What great advice Moses wanted Aaron to share with the
people – “Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your grumblings.” Think about that. When my grandchildren are complaining or
moaning, as children they inadvertently want to be around their mother or
father. I guess misery likes to be
heard. As parents, or grandparents for
that matter, we often say to them, “If you want to tell me something, go away, stop
that grumbling and moaning, and then come back and talk to me properly.” And I guess that is the difference between God
and us when it comes to parenthood.
Moses is in essence saying, “God has heard your grumbling and He wants
to address it, so go listen to Him.”
That’s our God. Even when we
grumble, He wants us to draw near to Him.
(This is yet another reason why I may well be changing my mind on how I
feel about a person getting angry with God.
See my comments under Exodus 16:4-8.)
And sure enough in the morning, as Aaron was telling the
children of Israel to draw near to God, they looked up and there “the
glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” He was there, He heard the grumblings, and He
was involved. The text says He spoke to
Moses. Did the others hear Him? We do not know. My guess is they did not or else why would He
tell Moses to speak to them about what He said.
While God was working for the Israelites, He was still working with and
through Moses. God tells him He has
heard the grumblings of the people and He wants Moses to tell them so. He also wants Moses to tell them what He has
done in response to their grumbling, and why.
He would provide them with meat every evening and in the morning He
would give them their fill of bread. As
a result the people will know that He the Lord is their God.
Ever wonder how Moses knew God had heard their grumbling (in
verse 9), even before God told him so (in verse 12)? Well, the answer lies in verse 3 when the
people grumbled about not having bread and then in verse 4 God simply says He
will rain down bread. Moses did not have
to tell God; neither did the people have to.
He heard them. God is aware of
our every thought and uttering, whether it is directed to Him or not.
In verse 3 of this chapter, the people had complained about
having no meat, and not being filled with bread. So God provides just that. In the evening He gives them meat and in the
morning He fills them with
bread. Why did He not fill them with meat, and just provide
bread? I do not know for sure, but may I
suggest that oftentimes God gives us exactly what we ask for. If we ask for something good and get it from
God, then we can praise Him as He totally satisfies us. If we ask for something that will not be good
for us, God sometimes gives it to us so that later we become more reliant on
Him.
But here is what I can tell you for sure. Whatever God does, His intent for us is that “we
know He is the Lord our God.”
That is the key reason for His doing what He does for us or with
us. If we miss that; if we think it is
all about us; if we grumble because we are not getting our desires, then we
have missed the purpose of our relationship with Him. On the other hand, if we do not like those
terms of His, well we miss out on such a relationship. We do life and eternity without
Him. The Israelites had a choice, and so
do you and I. Our
heart’s desire should be to take the ‘meat’ He offers us at night and see His
glory in the morning.-->
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looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken
is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]
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