The Art of Complaining vs Praying
I have been reading through Exodus lately. An account of the Israelites being freed and exiting Egypt and wandering the wilderness for 40 years. This wandering period was not to torture them or punish them, but a time of testing. A time where God was showing them over and over and over again that He alone is to be trusted. He alone is to be served. He alone would provide every-single-need that they had. And over and over and over again the Israelites would turn their trust from God and place it back on something else. Something false and untrue.
One set of verses that caught my attention was when the Israelites were 3 days into their 40 year wandering. Did you catch that? 3 days. They had LITERALLY just walked through the Red Sea on DRY GROUND. They had witnessed with their own eyes 10 plagues that ravaged Egypt, yet not a single Israelite was affected. But 3 days into their journey, they were like Pacific Northwesterners on their second day of snow: OVER IT. And the art of their complaining began. They were thirsty and wanted water. So instead of praying to God to supply their needs, they start grumbling and complaining to Moses and Aaron. And what does God do? He delivers. He gives them water to drink. (Exodus 15:22-25a) God, yet again, proves He can be trusted. He proves He will provide. Did the Israelites get it this time? Nope. Let the testing and wandering continue.
In Exodus 16:1-3 we find the Israelites on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt and the grumbling begins again:
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
These verses made my eyes wander down to the study notes in my NIV Life Application Study Bible that read: “As the Israelites encountered danger, shortages, and inconvenience, they complained bitterly and longed to be back in Egypt. But as always, God provided for their needs. Difficult circumstances often lead to stress, and complaining is a natural response. The Israelites didn’t really want to be back in Egypt; they just wanted life to get a little easier. In the pressure of the moment, they could not focus on the cause of their stress (in this case, lack of trust in God); they could only think about the quickest way of escape.”
And aren’t we similar? When difficulties arise, we look for the nearest exit door. We start thinking that the way things used to be were easier. We start complaining versus praying.
In Philippians 2:14 we read how Paul reminds us to “do everything without arguing and complaining…” And then in chapter 4 of Philipplians to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Reading through the account of the Israelites in Exodus does not make me pitty them, but reminds me how much alike we are. It is easy to read through Biblical accounts and think, “Pfsh, I would SO have been different…” But in reality, we wouldn’t have been and often times, still aren’t. However, reading through the account of the Israelites reminds me to NOT be and act the way they did. It reminds me to choose differently. When circumstances and hard things come up, what will my first reaction be? Will I start complaining like they did? Or will I start praying and turn to the One who can provide all my needs?
