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Rumblings
Numbers 16:41-50
Some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
------1 Corinthians 10:10
How would you feel if today’s newspaper reported that the military has executed 15,000 people? Suppose the victims were not criminals, foreign agitators, or political radicals, but ordinary citizens who were protesting the way their country was being run.
Such a possibility seems unthinkable. Yet in Numbers 16 we read that God responded like that to ancient Israel. He took the lives of 15,000 of His chosen people because they were complaining about the way He was caring for them.
Not long after their miracle-filled deliverance from Egypt, they started dragging their feet. They didn't like the trouble they were encountering on the way to the Promised Land. They murmured about their leaders, about what God was feeding them, and about the risk involved in moving into the land of Canaan. The people longed for “the good old days,” and their unbelief provoked the righteous indignation of God.
Their kind haven't died out entirely. They weren’t the last to complain rather than move ahead in faith. How many of us grumble when God doesn’t give us what we want? A wise person wouldn’t be caught dead complaining against God.------MRD II
The ones who of their lot complain
Displease the Lord and cause Him pain;
But thankful hearts are His delight,
And they find favor in His sight. ------Bosch
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