“A GRUMBLING TUMMY GATHERS NO GOOD”

EXODUS 16:2-15

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,

3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”

8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”

10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.

14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Kum-ba-yah my Lord.  Kum-ba-yah.  Oh Lord Kum-ba-yah. 

Something tells me that Moses and the Israelites didn’t spend a lot of time around the campfire singing Kum-Ba-Yah while they were out there in the wilderness. No.  They were too busy grumbling at each other.  The children of Israel weren’t too happy with Moses and they let him know it.  Moses wasn’t too happy with the children of Israel and he also let them know it.  That’s what happens when life doesn’t go the way you want it to go.  It can bring out the worst in you.

That’s what happened one evening when a husband and wife went to the theater.  Unfortunately, their seats were in the back of the theater.  So, the husband turned to one of the ushers and offered him a deal.  “Young man,” he said, “I’ve been told that this play is a really good mystery and I don’t want to miss anything.  If you get us a couple of seats closer to the stage I’ll make sure it’s worth your while.”  The usher nodded his head and told the husband that he would see what he could do for them.  A few minutes later the usher came back and escorted the husband and wife to a couple of empty seats in the second row.  As soon as they sat down the husband reached into his pocket and gave the usher a quarter.  The usher looked at the quarter then leaned over to the husband and whispered, “Just in case you didn’t know, the wife did it.”

When life doesn’t go the way you want it to go it can bring out the worst in you.  It certainly brought out the worst in the children of Israel. Things were really stressful out there in the wilderness.  They didn’t know where they were and they didn’t know where they were going and if that wasn’t bad enough now they were hungry.  You don’t have any stress in your life do you?  You’re not worried about the credit crunch are you? Or the mortgage meltdown?  Or how you’re going to pay for your kids to go to college?  Or whether you’re going to have enough money to live comfortably in your retirement years?

Okay.  Maybe you are a little stressed out.  Then again, maybe you’re stressed out big time.  Maybe you feel the same way the children of Israel felt out there in the wilderness.  They children of Israel were lost and hungry.  So they started to grumble against Moses. “Moses,” they said.  “What are you doing to us?  We’re going to die out here in this wilderness.  Why did we ever follow you in the first place?  ‘Come with me,’ you said and ‘I’ll lead you to a land that is flowing with milk and honey.  You call this milk and honey?  All we see are rocks and scorpions.  Thanks a lot Moses.”  

So the children of Israel grumble and what does Moses do?

He grumbles right back at them.   He accuses them of kicking sand in God’s face.  After all Moses says, “You’re not grumbling against me.  You’re grumbling against God and I’m going to tell Him too. Mess with me and you mess with my family.”

Now there’s no question that Moses was a great leader but in this situation I think he was wrong.  The children of Israel weren’t grumbling against God.  They were grumbling against him.  They were questioning his leadership.  They were beginning to wonder if God had really called him to bring them out of the land of Egypt.  Or maybe God did call him to bring them out of the land of Egypt but maybe Moses wasn’t really listening to God.  Maybe Moses was getting a little too full of himself and doing what he wanted to do instead of what God wanted him to do.

Look at it this way.  I’ve been called by God to be your pastor but if you disagree with something I say in a sermon does that mean you’re being disrespectful to God?  I don’t think so.  In the same way the children of Israel weren’t grumbling against God.  They were grumbling against Moses. Moses tried to make it out to be an insult to God but it really wasn’t.

So the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Moses grumbled against the children of Israel and do you know what happened while they were grumbling? Absolutely nothing; and that’s the point. All that grumbling didn’t solve their problem.  All that grumbling didn’t bring them any closer to the Promised Land. All that grumbling didn’t put a single morsel of food on their tables.  The same thing is true today. All of our grumbling isn’t going to make the economy any better.  All of our grumbling isn’t going to make our schools better.  All of our grumbling isn’t going to make the threat of terrorism go away. All our grumbling isn’t going to solve the problem of illegal immigration. All the grumbling in the world isn’t going to solve a problem that you’re having with your husband or wife, a friend, a neighbor or someone you work with; a parent or a child. 

Grumbling doesn’t make problems go away. Only a love that is patient and kind makes problems go away. Take another look at what happened out there in the wilderness.  You’ll see that it was a love that was patient and kind that solved the problem that Moses and the children of Israel were facing.  That love that was patient and kind came from God.  It came from a God who looked down from the heavens and refused to get caught up in the grumbling that was going on down there in the wilderness.  You see, God could have chastised Moses for being a little too sensitive.  God also could have chastised the children of Israel for not showing Moses a little more respect.

God didn’t do that though.  Instead God reached down from the heavens and gave Moses and the children of Israel quail in the evening and when the morning came God gave Moses and the children of Israel manna from heaven. God responded to all the grumbling with a love that was patient and the problem got solved.

That’s because grumbling only pushes people away from each other.  A love that is patient and kind brings people together and it’s only when people come together that problems get solved.  That’s because you begin to listen to each other and understand each other better.  You begin to see each other’s gifts and strengths.  You begin to realize that we’re all in this together.  A CEO and a cleaning woman found that out one day.  When the cleaning woman walked into the CEO’s office to empty the trash she saw him sitting at his desk. He was surrounded by piles of paper.  There was a sad and far away look on the CEO’s face as he sat in his big leather chair.  So, as the cleaning woman stood there she smiled and said to him, “I know exactly how you feel.  It’s lonely at the bottom too.”

If the children of Israel had responded to their problem with a love that was patient and they might have realized that Moses was hungry too.  They might have also realized that Moses was probably a little frightened and overwhelmed by everything that was going on.  After all this was a HUGE job that God had given him.  In the same way if Moses had responded to the children of Israel with a love that was patient and he would have understood that they weren’t grumbling against God.  He would have understood that they were simply trying to cope with all these major changes that were going on in their lives.

God responded to all that grumbling out in the wilderness with a love that was patient and kind and I’ve got news for you my friends.  You and I have been created in the image of God which means that you and I have the ability to respond to our problems with a love that is patient and kind. 

Consider the conversation that an elderly man had one day with a little boy.  The two of them were sitting on a porch rocking back and forth in an old swing.  As they rocked back and forth the little boy looked up at the elderly man and said, “Sometimes I spill my milk.”  The old man smiled and said, “I do that too sometimes.”  A few minutes went by. The little boy looked up at the old man again and said, “Sometimes, I wet my pants.”  The old man smiled and said, “I’m so old now, I do that too sometimes.”  A few more minutes went by.  The little boy looked up at the old man again and said, “What hurts most of all is that grownups don’t listen to me.”  The old man smiled and said, “I know what you mean.”  The old man then took the little boy’s hand in his, and they continued to rock some more. 

Okay.  Maybe a love that is patient won’t solve all of your problems, but it will solve a lot of them and it will make it a lot easier to bear the ones that can’t be solved. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

September 21, 2008