Exodus 16:2-15
2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days." 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?" 8 And Moses said, "When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord." 9 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, "Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.' " 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12 "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, "At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.' " 13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”
There was a man whose life was less than what he wanted. Barely making it paycheck to paycheck, he lived in a rundown house on the rundown side of town: the paint was flaking off the warping walls; the roof was leaking into an overflowing bucket; the carpet was worn and smelled of some indistinguishable odor; only one burner worked on the stove, but that didn’t matter because he mostly lived on micro-waved T.V. dinners. He loathed what had come to be his existence, so one day he prayed to the Lord (in his finest King James English): “Lord, if it be in thy will, deliverest me from my lowly existence. Bringeth me into the kind of life worth living. I want warm food on a real table in mine own house, with freshly painted walls, hardwood floors, and a new roof. Lord, showeth me the way to such a life, and lo, I will follow it. Amen.”
The man didn’t have to wait very long before God answered his prayer. Through a series of friendly connections the man had an interview with the big company in town, and before long found himself in a new employee training program. He would have to work long hours at a fraction of his hoped for salary for six months before he would be hired on as a full-fledged employee. It would be six more months of the same rundown house on the same rundown side of town, but then…the life he had hoped for would be within his reach. But, the days grew long, the work was hard, and it seemed as if he had less than he had before: less time, less money, less sleep… He had hoped that he would be out of this mess by now, that things would be better by now, that he would have his best life now. It seemed, however, that things had only gotten worse since the Lord answered his prayer.
So, three months into his new employee training, he prayed to the Lord again (this time without such pious language): “Lord, I’m tired. I’m tired of the long hours of work and short hours of sleep. I’m tired of waiting on my ship to come in. I think I’d rather quit and go back to the ‘good ole’ days’ when I at least knew what to expect. So Lord, just give me back my old life. Amen.”
There was a nation of people whose life was less than what they felt had been promised. For generations, the people of that nation had labored under the oppression of imperial bondage: mixing mud in great pits, forming and baking bricks in the blistering North African sun, moving the massive monuments of dead deities and pharaohs across the searing sands of Egypt. They were God’s chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, heirs to the Promised Land, yet they were forced into the ghettos of Goshen, slaves, property of the great world power that was ancient Egypt. They loathed what had become of their existence, so one day they prayed to the Lord (with all the sincerity of an oppressed people): “Lord, deliver us from our existence of bondage. Break the yoke of Egypt and its Pharaoh, and bring us into the land you promised our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are your people, so Lord show us your way and we will follow it. Amen.”
The people had waited for the Lord to answer their prayer, and then one day God sent his prophet and his deliverer. Moses returned to Egypt to challenge the pharaoh with the power of the Almighty God, and after a series of plagues, culminating in the death of Egypt’s firstborn, the Lord answered the nation’s prayer—they were free! The people of Israel left the yoke of Egypt behind and followed Moses and their God into the wilderness. The Lord delivered them from the Egyptians at the Red Sea (the Yam Suf), and after a short stay at the oasis at Elim, the people returned to following the way of God, behind Moses, across the wilderness.
However, it wasn’t long before the bread they had prepared in haste ran out and the carts they carried became heavy. It wasn’t long before the alien terrain of the wilderness seemed steep and rugged, and the way of the Lord was difficult, far more difficult than they had hoped. The grumbling of their bellies was soon overtaken by the murmuring of their mouths as they turned their indignation towards Moses and his brother Aaron. So they said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." There, in the midst of momentary difficulty, despite the Lord’s granting of freedom and the promise of his inheritance, the people of Israel pray for things to go back to the way they used to be, the way things were in Egypt (even if discomfort has clouded the record of their memory). They wanted to go back to the “good ole’ days.”
