Two sisters, Joanie and Linda, were playing.  Joanie yelled at big sister Linda, and that got them both sent to their bedroom.  While there, crabby little Joanie told her big sister, "You’re getting uglier every day."  Later that day that Gramma came by and commented, "Why Joanie, you’re getting to look more like your big sister every day!"

          To be human is to complain, and people are certainly 100% human.  No matter how good we have it, we can always find something to gripe about.  That's because humans are sinful and seek our own ways.  We imagine a past that was better, but that kind of a past usually doesn't exist.  Nothing illustrates this more than the Israelites in the desert when they wanted to go back to Egypt.

          And what would they have gone back to?  More slavery.  For 300 years they lamented their state, and within weeks of being freed they want to go back.  They know better than Moses and God how to run things.  They complained and groaned and in doing so, changed the course of history.  You see, God had planned to bring them to the Promised Land in one year.  It would take that long for a million people to walk there.  But because of their complaining, God added 39 more years of wandering in the desert.  If they had just let God be God, life would have been far better.  But instead they complained against God and Moses.

          In Numbers 11, they said, "If only we had meat to eat!  Remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, and cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic?  But now all we have is manna!"  I guess they wanted a Safeway at every stop!  God sends them fresh meat - quail - but that's not enough.

          In Numbers 14 they see an army and freak out:  "Why is the LORD bringing us here only to kill us?  Wasn't it better back in Egypt?  Let's choose another leader and go back to Egypt."  After that, God promised that all the adults would die in the desert except Joshua and Caleb.  But that didn't stop them for a second.

          In Numbers 16, they form a rebellion.  "You have gone too far!" they said. "Isn't it enough that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, only to kill us in this desert?"  So God kills the rebels, but no one seems to learn from it.  So God is angry and basically tells them, "You want to go back to Egypt?  I'll send you there in body bags!" But Moses saves the people again.

          Sometimes we don't know how good we have it.  Out Montana way years ago, they tell of a cowboy who was driving down a dirt road, with his dog riding in back of the pickup, and his horse in the trailer.  Now this feller had been drinking a bit and took a curve too fast and had a terrible accident.  A patrolman came on the scene and saw the horse.  Realizing its injuries, he drew his service revolver and put the horse out of its misery.  He found the dog, also hurt critically, and shot him too.  Finally he saw the cowboy off in the weeds, bloody and really banged up.  "You okay?" the cop asked.  The cowboy took one look at the smoking revolver and said, "Never felt better!"

          You'd think the Israelites would see God's smoking gun and be quiet.  But Numbers 20 says they kept it up:  "We should have died with those others!  Why did you bring us up out of Egypt?  There's no grain or fruit and the water is terrible!"  This time God is kind and gives them clear water from a rock.

          But still they complain:  "There's no bread or water, so get us out of here!"  This time God sends poisonous snakes and gets their attention!  People are dying so they ask God for mercy.  Moses makes a bronze snake on a pole, and when people look at the bronze snake, they live.  Instead of death, God gives them life.  Centuries later, in the book of Ezekiel, we find the people still had that old bronze snake.  They'd been worshipping it, so God had it destroyed.

          In hindsight, things always seem better, the "good old days" as we call them.  But those days weren't as good as we think.  For Israel, it had been three centuries of pure slavery, death and misery.  The good old days weren't so good for us, either.  Maybe things were slower back then, or quieter and less complicated, but people died younger, worked harder, smelled worse and put up with stuff we'd never accept today.

          I got an email last week recalling a time when families had only one car, one phone, no TV and friendly neighbors.  It was a time of simple pleasures like drive-in movies, picnics and cheap medicine.  But it didn't mention the poverty or the polio, or the crop failures and flies, or the depression and World War II.  The past always looks rosy when you're no longer there.  The rear view mirror doesn't show the ditches full of garbage.

          So too, the Israelites had forgotten the starvation, the whippings, and the chains.  They had also forgotten the plagues, the angel of death and the parting of the Red Sea.  "We want to go back to Egypt - it was better back there."  No, it wasn't!

          Rather than resurrect the past, let's be content with the present and look to the future.  God is with us, and He will guide us through life.  We know who the Messiah is - His Son Jesus who forgives us.  We don't have to tromp through hot sand or be enslaved by others.  We are not starving or dying of uncontrolled disease.  We have medicine and people to help us.  We have more than we need to live, and little cause for complaint.  We do not need to go back to Egypt, now or ever.

          God is alive and active.  He is doing miracles for us every day!  We like to take credit for the space travel, inventions, medicine, and technology.  We love to pat ourselves on the back for how good we're doing.  But self-promotion denies the miracles.  We are not in control of everything.  God provides for us far better than we ever can.  We often complain about policy or leadership, but then offer no better way.  But no matter how good we have it, we can always find something to complain about.

          A buddhist monk joined a monastery and took a vow of silence.  He could only say two words every ten years.  After the first 10 years he was called in and asked, "Do you have anything to say?"  The monk said, "Food bad."  After another 10 years he was called in again.  He said, "Bed hard."  Another 10 years went by and when he was called in he said, "I quit."  "That doesn't surprise me," his superior said.  "You've done nothing but complain since coming here."  And some of us are the same.

          Being content is a gift of God.  Our human nature doesn't like us content.  St. Paul wrote Timothy, "Godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." (1 Timothy 6:6-7)   Later he wrote the Philippians, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." (Philippians 4:11)   I'm not sure many of us would be able to say that, but it's a goal we can seek, with God's help, of course.  Contentment never comes without God's help.  It's too easy to complain, even when things go our way.

          A deer hunter in the mountains was attacked by a rattlesnake which just missed biting him.  But the rattler's fangs got snagged in his coat, and kept on trying to strike him.  The hunter grabbed the snake by the neck and eventually choked it to death.  Later he said, "Looking that snake in the eye was hard, so I imagined a barrier between us - a wall too hard for him to penetrate."  That day, he handed the dead snake to a Game Warden and said, "I'd like to register a complaint about your wildlife!"

          You and I have a barrier between us and evil also, the cross of Jesus.  Today's Gospel relates this to Jesus:  "Like Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that all who believe in him may have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)   Our Lord was lifted up on the cross, and now all who look to Him in faith have eternal life.  That's why Jesus is called, "The Way, the Truth and the Life."

          We will grumble, but praise God He will still forgive.  God seeks our faith in Him.  "Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2)   We don't need to go back to Egypt - we have it far better here, with Jesus, the one who fought Satan and won.  And Jesus will keep the snakes away - just fix your eyes on Him.  Amen

Copyright © 2006 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.