Complaining is the Worst Kind of Sin - Numbers 9-12

Numbers 11:1-3 (ESV)

The People Complain

And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.

We don’t think about complaining as a big sin. Of all the sins we rank in our lives that might offend God, complaining would probably not be high on the list for most.   One of the most known list of sin in the Bible doesn’t even contain it, by name (but, perhaps in spirit):

Galatians 5:17-21 (ESV)

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Perhaps complaining is contained in many of these mentioned in Paul’s list to the Galatian church.   The heart of a complaint is dissatisfaction with your current situation.   When we complain about God’s leading us and guiding us we are, in essence, saying that God is not being good to us.   We are saying to God, “You could do better.”    But that mindset begins with the thought that we deserve something more than we are getting.   In the above passage the people were set free from being slaves to the Egyptians.   That should have given them much joy.  But instead they complained: 

Numbers 11:4-6 (ESV)

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

They should have been punished for all their sins while in captivity, but instead God redeemed them from that captivity.    Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentation, says it this way:

Lamentations 3:39 (ESV)

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Complaining is a natural outcome of sin in our lives.  If we boil down Adam and Eve’s original sin in the garden, it was based upon their lack of contentment for what God had provided them.  Their rebellious nature was centered in a complaint that they were not getting what they thought (by Satan’s prompting), deserved.   Satan, himself, was cast out of heaven because he was complaining about his status.    The spirit of complaining is a dangerous sin and it brings necessary punishment by God.