The Church and the Book of Grumblers
How to Break a Church • Sermon • Submitted
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I’ve been pretty transparent with you all through the past year about many of my struggles, because I think it’s important for the church to know that its pastor is just as prone to the weaknesses of the flesh as anybody else.
So today, continuing in that vein, I want to share with you the story of an ungrateful 17-year-old on vacation with his family.
We were in Knoxville, Tenn., for the 1982 World’s Fair, and my parents had agreed to allow me to bring along my senior-year girlfriend, Helen.
Like many 17-year-olds, I was hard to please. I wanted to do the things I wanted to do, and I didn’t have a lot of patience for the kind of compromise called for on a family vacation.
After all, I was with a bunch of old people, and it just didn’t make sense to me that my girlfriend and I had to do the things the old people wanted to do.
So, like many 17-year-olds, I turned to my greatest weapons: grumbling and complaining, with a healthy side helping of brooding.
Perhaps if you’ve ever traveled with teenagers you get the picture.
I really don’t recall much about that trip except that at some point, my mother drew me aside and had a few strong words for me about how I was ruining the trip for everybody. I’d like to think that I straightened myself out, but the sad fact is that I probably considered my grumbling to have been warranted, and it’s likely that I did not bring it under control.
The sad fact is that I probably considered my grumbling to have been warranted, and it’s likely that I did not bring it under control.
But grumbling doesn’t ruin only family vacations. Grumbling is one of the things that can break a church. And how you can break a church will be the topic of this and the first couple of messages of September.
The point of me telling you this story is that grumbling doesn’t ruin only family vacations. Grumbling is one of the ways that you can break a church. And how you can break a church will be the topic of this and the first couple of messages of September.
The Bible has a lot to say about grumbling, and I want to start today’s message by sharing the Apostle Paul’s warning about it from his letter to the church in Philippi.
Phil 2:14
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
Now, these verses appear in the midst of a section of this letter in which Paul directs the Philippians to be like Jesus Christ — “being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”
Having those characteristics — and doing the work of the church without grumbling or disputing — would prove that the Philippians were “innocent, children of God (who were) above reproach.”
Furthermore, their lack of grumbling and complaining and disputing would set them apart from the “crooked and perverse generation” in which they lived, allowing them to be lights to the world.
Conversely, by grumbling and by disputing the true work of the church, they would identify themselves with the world, rather than with Christ.
This is all pretty simple and straightforward, but like that immature 17-year-old in Knoxville, there have always been those who did not get it.
Scripture has a lot more to say about grumbling than Paul’s brief message here, and I want you to keep what Paul has said in mind as we turn today to the 11th chapter of the Book of Grumblers.
But Scripture has a lot more to say about grumbling than Paul’s brief message here, and I want you to keep what Paul has said in mind as we turn today to the 11th chapter of the Book of Grumblers.
Sorry, that’s the 11th chapter of the book of Numbers.
I’m not the first to make that mistake, and as we delve into this Old Testament account of the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel, I think you will see why it’s an easy one to make.
Now, this book starts at the base of Mt. Sinai, and the first several chapters are dedicated to God’s ordering of the people, their camp, the priesthood, the tabernacle, and the sacrifices.
Finally, in Chapter 9, God gives direction regarding the feast of Passover, and His cloud of glory comes to settle upon the tabernacle.
Chapter 3 covers the selection of the Levites to serve in the tabernacle, and then Chapter 4 gives their duties there. Chapters 5 and 6 detail various laws designed to maintain order in the camp and in the tabernacle, and chapters 7 and 8 deal with the order of sacrifices and the arrangement of the tabernacle.
Finally, in Chapter 9, God gives direction regarding the feast of Passover, and His cloud of glory comes to settle upon the tabernacle.
Then, in Chapter 10, the cloud rises from the tabernacle and goes on before the people as they break camp and set out for the Promised Land.
God had demonstrated the He is a God of order, not a God of chaos, and He had shown that He would guide His people to the place that He had promised them. We see a hopeful picture as we read from the concluding verses of chapter 10.
And then
33 Thus they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord journeying in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them.
34 The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
35 Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O Lord! And let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.”
36 When it came to rest, he said, “Return, O Lord, To the myriad thousands of Israel.”
Imagine what a spiritual high this must have been for the people of Israel. God had revealed to them that He would order their lives for them and that He would go before them as they were on their way to the Promised Land.
But the people were spiritual teenagers — they were spiritually immature — and within three days, they demonstrated just how immature they could be.
1 Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
Grumblers do not recognize the work of God, and they do not give Him credit for being a God who keeps His promises. They focus on their momentary difficulties, and they complain, failing in the course of their complaints to praise Him for all of His provisions.
