on 21 August 2024
Dear all at IPC,
When I told Claire I was going to write a Minister’s letter on grumbling, she said, “Well you’re the man to do it”. I’ve tried to reflect recently on why I’m so prone to grumbling. The Collins dictionary defines grumbling as, ”to murmur or mutter in discontent; complain sullenly”.
I’m not the first to struggle with this sin, it has been a constant for the people of God.
The first instance of grumbling in the Bible is in Exodus 15:24, where the newly redeemed people of God fresh from joyfully singing His praise – “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
Just three days later they grumble against Moses in the wilderness saying, “what will we drink?”. What began in Chapter 15 as a trickle of grumbling becomes a torrent in the next chapter. In chapter 16 verses 2,7,8,9,12 all make reference to their grumbling and it moves from grumbling about Moses to grumbling, “against the Lord”. In Numbers 14-17 we see the same pattern – Grumbling against Moses and Aaron and grumbling about their situation but when God addresses them He states that their grumbling is actually against him.
When the people of the Lord lost sight of who God was, what he had done and how he had provided, they very quickly began to grumble and this became an often reverted to action. One writer has said that, “The root of grumbling is a blindness to God’s grace”.
Grumbling reappears in the gospels, the Pharisees and the Scribes, (those socially upright and religious leaders), murmur at Jesus receiving and eating with tax collectors and sinners, (Luke 5:30, 15:2, 19:7). The Jewish people grumble at His teaching, “I am the bread of heaven’ , (John 6:41), and how he has been sent from His Father heaven. It’s a mirror image of the people of Israel moaning in the wilderness. The disciples follow suit grumbling to themselves that his teaching is too hard, (John 6:43), and from that point on many of the disciples turned away from him. In the gospels this grumbling reveals a heart of unbelief.
When we come to Epistles of the New Testament, there are commands to be obeyed, imperatives to be heeded – “Do all things without grumbling”, (Philippians 2:14), “Do not grumble against one another so that you may not be judged”, (James 5:9), “..show hospitality without grumbling”, (1 Peter 4:9), “…nor grumble, as some of them did when they were destroyed by the destroyer”, (1 Corinthians 10:10). The New Testament writers see the obvious danger in church life of grumbling and have no problems in commanding us not to do it.
Grumbling’s evil Siamese twin is discontentment. Refusing to recognise the providence of God, that he is sovereignly in control of my life and that the circumstances I face are not random fate will lead to discontentment. Discontentment inevitably leads to grumbling and vice versa, they go hand in hand but they are also contagious.
I spoke at a young people’s camp a number of years ago and it was towards the end of the week and everyone was tired. In the midst of my preaching I saw one of the young lads deliberately turn to his friend and yawn, his friend responded in seconds by yawning involuntarily. I saw in front of me scores of young people putting their pens down to yawn, there was a chain reaction. It only stopped when I pointed it out and told them to stop yawning.
Even as I write about it I find myself yawning, you might feel this as you read it. There must be some psychological explanation but yawning is contagious. It is the same with grumbling and discontentment. It happens in a marriage, in families and certainly in congregations. Sadly a little grumbling goes a long way.
Seeing grumbling for what it is helps us. My grumbling is not just against others or circumstances but against the Lord. It is not a little thing
I’ve found it helpful to think of the Lord Jesus, who was so often misunderstood, abominably mistreated and spoken against. His words were twisted against Him. He was doubted, denied and betrayed even by His closest followers. There were false allegations and insinuations laid against Him. He was bitterly opposed by the powerful. He knew deep loneliness. He had nowhere to lay His head, He had to borrow a coin for an illustration. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude” but he did not grumble. There are no recorded words of His discontent and murmuring that we find.
As we look to Him for strength and help, we see in him the perfect man. Our faith and hope is in him. It is only in him that I find the power to change.
Thankfulness drives out grumbling. Psalm 103 tells us, “Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,”. I so easily forget who God is, what He has done and how He has provided for me in Jesus. Recognising that my grumbling is sinful and taking it to God, confessing it, acknowledging we need the help and strength of the Holy Spirit to deal with this is how we can free ourselves from the death spiral of grumbling and discontentment
I also think we can help one another. If grumbling is infectious, like yawning, and is only stopped by us recognising it and calling it out, we can do that gently in love, recognising that all of us need God’s grace in this area . It is interesting that in the Bible the instances recorded of grumbling are corporate – Israel, the Jewish Leaders, the Disciples. We need to help one another in this area, I certainly need your help. If I start grumbling stop me.
May the Lord be gracious to us in IPC and keep us from being a grumbling people.
Your Minister and Friend,
Paul