Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 March 2023 by Major Michael Ramsay
Do you ever get the idea that God is trying to tell you something? There might be something He is trying to teach me about Exodus 17:1-7. In a span of a couple of days, we read Exodus 17 in our family devotions, it was the text at a service we went to at the Gospel Hall, it showed up in my personal devotions, and was referenced in the lectionary when I was looking for texts to preach on the other week. With all of these hints I thought I should spend some time reflecting on this passage this week; so that is what we are doing today. And then this morning, if I was having any last moment doubts, as I was scrolling through Facebook while procrastinating reading through my message, I ran across this quote in my memories from 2017, "Great message today from Rev Deb Rapport at 77 River on Exodus 17:1-7." So here it goes...
The people are grumbling about God to Moses in Chapter 17 because they have nothing to drink. And In Chapter 16, they were grumbling about God to Moses because they had nothing to eat – Is God a waiter to bring them food and drink? Or is God the cook and Moses the waiter and the people have so many complaints about the food and the cook that they just keep complaining to Moses: ‘Take this back’, ‘I don’t like that’ ‘Tell the cook this!’ ‘Bring me that!’
I don’t think I am generally a whiny costumer, but I do have one story of being a little short with a fast-food restaurant’s drive-thru staff. A long time ago in a province far, far away, I was with my two little children going through an A&W Drive-Thru. Being that my children are vegetarians, I ordered them something with no meat: a grilled cheese sandwich, cheese on a toasted bun. The voice in the drive-thru box said, “I don’t think we can do that”. I replied, “sure you can: first you take the bun out of the package; then you toast it and then you put the cheese on it.” They did. My little children loved the episode immensely and still remember that incident to this day, even now as they are all grown up and moved away – the day we told the restaurant how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.
The Israelites here are being whiney drive-thru customers as they are travelling across the desert, telling Moses exactly what they want and how they want it. They are pretty dramatic about it as well: Chapter 16, about the food, verses 3-4, The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” And then after God and Moses give them meat and bread of Heaven in the very next chapter, Chapter 17:2, 'So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”'
And just before their whining and complaining about the food and water, just before these stories take place, is the parting of the Red Sea – remember how the people came to Moses about God then? Exodus 14:11-12: They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” And so it goes…Exodus 17:2, 'So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”'
The Israelites have developed a pattern of whining and complaining in their lives. If you look back at Chapter 16 you can see that people responded a little differently about the instructions they were given about the food: some obeyed, some did not; but it seems like the majority of them complained. And sometimes their complaints made me wonder, ‘do these people even believe in God?’ 17:7: “Is the Lord among us or not?” The fact that they are always going to Moses and/or Moses and Aaron with their complaints sound to me like they almost think that Moses might even be just making this whole God-thing up. You can see how Moses – and GOD – get quite upset with the people as recorded in the book of Exodus!
The people are so focused on the apparently bad things; the people are so focused on the difficult things (which they interpret as bad); the people are so focused on the challenging things (which they interpret as bad); the people are so focused on an imagined ideal, comparing it to an imagined reality that falls short in their minds, so they are not happy and so they whine and so they complain about God and their leaders.
It is SO easy to do! …so tempting too! Whine and complain! Whine and complain about our leaders! I was able to see Pierre Poilievre, the Leader of Canada’s Official Opposition on Thursday. Gord Johns, our MP has agreed this week to appear on Heather’s TV Show (HTV: Heather’s Talk in the Valley); It is so easy to complain – either about politicians or in agreement with their complaints about other politicians or the government. Politicians are often simply people doing a difficult job and we often find something to complain about them – whether we have ever even met them or not! I remember being blessed to serve from the food truck alongside both Josie Osbourne (our MLA) and Gord Johns (our MP) at Christmas time and chatting briefly about just that: no matter what we say or do, someone will always complain! I know I can be frustrated by others complaining about me, both if I do something and if I don’t do the same thing… and so you think I would know better than to complain about others, but alas, I can still be tempted to complain about so and so, or this and that, and grumble and whine against our leaders or someone else… just like the Israelites
And this can be trouble. When we get into a habit of complaining and thinking negative thoughts, it can be hard to even see good in people we love. Whining and complaining about people in our lives and/or things out of our control can be all-encompassing and can really drag us down. We can get so that almost every thought is negative. Philippians 2:14: Do everything without grumbling or arguing
Do we ever get like this? Do we ever whine and complain? Do we ever get worked up about things that we know nothing about, things that are out of our control, things that are turning out just they way they are supposed to turn out, things that are turning out just the way they were always likely to turn out - and then do we whine about them to ourselves or others and in the process make life a lot more difficult for ourselves and everyone else!?!
When we are in a difficult spot, do we look to God expecting a miracle and wondering what it might be and how He might do it? Or do we complain about our leaders, our circumstances, and/or God? Do we ever whine and complain so much that if people read stories about us, like we do about the Israelites in the desert, that many of the stories would be about how much we whine… about our government (Trudeau this, Liberals, NDP, or Conservatives, that) … about our church leaders (Headquarters! or Major said this or did that!), our bosses (That Major again!), or one another (so and so always does this or never does that; why do I always have to…) do we ever whine so much that people might ask of us, “Is the Lord among them or not?” and/or “do they even believe in God?”
Whining and complaining can certainly come across to others as if we don’t believe in God. If we are always complaining about our lives, it certainly does look like we don’t believe that the Lord will and is taking care of us; it certainly looks like we don’t have faith in God.
Even worse than how it might appear, complaining can actually get in the way of our relationship with one another and with God. It can pull us away from a life of peace. Grumbling and complaining is destructive and it can be addictive like any drug or any other bad habit and it can be very destructive to our soul, our mental health, our spiritual well-being. We find what we look for: the more we look for bad things in our lives to complain about, the more we find them; the more talk about the bad things in our lives, the more we notice bad things in our lives, the more we listen to (and so encourage others to talk about) complaints about bad things in others’ lives, the more we focus on the bad things in their and our lives. And when we complain about the bad things, it is easy for us to be overcome by those bad things. But, on the other hand, when we focus on God; when we look for what God is doing in the world and in our lives, when we look to see how He will deliver us through our challenges, when we have faith in God, He can deliver us from anything, even a grumbling and complaining spirit. Jesus is, after all, the Prince of Peace.
God and Moses wanted the people to be free of the grumbling spirit that was trying to tear them from Him. You notice that all through the Exodus story, God never gives up on the Israelites. He keeps providing food for them even though they complain about it throughout. Even though they complain along the whole journey and ask, “Is the Lord among us or not?”, He continues to lead them, loving them so much that He hopes and encourages them to be free of the rain cloud of despair and complaint and to experience His Peace instead.
And He wishes the same for us. The temptation to grumble can certainly be strong. God knows that. And even though it seems like our complaining can be all-encompassing, tortuous, and must be exasperating even to God, He does love us, and He does want us to be free and at peace. We have that opportunity today so I encourage us all to give our worries and complaints over to Him for when we do then indeed even we can have our spirit at peace, for Jesus Himself is the Prince of peace.
Let us pray
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