Trusting God at All Times || The Complaint Department #5

Introducing “The Complaint Department”

We are all professional complainers, right? We all know how to complain. We all know how complaining makes us feel. Most of us know that complaining doesn’t solve anything. Back in the Old Testament, it was Moses’s job to listen to the complaints of God’s chosen people as they journeyed on their Exodus. However, their complaints didn’t result in feeling like we do. In our series, “The Complaint Department,” we are going through six different situations where God’s chosen people complained, leading to sinful behavior, and resulting in unfavorable action from them.

My goal for this series is to help us understand the impact of our own complaining, understanding how our complaints can lead to hardships that result in actions that don’t often benefit us. Using the stories found with God’s chosen people, I want us to look at the opposite of their complaints to see how things may have gone differently.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What does it mean to you to “complain”?

Review of Part 4

In Part 4, we looked at Numbers 16:41 and investigated the complaint about who caused the death of Korah and his crew. Their sinful behavior (how they missed the mark of God’s ideal in how they should live) was to blame Moses and Aaron for their death when they watched God’s judgment take care of them in front of their own eyes. As a result, they started to destroy Israel in the continued rebellion. Israel had more fuel for their fiery rebellion. They watched God’s judgment destroy Korah and his people, and yet they still blamed Moses and Aaron for this. Blame means that someone holds someone else response for a wrong, sending guilt to a different person or group of people. Blame takes away our responsibility and removes the ability to deliver justice properly. Jesus calls us to focus on forgiveness and reconciliation instead of blaming others. Israel couldn’t take responsibility for their distrust of Yahweh, so they shifted the blame and guilt over to Moses and Aaron – who often interceded on their behalf to Yahweh.

They faced a bitter judgment. Not only did the world swallow up the 250 people apart of Korah’s crew, but God sent a plague that destroy 14,700 who still didn’t trust in Yahweh’s divinity and provision. Historicity and archaelogical records support these events as a factual event. We may never see it in our world, but it’s something to be aware of. The lesson to take away is that we need to stay faithful to God and be aware of the dangers of idolatry and rebellion. In the Old Testament, we read that God is severe in his punishments. In the New Testament (the covenant that we’re under) is that we remember: willful defiance remains under God’s judgment. Christians are called to have a higher standard over the rest of the world. Nonbelievers are not held to the same standard, and we are not to judge them at all or attempt to hold to our standards. We are called to stay true, faithful, and trusting to the commands of God. We are called to take responsibility for our actions, repent of where we messed up, and get back on the path that God set for us so we can reach the Promised Land.

The Fifth Complaint

We are heading to Numbers 20:2-3 to hear what else the Israelites have to complain about.

NASB – 2 There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled against Moses and Aaron. 3 Then the people argued with Moses and spoke, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!

NRSVUE – 2 Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 The people quarrelled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!

VOICE – 2 They ran out of water and again blamed their leaders, Moses and Aaron. ISRAELITES (arguing with Moses): 3 It would have been so much better if we had simply died along with the rest of our relatives, Korah, Abiram, and Dathan, right in front of the Eternal One.

The Israelites were in a place that was barren and desolate. They were camped there and now were forced lean into God’s provision. They faced a real physical need of water while also had to test whether they could trust God that has kept them alive during their journey through the wilderness. Water was essential for life, and the absence of it prepared the way for God to reveal His holiness and provision.

Instead of going to God, they rebelled against Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron stood before the Israelites to intercede on their behalf. Resisting them equated to resisting God himself.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you feel about the decision that they have to face? How would you respond given everything we’ve talked about in this series?

Dependent Relationship

The important thing that was being questioned in how would they depend on God. It’s a reminder for us to lean on God for our daily needs, especially in times of scarcity.

We’re called, as Christians, to depend on God for our spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. It accepts our own limitations and recognizes God’s power and provision. The Old Testament example of this is the story of manna in Exodus 16:4, where they had to trust in God’s provision of the manna for their daily sustenance. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, calls us on us to trust in God’s provision and not be anxious about what we need (Matthew 6:25-26). Prayer can show our dependence on God, showing our reliance on our daily need through God’s provision and power. Faith also shows our dependence on God, trusting in His promises and work that He does that we cannot see.

