The Difference Between Grumbling and Asking (Exodus 15:22-18)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

What’s the difference between asking God tough questions and grumbling?

After God miraculously delivers the Israelites from Egypt, Exodus 15:24 says, “The people grumbled to Moses, ‘What are we going to drink?’” “The newness of freedom has worn off, and the hardship of wilderness life has set in.”^[1] In yet another divine water scene, God instructs Moses to throw a tree into the waters to make them sweet.

This is a scene revisited in Numbers 11:1-35, two years later. Then, in Exodus 16, the Israelites grumble again—this time about food. In response, God rains down food and instructs the people to gather just enough food for each day. Exodus 16:4 gives us the reason when God says, “This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.” “God is not yet finished teaching his people who he is. In fact, he has hardly begun.”^[2]

Exodus 17 brings us yet another water illustration and resembles Numbers 20:1-13. Peter Enns notes that God’s goal in this testing is to produce a deeper relationship with his people “as their covenant God so that they will better understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath, the other commands, and the need to trust him daily. In other words, they are being taught how to obey God. This is what it means for God to test his people.”^[3] Enns goes on to point out that “The problem is not so much that the Israelites “fail” the test, but that they turn around and put God to the test (17:7).”^[4] Through testing his people, God is teaching them and refining their character. This is why he doesn’t initially respond as harshly as he will in Numbers 11.

In Hebrews 3:8-11, the author looks back on the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness and quotes Psalm 95 by offering these words of warning to readers: 

⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me, tried me,
and saw my works ¹⁰ for forty years.
Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.”
¹¹ So I swore in my anger,
“They will not enter my rest.”

As Enns notes, “The church is the new Israel as it exists in its own type of desert wandering. Our Egypt of sin and death is behind us. Our Moses, unlike the first Moses, has entered before us into the promised rest, and we are soon to follow.” Enns goes on to write, “Hence, Christ is the ‘true’ Moses who completes the mission. And by bringing his church into ‘Canaan,’ Christ is not only fulfilling the role of Moses but also that which Joshua performed. In fact, Joshua’s role, according to Hebrews 4:8–11, is merely a prelude to the final rest to be given by the final ‘Joshua,’ who is Christ.”^[5]

Thus, the application of the Israelites’ grumbling is not just a warning against being a complainer. It’s a warning not to take what Christ has done for granted.

A Meditation to PRAY

Praise | Jesus, thank you for all you have done for me. 

Release | I release my desire to grumble about the uncomfortable or frustrating things in my life. I trust your plan.

Ask | Keep my heart soft to your testing, and focus my eyes on what Christ has done for me instead of on momentary hardships.

Yield | I give you my ideas of what life should look like. You are the all-seeing God, and I rest in you.

A Challenge to Act Like Christ  

Grumbling is our natural tendency. In John 6, we see a parallel account to these grumbling passages in Exodus. Just as in Exodus, Jesus tests his people (John 6:6) and feeds the five thousand with bread, saying in verse 35, “’ I am the bread of life…No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.’” What is the Jewish people’s response? They grumble.

“Whereas the Israelites grumbled because they had no bread, the crowd grumbles because they do. Even though this bread far exceeds anyone’s expectations—it gives eternal life, not simply filling one’s stomach to live another day—they will have none of it.”^[6] This tells us that grumbling isn’t caused by a lack of provision but a loss of perspective.

When we lose sight of all Christ has done for us, we will grumble and take what he has done for granted. The New Testament links these Exodus passages in many wonderful ways. 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 says,

¹ Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness.

This passage reminds us we have reason to be grateful. As Caesarius of Arles writes, “When Christ was struck on the cross, he brought forth the fountains of the New Testament. Therefore it was necessary for him to be pierced. If he had not been struck, so that water and blood flowed from his side, the whole world would have perished through suffering thirst for the word of God.”^[7]

Because of Jesus and because of what he has done, we have reason to rejoice today.

*Unless you specify otherwise, comments and questions you ask may be featured in upcoming podcast episodes.

^[1] John I. Durham, Exodus, vol. 3, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987), 219.

^[2]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 325.

^[3]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 332.

^[4]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 332.

^[5]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 338-339.

^[6]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 335.

[7] SERMON 103.3.