Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Crabby Kids

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said.  Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.  Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the Lord, the fire stopped.  After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the Lord had burned among them there.  Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt.  And the people of Israel also began to complain.  “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.  “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt.  And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.  But now our appetites are gone.  All we ever see is this manna!” Numbers 11:1-6(NLT)
The Lord had some crabby kids in the wilderness.  God had sent Moses to get them out of the hands of their Egyptian captors and lead them to freedom.  The trip, even for a huge group, several million strong would have been only a few weeks.  However, their crabby complaining stretched the journey to forty years.  I know what Moses must have felt; I once drove straight through from Florida to New York with three siblings under 12 in the back seat of my car!  During that trip my crabby kids showed me the real meaning of Bill and Gloria Gaither’s song:  He Touched Me.
Churlish behavior is the consummate definition of ingratitude for what you have.  Humankind has made that something of an art form, never being satisfied for more than a nanosecond over what God gives.  Impatience in the wilderness makes you crabby!
In the wilderness the people churned-up complaints against Moses for a lack of meat and veggies.  They wanted leeks, onions and garlic; God provided them manna from Heaven.  Where once they worried about eating at all, as soon as God gave them a food source that completely met their need, they graduated to demanding five-star dining.  Thus it has always been for us.  Those of Adam’s race are not thankful by nature.  
·       Adam and Eve weren’t thankful with a perfect garden environment and a perfect relationship with God; they had to have the kind of knowledge God possessed. 
·       Cain was not satisfied with all the produce of the ground, he killed his brother because his brother possessed favor with God, and he wanted that! 
·       King David wasn’t happy with all the riches and power God had given into his life; he had to add another man’s wife to his collection.
John D. Rockefeller was the world’s richest man in the last decade of the 19th century.  When asked once, "How much money is enough money?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."[2]  Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street in Washington with his two boys in tow, both of them screaming their lungs out.  A passer-by asked him, what’s the matter, Mr. President?  It is said Abe’s answer was:  What’s the matter?  What’s the matter with the whole world…I have two children and three walnuts!
Most of us will never know the riches of a Rockefeller, or the power and prestige of a King David or Abraham Lincoln.  We will never have a perfect environment like Adam and Eve.  And if those rich, powerful, and blessed people could be churlish and ungrateful in all they were given, what makes us think a little more than we now have will make us any happier?
If the task of parenting were to alter course a wee bit in our culture, from teaching children they can have/be anything they want (which is the nauseating phrase I hear – and have also used), to:  you can be exactly what God wants you to be if you listen and obey Him…it seems contentedness would be a lot more common in the human family.

For You Today

As the children of Israel learned in the wilderness, longing for the things of your former captivity only makes you cry; onions have a way of doing that!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: Courtesy:  Pixabay.com

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