I wonder which of the Ten Commandments is violated most often, even by those who know Jesus? I would guess the fourth commandment is near the top. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” I am just thinking of the sheer numbers of people who say they follow Jesus but do not gather with a local expression His body. Or the people who belong to God but work every day of the week. Or if they don’t actually go to work on Sunday, they use it as a catch-up day so they can get ahead for Monday. Or if they don’t do that, their thoughts are consumed with work on Sunday instead of taking that day for worship and rest. They want to be efficient with their time, I get it. But at what cost? Billionaire Bill Gates was asked why he didn’t believe in God. He said, “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” Yes, we have a lot of options for the use of our time if we choose to ignore the One who created it. And us. So, why do we keep the Sabbath? And how do we keep it? Should we become like the Pharisees and make an exhaustive list of all the things we can and cannot do on the Sabbath, and hold up our obedience as a sign to others whom we see fall short? Or can we look at this day and give thanks to God for calling us into a regular rhythm of work and worship, because He loves us and He knows what is best for His people? 

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” That is what we are commanded to do. God chooses the word “Remember” to start this command, which is significant. On the one hand, He is reminding his people in the wilderness of something. Remember? He had already laid a foundation for this commandment when He gave them manna. He told them then not to do any work on the day of rest, but to gather a double portion on the day before. Bake what you are going to bake and boil what you are going to boil on the sixth day. Prepare for sabbath before it comes. That day, the Lord said, “is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.”

 They were also called to remember this day every week. Not just on occasion, or just when it fit their schedule, or just when they were in a really good stopping place and they felt okay about taking a day off. No. If the third commandment calls us to honor God with our words, the fourth commandment calls us to honor God with our time. It is for God’s glory. And it is for our good. Every week. Have you ever thought about where weeks come from as a measure of time? Days are measured by the earth’s rotation, which takes 24 hours. Months come roughly from the moon’s cycle. A year is one lap around the sun for us earthlings. But a week? Where did the week come from? We have weeks because God worked for six days and then rested on the seventh. 

In each week, God gives us one day to stop and remember. And worship. And rest. Remembering to gather with the saints every Sunday is not just for worship but it is for our spiritual, mental, and even our physical health. The rhythm of rest and worship has been a subject of scientific study for years, and as always, science confirms what the Word has already stated as fact. A recent Harvard Public Health study revealed that those who attend church every week have “lower mortality risk, lower depression, less suicide, better cardiovascular disease survival, better health behaviors, and greater marital stability, happiness, and purpose in life.” God knew that truth eons before Harvard Public Health did. God knows our frame. He knows what we need. If we are commanded by God to take a weekly day of rest it is because we are finite and limited. 

We are created for work, yes. But we are also created for rest.

The third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” could be paraphrased, “You shall not lift up the name of the Lord your God into nothingness.” There are many ways we can do this, and perhaps the most obvious one is with profanity. When God saves, He begins the process of sanctification, often dealing with the “big sins” first. When I trusted Christ as a teenager, I was first convicted about my language. My mom had washed my mouth out a few times with soap as a child because of my choice of words, to no avail. Then God changed my heart and my language. It has always been interesting to me the number of people who say they do not believe in God but use His name as a swear word. Nobody says, “Oh my Allah,” or “Holy Buddha!” They don’t write OMA in a text to express their wonder or disgust. No, it’s OMG. They say “My God” but do not know Him. We who do know Him should avoid taking God’s name in vain in those ways. Even to say, “As God is my witness,” or “I swear to God” is to misuse His name to try and prove our integrity. There’s a chilling story in Leviticus 24 about two men who were fighting and one of them blasphemed God’s name. They put him in custody to seek the Lord’s counsel. God told Moses to bring the man out, and all who had heard him curse were to lay their hands on his head. Then all the congregation were to stone him. Whoa. It is good that we live under a new covenant with a different legal framework. If not, people would be stoned in the street every day for profaning God’s name!

 We also misuse the name of God when we claim that God has told us to do something that we cannot support from Scripture. God has told us to do plenty, but those are clear in the Bible and apply to all of His followers. For example, the Lord has told every husband that he is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. But be very careful about saying, “The Lord has told me to leave my wife.” There are few cases where there is biblical support for that.  Some say, “The Lord has told me to leave my church.” Are there biblical reasons to leave a church? Yes, but do not bring God into it if there is no biblical case. To do so is to take His name in vain. And we can easily take God’s name in vain when we say to someone else, “The Lord has told me that you should do this or that.” I remember hearing in the late 70’s about Christian guys saying to their girlfriend, “The Lord has told me you are to be my wife.” That sounds like false prophecy to me. Her response should be, “Really? He hasn’t told me that!” 

