Episode Transcript  

One

Israelites Murmuring; Moses Praying

When you read the story of Israel’s journey through the desert to the Promised Land, a sharp contrast stands out: when challenges arise, the people react one way, and Moses another. Here’s the basic difference: the people complain. Moses prays to God. 

So, for instance, as soon as the Israelites cross the Red Sea and are miraculously and definitely liberated from the Egyptians, they start to realize they’re going to need some drinking water. So, what do the Israelites do? “They turn to Moses and complain, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” And what does Moses do? He turns to God in prayer. “Moses besought the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Ex. 15:24-25).

Then they go a little farther, and they realize they’re going to need some food.  So what do the Israelites do? They complained again, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt… for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger!” But Moses, again, converses with God, and God gives the people bread in the form of Manna as well as meat in the form of quail. 

So this is a really important distinction for the Christian life. Are we people who complain, or are we people who pray?

Two

The Difference between Complaining and Asking

It really helps that in the Exodus we see the difference between asking and complaining when it comes to food and water. Because that’s maybe the point where parents feel the difference between complaining and asking most clearly.

Most parents know the difference between a kid asking politely versus complaining about a drink. Like, if you’re in the car, and the kid says, “Dad, may I please have a drink?” If there’s any water around, the father very happily passes it back to the kid. But if the kid just suddenly shrieks out, “Aaaugh! I’m so thirsty!” It’s like nails on a chalkboard. It’s the same with the difference between asking nicely and complaining about food.  If a kid says, “Excuse me, Mom. I’m a little hungry. Is there any way I could please have a snack?” Maybe the mom will give the kid a snack, and maybe she won’t. But it won’t really get on her nerves. That’s really different from a kid who walks into the kitchen and says, “I’m starving! Why isn’t supper on the table?!” That kid better hope his mom doesn’t happen to be holding a frying pan just then.

The same is true for the Christian. Asking humbly for things is okay. Complaining just isn’t. 

Three

Complaining – Ingratitude and Entitlement

A person who complains is always acting as though they deserve better. A kid who complains about dinner, when it is or what’s on the menu, is acting like they deserve better than three square meals a day. Like they deserve better than having a parent who loves them, takes care of them, and buys and prepares food for them.

That’s why their complaining is so outrageous and so aggravating.

So too with the Israelite’s complaining. It’s like they’re saying they deserve better than to have been rescued, with miracles and wonders, from a murderous and tyrannical oppression. It’s like they’re saying they deserve better than to be in the hands of an all-powerful God who has taken special interest in their welfare. It’s like they’re saying they deserve better than to be brought to a place of intimacy with God on Sinai and a land of milk and honey in Canaan. That’s what makes their complaining so outrageous and so aggravating.

And what about us? What about when we complain? When we complain, it’s like we’re saying we deserve better than to be forgiven for our countless sins, to be made a child of God, and an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s like we’re saying we deserve better than to be purified by trial and so made fit for heaven. It’s like we’re saying we deserve better than to pick up our cross in imitation of our Savior. Like we deserve better than to be given the opportunity to offer up suffering for the salvation of souls, the way He did. 

That’s what we do when we complain. That’s what makes it so outrageous and so aggravating.

Four

Distrust in God

The complaining of the Israelites isn’t just a form of ingratitude and entitlement. It’s also a very clear, “I don’t trust you, God.” Complaining says, “This world is not governed by an all-powerful, just, loving God. If there were such a God, He would never have allowed these events to happen. Because these events should not have been permitted to happen to me.”

That’s a really blasphemous thing to imply. But of course, that is what complaining does imply. You’re saying that the world is not being run right, and what is that except a denial of the governance of all things by the all-good, all-powerful God?

And, of course, the Israelites had just experienced proof after proof after proof, all narrated in the first fifteen chapters of Exodus, that there was a good God who loved them and had everything under control. So they had no excuse for their lack of trust.

And what about us? Has God really taken any less care of us than He did of the Israelites? Has He not sent His Son to save us, His Church to instruct us, His Spirit to inspire us, His saints to show us the possibility and beauty of heroic holiness?

So how dare we complain?

Five

Asking: Reliance and Surrender 

One of the best things to root out of your life this Lent is complaining. It’s perhaps the main thing that spoiled the Israelites in the desert, and it’s one of the main things that can spoil our Lent and our lives. That doesn’t mean we can’t ask God for things, the way Moses did. God wants us to ask Him for things. 

It shows that we know that He is the source of all good things. It shows that we rely on Him. And by asking Him for things, we’re forced to consider what we really want, and what is really appropriate to ask for. But let us ask as children who trust their Father, knowing that He hears, knowing that He governs all things wisely, and surrendering the outcome to Him. But let us not complain!

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