There was a church, a congregation of believers, whose attendance was down and their budget overdrawn. Over the past few years they watched as members slowly trickled out of the doors never to be seen or heard from again. They watched as their sanctuary held more funerals than baptisms, more dust and less worship. They watched as the steeple on the roof of the church building remained unchanged while the community around it underwent the grand metamorphosis of a city in transition. They watched as their church was dying. They came to loathe their situation, so they turned to the Lord and prayed (with the best of intentions), “Lord, deliver us, your church, from this era of decline. Help us to grow as we seek to do your ministry here. Give us the vision to see the future and the desire to see more people come to know you as their lord and savior. We want to see people baptized, budgets balanced, and buildings built. Show us your way, Lord, and we will follow it. Amen.”
It wasn’t long before the Lord began to answer the prayers of the church. There were members in the congregation who began to see needs in the community, and they were looking for ways the church could meet those needs. There were members in the congregation who had not been part of the existent ministries of the church in whom others saw potential. There were clear ways to reach out to those around them and welcome the members of the community into the life of the congregation…but it was going to take time. It was going to require work. It was going to necessitate change and transition. In other words, it wasn’t going to be easy.
As a faithful few in the congregation began to pursue the path that God was showing them, the church was beginning to experience slow, but steady, growth. New people were coming in the doors for worship; new children and youth were coming for mid-week activities, and more people were turning to the church for help. However, for many in the congregation it wasn’t enough: it was too little, too slow, not to mention the new people didn’t have new money, and they didn’t really look like everybody else. So, like the people of God did some centuries before, they prayed again to the Lord: “Lord, this is too much work. We wanted to see Sunday School attendance doubled and offering plates overflowing. We wanted to hear the splash of the baptistery and the sound of babies in the nursery. Instead, we’ve been asked to do more, give more, expect less and above all, change. We have sacrificed our religious comfort just to see a few stragglers from the neighborhood on occasional Sunday mornings. Well if it’s alright with you, Lord, we’d like to go back to the way things were, back to the ‘good ole’ days’ when we knew what to expect, back when things were comfortable. Just give us our old religion back. Amen.”
You see, the people of God have not changed a great deal, even after all of these centuries. The people of Israel had been given their freedom—the answer to their prayers. They had seen God’s hand moving in the plagues on Egypt and in the dividing of the waters at the Red Sea. Without raising so much as one fist in rebellion or sharpening one sword in revolt, the children of Israel were released from their bondage in Egypt and began their journey back towards the Promised Land. But the faith that came with seeing soon wore off, and the people began to murmur (the Hebrew word wayilonu, which plays a prominent role in the Exodus narrative). It no longer mattered that God had done so many great things for them in the recent past, and it didn’t matter that Land of Promise lay still further ahead; the people were engulfed in the immediacy of their own selfishness. They listened to the creaks in their backs and the growling of their own stomachs over the voice of God, so the life of bondage suddenly seemed preferable to the life of freedom and the wilderness. Their faith had been tested, and they had failed.
Yet God still provided, and in his provision set before them another test. For they were only to collect enough of the manna for one day, trusting that God would bring it again and that the portion they collected would be enough. There’s no doubt that many of them failed that test as well. Despite their faithlessness, despite their murmuring, God still provided for them in the midst of the wilderness. They still limped along, through the wilderness, living on manna and quail, all the while murmuring about how hard the way of God was.
Friends, this is not the Promised Land. We are still in the wilderness, being led by the Spirit of God. The way is not always easy. In fact, more often than not it is downright hard. There will be change; there will be work; there will be sacrifice. However, if we seek first the kingdom of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we will find little to murmur about; we will find little to complain about, and if we turn our face towards Christ as he leads us to the Promised Land, we will find that our prayers are answered in time and in ways we could have never imagined. So as we are here together in the wilderness, will you be one with something to murmur about all the time? Will you be one who is always quick with an excuse or complaint? Or will you join in the work of the kingdom no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice? Will you quit your murmuring today and follow Jesus to the fulfillment of his promise? For the time is now, and the way is laid before you.
Let us pray…