We also misuse the name of the Lord when we don’t practice what we preach. Jen Wilkin wrote, “When we preach a moral code that we ourselves do not strive to uphold, we become like those Jesus railed against—a people who honor God with our lips, but whose hearts are far from Him.” Wilkin gives challenging examples in her book, Ten Words to Live By: “This is the parent who requires her child to apologize to her, but who never apologizes for her own missteps. It is the mentor who dispenses godly wisdom to a younger believer that he has not himself learned to employ. It is the woman singing praise songs at the top of her lungs, eyes closed and hands extended, who has not cracked open her Bible in months. It is the man who prays publicly with great piety and eloquence but whose private prayer life is nonexistent. It is the preacher who exhorts others to repent while himself harboring an unrepentant heart.”

What should we do? Obey the third commandment! Honor the name of the Lord your God and keep it holy. 

How does the second commandment relate to us today? “You shall make no carved images…(to) bow down to them or serve them.” How should we be warned or exhorted from this commandment? I hope none of us have idols in our homes. No images made of stone, wood, metal, or any other material that we kneel before and worship. But remember, the commandments are aimed at our hearts, not our knees. What are some modern idols that we must remove whenever we find them? Martin Luther said the heart is an idol factory. And he said, “Whatever your hearts clings to and confides in, that is really your God and your functional savior.” An idol is anything that captures our heart and our affections and draws us away from God. To put it another way, an idol is anything we are willing to sin to get, or willing to sin to keep from losing. 

Hey, it is good to enjoy life, to have good friends, to have teams that you pull for, recreational activities that you pursue, a wife or husband and children that you love. It is good to enjoy a meal or a vacation or a nap! But let’s keep everything in perspective and examine our hearts in three areas. In his first letter, John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” I think in this word God is giving us a test to see if there are any idols living in our heart chambers. 

Desires of the flesh: Paul talks about these in Galatians, the works of the flesh that we can so easily substitute for our pursuit of the Lord and His ways. Sexual immorality and drunkenness are mentioned by Paul in a list that is descriptive but not exhaustive. Anything we are doing to satisfy our sin nature will also weaken our heart for God. 

Desires of the eyes. Paul mentions jealousy and envy in the same passage. We look at what others have and it can breed discontentment in what God has provided for us. Or we can develop a guilty pleasure in judging others. That critical spirit begins to color everything we see. The ditch on the other side of the road is to be caught in the pit of self-condemnation; all we can see are the ways we fall short. Many in this ditch cannot accept that God loves them and that He offers them abundant joy. 

Pride of life. Paul mentions fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions. Jake Daghe wrote that this is “thinking we are stronger, smarter, better, or holier than others and even God. One of the most common modern-day idols is our elevation of self and our own merits and abilities.” These three, desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life can easily take up residence in our hearts. 

Call them idols or call them strongholds. Call them anything you want. But do all that you can in the power of the Spirit to tear them down! 

As John wrote to close his first letter, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 

In 2015, Lex Bayer and John Figfor, wrote a book entitled, “Humanist heart, Atheist Mind.” To help get information for the book, they offered $10,000 to a would-be atheist Moses who could produce the best answers in a “Ten Non-Commandments Contest.” Interesting that they wanted to find some rules to follow…just not the ones God gave us. Here’s a sampling of what they thought the best non-commandment commandments are, with my commentary in italics: 1. Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence. 2. Every person has the right to control of their body. (How about the body growing inside you?) 3. “God” is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life. (You should ask Him about this.) 4. Treat others as you would want them to treat you. (Hmm, this sounds a lot like one of God’s.) 5. There is no one right way to live. (Doesn’t this eliminate rules 1-4?) 

Thank you, God, that you have not left your people without instructions so that we have to come up with our own. Thank you, Father, that you have revealed yourself to us, and given us your Word.

I want you to notice that the very first word God spoke to the people at Mt. Sinai was not law but grace. God reminded them of who He is and what He has done. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” In other words, I have chosen you for myself and I have loved you and I have carried you on eagles wings and saved you. I have set my affection on you and that will never change. This is God’s covenant promise for His people, built on His love for us.

