Why Murmur? Only Believe

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

Exodus 15:22-26

The above passage speaks about murmuring. This is a vital subject, one that every person in the church needs to be aware of.

Murmuring is how we express our discontent at others or situations we find ourselves in. Of course, we never point our finger at ourselves and say, “I myself am responsible for my misery.” No, we always find someone else to blame. Ultimately, we conclude that God is responsible and accuse him by murmuring.

I need not ask if you have ever murmured. At one time or another, every one of us has done so. The book of Exodus reveals that murmuring was the dominant theme of Israel’s life in the wilderness. And it was not just the laity who murmured; even leaders like Aaron, Miriam, and Korah murmured.

The Hebrew word for murmur is lun. Its synonyms are: grumbling, griping, groaning, whining, whispering, complaining, carping, self-pitying, or playing the role of a victim. This word, lun, appears in Exodus 15, 16, 17, in Numbers, 14, 16, 17, and in Joshua 9:18. Because murmuring is so prevalent, even among God’s people, it is good for us to learn certain truths about it.

1. Murmuring is always directed against God and his delegated authorities. Murmuring expresses our displeasure with God’s direction in our lives. It expresses the attitude of our heart against all duly constituted authorities who govern our lives, be they parents, government, pastors, employers or teachers. Perhaps you have heard some inarticulate murmuring when you tell your child to do something he or she does not want to do. But God’s word gives us clear direction about the authorities in our lives:

   Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong” (Romans 13:1-3).

   In Exodus 16 we find Israel murmuring against Moses and Aaron about the lack of food. But, as has already been stated, all murmuring is ultimately against God and his government. Moses made this point very clearly in Exodus 16:8: “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”

   God is not fooled when our murmuring is directed at others. We see this in God’s response when the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron in Numbers 14: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?'” (v. 11).

   All murmuring is against God. It is treating God with contempt, saying that somehow he failed to make us happy.

2. Murmuring turns the covenant structure upside-down. While in Egypt, the people of Israel were slaves to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When they complained, Pharaoh made their conditions even harder. Then they cried out to God, who delivered them. He brought them out of their brutal, crushing slavery to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. In keeping with his covenant with Abraham, the Lord came to their rescue, redeeming them to worship and obey him only as their God and King. So in Exodus 15:26 God told them, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” To enjoy God’s covenant blessings, his people were to obey him fully. But a murmurer refuses to abide by this covenant structure. Instead, he demands that the Lord serve him. The murmurer proclaims himself God and makes God his servant.

   Not only that, a murmurer desires, if possible, to kill God himself, to invalidate God’s word, to destroy all God’s delegated authorities, enthrone himself as God, and enjoy absolute freedom and sovereignty. In other words, a murmurer is a self-centered being, not the servant of the Great King.

3. We murmur especially in times of crisis. The Israelites murmured at Marah, where they experienced great thirst, yet all they could find was bitter water. They murmured when Pharaoh and his army pursued them and they thought there was no escape. They murmured when they did not have food, and they murmured at Rephidim when they could not find any water. They murmured when they discovered that the people of Canaan were powerful and the cities large and fortified. Like the Israelites, I believe we also murmur most when we face troubles and any unpleasant experiences.
4. The one who murmurs questions God’s justice, goodness and power. What are we really saying when we murmur? We are expressing our dislike of how God is governing our life. We are implying that God does not seem to know what he is doing, although we know exactly what he should do. We are saying that God is not capable of saving us and that his promises are false. Like the Israelites, we are saying that he does not even know which way he should lead us, for if he had known, he would not have led us through certain experiences of our lives-the miserable wilderness, Marah, Rephidim, and the wretched Sinai. In fact, we would say that if God had known what he was doing, he would have led us on the straight, short way to Canaan and avoided all these troubles.

   A murmurer accuses God of not knowing what he is doing. He always questions God’s justice, goodness, and power. In essence, a murmurer is saying, “If God really knew the way to help me, he would not have given me this miserable husband or wife, these terrible children, this miserable job, this miserable house, this wretched city, this church that preaches every week the word of God, these pastors, these parents, these diseases. So God is not good, just, or powerful.”

