The Spiritually Dangerous Spiral of Complaint
Humanity’s Default Language
Every parent has experienced it. You get up every morning with a commitment to provide what is best for the spiritual, emotional, and physical help of your children. You actively do things every day because you love them, you know what they need, and you do what is necessary to provide it. You are not perfect, but your intentions are good-hearted and loving. But your children don’t always appreciate you. They aren’t always thankful for your loving attention or hard work. They often complain about what you feed them or schedule for them. They don’t always think that your intentions are good, and they often find it easier to complain about you than to be thankful for you. But it’s not just children, sadly, who do not praise, because complaining is the default language of fallen humanity.
Everyday Gospel
Paul David Tripp
In the Everyday Gospel devotional, Paul David Tripp leads readers through the entire Bible in a year, helping you connect the transforming power of Scripture to your everyday life.
The story recorded in Numbers 11 is striking, sad, illuminating, and convicting. The children of Israel were on a long journey through wilderness country to the land God had promised them. They were living what was essentially a nomadic life. It was therefore impossible for them to plant seeds, cultivate crops, or harvest food to eat. So God, in one of the most striking miracles of provision in Scripture, caused edible material to appear every morning like dew on the ground. This is both a visible demonstration of God’s commitment to unleash his almighty power to provide for his people and a visual prophecy of his ultimate provision from above, Jesus. Jesus is the bread of life, the manna come down from heaven. Manna was nutritious, but here is God’s dear children’s response to this amazing provision: “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’” (Num. 11:4–6).
You can’t complain about God’s provision without questioning his wisdom, goodness, faithfulness, and love.
Notice what is happening here. You can’t complain about God’s provision without questioning his wisdom, goodness, faithfulness, and love. If you question his goodness, then you will stop relying on him for help; you don’t trust someone you don’t think is good. If you don’t functionally trust God, you will take your life into your own hands, and, with a heart that’s turning away from him, you will be susceptible to look at what is bad and see it as good. God’s complaining children looked back at Egypt and didn’t remember it as a horrible place of slavery and suffering; it looked more like a great Middle Eastern deli! Allowing your heart to complain and your mouth to grumble is always spiritually dangerous. The same heart that caused people to reject wilderness manna caused people thousands of years later to reject the ultimate provision of manna, Jesus. May God grace us with always-thankful hearts.
This article is adapted from Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life.
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