Marriage is also a covenant and it is not based first and foremost on laws and rules. If it is, that house of cards will fall in upon itself. No, marriage is a holy commitment to one another based on love, which is not a feeling but certainly should come with feelings. A happy and blessed marriage is built on love and grace, not duties and responsibilities. Are their duties and responsibilities? Of course, and the Bible makes those clear. But marriage God’s way is where a husband and a wife know they are unconditionally and absolutely loved by the other. We love each other imperfectly, but God’s grace teaches us how to grow up in that.

The first commandment is this: “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the most fundamental of the ten. If we get this one wrong, we get everything wrong. God will not share His glory with any other. Isn’t this also the foundational truth about marriage? Marriage is a creation of God that calls for one man and one woman to leave their father and mother and be joined to one another in marriage for life. Till death us do part. What would your wife say, men, if you came home with someone from work? And you said, “Hey sweetheart, I want to introduce you to someone I met today at the office that I really, really like. I mean, I still love you most of all, but I am going to be spending some time with her, too. Don’t get me wrong, sweetie! You are still number one but I found a second one to love!” What would your wife say? I mean, after you woke up from the blow to the head? She would say something like, “Me or her, buddy. Choose you this day whom you will love.”

In the same way, God has cut a covenant with us through the precious blood of His Son. He has adopted us and purchased us and redeemed us to be sons and daughters. He is our God and will not share that position, and that glory. Later in Exodus when the covenant is renewed because the people had worshiped a golden calf, God says, “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god.” We think of jealousy as a character flaw and it usually is for you and me. Our jealousy is selfish and sinful most of the time. But God’s jealousy is rooted in covenantal love for His people. His jealousy is righteous and holy and all consuming. Simply put, God does not tolerate dating around when it comes to our relationship with Him. Our complete surrender to God is for His glory and for our good! God’s jealousy, to use John Piper’s explanation, “is the measure of his zeal for our happiness in him. His anger at our spiritual adultery, at our having other lovers besides him, is a reflex both of his zeal for his own worth, but also of his zeal for our joy. If we turn away from him as the greatest treasure, we turn away from our own greatest pleasure.”

 Why would we want to do that? There is no other God.

The scene in Exodus 19 is one that Universal Studios cannot hope to capture. They could try to duplicate the noise of thunder and the flash of lightning and the cloud and the smoke and the blaring trumpets and the fire. They may even be able to make a mountain tremble. But that would not be enough. No one could show us what two million people saw that day on Mt. Sinai. Because the Lord had come down; he had descended from heaven in fire and smoke on the mountain. Everything about the scene was designed by God to put His glory on display. Philip Ryken wrote, “The dark cloud was a sign of his mystery, showing that there are aspects of his being that we cannot penetrate. The fire was a sign of God’s holiness, his bright and burning purity. Fire both attracts and repels… The trumpet signified his sovereignty…the coming of a king…The people who saw (this scene) could never forget that they had been in the presence of the living God in all his holiness and majesty.” 

We know that God is invisible, so they could not see Him. No one took out a sketch book and drew a picture and said, “This is what God looks like.” No, they trembled at what they saw. I think we need a lot less trembling in the presence of celebrities and rock stars and presidents and kings, and a lot more trembling in the presence of Almighty God. There’s a fascination in people sometimes to devour anything they can find on a particular athlete or team or actor or politician, and it can become an obsession. I would think there were people in the crowd that day at Mt. Sinai who had distractions as well, things that were interesting that consumed their thoughts. That was about to change for many of them. At least it should have.

The people in the camp trembled because on the third day, God came down. It reminded me that on the third day, God came down and raised Jesus from the dead. On the third day, death was conquered for all who know Jesus Christ as savior and Lord. This scene at Mt. Sinai points us to that day in Jerusalem. Not only that, the resurrection of Jesus points us to that great Day still to come, when our Lord will descend from the heavens. Jesus will come down as our King, and all will see His glory and all will fall at His feet. 

Moses brought the people closer on that third day. And they recognized their own sin, their own unworthiness, their own uncleanness. He brought them out of the camp to meet God. That’s our job as followers of Jesus. To bring people out of their camp, out of their fears, out of their confusion and anger and bitterness to meet God. And when we are talking with someone about Christ, or are planning to talk to someone about Christ, our prayer should be that they would see we are just practicing our Gospel presentation. Unless people see themselves as sinful, they will not see themselves as needing a savior. 