5. A murmurer refuses to believe God’s promises. Though the Israelites had witnessed God’s mighty deeds in rescuing them and judging the Egyptians, and though they were personally led by this mighty God in a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud, they refused to believe God’s promise to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.

   A murmurer has an unbelieving heart. He lives only by sight. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” But the murmurer’s philosophy is the exact opposite. Focusing on his problem, he does not see the Lord, the deliverer, in his midst. He is like the servant of Elisha that we read about in 2 Kings 6:15-17. When he saw the Syrian army surrounding them, he was terrified. Only after Elisha prayed did God open the servant’s eyes, enabling him to see the Lord’s deliverance.

   Yes, in the life of a believer there are problems. We have fires and storms, sickness and death, enemies without and within. But we have someone greater than all these problems: God is with us! Isaiah 43:1-3 says, “But now, this is what the Lord says-he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” The murmurer sees only problems, but the people of God see God himself in their midst, ready to save them.

   Hebrews 3:12-14 offers a summary statement of the life of Israel in the wilderness: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”

   The murmurer refuses to believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He refuses to base his life upon the word of God and spends no time meditating upon the word; instead, he bases his life on the ups and downs of his emotions. Thus, when the storm comes, he looks to himself, becomes troubled and anxious, and murmurs against God. As his foundation of sand gives way, he blames everyone but himself for his trouble.

6. The murmurer misinterprets and misrepresents reality. There is an amazing distortion and false perception of reality displayed by murmurers. For instance, after God gloriously delivered them from Egypt, the Israelites began to speak of their former life in Egypt as better, saying, “Yahweh delivered us out of Egypt only to kill us and our children in the desert. This Yahweh is no redeemer; he is more cruel than Pharaoh himself.” Here we see the utter inability to interpret reality correctly. God’s own people were saying, “Pharaoh is good, Yahweh is bad. In Egypt we had plenty, but Yahweh starves us. This Yahweh is not delivering us; he is killing us.” And eventually these murmurers tried to stone Moses and return to Egyptian bondage, like a dog returning to its own vomit.

   This is what happens to murmurers: Having been on the ground of redemption, they yearn to return to the slavery of Egypt. Enticed by the fares of the world, they find the word of God, the manna, totally unappetizing.

   When people murmur, their hearts become darkened and their minds twisted. They become incapable of interpreting reality correctly. Thus, good is evil, and evil is good: autonomy is good, and the Lordship of Christ is bad; sin is good, holiness is bad; worldly friends are good, parents and other authorities are bad; lawlessness is good, the Ten Commandments are bad. Murmurers exchange truth for a lie because their hearts are darkened by a commitment to falsehood. So the sons of Eliab told Moses, “Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us?” (Numbers 16:13)

7. The murmurer reaches for power and position not given to him by divine sovereignty. The classic example of murmuring is that of Korah and his followers, as recorded in Numbers 16. Korah and some other leaders came to Moses, asserting, “We all are holy.” They were, in effect, saying, “Aren’t all the Israelites holy? Doesn’t God love all of us? Therefore, we reject distinctions of functions. No person should be superior to another. The priesthood should not be limited to Aaron and his sons; we should all be entitled to offer incense and sacrifices.” Why did Korah say such things? Because he was unhappy with his God-ordained position and was reaching for that which God did not give him.

   Notice, these people came to Moses as a group. Murmurers are united. Numbers 16:3 says, “They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?'” Korah thought God would approve his attempt to grab power. But the truth is, God said that the priesthood was only for Aaron and his sons. Korah and his murmuring, power-grabbing associates were all killed by Yahweh by fire (v. 35), by plague (v. 49), and by the earth swallowing them up (v. 32).

8. Murmuring is contagious; it cannot be contained. As the saying goes, “Misery loves company.” People who murmur want to suck others into their circle of murmuring. So they campaign and influence others, trying to drag them down to destruction. Korah himself influenced hundreds of leaders to join him in murmuring against God and his sovereign order. But everyone who joined with Korah died prematurely as a result of divine judgment.

