The people of Israel had a habit of murmuring in their tents. I’m calling this complaint theology where we believe in God and thank Him for how He has saved us in the past but complain today because circumstances are falling below our expectations. Complaint is a human condition and quite the opposite of gratefulness. It is another math story problem where the positive numbers cancel the negative numbers (-2 + 2 = 0). This produces a neutral or net situation. We are holding back our total devotion to God. We want to maintain our posture of appreciation and worship but can still find time to grumble or ‘murmur’. In Psalm 106:24-25 is very telling of a heart challenge, “Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe in His word, but grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the Lord”. Let’s look at a few other examples. Job 27:23 – “Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him from his place”. We are like these men who can flatter and hiss at a friend. I Kings 9:8 – “And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?'”. We question God’s intentions and actions. The word, sharak, in the original language, renders the meaning of a hiss indicating scorn, or even a component of judgment. The Israelites died in the desert because of this habit of complaining. Their children were advanced into the Promised Land because God saved it for them after the lessons on murmuring were learned. Did they fail again? Yes. Most of the Old Testament is that story. One day they were in and one day they were out. They worshipped God then, again, took a position of disappointment and murmuring. They went after other gods in the high places and that was crushing to God’s plan and He says so. We know better but we just want what we want. I’m happy that I was born after Jesus. I can still find something to murmur about. I am not going to problem solve on how to hear the voice of the Lord except for these suggestions that were made to me. Study Ephesians Chapters one and two, Psalms 84, 92, and 121. How human we are.
