In this post we will be looking at consequences of murmuring in the bible
INTRODUCTION
While the children of Israel directed their murmuring toward Moses and, perhaps, Aaron, his brother, they were actually criticizing the Lord. Moses said:” . . . The Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.” (Ex. 16:8.) In one of his books, Notwithstanding My Weakness, Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Council of the Twelve, wrote: “A scriptural survey of murmuring indicates it is equated with complaining. (See 1 Ne. 17:22.) It has occurred in an individual’s heart or in groups out in the open or in the privacy of ancient Israel’s tents. Common causes are: resentment at personal chastisement, as with Oliver Cowdery (D&C 9:6); pique at things withheld by the Lord, as with Emma Smith (D&C 25:4); lack of perspective or because of incomplete information (1 Ne. 2:12; 1 Ne. 16:3; Alma 58); reactions to persecution and fears (Mosiah 27:1; Num. 14:2; Deut. 1:27); failure to accept central doctrines and hard sayings (John 6:41, 61; 1 Ne. 16:1-2); and inability to sustain prophetic leaders, such as Moses and Nephi, which is really rebellion against the Lord. (Ex. 16:8-9; 2 Ne. 5:3.)” In another book, A Wonderful Flood of Light, Elder Maxwell pointed out, “As if damage to self were not enough reason to resist murmuring, another obvious danger is its contagiousness. No one knows how to work a crowd better than the adversary.”
Consequences Of Murmuring in The Bible
The Bible reveals that complaining is dangerous for at least four reasons:
- Complaining cuts off your vision for the future: Jesus did not murmur and complain on the cross, because His eyes fixed on the outcome” for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame.” You don’t complain in the wilderness if your eyes are on the promised land! Our problem is that Satan tells us that there is no way out of the wilderness! Satan tells us “You will die in the wilderness, there’s no way out!” God says, “Follow me! I have a promised land for you!” And you get to choose who you’re going to agree with! When you complain you are agreeing with the devil that your future is cut off.
- Complaining is dangerous because it causes you to doubt God’s goodness for the present: When you complain you are saying, “God, I don’t like the route you have mapped for my life.” Romans 8:28 teaches that God has a route planned for your life. All of the things on that route—even those that are not fun—are designed by God to work together for your good. When you complain, you are saying, God, I don’t like this route. I don’t think you’ve done a good job.” Murmuring and complaining is an accusation against God that His plan for you is not a good plan.
- Complaining causes unbelief to deepen and grow: The Lord told me something awhile back. He said, “Unbelief is like a seed, if you water it, it will grow.” Every time you complain you are watering your unbelief.
Have you ever been underwater? What happens when you are underwater and you open your mouth real wide? Water comes in! In the same way, when you open your mouth to complain, unbelief floods in. If you are having a hard time walking in faith and you open your mouth to complain, you have just lost the battle. When you open your mouth to complain, you open yourself to be flooded by unbelief. Sometimes the best thing you can do to stay in faith is just to shut your mouth!
- Murmuring and complaining invites greater adversity: Some of you have gotten in a cycle that gets worse and worse! You’re in adversity and you complain, and the result is more adversity. To murmur and complain is to put yourself under a curse. Let me prove from the Scriptures. What was Israel’s complaint in the wilderness? They said, “We are going to die in the wilderness!” That was not God’s promise. God had promised to get them to the promise land. But over and over they said, “you brought us out to die in the wilderness.” Do you know what God finally said to the Israelites? In Numbers 14:27-29, the Lord said, “I have heard the complaints that they are making. Say to them, Just as you have spoken so I will surely do to you. Your corpses surely shall fall in this wilderness.”
The Alternative to Complaining
What is the alternative to complaining? Some of us have gotten so used to complaining when we’re not happy it’s hard to think of what else to do. What can you do in the wilderness but complain? Isaiah 61 gives the answer. We can put on a mantle of praise. A mantle is like a cape or a topcoat. It is something you choose to put on. And you can choose to put it on in any situation.
I think the best example is Paul in Philippi. God gave Paul a vision and told him to go to Philippi. He got there and after a brief time of ministry was arrested, his robes were torn off and he was publicly beaten with rods. They struck him with many blows, then he was thrown in prison and his feet were put in stocks. The stocks were a method of torture. First, they beat him until his back was bruised and bleeding, then they laid him on his back and put his feet in stocks so he had to spend the night laying on his back in pain.
Paul was publicly humiliated, beaten, and tortured. Yet he had done nothing wrong. This treatment was not only unfair, it was illegal. That punishment was so humiliating Rome did not permit a Roman citizen be treated that way. Yet they did it to Paul anyhow. If you were lying on a hard wooden palate in excruciating pain, having been humiliated, beaten, treated unfairly and illegally, how would you respond? Paul’s response was to sing praise.
Do you imagine Paul felt full of praise at the moment? Not at all. I believe Paul said, “I’m going to put on my mantle of praise! I feel miserable, I cannot sleep because of the pain, but I’m going to fill this cell with the praise of God!” You can choose to do that also! Praise is your shield against unbelief. Praise guards you against complaining. If you feel like complaining, you can praise instead. If there is praise coming out of your mouth, there is no room for complaining.
How can we praise God in the wilderness? When everything is miserable what do you find to praise God for? I would like to suggest four things you can always praise God for, even in the wilderness.