Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Your Plan Better Than God's? | Torah | Numbers 11

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Do you know better than God? Is it okay to complain when things don't go your way? What's so bad about complaining? In today's episode, Jensen looks at Israel's complaints in Numbers 11 and discusses God's response. 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 11

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I saw a tweet the other day. It included a photo, maybe you've seen something like it. It's a picture of a stick figure on a bike, and they're taking a straight path to a flag. And that part of the picture is labeled My Plan. Then below it is another stick figure on a bike, also headed towards another flag. but his path is full of obstacles and hills. That one is labeled God's plan.

The tweet that shared this picture, they wrote, saw this and can't stop thinking about how much better I am at making plans than God. I laughed. Now, obviously, I know that the sentiment of the meme is that God's plan may look different than yours, but he's using the difficulty to grow you and build you into who he created you to be. Sometimes we want the easy path, but it isn't always what's best for us. But without that theological context, it really does just make God look like a bad planner. While the tweet may be a lighthearted dig at Christianity, I think it really does expose a deeper belief that we all have, even if we don't always want to admit it.

See, deep down, we all tend to believe at one time or another that we are much better. at making plans than God. That if we had the reins, things would be a lot smoother, and we'd get what we wanted a lot faster and easier. The Israelites thought so too. Numbers chapter 11 finds the Israelites in the wilderness, beginning their journey from Mount Sinai into the promised land. After a year at Mount Sinai, God's people are finally heading to the promise land.

You'd think there would be joy, excitement, anticipation. to be on the path to God's promise land. And yet, we see something entirely different happening here. The people, they're complaining. Now, during their wandering in the desert, the Israelites did a lot of complaining. And sometimes I don't blame them. If I complain about my AC not working well enough in the summer, then I'd probably find a few things to complain about while living in the wilderness.

But God is not so cavalier with their complaints. Verse one tells us, The people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So the people, they complain about their unspecified misfortunes, and the Lord becomes angry, angry.

with them and the fire that comes from him is only subdued when Moses intercedes for the sake of the people. You'd think that after this event, the Israelites would stop their complaining, but they don't. Verse four. The rabble with them began to crave other food. And again, the Israelites started wailing and said, if only we had meat to eat, we remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost. Also, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna. And the Lord gives them over to their complaints.

He sent quail, but along with it comes a plague from the Lord. Now, you and I might wonder if this is an overreaction. The people had only been eating manna. They wanted meat. They wanted to taste good food. Now, I don't know if the desire that they had is wrong. wanting yummier food probably isn't a sin. But instead of offering their request to the Lord in prayer, instead of trusting that he had a plan, instead of thanking him for his provision and

asking humbly if he would grant them other food, instead of doing those things, they complain. And honestly, I probably would have approached the same situation with complaints rather than faithful, humble prayers to the Lord. My heart wants to say, it's just a little complaining, what's the big deal? The issue is that their complaints and my own complaints reveal something deeper about who we believe should be in charge. The Israelites' complaints against God's provision, against his choice to bring them out of Egypt, shows a deeper belief that God's plan is not good for them. It displays an attitude that if they had control of things, things would be going a little bit better.

And God sees the deeper issues. When speaking to Moses, he says, tell the people, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed. If only we had meat to eat, we were better off in Egypt.

Now the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it. You will not eat for just one day or two days or five, 10, or 20 days. but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him saying, why did we ever leave Egypt? See, this isn't a little complaining.

This is about a heart posture of rebellion. The people want a different plan. They wish God had never taken them from Egypt. They long for the chains of slavery from which God has set them free. their hardships, their misfortunes, their discomfort, rather than pulling them deeper into prayer into dependence on God, rather than strengthening their trust in Him, it pushes them to dissatisfaction and complaints. This happens in our own hearts too.

When we complain, it's because we want a different plan. We think we know best. We think we could produce a better life. We reject God, reject His sovereignty, reject His divine authority in our life. We have a choice. We can let the bumps, the discomfort, the obstacles lead into deeper dependence and trust in God, or we can let our hearts grumble. We can complain and ultimately give ourselves over to the belief that we know better than God.

This week, as things go wrong, and you're tempted to complain, to grumble in your heart about your misfortunes. Fight the urge to give yourselves over to complaint. And instead, take one or two minutes to bring your discomfort to the Lord in humble prayer. Share your frustration and fears with him. Thank him for the ways he has provided for you this week and ask that he would help you find peace

in the midst of your frustration. I think if we did this every time we were tempted to complains, we'd create a steady practice of gratitude, of trust in the Lord and his plan for our lives. We can't just will ourselves to believe that his plan is better. But maybe, over time, with lots of thoughtful, faithful prayer and daily decisions to fight the urge to complain, maybe we could become a people who trust God's plan so much that we overflow with peace and contentment in the small discomforts and even in the midst of life's big disruptions.

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