As Hebrews 12 tells us, God led His people from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion. He has taken us from the law that shows us our sin to the cross where our sins are forgiven. But there is still a warning to be heeded! See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Listen and rejoice and give thanks for the kingdom of our awesome God you have entered, a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Moses shared with his father-in-law Jethro the story of God’s deliverance of His people from slavery. He told him about the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea that led to their salvation. He told him about the trials and troubles they had faced since the Red Sea, and he told him “how the LORD had delivered them.” Moses witnessed to dear old dad-in-law, telling him ALL that the Lord had done!

Saints, this is how we tell anyone about Jesus. Some believe that though Jethro was a monotheist as the Midianite priest, he did not know the one he worshiped. And that this was the point of his salvation, as he said to Moses after hearing his story, “Now I know that the LORD (Yahweh) is greater than all gods.” Why? Because Moses had been careful to tell his father-in-law all that he had seen God do with his own eyes. He loved Jethro with the truth. He loved Jethro with a testimony of God’s great faithfulness to His people. Moses shared the good news of Israel’s salvation by the signs and wonders and the miracles that God had performed for His people who had been enslaved for more than four centuries. Moses pointed his father-in-law to God and His goodness and mercy to save. 

We have the same testimony! We have all been slaves to sin and we have all, if we are disciples of Christ now, been delivered from sin by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. “We preach Christ crucified,” Paul wrote. And we preach Christ risen from the dead. “He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” And when we do that, sometimes God brings life where there is no life. 

I love the story of CT Studd, the famous missionary to Africa and China who left his wealth and his fame as a cricketer to serve the Lord on two continents. But do you know how he came to Christ? His father, Edward Studd, was a wealthy Englishman who was profoundly converted by the preaching of DL Moody. His sons were in school at the time and they knew nothing about what had happened with Dad. Until he shocked them by coming to Eton to see them in the middle of the semester. Instead of taking them to the theater as he normally did when he visited, he took them to hear DL Moody preach. CT Studd wrote later, “Before that time, I used to think that religion was a Sunday thing, like one’s Sunday clothes, to be put away on Monday morning.  We boys were brought up to go to church regularly, but, although we had a kind of religion, it didn’t amount to much…Then all at once I had the good fortune to meet a real live…Christian.  It was my own father.  But it did make one’s hair stand on end.  Everyone in the house had a dog’s life of it until they were converted.  I was not altogether pleased with him.  He used to come into my room at night and ask if I was converted.” 

I love it! There was a father who would do all he could to see that his sons came to know Jesus, knowing full well that it would be Jesus only who saved them. You know what? There are perhaps millions in China and central Africa that are glad CT Studd’s father loved his sons enough to keep sowing and watering seeds until God gave the increase.

A humble, unashamed, and saved dad is a great witness to his family.

You all know this story well. Just a few weeks after God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, they were attacked by the Amalekites, who cowardly targeted the stragglers in the back of the procession. That led to Moses commissioning Joshua to gather men who would fight a battle the next day.  Men died on the battlefield, but God did not inspire Moses to write about the costs, how many men died and how many were injured. He inspired Moses to write about who won the battle, and the how and the why, the strategy that brought victory. Simply put, it was prayer. Moses took his staff and went up on the top of a hill, probably so the men could see him up there and so he could see the men. Aaron and Hur went with him. Every time Moses had lifted up his staff before this, he was directed by God and the staff was a symbol of God’s power. Now his people were being attacked and Moses lifted his staff as the battle raged below him. I believe Moses reaching up to ask the Lord to do what was needed, lifting up holy hands to our mighty Warrior God. It was a physical picture of prayer, whether he was actually saying any words or not. Moses also began to realize that whenever he lifted up his hand to God, Joshua’s army prevailed over the Amalekites. When he dropped his hand, the Amalekites prevailed. We might say, Moses, why do you keep dropping your hands? But seriously…how long could you hold up one or both of your hands in the air? Could you do it all day? Of course not. 

