Numbers 11:1

THE SIN OF DISCONTENT

‘The people complained.’

Numbers 11:1

I. We cannot wonder at the people murmuring, as they were unaccustomed to the fatigues of the desert, and it seemed so far to the land of rest; but, perhaps, we have never realised how great a sin is querulous complaining in the sight of God. Let us beware of it! Let us also guard against mingling ourselves with those who are not like-minded with ourselves: ‘the mixed multitude’ was largely composed of Egyptians from whom the evil example spread to Israel. When our religious life is low, we tire of angels’ food, and our hearts turn back to the world we had left.

II. Moses’ complaint.—How marvellously accurate is the Bible in its delineation of the character and failure of its noblest men! What an evidence of its truthfulness! The eye of Moses had turned from God to self; or he would not have spoken as if the duty of providing flesh were his. God never imposes a burden for which He does not give sufficient strength; but we must not look at the burden apart from Him. As the day, so the strength. He can make all grace abound.

III. Divine relief came in the appointment temporarily of seventy men to help him.—But what a pity it was that he did not claim strength enough for his needs! And yet how tender was God’s considerateness of His overwearied servant! (Cf. 1 Kings 19:4.) The Jews say this body of elders afterwards constituted the Sanhedrim.

Illustration

(1) ‘What was the special sin of the Israelites while in the wilderness? It was the sin of discontent. Is that a great sin? Yes, it is, because it shows that we do not trust in God as we should. We can always find something to grumble at, if we look for it. The people of Israel were always murmuring and grumbling about something or other.’

(2) ‘This was ingratitude of the basest and meanest sort. These Israelites had short memories. They forgot all about God’s deliverances in Egypt; all about His wonderful intervention at the Red Sea; all about the way in which He had brought water from the rock and given them angels’ food to eat. A little physical discomfort obliterated the memory of God’s goodness.’

(3) ‘Surely it is a terrible picture, and yet I cannot but believe, alas! that it is a picture of the great majority of professing Christians, who, after conversion, and after a certain study of God’s holy Word, by which they learn His will concerning His people; after a charge from God to go forward into the land of blessing and victory; and after the opening out, as it were, of the way into a life of privilege and power, and the possibility of glorifying God in the sight of the heathen, and bringing Him great honour and praise—begin to complain, begin again to lust after the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, and the onions which they had in Egypt, and which they find a pleasure to the flesh. And back goes the heart of the people of God into the old life, and all they care for is the appetites of the body, the indulgence of the flesh, the satisfaction of the natural tastes and appetites engendered by the flesh, and which are not really Divine.’