Living in Contentment

--- I've been a resident of this county now for 28 years, and I feel like it qualifies me to teach Numbers chapter 11 where they say the people complained about their misfortunes, and that's the key word I'm getting at because some of you along with me, some of you live across the river, some of you also live in Misfortune County, and you might look at me and go what in the world is she talking about because you can say any terrible word in French, and it sounds lovely, but Malheur County literally translates in English to misfortune. I'll prove it to you on their own website. This is what they say. The name Malheur is French for misfortune. History records that French trappers and traders were in the area searching for furs. Their trip was unsuccessful. They were attacked, a portion of their party killed, others wounded, and because of the misfortunes of their trip the French named the river Malheur or loosely translated unhappy river. Nonetheless, people came and settled here voluntarily. God tricked other people to come and settle here after that. But in our text the people of Israel complained about their misfortunes. I have complained about my misfortunes. You don't have to live in Misfortune County to begin complaining about your misfortunes. The opposite of complaining is contentment, and that's why we titled this lesson living in contentment. That's the finish line. That's the goal. That's what we're after. Now contentment is a hard lesson for some of us, and it was a hard lesson for Israel too because they developed unrealistic expectations along the way of what their journey should look like. You know, Bible people and modern people are the same people. People are people, right? And so when we look into the lives of the ancients, if we're really looking, we hold up that Bible and it becomes a mirror, doesn't it? And we can see our own reflection in there. And we've said that the wilderness journey is symbolic of our Christian journey as well. And so we need to realize through this lesson that when we create expectations or ideals of what our life should look like, what our Christian life should look like, we will run the risk of beginning to complain and have those attitudes, and that causes us to forget who we belong to and crave the ways of Egypt. Complaining also has a unique capacity, I believe, to change, to grow, to morph into something from one context to another. Complaining is highly contagious among people. We're in the cold and flu season. We know all about contagious things. And in this, these two chapters, everyone eventually begins to complain. It begins with the rabble that came out of Egypt. It carries into the people of Israel. It extends into Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. So let's start reading in Numbers chapter 1, verse 1.

Now, before we talk about this, I want to say, I definitely want to say, some people have true misfortunes going on right now. Somebody in this room is facing something very devastating. People in our church body are facing devastating things. Life-threatening illnesses, life-altering relationships, okay? And so, as we talk about misfortunes, and if I tend to minimize them from time to time, I want that qualifier in there. We all understand this. And when you are facing in your life a true misfortune, a trauma in your life, we want to cry out to God. But crying out to God is over here on the scale compared to merely complaining into the air, right? They're two completely different things. Now, there's nothing in this text here that leads us to believe Israel's misfortunes were legitimate. We don't know. It doesn't tell us. And isn't it true that most of our perceived misfortunes in life aren't really all that legitimate in the scope of eternity? What is the last thing you complained about? Think about it. Did you complain about your slowpoke son? Did you complain about the temperature somewhere? Did you complain about your husband, about the milk left out? So last night, it sounds so housewife-y, but before I came to teach last night, I was dusting. And Paul was sitting working on his lesson, and I'm dusting away, and I start saying, you know, for as expensive of furnace filters as we buy that are supposed to separate out all the this and that, we sure have a lot of dust in our house. And the minute I finished the sentence, well, you just have a sermon illustration of the last thing that you complained about, you know. But how easily this ridiculous misfortune comes out of my mouth. So let's see what we learn about contentment. Okay, Israel was three days into their wilderness journey, and we just studied what the last seven weeks had looked like. The last seven weeks were a time of order, organization, the cloud had settled over the tabernacle. It was really quite a beautiful, contented, lovely time from what we can see in the text. But they hadn't moved at all. And now, they left that stable comfort, and they began this mobile hike, and the people began to struggle with God's choices for them. Now, the place was eventually called, named, because of what happened there. And we all, we had in Exodus, plenty of places that were named for what happened. And in fact, I want to help you walk back in your mind to when this journey began, when they left Egypt, and they started three days out of, after the Red Sea had parted for them, and they were truly into the wilderness journey, three days later, one year ago, they began complaining also. And at that point, they were complaining about the bitter water. It was a legitimate need that they had. God answered that by coming in, taking care of it. He fed them. He didn't discipline them. You guys, they were three days old in their journey, and God was gracious to them. And they provided, He provided what they needed. And the