Aaron and Hur saw what was going on so they got a stone for Moses to sit on and then stood on either side of him, helping him hold up his hands. I honestly don’t know how they held up Moses’ hands all day long, but it may be that when they stepped up to help, God gave them strength beyond their ability. But I love this picture. These two men came alongside to strengthen their brother. We see this story played out in the lives of the first believers. Jesus told Peter that he was praying for him that his strength would not fail after Satan sifted him. Then Jesus said, “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter did just that, didn’t he? He took the hand of the lame beggar and lifted him out of his infirmity. Later, when Peter was in prison and expected to be executed the next day, the church gathered to lift up their hands and their voices for him. God heard their prayers and sent an angel to deliver Peter from prison. The church could not physically deliver Peter from prison but they knew the One who could, so they came together for prayer. It is what we are called to do as well. To hold up the arms that are weary. Paul wrote, “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” 

We know this battle with Amalek is a physical picture of a spiritual reality. We get tired of battling with sin. We get weary of running the race God has called us to run. We get beaten down by the mundane chores of everyday life, taking care of a house and trying to stay healthy and paying the bills and just trying to keep our head above water. And added onto that for many are troubled marriages, kids rejecting the faith, young people longing to be married and not knowing where that person is, older people fearful of the future or a medical diagnosis. And all around we hear people crying, “I need help! I can’t keep going.” Be willing to answer that cry. You may be Aaron or Hur who hold the arms up for someone else.  You may sometimes be a Moses who needs others to hold your arms up. 

I like what JC Ryle said: “The Christian is known by two great marks: his inner warfare and his inner peace.” He is also known for his willingness to serve others who are weary from the battle and no longer able to stand. 

Go ahead. Lift up your hands, and help others do that, too!

When the children of Israel got to Rephidim in the wilderness, there was no water. They complained, just as they had at Marah where the water was undrinkable. God had healed the water there, but their memories were short, as ours often are. So they threatened Moses to the point that he thought they would stone him. He cried out to God and the Lord had him pass before the people with a few elders and take his staff with him. The staff that he struck the Nile with and God turned it to blood. Take your staff, Moses, and I will meet you at the rock at Horeb. Remember Horeb? It is where Moses first met God at the burning bush. It is where God commissioned him to go deliver the people from slavery. It is where Moses will meet with God later and receive the 10 Commandments. 

Moses is back at Horeb and God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock…and you shall strike the rock.” Notice this is the only time Moses was told to strike the rock. Years later, Moses finds himself in the same place again, back at Meribah with the people of Israel, and again there is no water. Again the people grumble and accuse Moses of trying to kill them. God tells Moses to take his staff and a few elders and speak to the rock. “Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water,” God says. Instead, in his anger at the people, Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock. Twice! The water flowed. Because of his disobedience, Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land. Why would this one sin disqualify Moses from going into Canaan? He was allowed to see it before he died but would never step one foot there. Why? I believe the reason is two-fold, first because of Moses’ disobedience, but second because of the significance of the rock.

 Remember, Scripture interprets Scripture! Paul wrote, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” There has been much written about this, and we cannot say for sure what Paul meant. We know that God was with them in the wilderness. Does this mean that it was the pre-incarnate Christ who was there? We know about the cloud and the fire, but was there a rock that also followed the people in the wilderness? One thing we know for sure. This rock was a type. A shadow in the Old Testament that found its fulfillment in the New. 

God would send His Son to be born of a virgin some 1500 years after Moses. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came to Israel and said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger.”  He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” All that the people in the wilderness had grumbled about would be provided by Christ, their spiritual food and drink. Jesus also said, “This is my body, broken for you.” And He said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.” The people had wanted to stone Moses in the wilderness, but God did not allow it. But God did send His Son so that they would crucify Him. It was not the Jews or the Romans who put Jesus on the cross. It was God. For your sake and for mine, the Father struck the Rock and gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin.

The Rock of Ages was cleft for you and for me.

Every day except Saturday, the people of God went out in the morning and gathered manna. On Saturday they rested. But every day but Saturday they went out and got their food for the day. Fresh bread. Fresh provision from God. Fresh opportunity to trust that morning by morning when they opened their tent flaps and stepped out, it would be there. Manna from heaven. Which gave them a fresh occasion to praise and thank God! Every day was the same. They started each morning receiving something from the Lord, but they did not receive it passively. They had to go out and pick it up, gather their “omer,” their half gallon of manna. And some people might say, so what’s the big deal? Well, on the physical level, they had to wake up and get out of bed every day. They had to get blanket victory and go out to work! We all have to do that. And there are consequences if we don’t. Paul said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The idea is that everyone in the wilderness who was physically able to gather manna would be expected to do that. Every day except one. 

But there is another application we need to make, and Moses helps us with it in his fifth book. He  wrote, “And (God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” There’s the greater truth of this manna miracle. The Lord was teaching His people through daily provision that we do not live by bread alone. That the sustenance of our soul is not found in bread but in the very words of God. Every word that comes from the mouth of God is for our sustenance, our spiritual health, and that is why we need to feed on it every day. Anyone who eats and drinks enough to sustain the body can live. But only in Jesus can we have life. 