   Therefore, be careful with whom you fellowship, and separate yourself from murmurers. Numbers 16:20-21 gives a severe warning: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.'” Korah’s sons immediately separated themselves and were saved (cf. Numbers 16:20-21; 26:8-11). It is dangerous to be with a murmuring person, because this spiritual disease is contagious. If you join with a murmurer, you will be destroyed.

   Numbers 14:36 illustrates how contagious murmuring can be when it refers to “the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him.” In the Hebrew that word “made” is a causative verb. The ten wicked and unbelieving spies not only murmured against God’s plan of redemption, but they made others murmur also, going from tent to tent and tribe to tribe in their campaign against God and his plan of salvation. That is the point I am making. A murmurer actively seeks other people to join him in his complaint against God. But such people will be destroyed.

   Of course, today we do not have to go from tent to tent. We have e-mail, letters, telephone call, faxes, as well as personal contacts, to make the job easier. (PGM) Therefore we must be ever more diligent to heed the admonition of Romans 16:17-18: “I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.” What do we do with such people? “Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.”

   In this church we do not flatter anyone; we tell the truth. In this church we preach the Bible, the word of God. So keep away from any person who is influencing you to murmur against God and his gospel, because murmuring is contagious and destructive. Severe judgment awaits those who cause others to turn against the true and living God. May God help us to be a praising and believing people, not a murmuring people.

9. God hates murmuring. God is angry when we get together and murmur, because in the final analysis all murmuring is against God and his sovereign rule. But how many of us realize that all murmuring takes place in the hearing of God?

   Numbers 11 tells us how our murmuring reaches God’s ears and angers him. Verse 1 begins, “Now the people complained about their hardships”-notice the connection between complaint and hardships- “in the hearing of the Lord.” This is brazenness! “In the hearing of the Lord” probably means in the tabernacle area. The verse continues, “and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.” And verse 33: “But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.”

   God is angry when people oppose his sovereign rule, wisdom, justice, and power. What happened to all these murmuring people, about six hundred thousand of them? It took forty years, but God killed all of them but two-Joshua and Caleb. Murmuring is dangerous and it is deadly.

   Lest we think this is something that happened only in the Old Testament and is no longer true today, we are given this warning in 1 Corinthians 10:10-11. Speaking of the children of Israel in the desert, Paul writes, “And do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us.” Apparently God still opposes his people murmuring against his sovereign rule. So if you have been murmuring against God and his sovereign rule, I beg you to repent and ask for forgiveness right now.

10. Troubles are due to divine design. Jesus told us, “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Troubles will come whether we like it or not; God does not check with us. To avoid murmuring, let us consider a number of points concerning the divinely ordained troubles of our lives.

Problems in life
Why do we face problems in our Christian life? Is not God capable of letting us live in mansions and giving us health, wealth, and power without troubles? If God is good, loving, and almighty, why does he give us troubles?

In order to answer these questions, we must ask one more: What is God’s purpose in redeeming us? Paul gives us the answer in Ephesians 1:4-God’s purpose in redeeming us to make us holy and blameless. He did not save us to make us rich and famous. Our problem is sin; therefore, redemption must bring about holiness and blamelessness in our lives. God’s purpose for us is to conform us to the image of his holy Son.

But although we are redeemed, we are not blameless yet in the experiential sense, nor will we ever be while we live in this world. Sin still dwells in us. A Christian issimul iustus et peccator – righteous and yet a sinner. But God’s plan is to make us holy and blameless experientially as well as positionally, and he does so through the process of sanctification. “His name is Jesus, for he saves us from our sins.”

Though we are saved, we are still proud; therefore, God uses troubles to humble us. Deuteronomy 8:1-3 teaches us this theology of suffering: “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years. . . .” What was the purpose of all that circuitous and troublesome leading of his people? “To humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Sin still dwells in us, so we can still be proud and disobedient. Therefore, God brings troubles into our life to humble us, test us, and expose the filth of our hearts, that we may confess our sins and ask God to forgive us. God brings troubles so that we may believe his promises, obey him, depend on him, and be blessed by him.

