Tag: Complaining

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Remember Meribah & Massah.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’ ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭95‬:‭8‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David writes this Psalm and it is put into the book of Psalms towards the end of his life. The Psalm starts with a burst of praise, a crescendo of thanksgiving, ”Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.” Yet, it ends with this warning, to remember Meribah & Massah.

What happened in these places that was so egregious, that God took an oath to not allow the eldest into the promised land. Maybe there’s a hint in the phrase, “Rock of our salvation?” Meribah was the final straw of hard-hearted, contentiousness with the elders who were freed from Egypt, but their souls were still enslaved with bitterness. Gotquestions.org writes, “The incident at the waters of Meribah Kadesh is recorded in Numbers 20. Nearing the end of their forty years of wandering, the Israelites came to the Desert of Zin. There was no water, and the community turned against Moses and Aaron.”

The people held Moses & Aaron responsible for their lack of water in the desert. And, once again Moses & Aaron went to the Lord with the complaint/request. God told Moses & Aaron to gather the people at a rock in Meribah (which means strife or contention). God told Moses to speak to the rock, but apparently Moses had reached his limit of patience. The anger of his youth rallied and raised its ugly head. Moses took the staff of God and smacked the rock saying, “Listen, you rebels, must WE bring you water out of this rock?” (Numbers‬ ‭20‬:‭10‬). Uh oh. You can hear the exasperation in Moses’ words.

Water came out and the people were once again satisfied, but God took notice that Moses and Aaron (God held Aaron responsible as well) were disobedient to God’s command. “…the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them. The other place at the rock of Horeb, is found in Exodus 17:1-7, this time God had told Moses to strike the rock. Both times, the people were grumbling, and threatening towards Moses. In Horeb, God called the place, Massah (nasah), to test or quarrel with God. Is there a proper way to wrestle with the Almighty? Jacob did so and God displaced his hip so his limp would remind Jacob of a moment in the ring with His creator.

Here, the people also struggled with God with contempt, blame and bitterness. What strikes me is that David in this Psalm writes about these specific, named places where humans contentiously strived with God and clearly lost! God was also angry at them! They wandered in the desert, going in circles for forty years. And they never made it to the promised land. But neither did Moses, nor Aaron, their leaders.

The people who start with you on a faith journey, may not end with you. And if leaders aren’t careful, we might not see the promise of God fulfilled either! Remember your own places like Meribah & Massah, where we strived with God. Remember to be patient, humble and most of all obedient if we want to see the promises of God come to pass.

Prayer

Dad,
Is grumbling and complaining just a byproduct of aging? I used to think it was funny to see an old man or old woman just muttering muffled rants as they went about their life. Now, I don’t think it’s so funny. I don’t want to be a whiner, a complainer or finish my life spewing bitterness! Help me God to fight the disease of Meribah & Massah! Help me watch my attitude and my words. Help me hold my tongue and slow my witty words that are not godly. Deliver me from the bitter-soul syndrome that seems to come with seeing too much, experiencing too much pain and suffering around me. Help me have the necessary faith to see Your promises fulfilled. Amen.

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Warnings from ancient life lessons.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Apostle Paul pulls lessons from the ancient days of Israel’s sins after being freed from Egyptian slavery. He then applies those wandering-wants to similar modern day temptations.

He writes, “these things happened,” referring to God’s immediate judgment on the people for allowing themselves to be carried away with their sin. Even with the covering of Christ for our sins, there is still a serious warning of wandering off with rampant, disordered desires.

Some of the Israelites partied, celebrated and got drunk while indulging in sexual activities. The Hebrew language, in this verse just says, “they sat down to eat and drink, but rose up to (paizó) to play as a child.” But this wasn’t a “kid’s party” kind of play, it was sexual! Paul followed up with the fact that they were active in (porneuó) fornication. And that 23,000 died that day. But sexual promiscuity wasn’t the only prevalent sin then, nor today. They also (gogguzó), grumbled, mumbled or complained with a smoldering discontent.

I would have never seen the connection between sex and constant complaining, but don’t they both sound like pursing our own desires over what God wants for us? That’s chilling to think about. Paul’s admonition to a very Gentile (non Jewish) group in Corinth, is that these very old stories were captured for our benefit today or as he put it, “They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age” (‭‭1 Cor. 10‬:‭11‬). Point made Paul, Touché! They are still a warning for us today as well.

Prayer

​Dad,
I used to really judge the ways and behaviors of the Jewish people as so stubborn or unaware of what you were up to. And, constantly thinking, why don’t they just OBEY? Ah, but maturity has had the strange effect on seeing my own faults, shortcomings, weaknesses and flat out failures. Now I get it. Being human is hard and an impossible task to be perfect. But I hear the warnings of Paul and understand my own desires that try to take over my decisions and write a different story for myself. One that is not of you, and honestly one that would end very badly. My story, like my life is anchored in your story, and I’m happy about that.

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The leader dilemma.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. Exodus‬ ‭15‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The backdrop to this moment in the Sinai desert is a classic, repetitive cycle of leadership. God appoints Moses to meet with Pharaoh demanding the release of the nation of Israel. Moses has a speech impediment, so God allows his brother, Aaron to do the talking. The ten plagues proceed. Eventually Pharaoh concedes and 3 million people exit Egypt and head out to the desert – no man’s land.

