Gratitude’s Nemesis: The Grumble

Exodus 16:2 says, “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against
Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.”

They had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, and were on their way to the Promised Land.

How quickly God’s people, then and now, forget the deliverance, care, goodness, and blessings of God! So, the murmur and grumble…

Watch the full Sunday service and message by Pastor Dennis Jacobson below.

SERMON TEXT

Exodus 16:1-8 (ESV)

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

SERMON NOTES

• What should they have done?
• What did God do for them?
• What does grumbling do?
  • Rejects gratitude
  • Asks why
• Are you stuck in the why?
  • How to get unstuck

We must make a break with Egypt… and trust that God will provide for our needs.