Deuteronomy 8:16 is a very important verse: “[God] gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you.” Apparently, God does not believe what we say. The Israelites had said, “We will obey everything God speaks to us,” but God still found it necessary to test them. But what is the final purpose of that testing? “so that in the end it might go well with you.” You see, just like human parents, God is not worried about how we feel about him at the moment. He disciplines us, taking us through Marah and other bitter experiences, to expose the sin of our hearts and to teach us to trust in him. Therefore, troubles are of divine design to promote our sanctification and holiness in the end.

The writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:11: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” God is interested in the “later on,” not in the present. Thus, he may take certain actions, which give us pain now, for our later benefit.

The same idea is expressed in Romans 5:3-4: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Here we see the divine design. Suffering produces sanctification, which is conformity to the image of God’s Son.

Finally, Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that in all things” – that is, in all kinds of experiences, positive and negative, painful and pleasant – “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Prayer
When trouble comes, what should we do? We should pray and not murmur. When trouble came to the Israelites, they murmured against Moses and against God. But Moses did something else: He fell face down before God and started praying. This is the example we should follow. When we face trouble, instead of murmuring, we should believe God and his promises and begin to pray to him in utter dependence.

Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:4-7, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Praise
Not only should we pray, but we must also praise God, as the Israelites did in the first part of Exodus 15. Instead of complaining, start declaring the truth: “God is good. God is holy. God is our Sovereign King and Savior. God is the warrior who has defeated all our enemies. God is for us and with us, and he will defend us. God will bring us into the land of promise. God is truth. God is light. He is our God!”

I hope we will begin to praise God in the middle of our problems. In Philippi, Paul was beaten up, humiliated, and thrust into prison. Yet he rose at midnight to pray and sing praises to his God. We should do no less.

Provision
When we face trouble with an attitude of prayer and praise, there will be provision for us. God will make a way because he is the way. God is the living water and the living bread. God is life. He makes a way through the wilderness. He knows how to make the bitter water sweet. He knows how to produce rivers of water from solid granite. He knows how to rain down supernatural manna from heaven. He knows how to heal our snakebites and our sin. He is the Savior and the solution. He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides.

When the water was bitter at Marah, Moses prayed, and God said, “There is a piece of wood right there; take it and throw it into the water.” All of a sudden, the bitter water became sweet. Once again, when the people of Israel did not have water in Rephidim, Moses prayed, and God said, “Take that staff in your hand and strike the rock,” and rivers of water came out. Yet another time when they did not have water, God told Moses, “Speak to the rock,” and once again water came. When the people were bitten by fiery serpents, God said, “Tell the people to look to the brazen serpent, and they will be healed,” and they were.

Jesus was also tested when he was tempted by the devil, experiencing troubles like no other person has ever experienced. After fasted forty days, he was hungry. The devil told him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3). But Jesus said to the devil, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And we are told that God’s provision came to him in due time. The angels came and attended him. Even in Gethsemane, when he was facing death, Jesus refused to murmur and yield to the devil. Instead, he prayed, “Thy will be done,” and an angel appeared to him and strengthened him.

Conclusion

Let us, then, “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) and follow him all the way to the Celestial City with singing. Let us give thanks in everything, knowing our Redeemer is with us to keep us from falling. He to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given is telling us, “Go into the world of trouble, and I will be with you always, even unto the end of the ages.”

Take encouragement from Paul’s message in Romans 8:35-39: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine? . . . No, . . . [nothing] in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.

May God help us not to murmur, but to pray and praise him in the midst of our problems, knowing there is divine design in every trouble he has ordained for us. May we rejoice, knowing that trouble is for our good, to humble us and test us, and may we believe in God’s promises and render him complete obedience, that it may be good for us in the end. Our God will come and redeem us in his due time. Amen.