The first barrier to escaping the Egyptian army is water, lots of water, flowing down the Red Sea inlet of the Indian Ocean. And, God specifically told Moses where to lead and where to make camp, Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues the Israelites, finding them trapped by the Red Sea with no where to run. Here’s where it gets interesting. The people are scared to death, but they’ve also lived with fear for so long, they had adjusted to a slave-fear mentality. This fear was new. It was different. This was now a free-fear experience for them. They were free, but trapped. They lashed out at their leader! They cried out to God, but held Moses responsible saying, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt?” God brought them out. Sure, Moses led them under God’s direction, but Moses did not have a plan on what to do or where to go! This was all on God. The Israelites cross by God’s miraculous intervention. The Red Sea opened, they got across, but the ethos of the nation had not changed. They were free, but maintained a slave mentality! The end of Exodus 14 says, “They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

That faith was very thin and it only took them three more days to run out of it. Now three days out in the Desert, they find an oasis, but the water is bitter, un-drinkable. Three days from ocean to oasis, and it feels like a cruel joke. You can’t drink salt water and you can’t drink bitter water? The circumstances caused the same fears to come up and as expected, they blame Moses. Like Moses can make water in the desert.

Moses, being a quick study, immediately called out to God. This time God gave Moses a bit part in the miracle by showing him a specific piece of wood. Moses throws the wood in the water, the water turns sweet and the people drink all they want. But Moses also caught onto these situations and figured out they were life-lessons, living object lessons. Moses takes this opportunity to lay down some ground rules that are a precursor to the law, a way to live in obedience to God. He tells them something kinda strange, He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭15‬:‭26‬. What? Not suffer the diseases God sent on Israel? Were they thinking that God would drag them out to the desert to punish them and pour out His judgment on them? Apparently, Moses knew this is what the people were thinking?

The leader dilemma is not only carrying the responsibility to take people to a destination, but it’s also to help people grow, learn and develop along the way. And, as a godly leader, an under-shepherd, it’s also important to let people know that the leader doesn’t have all the answers. It is also the responsibility of the leader to communicate, that it is up to each individual person and together, as a community, to listen to God and obey Him.

By the way, the complaining, disbelief and blame from the people eventually got under Moses’ skin, because he reverted to his old angry ways of dealing with the injustice and inadequacies of being in stressful situations. This time it wasn’t killing an Egyptian officer, he tried to kill the rock, disobeying God (Numbers 20:8-11). Wasn’t it better that he smacked a rock rather than a rabble-rouser?

Prayer

​Dad,
Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it a tad bit more difficult to live a life of faith and obedience when one has a bunch of people following? It often feels like pastoring in a church means that we don’t have a life of our own at all. It’s always open to the public! And the questions and complaints, wow – they seem unending. Do folks realize we’re just normal people with a calling and a passion to be obedient to you just as everyone else should be in the body of Christ. It’s just an enormous weight of responsibility. Maybe there’s a specific kind of grace for those who carry others? I’d like some more of that kind of grace please. Amen.

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Lens check.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.” Proverbs‬ ‭15‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I went to get my eyes checked because I thought something might be wrong with my eyes. It was getting harder to read small print up close, without adequate lighting. I thought, “oh, here we go, my eyes are going bad!” My optometrist checked my eyes and gave me the news. I braced for the worst. He said, “there is nothing wrong with your eyes.” I retorted in disbelief, “but I can’t see as clearly as I used to.” He replied, “yeah, your old and your eyes ability to focus get a little weaker, you just need some help with reading glasses.” I wasn’t going blind, I was just getting old!

Is it possible that our perspective, our mental, emotional lenses can effect what we see happening around us? The wisdom writers confirm, it can and it does. The ESV translation is accurate in giving us the original Hebrew version, “all the days of the afflicted (ani: poor, afflicted) are evil (ra’: adversity).” The perspective from those who are poor, physically and/or spiritually is ALWAYS tainted with adversity. From their lens, their daily picture of what life is and what life gives, is all hardship and trouble.

I see people, I talk with people who live this way. Even though they may not actually be physically or spiritually poor, their lens only sees bleakness and doom. I spend a few minutes with them and I’m depressed just listening to their litany of tragedy. I can’t talk them out of it, I only listen and grieve with them. It’s always the same perspective of misery.

Proverbs contrasts this lens with another view. The one who’s heart is happy. Isn’t that interesting. A happy heart is the corrective lens that is able to see differently. The cheerful (towb: beautiful, pleasant, agreeable) heart sees a whole different life. This heart sees a feast (mishteh: a feast), a party filled with friends, food and laughter. I also talk with people like this! They are usually upbeat and are so excited to tell me about all the good things that are happening in their life. How strange! The contrast and comparison is wildly different. Can I be honest? I don’t enjoy being around forever negative people. I feel it is my Biblical responsibility and pastoral duty to do so.

The miserable are ALWAYS miserable and the cheerful are ALWAYS cheerful? We know that can’t be true. There must be some good things that come to the despondent heart. And, conversely, there must be some bad things that come to the cheerful heart. But the lens, the perspective, seems to be radically different.

When I start seeing everything as trouble and adversarial, I need to get my heart lens checked. I will find that my heart is not broken, it just gets tired and overwhelmed. I need to get some “spiritual readers,” to help me focus and get clarity on what I see. My heart is the lens of my soul’s view of life! I need to tend to correcting its focus! God’s Word, the Holy Spirit and close friends are my corrective lenses. They help me focus my heart to get a Godly perspective of reality.

Prayer

Dad,
Who can know my heart, my thoughts, my motives better than you. When my heart is sad, my perspective is dark and blurry. But when I spend time with you, especially in Your Word and prayer, you comfort my heart, you lift my soul from despair. As I have learned from the Psalmists, I can be completely open and honest with my feelings, but ultimately I need help tweaking my lenses to see what is true, right and good. Thank you for tending to my heart which dictates my view of everything around me.