Israel complaining in the wilderness- Exodus 16

 

Exodus 16:2-15

For the last couple weeks we have had conflict in the church brought to our attention in the readings. What do we do if a fellow Christian sins against us? How often should we forgive a fellow Christian who sins against us? How do we deal with disagreements?

In our Exodus reading today we are confronted with God’s people complaining. We read, 

“The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness” (16:2).

 The words “complain” or “complaining” are mentioned seven times in our reading.

It’s interesting that the Bible would record God’s people in this negative light. These are the children of Abraham. They are the ones who inherit Abraham’s blessing that they would be a blessing to all the families of the world. They are the chosen people. These are the people God established a unique covenant with. God has great plans for them. … But here they are complaining.

Paul talks about these events in Israel’s history in 1 Corinthians 10. He says, 

“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:1-4).

 

Paul is drawing a parallel between the people of Israel and the Church. He relates their passing through the sea as they are rescued from slavery in Egypt to the waters of Baptism. He relates the flakey bread-like manna from heaven to the heavenly bread of the Eucharist. And he relates the water that springs from the rock, to the wine of the cup of Christ. … They were people who received the favour of God. But just because they have God’s favour, like Israel, they aren’t immune to committing Israel’s past failures. The experiences of Israel stand as a warning to the Church. He says,

“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. … And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor 10:5-6, 10-12).

Paul is warning us to be attentive and diligent. We should be careful to not think we are all that different from Israel in the wilderness. They had God’s favour, just as the Church does. Yet, there were consequences for their grumbling. They forgot their purpose. They forgot their calling.

When Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt, it was a moment of triumph. But the work of being transformed was just beginning. … Similarly, witnessing the resurrection of Jesus was a victory over the power of sin and death, but that didn’t mean the church was never going to encounter difficulty. … So, I hope we can hear that warning. This is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warning about “cheap grace”. Let’s be careful to not presume too much on our status as baptized Christians who receive the spiritual food and drink. … Paul is cautioning us to see Israel as an example to us.

Lets look at our reading a bit more to see what we can learn from Israel’s example.

The last few weeks we have been walking through the divine drama of the Exodus. The descendants of Abraham and Sarah became enslaved in Egypt. God called Moses from the burning bush, and Moses confronts Pharaoh to let the people go. God puts pressure on Egypt and frees the people through miraculous plagues, and then God parts the sea, leading the people into the wilderness, while swallowing the Egyptian soldiers in the waters behind them.

This week we find ourselves in the wilderness, and as we have heard, the Israelites are complaining. They came to Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and 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.”

 The Israelites had faith, but their faith rested in the power of Egypt, rather than in God. They trusted in the power of their slave masters to feed them. They may have been slaves in Egypt, but at least then they knew where their next meal was coming from. ... Now, … they are physically free from the chains that bound them in Egypt, but their hearts were still bound to Egypt. They didn’t actually have a lack of faith. The problem was that their faith was in Egypt, rather than in God.

Human beings can’t live without faith, which is just another way of saying trust. We can’t live without trusting that the tires will stay attached to the car and our brakes will work. We trust that the bank will still have our money when we want to make a withdrawal. … Human beings are full of faith, it’s just not always faith in God. …

In the wilderness, God was trying to teach the people of Israel to trust Him, rather than Egypt, or even their own ability to plan. God was teaching them to trust His instructions. Trust that each day God will give them what they need. Each day he would give them Manna. And they had to trust him for each day, every morning they had to renew that trust because if they tried to save some manna for the next day, it would go bad (unless it was the sabbath).

But habits are hard to break. Nostalgia can be dangerous as we look back with rose-coloured glasses. Time makes slavery in Egypt look not so bad. Slavery with plenty of meat and bread starts to look pretty good as they wander through the baren wilderness. We often prefer the hell we know over the heaven we don’t know.

We also have a tendency to see what we lack, rather than the blessings we should be thankful for. The people of Israel had been shown God’s power and presence like no other people. They had been protected from one of the most powerful nations in the world through miracle after miracle. And yet, they have become used to this miraculous presence, and their attention turns to complaining about what they don’t have, away from gratitude for what they do have.

We too, very easily forget the marvel of modern life- the incredible blessings that surround us. We are surrounded by technology our ancestors couldn’t have dreamed of. The other day I was in a Zoom meeting that included someone from South Africa. We have medicines and medical interventions, without which, many of us wouldn’t be here, or we would be in much rougher shape. Our grocery stores are full of a staggering diversity of food. … And yet, it is so easy to take all these blessings for granted, and focus on what we feel we lack.

In the wilderness, God is re-training the hearts of the people of Israel.

Jesus could have been speaking to Israel in the wilderness when he said, 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" “… So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt 6:25-34).

They are beautiful words, but there is a voice inside us that says, "beautiful, but not realistic. Don't be foolish. Be practical. You can't really live that way." … It is at this point that our faith in God comes into conflict with whatever else we have faith in. The reason we don’t see those words as realistic, is the reason the Israelites complained in the wilderness.

We are all confronted with the same question the Israelites were confronted with "In what, or in whom, will we place our faith?" It is not a matter of if we have faith. It is a matter where we place our faith. …

This is not a simplistic matter. We live very complex lives that involve insurance, retirement plans, community police services, military, social welfare systems, medical systems, and a network of delivery services that give us access to things like food and fuel. … These give us a sense of security like our ancestors could have only dreamed of, but I think we also need to ask ourselves how all this fits with that question, "In what, or in whom, will we place our faith?” How does our faith in those things interact with our faith in God? … This is an issue of the heart that we are all confronted by. …

But this is also deeper than our earthly needs. We don’t live forever, so perhaps our greatest need is our spiritual maturity. What if the development of my soul actually matters more to God than my comfort. And maybe I’m complaining about the very thing God is using to develop me spiritually? Life throws things at us and we can choose to encounter those things with the attitude that God is going to use this to help me grow. God is going to help me deal with it in a way that helps me become more faithful, or more generous, or more patient, or more long-suffering. What if the thing I’m complaining about is the very context for my spiritual growth?

Let’s be attentive to Paul’s warning, and to Israel’s example. May we have faith that will lead us to seek first God’s kingdom, trusting that all the things we need (maybe not all the things we want) will be given to us as well. AMEN