To View the Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nT3ktCs4BPk
SHOW NOTES
Welcome back to a fresh new week of the Hope Rescue Podcast! This week we are continuing the conversation about the problem of complaining. If you missed last week’s conversation, check out episode 49 to hear the first part of this conversation. Today we will be talking more in depth about how the children of Israel complained even after experiencing the miracles God had worked in their lives.
Before we get into the scripture, Tim shares three types of complainers:
The legitimate complainer. The legitimate complainer complains when there's something wrong and they want to address the problem.
The attention seeking complainer. This person seeks to manipulate people to sympathize or assist him or her.
The chronically negative complainer. This person has no motive to complain, and they just are negative and constantly complaining.
If you want to open your personal bible and follow along we will be following the story in Numbers 11 this week. To preface this story in Numbers 11, the children of Israel had been held captive as slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years before God miraculously saved them. After they were freed from Egypt by the grace of God, they spent years in the wilderness and the Lord provided them with food to sustain them. The Lord miraculously provided manna for the people of Israel every day except Saturday, and it had all the nutrients they needed to survive. Numbers 11:7-9 says, “Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.”
Although the people of Israel were experiencing a miracle every day as the manna showed up, they still complained. Read what it says in Numbers 11:4-6, “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
God was performing a miracle every day for the Israelites, and they were essentially saying it wasn't good enough. After hearing their complaints, God supernaturally provided quail for the Israelites to eat. Not just a few quail, but Numbers 11:19-20 says “You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”
In Numbers 11:34 it says, “Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.” Let’s remember, who had the craving? Who was buried? THE COMPLAINERS. The individuals who were ungrateful for the miracles God provided for them daily. We don’t tell this story to point fingers at the Israelites, but instead to make sure we are not acting like the ungrateful Israelites during this time. Is God providing for us every day, yet we continue to complain and ask for more? Is God performing miracles in our lives daily that we have become numb to? Tim and Kimberly continue the podcast by summarizing some of the lessons we can take from Numbers 11.
Lessons Learned from Numbers 11
1. Complaining focuses on what we don't have instead of focusing on what we do have. Gratitude is the opposite: focusing on what we do have and not on what we don't have.
2. When we complain we displease God because we are essentially saying, "Your daily bread is not enough."
3. When we complain we cause others to stumble.
Practical Ways to Address Complaining
We are encouraging a seven day challenge to all of our listeners! Try to implement these tips for seven days and evaluate at the end how they have affected your relationships.
Take full responsibility for your predicament. If you're complaining about a situation you are in, ask yourself why you are in that situation in the first place.
Think twice before speaking. And along with this tip, process your emotions before posting them on social media.
Seek out ideas and helpful solutions that address the problem. Look for tools to help you get through your problem.
Ask for help and guidance. Kimberly suggests instead of complaining on social media, use it as a tool to ask friends for advice.
Take proactive action to resolve your dilemma.
Tim closes the podcast to encourage the listeners to think: what is your manna story? What is God miraculously providing for you every day and how are you thanking him? Share your manna story with others. Share what you are thankful for.
QUOTES
“Complaining is like a disease that can spread throughout an entire social structure.” -Tim
“If we all sat down and took an account in a single day of the ways God provides for us it would be very sobering towards our desire to complain.” -Kimberly
“No matter what, we all will leave a legacy. Will yours be one of a complainer or of a grateful heart?”
REFERENCED SCRIPTURE
Numbers 11:7-9 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