Did you know that Jesus quoted from Moses when He was hungry? Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days and had not eaten. That is about the time that your physical body starts to consume itself. He needed bread. The tempter, Satan, was there to offer Jesus a way to get food. He said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The temptations of Jesus were real. Jesus was hungry. Nearly starving. But His answer was that He would trust God, He would look to His Father, He would not take even one day off, not even one moment off, from being nourished in His very soul from His Father’s love and care for Him.

 God was training His people in the wilderness, sanctifying them, teaching them to look for His provision every morning, first thing. He was teaching them to look forward to it! It will always be there for you. They didn’t have the Bible like we do. Moses hadn’t started writing the first five books yet. But we now have the Word of God scattered all over our houses and on our phones and tablets and laptops. 

I look forward every morning to three things. A cup of coffee. Time in the Word and prayer by myself and then with my wife. And breakfast. 

We talk about spiritual “disciplines” as believers, and we should. But here’s something to think about: anything that becomes a habit does not require discipline. I don’t have to discipline myself in the morning to fix a cup of coffee. It is not a discipline to read the Bible and pray. 

It is a habit. And a delight!

You may have heard the story about the monk who joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first 10 years his superior called him in and asked, “Do you have anything to say?” The monk replied, “Food bad.” After another 10 years the monk again had opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, “Bed hard.” Another 10 years went by and again he was called in before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he responded, “I quit.” The supervisor said, “It doesn’t surprise me. You’ve done nothing but complain ever since you got here.” 

The people of Israel were only 6 weeks into their journey of freedom and they were already grumbling. First about water. Then about food. Let’s be honest. Grumbling is a favorite pastime. Or at least something we tend to do a lot and hardly ever consider, perhaps, that it is not right. Children grumble about having to go to bed, eat their vegetables, or do their chores. Teenage boys grumble because they can’t go to the parties other teens go to, or they can’t sleep until noon on Saturday. We had something we called Saturday chores when our kids were growing up. They started right after breakfast. Teen girls might grumble they can’t date or even court unless you’ve done a background check on the boy first.  And probably an ‘in your face’ check on top of that. We adults grumble about our kids because they won’t do what we tell them to. We complain about our boss because he or she is telling us what to do. We complain when we are hungry or thirsty or tired or sick or feel unloved or under-appreciated. We even grumble sometimes about our church. What?! 

Let’s be honest. Grumbling is easy to do and hard to die to, but we can, with God’s help.

  Maybe we can at least cut way down on grumbling if we learn to acknowledge three things. First,  grumbling romanticizes the past. We often talk about the good old days and usually we see them through rose-colored glasses. The Israelites were thinking about the “good old days” in Egypt. They don’t remember when they “groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.” No, a little hunger makes them wish they could go back. People my age may look back to the 70’s and remember the “good old days.” You know… the Vietnam War, race riots, the sexual revolution. The good old days when teens were turning on to drugs and dropping out of school. Cool beans, man, those days were groovy. Even far out. No, I like the front doormat at one of my sons’ house that says, “These are the good old days.” 

Grumbling also distorts the present. The people of God had just been delivered through the Red Sea by God’s mighty hand. They had just witnessed a miracle where God turned poisonous water into sweet. That same God, the only God, was with them and had demonstrated time and again that He knows how to take care of His people. God told them He would rain down manna on them from heaven. He would feed them for 40 years. They were not starving, not even close. We should all ask ourselves and our children, “Are we really starving when we say we are at 3pm in the afternoon?” 

Finally, grumbling discredits God. This is one of the biggest problems. A complaining spirit points to a soul problem, a lack of gratitude, a self-centered heart that believes you are true north all the time. Everyone else is doing it wrong, even God. You alone know what and how to do what is right, and you grumble against God and everyone else. Moses told the people, “For the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against Him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”  Three times Moses told them that their grumbling was an offense to God. Why? Because grumbling says to God, “I cannot trust you. You are not a good provider. You are not a good protector. You are not paying attention.” 

One of the most amazing parts of this story in Exodus 16 is how God responded to two million grumblers. He met their grumbling with grace. He showed them His glory and He gave them the meat and bread they were asking for, in spite of their grumbles. That doesn’t give us license to grumble more that grace may abound! But it is a reminder that God knows our frame, that we are dust. And that He loves us.