That’s what had happened among the people of Israel, and it happens in churches today, as well.
We start doing the work of God, and life is no longer a simple matter of camping alongside a mountain. Now, we’re trudging through the wilderness, hauling a heavy load of the things that God has blessed us with, and the life of the church suddenly seems like work.
Instead of sitting around the campfire and telling each other stories about the old days, we’re heading into the unknown.
Such things make grumblers uncomfortable, and when grumblers are uncomfortable, they grumble. And, in the case of Israel, that grumbling came at a big cost, as God responded quite literally with fire.
2 The people therefore cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire died out. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them.
Now, you might think that such a hard lesson would be hard to forget, but grumblers tend not to recognize their own responsibility for the damage they do. Just like that ungrateful 17-year-old, they think they’ve got a legitimate gripe, and you won’t keep them quiet for long.
And that’s just what happened here, as the grumblers quickly found something else to complain about.
And that’s just what happened here, as grumblers quickly found something else to complain about.
4 The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
5 “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic,
5
6 but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
Even in the face of God’s blessings, grumblers always remember some supposedly better time or situation in the past, and they long to return to it.
But what was it that these “rabble” of Israel wanted to return to?
They wanted to go back to their lives in Egypt, when they were enslaved. Sure, they were forced to do labor and even die in service to the Egyptians, but at least they had free fish, right?
As I consider the state of the modern church — and of Christianity in America — I am struck by the number of times I hear modern-day grumblers pining for the old days, the days when even country churches were full.
And who could be content with the manna that God provided for them each morning?
Here’s the problem with that: The felt needs and the potlucks and the inward-focused ministries and the cheap grace of the old days are the reasons for the church’s seeming irrelevance to so many people today.
They are our Egypt. We must not pine for those days.
As I consider the state of the modern church — and of Christianity in America — I am struck by the number of times I hear modern-day grumblers pining for the old days, the days when even country churches were full.
If the church is effectively just another social organization, then it is doomed to failure, because it was not set up for that purpose, just as Israel was not chosen to be in service to Egypt, but to God.
The church was established to be a picture of the Kingdom of God, to display the image of Jesus Christ to the world.
During the last 30 years, we have seen a continual shrinking of the Christian church in America. Is that because there are fewer Christians, or is it, perhaps, because there are fewer people who
Now look at the effect these rabble-rousers had on the ministry of Moses, whom God had called to lead them:
And now, those that have not closed their doors completely are struggling to have faith that God will provide for them from one day to the next as they walk each day in obedience to Him.
But who could be content with the manna every day?
Certainly not the grumblers, the rabble-rousers and discontented who looked for every new opportunity to complain.
Modern-day grumblers in the church love to look back to the golden days
Now look at the effect these people had on the ministry of Moses, whom God had called to lead them:
11 So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me?
11
Grumblers sap the joy from those who are doing the work of God. They grind down the enthusiasm of those who want to do the work with which God has charged them.
Grumblers may cloak their bitterness in calls for compromise, but when they don’t see their desired results, they grumble to others in the church, spreading their discontent like the seeds of poison ivy.
Now God recognized the damage these rabble-rousers were doing to the ministry of His servant, Moses, and He directed Moses to appoint 70 elders to support him by taking their stand around the tabernacle.
26 But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp.
27 So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”
27-28
29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
9
Grumblers are more concerned about the process than they are about the work.
The
Moses recognized that these two elders were prophesying, which meant that they were speaking God’s words to the people. But this young man was upset that they were not doing it the way he thought they should.
Grumblers are more concerned about the process than they are about the work. Grumblers keep a copy of their church constitution right next to their Bible. They seek to constrain God’s Word and God’s work within the confines of a structure and a set of rules written by men.
Here, we have three different instances of grumbling among the people within just one chapter.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the book of Grumblers.
We see in chapter 12 that this problem extended right up to the leadership of Israel.
1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman);
2 and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.
Grumblers fail to acknowledge the authority of their spiritual leaders. In fact, like Miriam and Aaron, grumblers in leadership positions tend to overstate their own authority in order to undermine the leaders God has put into place.
Now, I haven’t highlighted God’s responses to all this grumbling, but you should understand that He had reacted severely.
When the Israelites complained about not having meat, for instance, He sent quail to cover the camp three feet deep a day’s journey in all directions, and then He struck the people with a plague as they were eating the quail they had collected.
So let’s look at God’s response to Miriam’s grumbling.
9 So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed.
10 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.