What does this look like for us? We are called to surrender our personal control and trust in His wisdom and timing. We all have goals for our lives. It could be graduated college by 25, married at 22, having kids by thirty, and more. We will try and design to lives to achieve these goals. God wants us to surrender those goals to Him. It’s not that we need to give them up, but it means that we trust on His timing to see these goals be fulfilled. His timing will be greater than our own; that His ways to reaching our goal is greater than the ways that we have prepared.

I feel like we often hear this in the case of our physical needs. When we’re sick, trust in God’s healing power. When we’re struggling, trust that God will give you the resources to live. It can be very hard to trust on God’s provision in these times because of the tangibility of our needs. What I believe is that God will provide the ways to receive these resources. While we can pray to God about our health and ask for His intervention to have better health, we can also trust in the doctor’s that are put in our path. While we can pray to God about our financial situation, we can also trust in the resources that are given to us in need and offers that come our way to make sure that we’re progressing towards stability.

Does this mean that we take everything that we see without thinking? No. We pause, reflect, give it to God, and use the gift of discernment that He has given us to figure it out. How this has looked in my life has been unique? The things that don’t work out tend to throw many roadblocks along the way. Those paths get loud internally and get frustrating. God’s ways tend to clear and concise. It can trigger some fear and nervousness, but it never gets to a point of being too intense. It gets clear, and the path is quiet. I may feel some intensity and pushback from the margins, but it stays quiet and gives me some clarity to push forward.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you depend on God? How doe your dependence on God show up in your life?

Exclusionary Punishment

How did the Israelites get their water? Well Moses provided the water, but at a cost. Let’s check out Numbers 20:10-13 (NRSVUE).

10 Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebel; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”

11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “But you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and through which showed himself to be holy.

The Israelites got their water, and God did not respond by punishing them. God punished Moses and Aaron. According to God, they did not trust in God and show the Israelites what it is like to trust in God, and now – they will not get to enter the Promised Land.

Moses was God’s appointed prophet and mediator between God and the Israelites. Aaron was the high priest. These positions required faithful obedience to God, especially during times of testing. The original command from God was to speak to the rock so that water would come forth for the Israelites. What Moses did is spoke out of anger and struck the rock, with Aaron standing with Moses’s decision. This didn’t mean they denied that God was real, but they did not rely upon God’s command to represent Him faithfully before the people.

God wanted the water to showcase His power, mercy, and faithfulness despite Israel’s complaining. Moses and Aaron let their anger to misinterpret God’s character. Church leaders are called to treat God as holy, following is command at all times. Moses and Aaron were called to show Israel what reverence, faith, and obedience to God looked like. They had to be the examples of for the Israelites.

Because of their disobedience, they weren’t able to God into the Promised Land. Aaron on Mount Hor before they entered and Moses died on Mount Nebo. Joshua ended up guiding the people into the Promised Land. The land was the ultimate gift to Israel at the end of their Exodus. They had a lot of hits and lows on their journey, but God stayed faithful to His people?

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Given everything that we talked about regarding Moses and Aaron’s leadership in this journey, how does this consequence make you feel? Was it valid? Should it have been something lighter?

Trust God at All Times

What can we learn from this story? Each decision that we make – small or large – can either show how God works in our lives or cloud the image of His true character. I want to relight the main less we heard from the last part, this standard is held for God’s people, not non-believers. God calls Christians to living a holy life – a life set apart from non-believers. When we go against God’s commands for life, we lessen the impact of what God can do in our lives. Obeying God’s commands shows that God’s ways are greater the ways of the world. Disobedience carries consequences – not like what we see during the time of Numbers – but both earthly and divine consequences that we will have to work through. Even partially disobeying God’s command is still disobedience.

We must live a life that healthily respects the character of God. Don’t take it lightly or make light of it, but trust it and respect it in all capacities. It’s good to take moments to pause and reflect, asking yourself if what you’re doing honors God’s command or are you trying to skirt around those commands for your own comfort and convenience. Everything that we say and do must align with God’s character, carefully making sure that are not misrepresenting God’s graciousness, faithfulness, patience, truth, and love. Don’t try and shortcut your way around it, because it can lessen the impact both in our lives and the lives of the person that we are interacting with. When we mess up, let us quickly repent. Don’t dwell on it. Don’t take on the guilt and shame of the situation. Accept where we fell short, learn from these ways, create paths to avoid it in the future, and move forward. Forgive and forget is how God lives, and it’s how we can avoid Moses’s mistake and get to the Promised Land.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can you ensure God is with you in all steps of your journey?

0

Likes So Far (click to like the blog)