“The heart of the problem is the human heart.” That’s a line in the really helpful Christianity Explored course, but it’s a great description of God’s people in Exodus. God has rescued them out of Egypt through 10 plagues, then they panicked when Pharaoh chased after them, but God rescued them through the Red Sea, the sang a song of praise and then a couple of days later they grumbled because the water was bitter, God sorted out the problem and they never grumbled again! Sadly that’s not quite right, as you read chapter 16 count how many times you read grumbling or grumble. It’s as if the writer is exposing their (and perhaps our) hearts. What are they grumbling about now? No food. And talk about rose tinted spectacles – they make Egypt sound like a beautiful holiday destination where they sat round the meat pots feasting (16v3), but they were slaves! They were so desperate that they cried out to God for rescue. But now, after God’s amazing rescue, they look back and say, I wish we were still in Egypt! The problem of the human heart.
Grumbling, dissatisfied, thinking everyone is against you, even God.
How must the LORD have felt at their discontentment, lack of trust, and their grumbling? Amazingly here in the Old Testament, we see our LORD is the same LORD who is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He graciously provides His grumbling people with food. And because God wanted them to grow in their relationship with Him, to learn to trust Him every day, He provided just their daily bread, He told them not to store any up. And yet, did they listen? No, some of them thought they needed to store some up in case the Lord failed tomorrow! But what happened to that? It went rotten. God wants them and us to trust Him every day, He wants us to trust His sufficient grace for each day and not be anxious about tomorrow.
The one exception was the Sabbath, then they were to see the LORD graciously giving them 2 days bread and preventing it from going rotten. How kind of the LORD to give them the Sabbath. Can you imagine what it was like for those who were slaves, to have a day off work! A day given by the Lord for rest and worship. And yet, some of them still went put to look for bread on the Sabbath! Why won’t they learn to just delight in the LORD, rest in the LORD, trust in the LORD? Its a constant battle isn’t it?
How can we win? We see the problem of the heat emerge again in chapter 17 as they grumble again about a lack of water! Here the LORD allows Himself to be struck (He stands on the rock that is struck v6).
Here we see the way to victory is in our Lord Jesus. He is not only the bread that came down from heaven so that we might have eternal life (Jobn 6) but He is the rock that allowed himself to be struck to bring forth life giving water (1 Cor 10:4).
He died for every time we have grumbled against the Lord so that we might have life.
Our reading from Ephesians 4:22-23 commands us put off the old self (grumbling) put on the new (v23).
Lord, you are so gracious, I am sorry I so often grumble and fail to trust you. Thank you Jesus for allowing yourself to be struck so that I can have life. Please help me today by your Holy Spirit to put off my old grumbling self and to put on who you have made me in Christ.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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