For Miriam, the most frightening thing might have been the fact that she had become leprous. For the people of Israel, however, the most frightening thing should have been the fact that God took His presence from the tabernacle, even if only temporarily.
Will the grumbling of the people of the church cause God to withdraw His presence from it?
Go back to what Paul wrote.
By doing all things without grumbling or disputing, we prove ourselves to be children of God. So if we allow grumbling to run rampant within the church, what are we proving? Aren’t we proving to be people of the world, rather than people of God?
Why would God continue to manifest His presence in a church that shows itself to be aligned with the world, rather than with Him?
But God is faithful, and even in the face of all this grumbling in chapters 11 and 12, we see in Chapter 13 that He has brought His people to the brink of entering the Promised Land, and He has called Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan.
You all know the story, of course. Twelve spies went out, and they saw a land they later described to the people as “flowing with milk and honey.”
Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, came back and said: “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” These spies believed God when He told them that He would go before them and that He would give them the land He had promised them.
The other 10, however, looked at the same things Caleb and Joshua had seen and concluded that the situation was hopeless.
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”
Sadly, the people of Israel believed the 10 faithless spies instead of believing in God.
1
1 Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3 “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
Now, this is not the last instance of grumbling among the people of Israel in the Book of Numbers — in fact, there are at least four others — but this is the most egregious, and it’s the last one we will look at today.
Let’s be certain to notice that what led to this grumbling was a lack of faith.
God had told His people that He would provide for them and that He would protect them, and He already had miraculously delivered them from captivity in Egypt. But they had no faith that He would continue to keep His promises to them.
So they “grumbled against Moses and Aaron.”
But Joshua and Caleb made it clear that, while the grumbling might have been directed at Moses and Aaron, the rebellion was against God.
8 “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.
Num 14
9 “Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”
Eventually grumbling turns to rebellion. Eventually grumblers convince themselves that they can trust themselves more than they can trust God.
And look back at verse 2 of this chapter:
2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
Do you see the exaggeration here? Nobody was dead; God had delivered them all. How would it have been better for them to have died in Egypt?
Grumblers tend to make things sound far more bleak than they actually are. It would not serve their purposes to admit that things really weren’t that bad.
Imagine, for example, if the people of Israel had put an accurate spin on their situation.
“Oh, woe is us! We are fed every day without having to hunt our food. We are no longer slaves subject to the whims of the Pharaoh, and we no longer have to worry that he might kill our children. Our clothes and shoes are holding up just fine in the wilderness, and somehow we keep finding water when we need it. God has gone before us and has steered us away from those who would harm us. Not only that, He has brought us to the place that He promised our forefathers, and there are clusters of grapes so large that it takes two men to carry them. Woe is us!”
No, the grumblers of the world choose to give the worst report possible, and often they will embellish the truth in order to make things seem even worse than they are.
Today, people refer to that kind of thing as fake news.
The sad thing for the people of Israel is that they got their wish.
As punishment for their lack of faith, God decreed that the generation which had sent out the spies would, in fact, die in the wilderness.
They had rebelled against God. They had shown that their hearts were turned toward the world and that their faith was in themselves, and so God gave them the desire of their hearts.
They were allowed to engineer their own fate, which was to remain lost and wandering until they died. The next generation would be allowed into the Promised Land, but not this crooked and perverse generation of grumblers.
Now, let me make one more point before I conclude.
There is probably no church on earth that does not have its grumblers. And unfortunately, like that ungrateful 17-year-old I told you about earlier, for the most part they do not consider themselves grumblers, because they think their complaining and divisiveness are warranted.
Today’s message was not for them. While I pray for their repentance, the book of Numbers suggests that very few grumblers ever repent.
Today’s message was for the rest of the church.
What should Israel have done with the grumblers?
They should have shut them down, one way or the other. And that’s exactly what the modern church must do if it is to prove itself to be blameless and innocent, to be children of God.
The church needs more Joshuas and Calebs and fewer Miriams and Aarons.
Confronted with the grumbling of the rabble-rousers, these two men tore their clothes and said, “Do not rebel against the Lord.” They said, “The Lord is with us!” They called the people to have faith and to stop their rebellion.
And the grumblers, accord
Watch out for the grumblers. When you hear them grumbling, recognize that their rebellion is against God. When you hear them grumbling, call them to repentance. When you hear them grumbling, turn a deaf ear.
The grumblers set the tone for the people of Israel, and the nation wandered, lost in the wilderness, for 40 years as a result. They ruined the trip for everybody.
We cannot let the modern church be cursed to wander in a spiritual wilderness because of
I pray that we will not find our modern churches wandering in a spiritual wilderness because we have failed to heed the lesson.