Murmurs
Central Verse:
“And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him – what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD” Exodus 16:8 NRSV
Central Truth:
In times of plenty we typically forget about God. We have a tendency to only remember God when things go bad in our lives. A classic example is the story of a person who is never in church but in a moment of panic yells “Oh God!” as if they suddenly remember that God exist. This scripture follows a pattern that has been established in the Exodus story, that pattern is that the people perceive a threat in this case dehydration and starvation, they complain against the leadership, the leaders bring it before God and then God saves the people. A difference to notice here is that God responds right away to the murmurs of the people. In fact God seems more concerned with answer the people's needs than they do.#
This scripture passage is about the people criticizing God and what God is doing. The murmurers that people utter are that it would have been better remain slaves than to be free. We are often quick to look at the past and see what was better, we miss what we caused the reason for the leave. The death and oppression that hung over the lives of the Israelite's is quickly forgotten in the face of a new threat. Suddenly back in Egypt was the good old days.
God doesn’t allow the people to use this as an excuse though. God provides in spite of the peoples complaining not because of it. Even in the midst of that provision God is still instructing the people of Israel to become the ‘congregation’ he wants them to be. There is clear instruction in this passage to guard against being greedy or hoarding. The instructions that are given are given to encourage the people of God to rely upon God every day for what God will provide for them.
Food For Thought: (questions about the text)
The Congregation of Israel – this is an uncommon wordage to describe the people of Israel. It happens very rarely and when it does happen we should pay attention to what is being taught. The implications are that what is being said is developmentally important to the people of Israel as a community.
There is a strong natural element in the Quail and Manna* –
Quail – it wouldn’t be uncommon for migratory birds to exhaust themselves in this area as they are flying over the sea to and from the African continent. Even today many of these birds sit in exhaustion in the evening upon the ground where they can literally be harvested by just being picked up.
Manna – is caused by lice on the tamarisk tree. The lice bite the tree forcing an immune response from the tree which produces a white flaky or ball like substance. This substance can be harvested in the morning when the temperature is cool enough otherwise it evaporates. It is very rich in carbohydrates and sugars and is still gathered by native peoples in that area today. The bread that is baked from this substance only last a short amount of time due to the fact that it attracts ants and other insects quickly because of its sugar content.
Connections: (time with our society)
“None talk more absurdly than murmurs” – John Wesley
We hear, and even engage in these types of conversations all the time. “It was so much better when I was a child!” Sometimes we here this when people get nostalgic for a certain aspect of their childhood such as when they could eat whatever they wanted with no repercussions. We also hear this in relation to people’s frustration. I recently heard someone complaining about kids being on their cell phones all the time, when I have seen more senior citizens do the same thing.
Our tendency is to complain about anything that makes us uncomfortable or anything that doesn’t happen in a way we think it should. The people of Israel were no different, they got scared and they responded with complaining about the problem. The benefit in our scripture today is that God appears more concerned with providing for the people of Israel than Israel seems to be with providing for herself. This happens in our own life, we tend to focus on the bad things rather than focusing on the solution to the bad. Some times in spite our complaints God provides us with the solution, and it seems as if it just drop in our laps when it is a provision by God.
God desires to provide for us and sometimes that provision is the work of our own hand. It is working hard and providing the food we need as we need it. However, the reality for millions of people is that they need God to deliver that provision, and God often works that provision through people like ourselves. By our giving of our food, our money, and our hard work we can help to provide for others and take care of others. Unfortunately, many of us would rather just murmur, causing more damage and blocking the work that God would see done.
The founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, was well aware of the power of little complaints. In the life of the church murmuring and complaining function to kill the spirit of the church and the work of God. Its not usually a flashy fight that kills the church, complaining and murmuring kills a church by a thousand cuts. It makes the body so weak that it cannot effectively do the ministry it was called to do. It cannot minister to those who need it most for fear of setting off another flurry of cuts.
Application:
Discussion:
Questions:
Name a time in your life that you went without. How was that need provided for? Who did the provision? In the context of today’s scripture did you spend more time murmuring and complaining or was there a form of resignation to the situation? How might you as an individual make yourself available for God to work through you?
Close in prayer: #adapted from Callie Plunket-Brewton http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2196 * New Interpreters Bible Commentary:Exodus, Walter Brueggemann, pg813
Comments