place was called Marah, because of the bitter water. This time, three days into the journey, God deals with them a little bit differently. They're a little bit older. Maybe God expected some maturity and some growth. And so now, as they are three days on the move again, and they begin to complain, it says, a fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Have you ever joked and said, oh, I better stop what I'm saying. I might get struck by lightning, you know. Well, who knows? It doesn't say, we don't know what the fire of the Lord looked like. We don't know if it was lightning. We don't know if it was spontaneous combustion. We don't know if it consumed people. We don't know if it just burned shrubs and trees and maybe tents. We just don't know. It just says, the fire of the Lord burned around the outside of the camp. What we do know is that they knew that it was a response from the Lord. And so they turned their attention to Moses. They cried out to Moses. Moses interceded and the fire died down. And that is a pattern that we see continue through the wilderness journey. Now, remember I said that complaining has a tendency to morph or to change. So now after complaining about these initial misfortunes, now their complaint morphed into their boredom with their food, okay? Last year, three days in to their journey after the Red Sea, after their initial complaint about the water, then their complaint was about the lack of food. Last year, God graciously met their need. He gave them manna. He gave them quail. He didn't seem to discipline them. He provided for them, perhaps hoping that they would notice that and that they would remember that. Now, we're a year later and they are complaining about their food again, this time the boredom with their food. And I sent you to Psalm 106, those first six words that I hope you wrote in your study guide. It said, but they soon forgot his works. And that is something common to all people. We soon forget the things that God has done for us in the past. They forgot his works while they were collecting God's works. So, now, the complaint is the misfortune of their diet and And verse four points us to the epicenter of where this outbreak of complaining starts. Verse four says, now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. Rabble is a unique word in the Old Testament here, but it basically means the mixed multitude that we learned about in Exodus chapter 12 that came out of Egypt with the Hebrews. Remember, it wasn't limited to just the Hebrews that came out. There were others. And you can imagine that Egypt, if they had Hebrews as slaves, they probably had other people too. And so maybe there was other nationalities that came out with them. But we do know that a mixed multitude came out. Would you let me just for this, for today, call them Gentiles? I know that that's a word that we use in the New Testament for Jews and Gentiles, but can I call them Gentiles, meaning they were not of Israel, OK? Remember, not everybody who left Egypt was of Israel. Some Gentiles, they were genuine in their quest to join this group, to be part of them, and God had provided a way for that. Some were not genuine. They were merely troublemakers. They were just along. Do you know it's still the same way in the church today? The church is made up of believers and unbelievers. Some people who are not yet born again, they listen, their heart is soft, and they become a part of God's people. Some people are just troublemakers. And we still have that mixture today. But these people, the rabble, they came out of Egypt. Egypt hadn't come out of them. They had a strong craving for the things of Egypt. And what effect did they have on the people of Israel? Verse 4, the end of it says, the people of Israel also wept. They followed suit again. And they said, oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt cost nothing. Cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. They were writing on a nice grocery list. But now our strength is dried up, and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at. Verses 7 to 9 describe the manna for us, which we know. Verse 10 says, Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. So they were weeping, everyone at the door of their tent. Based on what we learned last week, what was the view out of the door of their tent? Were they not instructed to position their tents? Everyone in this circle around the tabernacle. So they're weeping at the door of their tent, looking at the cloud of the presence of the Lord in the tabernacle, and he looking at them. And that is where they were bold enough to weep about their boredom with their food. They were not crying out to the Lord. That doesn't seem to be what the text is telling us. They were not crying out to the Lord. They were weeping about their misfortune. Big difference. And which one do we do? Do we cry out in our misfortunes, or do we weep and complain? You know what? We all have things in our lives that aren't our preference, every one of us. Do we not, as Christian women, suspect, just like we studied? Do we believe what we studied from James? Count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds. What are they there for? To facilitate our perseverance and our steadfastness. We all have them. There's things that God has put into our lives. Now, did they have food? Yes. Had God provided faithfully and consistently? Absolutely. They could depend on it. I also wonder, were they all that tired of their manna before the rabble had mentioned the strong craving for the grocery list that they made? Isn't that true in our lives? Sometimes we are completely contented with something until an event, or a person, or a suggestion pops up. And then we go, you know, it's been a long time since I've had a vacation, or whatever it is. But sometimes suggestion is what breeds our, that is the contagiousness of it. So that's the situation. Started with a strong craving for the ways of Egypt by a few, and it turned into weeping by everyone at the door of his tent. And so a little leaven works its way through the lump. That was either the Apostle Paul in Galatians, or that was Miss Stacy in Anna Green Gables. Or maybe it was both of them, but it's true, right? So, but now we're going to look at Moses. The complaining goes even to Moses. Verse 11. Moses said to the Lord, why have you dealt ill with your servant, that you lay the burden of this people on me? