

 

The text, rather than the fact that the food problem of the people was miraculously solved by being given a manna and quail, points out the problem of their fault, that is, the resentment attitude. Even though it was a desert life where it was difficult to find water to drink and farm, they were able to eat the manna like honey-mixed snacks, and the quail meat. That was really amazing and miraculous thing. With about 8 billion people living on the Earth now, how much food need for them? It’s a thing like a miracle that myself is alive not starving to death despite that. It’s a lot that we have eaten so far, but also it will need more food in the future. But as the Lord said, if we live sincerely, it will be given everything for us to eat. Of course, there were also countless hard times in living until now. But that was also occurred because oneself didn’t a faithful life.

 

The person who brought back the one talent money to master he had received will not only was disqualified right away, but will also be a failure in future life wholly. Without appreciation or effort, as he just put complaints on top of it, so also any other affairs can’t be done well, right? Not to believe in Christ, the God of creation and salvation, is for man the greatest fundamental sin above all. And a big fault in everyday life is the attitude to do resentment. If living with gratitude, you can take a complete blessings, but grumbles make bring you a corresponding punishment. Now judge well how do you to behave, I wish.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on April 30th 2023)