Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Fight Complaining | Torah | Numbers 21:4-20

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

Are some sins better than other sins? Is complaining an "okay" sin? How comfortable are you with complaining? Do you know how to stop? In today's episode, Keith looks at Israel's complaints in Numbers 21:4-20 and discusses God's response to complaining. Listen to find out practical tips to stop complaining. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Numbers 21:4-20

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Have you noticed that there are some sins that people see is really bad, and other sins they don't think that are that big of a deal? What about you? Are there sins that you'd be embarrassed to admit you struggle with, but other sense you consider almost respectable? To confess respectable sins wouldn't hurt your reputation at all. Now, everyone's list of respectable sins is a little bit different, but I bet we could agree on some.

Like, if I say I don't pray enough, or if I admit that I'm not as thankful as I should be, or if I admit that I exaggerated a story, no one's going to think less of me. Those are respectable sins, partly because they are common sins, and they don't appear to hurt others. And in general, they don't appear to be that big of a deal. Do you think God shares our perspective on sins? In other words, does God think that some sins are not a big deal? Does he call some sins respectable sins? No.

No, he doesn't. See, that's one thing we're going to see today in Numbers 21. The story starts with Israelites, and guess what they're doing, they do it a lot. They are complaining. I think complaining is on a lot of people's list of respectable sins. We know it's not good, but everyone does it to some extent. And it's not a huge deal. It doesn't really hurt anybody, does it?

Wrong. It's a huge deal to God. Yes, it's true that everyone complains. We complain about the weather, our boss, our health, our finances, our kids, our roommates, our money, our government. I mean, the list of things that we complain about is endless. In Japan, a man took his complaining to a whole new level, and as a result, he was arrested. on suspicion of, here's the charge, fraudulent obstruction of business. Here's what he did.

He made 24,000 complaint calls to his local phone company. You've probably been there, haven't you? That you just are so frustrated and angry that you just keep complaining to a business over and over and over? Police say that he initially demanded an apology in person from company staffers. But later, he just began to call and then immediately. hang up as soon as someone answered the phone. Over the course of time, he averaged 33 calls per day. 33 complaint calls that ended up being almost like prank calls because he would

immediately hang up. Police say that in one week, he made over 400 calls. Now, you and I have probably not taken our complaining to that level, but I know that kind of urge to complain is in my own heart. it's because complaining is a big deal to God that it keeps showing up over and over in the book of numbers. I wonder if God is trying to tell us something by continuing to bring this sin up over and over and over. Is he trying to get something through our hard head or through our hard heart? In Numbers 214, we read that the people grew impatient on the way that God had sent them to the promised land.

So they spoke against God and against Moses, and they said, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread. There is no water. And we detest this miserable food. Here's God's response in the next verse. The Lord sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people and many Israelites died. See, the Israelites are suffering from what we might call spiritual amnesia.

They had forgotten what it was like to be in Egypt. They'd been enslaved by the Egyptians. They had been in so much misery that in their pain they cried out to God and God rescued them. But now they're romanticizing their past, which leads them to criticize their present life. See, your real life can never compete with your idealized version of life. If the Israelites can idealize slavery in Egypt, then you and I can easily idealize what it would look like to have a different job or live in a different state or have a better income. I mean, the reality is we can idealize anything, but our real life cannot compare to the

idealized life because the idealized life isn't real. It lives only in our imagination. Here's another thing we learn, or maybe we need to relearn from the way this story starts in Numbers 21. sin makes you stupid it really does sin hardens your heartens your heart so that you can't see anything clearly the israelites say there is no bread there is no water and we detest this miserable food how can you say there is no food and at the very same time say the food doesn't taste good it just doesn't make sense does it so sin makes you stupid the truth is that god had provided bread that was the manna from heaven and he he had provided water from the rock, but that's not what they wanted. So like a toddler,

or like us, the Israelites throw a fit. And God shows us what he thinks about all the complaining by sending poisonous snakes among them. The snakes bite the people and some of them die. When we complain about our life, we are complaining against God. We are telling everyone that God has not been good to us, that we deserve better. Complaining is saying, that God cannot be trusted. And that's a serious attack on the character of God. Now, before we finish the story about how the snakes bit the people and find out what happens to them, let's think for a moment about what we can do to fight against complaining

in our life. First, we must remind ourselves that we are not a big deal. Say that to yourself. Look, I am not a big deal. I don't deserve anything from God. Second, we must remember all the ways that God has been good to us. James 117 says, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.

Everything good in your life. I mean, everything, from your family to your job, to your health, all of it is a gift from God. You didn't deserve any good things, and he gave it to you. The right response to a gift is to thank the giver. So one of the ways you fight a complaining spirit is by cultivating a thankful spirit because you can't be thankful and complaining at the same time. So what if you started a little note on your phone or maybe a journal you put by your bed

and you just write down one or two or at most three things in a day that you are thankful for? God, I'm thankful that I had a good conversation with my kids. God, I'm thankful that you provided a great meal for us. God, I'm thankful that I got my paycheck today. God, I'm thankful that I had a coffee with a friend. Whatever it is, big or small, it doesn't have to be a big... God, I'm thankful that I was able to go on a walk. God, I'm thankful that I was able to listen to a podcast and learn something from it.

remember that the point of having a list of things you're thankful for and keeping that on a daily basis or at least frequently is so that you will remind yourself how good God has been to you and therefore you won't complain as if he's mistreated you okay let's get back to the story when we left the Israelites god had sent poisonous snakes in their camp people were being bitten and dying so we pick it up in verse seven the people came to Moses and said said, we sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up

on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. So in this story, the people woke up to their sin and they repented of it. They didn't just want relief from the snakes. They owned their sin. They said, look, we blew it. We sinned by speaking against God. They recognized their complaining was wrong. And Moses prayed for them and God had mercy on them.

God tells Moses to put a snake on a pole and anyone who's bitten by a snake and then looks at the snake on the pole, they live. So many people ask the question, what's the significance of that snake put up on the pole? And I don't think we should read too much into it. It's simply what God set up as a way of bringing mercy and grace to those who trusted in him and obeyed him by looking at this bronze snake. Now, it's interesting that that bronze snake shows up a couple more times later on in the Bible. One of those is in the book of second kings. See, after that incident in the wilderness with a bronze snake, Israel kept that.

snake as a reminder of God's grace. It was a way to remind them that God had been good and kind and merciful to them and forgiven their sin. But later in Second Kings, we read that King Hezekiah, who's a good king, he had to destroy the bronze snake because it turns out the people were starting to worship it. They were actually worshipping the snake, kind of like they worship the golden calf. You can read about that story in Second Kings 18. It's interesting that we can turn to anything into an idol. We can take good things that should remind us of God and his mercy and turn it into something that we worship instead of God. The bronze snake also shows up in John chapter 3. It says this, just as Moses lifted up the snake and the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted

up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. See, John 3 is comparing Jesus to this snake. just like everyone who is bitten by the snake but looked to the bronze snake lived, so everyone who is bitten by sin can look to Jesus who is lifted up on the cross and find forgiveness in him. If you recognize that you struggle with the sin of complaining or of any other sin, don't deny it, don't hide it, don't minimize it, acknowledge it like the Israelites did. Say, I've blown it. I've been complaining against God.

Instead of being thankful, I have said that God has not been good to me and that I deserved better. Don't try to minimize it. It is a serious sin. Instead, look to Jesus who is lifted up. Look to Jesus who died to pay for the sin of complaining, who died to pay for all your sins. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today. passage and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.