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, and they say, give us meat. I'm not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. As we would say, just kill me now. Right? But there is one big difference. I said that Moses caught the complaining. There's a big difference, right, between Moses and the people. He's taking his two big problems in life to the Lord. He truly is crying out to the Lord. And that is a difference. Two big problems. Where am I going to get the meat? And this burden is too heavy for me. And God will graciously answer both of those. He's going to fix both of those problems. But I want to take our mind someplace else before we look at God's fix. I want to take our mind to the Apostle Paul, who had a big misfortune in his life with his thorn in the flesh. And he also cried out to the Lord three times and said, I can't do this. Would you please remove this from me? And what was God's answer for him? My grace is sufficient for you. And so we have two big weights that we can look at here, two big answers from God. And when we are crying out to the Lord in a legitimate big misfortune, and we say, Lord, I can't do this. Maybe we say, just kill me now. And we can expect God to answer. But he will either begin to bring a framework of change, or he will say to us, no, my grace is sufficient for you. You can do this because I'm the one doing it. But we need to sit long enough to hear which answer he's giving us and not assume one or the other, right? So let's see what God does for Moses. First of all, the help with the burden of the people. In verse 16, the Lord said to Moses, gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel. Bring them to the tent of meeting. And let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you may not bear it yourself alone. Awesome. Problem solved. You studied that they prophesied. We're not going to get to that part of the lesson. But you studied it. And so even the people knew that these 70 were selected by God. It's great. Second problem is the meat. And God heard the people's complaint. And he decided on that one to give them exactly what they asked for. Verse 18, say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. And you shall eat meat. For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, who will give us meat to eat? Or this is what they said. Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt. Therefore, the Lord will give you meat. And you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days, but a whole month until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. Because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, why did we come out of Egypt? And this is the first in a series of events where God gives people exactly what they ask for. He lets them have their own way. In this case, he's going to give them meat until it becomes loathsome. And the reason is God says, you have rejected the Lord who is among you. Now, doesn't that sound just a little harsh? I mean, you can look at it and say, I think they're just missing food they used to enjoy. Yeah, it's petty, but it's not that big of a deal to say you're rejecting the Lord. A lot of our complaining seems justifiable and harmless, too. But if you really look at this complaint, let's look at this. There's two things that they're complaining about in verse 6. It's that there's nothing at all but manna. And in verse 18, it's because their life was better in Egypt. The manna, they were saying, that's not satisfying us. And they were saying, Egypt was a better place. Now, when you compare, because we know that things in the Old Testament are symbolic for us of things in the New Testament, in the new covenant, that there are types and images. And so we compare, and we say, so manna, what is manna? manna a type of in the New Testament. And Jesus interpreted that in the Gospel of John. I'm going to put it on the screen for you. Jesus said, he's reminding them, it wasn't Moses who gave you bread from heaven. He wanted them to know it wasn't Moses. It was God. He says, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down. He's talking about himself from heaven and gives light to the world. I am the bread of life. And so Jesus made the link between the bread of heaven, the manna that God gave to provide, and himself, the bread of heaven. I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. So that is what manna is a symbol of. And he finishes to say, whoever comes to me shall never hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Never hunger, never thirst means Jesus is enough. I love that. Jesus is our bread of life. Jesus is the word of God. And on our pilgrim journey, we need to cultivate a constant appetite that that is enough for us and the feeding on that. OK, what about the other one? It was better in Egypt. What is Egypt a symbol of in the Bible? Egypt is a symbol of the system of the world. So for them to say we had it better in Egypt is to say to leave God's kingdom and go back to the system of the world would be a better thing for us right now. OK, all of a sudden, we see that this is rejecting God. All of a sudden, it's a big deal, isn't it, when we understand that. And again, Paul told us