Hi ~

If you know much about the story of the Israelites getting out of Egypt and going to the Promised Land, you may know something about complaining.

That’s because those Israelites sure did do a good bit of it. A lot like children that way. (Maybe that’s why they were sometimes called “the children of Israel,” heh.)

The Israelites had certain expectations.

God had promised them the land of Canaan, which was the land of their ancestor Abraham. So of course they thought they’d get it right away.

Trekking across the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, for a group that size, would take, what? Maybe a month?

But a year later they were still in the wilderness. If they had stopped to think about it, they would have seen that God was accomplishing some very important goals during that time. As a people group they were like children and they needed to learn how to grow up.

They needed to learn who God really was and how He could provide.

They needed the tabernacle and His plan for how to worship Him.

They needed His law.

All of these things took time.

So here they were, with God giving them instructions for how to celebrate the Passover. The Passover, that event that had happened a YEAR ago when they got out of Egypt.

A full year for a trek that, to their estimation, should have taken a few weeks.

Have you ever noticed that God really does take His time about the things He’s accomplishing? His timetable often looks totally different from our own.

The cloud of glory—the cloud that protected them from the Egyptians—got up and moved sometimes, and they followed it. It stopped sometimes, and that was when they were supposed to rest.

God sent manna, which was delicious, to sustain them through their days of sojourning.

But their expectations—of getting to the Promised Land as quickly as possible—hadn’t been met.

I’ve written about expectations before, even in the free guide I offer to reading the Bible again after spiritual abuse. It’s actually GOOD to have expectations.

But it’s important to draw clear parameters from Scripture about what kinds of expectations are right and good.

But the Israelites (like some Christians today) didn’t sort out between good and bad expectations.

They had their expectations, and God didn’t meet them.

So they complained. Over and over, about a variety of things. And sometimes God punished them severely for their self-centeredness and refusal to look to Him.

Recently I was pondering this story, especially in contrast to the fact that Moses complained too—did you ever notice that? Like in Numbers chapter 11. Here it is in paraphrase.

“Lord, I’m your servant—why are you treating your servant in this way?

Why have you frowned on me to such an extent, putting the burden of all these people on me?

Are they MY children, that you’re telling me to carry them like a nursing mother all the way to the promised land?

They’re demanding flesh to eat—how am I going to provide that for them?

I can’t do it Lord. This burden is too heavy for me.

If you do smile upon me, then show me your favor by killing me so I don’t have to see my own wretchedness.”

That was a pretty strong complaint, don’t you think?

But the Lord didn’t punish Moses. He helped him.

He told him what to do to ease his burden, and He provided the flesh the people were demanding.

There’s more to that story, but right now I want to zero in on the complaining.

What was the difference between the complaints of Moses and the complaints of the Israelites?

Ah, it’s a long email, I see.

I’ll finish these thoughts tomorrow.

With you in sorting out good complaining from bad,

Rebecca

P.S. I’m doing much of my Untwisting Scriptures writing via email these days rather than just on my blog. If you know someone who might be encouraged by what I write, please let them know to download the free guide, and then they’ll get my emails.

P.P.S. What questions do you have about “complaining”? If I haven’t addressed them before, I may well write about them in the future.