The Facebook website is ubiquitous. It was recently reported that 750,000,000 people worldwide are active participants on the website. The number is mind boggling.
Late Tuesday evening a change was made to the format and functionality of the site. While there are some obvious improvements, change is always a bit disconcerting, and many have bitterly complained about the alterations. A few have maintained a good humor about it, though, and I came across this particular quote about the revisions:
I am appalled that the free service that I am in no way obligated to use keeps making changes that mildly inconvenience me.
The quote points out the absurdity of such murmuring and complaining, and immediately brought to my mind the similar complaints of Israel in the wilderness following the exodus from Egypt. Immediately after their joyous departure from bondage, as Pharaoh determined to pursue, some began to murmur. “Then they said to Moses, ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?’” (Exodus 14:11).
Later, after God miraculously destroyed the Egyptians and delivered Israel to the other side of the sea, some found another reason to complain. The waters at Marah were bitter, “And the people complained against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Exodus 15:24). In response God miraculously changed the water to make it sweet.
Next, the people became hungry, and it is written that the children of Israel again complained, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3). God responded by delivering quail for meat, and having bread (manna) rain from heaven.
Perhaps the ultimate example of wretched ingratitude came when the people complained yet again, this time for the gracious gift of manna itself. Numbers 11 records the travesty, “…the children of Israel wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fist which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (vs. 4-6). This final complaint was more than God would abide. God again sent quail as meat for the people, but this time, “while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague” (vs. 33).
It seems to be human nature to murmur and complain. We see it in the church as well, as some seem to complain about the preaching, the teaching, and the efforts of those who volunteer for various works, (both important and less important), in the local church. It is almost a consumer mentality, as if they are paying for a service, and have the right to demand satisfaction. My standard response to such complaints? “If you don’t like the way it is being done, then do it yourself!” It is absurd for Christians to murmur about the color of the carpet, the temperature in the auditorium, the dryness of the speaker, the lateness in fulfilling a request for a CD or directory, or a myriad of other piddling things that have ruffled the feathers of some.
Such complaints are destructive, and indicative of a presumptuous mindset that is not appropriate for a child of God. The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (2:14-16).