in 1 Corinthians, be careful that we might not desire evil as some of them did, that we might not grumble as some of them did and were destroyed. Do you have true misfortunes today? Then you need to cry out to God. Do you have unmet expectations today, preferences that life would be different in some way? Then we need to repent and just stop complaining about it and embrace what God has given. So Moses, he's pretty incredulous that God would come up with that much meat, which is quite amazing because this is the man who has been with God through this whole journey. This is the parting of the Red Sea guy. This is the go up and get the tablets of stone guy. And yet he's saying to God, how would this ever happen, that we could have enough meat? And so God tells him in verse 23, the Lord answered, is the Lord's hand shortened, which could be a fabulous sermon all in itself, but we're moving down to 31. Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp. And the people rose all that day and all that night and all the next day and gathered the quail. Verse 33, while the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. And the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. Therefore, the name of that place, here we name places again, was called Kibroth Hattava because there they buried the people who had the craving. And again, I feel like the implication is that the instigators of this were specifically punished, died in the plague. We don't know what kind of a plague. Maybe it had something to do with the meat itself. That could be a thing. We're just not told. But what we are told, the psalmist wrote for us what emotional effect it had. Psalm 106, 15, look at this. I love it from the new King James, speaking about this provision of God. God gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls. And maybe that's happened to you before. Where you've said, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this, and God gives it to you. And then you come to the point of realizing that was not the least bit satisfying. And God teaches us through this. He's disciplining us. One year ago, there was no evidence of discipline because they were babies. But now it's different. You have a 10-month-old sitting in their high chair who takes a bowl and tosses it on the ground. And you go, that's so cute. Isn't that adorable? And you pick it up, and you put it all back. And then you have a five-year-old who is throwing a fit about what you're eating and throws it on the ground. You're like, ha, ha, ha, none of that. It's all different, bigger expectations. And that's part of our wilderness journey. God is disciplining us. He's not breaking us down. He wants us to grow, and He wants us to be turned into His likeness. So we ask ourselves right here, am I a wilderness Christian? Am I delivered from bondage but grumbling and complaining my way through life, not satisfied with God's provision, making lists of my misfortunes, boredom with my daily manna, suffering from a lack of trust and confidence in the Lord? That's kind of hard for me to say those things as I look out at your lovely little faces, you know? But I say those things to myself. And I say, well, there's some reflection coming back as I say those words. And that is what we should deal with as we look. And we say, am I a wilderness Christian? Or we should say, in what ways am I a wilderness Christian? And Lord, can you change me, please? Can you help me to have the grace to change what needs to be changed? Because the wilderness is not a pleasant place to live. We want to get through it and get to the land of promise, don't we? All right, chapter 12. In this chapter, we continue the sad theme of complaining. And just like a flu outbreak that won't seem to go away, we are right now in cold and flu season. That's why I'm stopping to cough all the time. We know about the contagiousness of flu. So now Miriam and Aaron, now they speak against Moses. And that's how it begins. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman that he had married. Verse 2, they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken also through us? And the Lord heard it. So let's stop right there. Now, maybe let's talk about Moses's wife. This may be Zipporah. This may be his first wife. We know that she was from Midian. And this says she was a Cushite. That could be the same thing. It's kind of like if we say, oh, she's from Mexico. Somebody says, no, I thought she was from Central America. Well, aren't we talking about the same thing? So it could be his first wife. She could have disappeared off the scene. And this could be a second wife. We just aren't told. But it's the initial smoke screen for Aaron and Miriam. Maybe they got something under their skin that Moses was all more of a confidant with her rather than them. Who knows? But it wasn't really the problem with her. That's not really the issue. Because look what they said. Has the Lord indeed only spoken through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? It's much more of an envy for his position of authority and leadership. Maybe their egos were bruised. Maybe they didn't prophesy with those 70 elders. And they were left out of that. Maybe somebody just came and sneezed on them. And they just caught the complaining bug. And now they were just going with it. It does become kind of natural in a group of people. Just find something to complain about. But it doesn't matter. Because once you complain about one thing, it morphs to another. And now they were offended. If any of you have ever been a leader in any kind of a group and someone comes to you with an offense or a complaint and they bring something to you first, I've learned after 35 years of ministry that that's often a smokescreen. There's something else. And so you solve their first problem. In this case, it was his wife. You solve that first problem. And they go, well, but there's bigger issues. And then you get to what's under their skin. And that's kind of something just to learn. And to learn, well, how did Moses respond? He was just silent in this. Look, he didn't say anything. Verse 3, the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And they did. And the Lord called Aaron and Miriam. In verse 6, he said, hear my words. If there's a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream, but not so with my servant Moses. He's faithful in all my house. And with him, I speak mouth to mouth clearly, not in riddles. And he beholds the form of the Lord. So why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Man, are they getting a spanking. And the anger of the Lord was kindled. against them, and he departed. And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was a leprous like snow." Oh, man. You know, I really rolled these three personalities over as siblings more through this. They're brothers and sister. And I don't know what your sibling experience is, has been in life, or what your kids are. But my kids are fiercely loyal. They are opinionated. And they'll speak their mind with one another, kind of like what we see here. But I'll tell you what, at the end of the day, they would die for one another. And I love what Aaron turns to Moses, turns to his brother, and he goes, can you intercede somehow? And look at Moses's prayer in verse 13. I love this. Oh, God, please heal her. Please. It's so passionate and so, you know, it's not just like we don't have the words, and so Moses interceded for Miriam. No, we see the inside workings of this passionate heart toward his sister. So the Bible doesn't spare us from family drama, but it also shows us this tenderness that I really love. And again, we see that God is disciplining more speedily here in this case. But I don't think we ever see that Aaron and Miriam need the discipline again. This is just, that discipline stuff really works. We've said that, right? So verse 15, Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days. And the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in. And after that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran. All right, so I want to wrap this up. Three ways that we can learn to live in contentment. Learn to stop complaining. First one is from Elizabeth Elliott. About 20 years, we went up to Seattle to Elizabeth Elliott conference, a bunch of ladies from the church, and we got a hotel. It was super fun. And one thing that I wrote in my journal 20 years ago from this is that she said, if you want to learn to stop complaining, don't let yourself complain about anything, even the weather. And I wrote that down. I thought, that's really good. But as the years went by, I thought, well, if I knew how to stop complaining about anything, then I wouldn't need to, you know? I mean, you need the self-control right there at that level. So really, what does that mean? Because you're saying you just have to have self-control. But I began to recognize that when we make ourselves allowances for the day-to-day complaining about inconsequential things, she mentioned the weather. I mentioned the dust. You can fill in your own blanks. When you give allowances for that, then it does become much easier to allow that to morph into things that we absolutely should not be complaining about. So if you ask me how you do, and I'll say to you, can't complain. Yeah. Set number two thing. Before the words come out of our mouth, get a grip on the thought. What we think will actually become what we complain about. And so the process starts by thinking it, doesn't it? And we want to capture those thoughts. Take those thoughts captive. That's a different Bible study. But that's a biblical truth for us. Take those thoughts captive. Do you know that it's not a sin when the thought comes into your mind? Thoughts come into our mind all the time in life. It's the choices of, am I going to capture that thought and just throw it out? Or am I going to nurture it until it comes out of my mouth? That is the level. So don't feel guilty if you have complaining thoughts. Feel guilty if you make the choice to say, no, I'm going to keep thinking that over and over and over until it finally comes out my mouth, right? Last thing, purpose to be content with what you have and where you are. I had that little quote from Charles Spurgeon in there. He said, if someone thinks, if I had a little more, I should be very well satisfied. And in his words, you make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied with it if it were doubled. And that is truth. Maybe you've learned that in your life too. You think you need just a little more. But even if you doubled it, you'd still say, I need just a little more. So we learn to be content with what we have and where we are. And I just want to end with Matthew 6, verse 25. Put it on the screen for you.

Father, help us to walk in that. Lord, I know that we just take small baby steps of learning to grow in some areas where maybe there's been a foothold. And so that's what I ask for this morning. Lord, I ask that you would give each one of us just a baby step of being changed, transformed into your likeness, Lord God. And I pray also for each one that you would protect us from the enemy that would come in in a lesson like this and just bring just a sense of condemnation. Lord, I pray that you would release us from that. Lord, if there is anything we need to confess, help us just to confess it and move on in your grace and in your life, Lord, because we want to get through the wilderness journey. So enable us. Lord, we know that our movement comes from you, Lord. And so we praise you for that, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. ---