1 Corinthians 10:10 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Grumbling, complaining or murmuring, is a very serious sin. From the passage, we see this regarding Israelites, what they did in the wilderness. They grumbled. God was not pleased with them and they were destroyed by the destroyer. From verse 1, we see “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we very well know about this passage and we read many times that, Israelites experienced wonderful things from God. We see that, ‘that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink’ ‘All’ of them experienced. None of them were left. Symbolically we see, God has redeemed us through, water baptism, Holy Spirit baptism and we are eating daily manna, which is Word of God. We all are experiencing this. But there’s one thing we see here, ‘. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.’ In spite of experiencing all these wonderful things from God, God was not pleased with most of them. The reason is in verse 10. ‘Do not grumble’. Dear brothers and sisters, they were ‘grumbling’. They had grumbling spirit in them, in their life and the result is, they were destroyed by the destroyer. Do we take this seriously, in our Christian life? This grumbling, murmuring, complaining is a very serious sin. If we do this, we clearly show that we are not in fellowship with the Lord but in fellowship with the destroyer. We are not pleasing to God. God is not pleased with us, when we complain, grumble or murmur, as it is a very serious sin. This grumbling comes in our lives when we are not satisfied with the material things. We know, Bible says, ‘Godliness with contentment is a great gain’. God wants us not to grumble.
Philippians 2:14, 15 “14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,” Holy Spirit says, ‘do all things, without grumbling or disputing’. In the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, we should live without grumbling or disputing., so that we can prove to the world, that we are different from others. We know the people or unbelievers around us, in the world are filled with this grumbling and complaining spirit. We are in the midst of them. But God says, when others are disputing or complaining or grumbling, we should not be like them, but we should prove to the world, through our life, that we are different. We should live innocent and blameless lives, in front of them. ‘prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,’
In Exodus 16:8, we see “8 Moses said, “This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.”’ We see that Israelites were complaining, grumbling against Moses. But, ‘Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.’ When we are complaining, grumbling or complaining, God says that we are directly complaining against the Lord. Here Moses is saying this. When we are going through any situations, and when we have this complaining spirit, we are doing it against God. God wants us to live a life, where we do all things without grumbling. There should not be any room in our life for complaints or grumblings or murmurings. This is what God wants, from our life.
We have to replace all this complaining, grumbling, murmuring spirit with ‘Thanksgiving heart’. This is what God is saying and this is the will of God for us. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In all circumstances, we need to give thanks to our God. This is God’s will for us. Let us ask ourselves, ‘how far we are from the reality, in our practical life?’ Do we take this verse ‘Do not grumble’ seriously? When we are complaining, grumbling or murmuring, we are doing against the Lord. When everything runs smoothly, it is easy to give thanks to God but when the situations are not according to our plan, our schedule, there we get this grumbling, complaining spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, if we don’t have thankful heart, there is a danger in our life.
Romans 1:21 “ 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” We read here; ‘their hearts became darkened’. This is a dangerous condition. So, we know, we should give thanks to God. Be thankful to our God. We find an encouragement in Habakkuk 3:17, 18. “Though the fig tree should not blossom, And there be no]fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
It is surprising. How is this possible? When everything is negative, when situations are not going smoothly, yet I will praise God. I will exalt the Lord. We see in other translation, ‘I will praise God, no matter what happens’. Dear brothers and sisters, we should be like this. We see no complaining, grumbling or murmuring here. The situations are worse. But still, Habakkuk says, I will praise my God. No matter what happens. One more encouraging verse we see from Job. Job’s initial life, we see he lost all his properties, children. Finally, we see in Job 2, we read, even his wife also started to speak against him. She was also saying, curse God and die! The situations were very worse. But in the midst of all these, we see that the Holy Spirit is testifying about Job that. “In all this, Job did not sin with his lips”. God also wants us to have such testimonies from our lives. Whatever situations, we are facing, we should not sin by grumbling or complaining or murmuring. We should be having thankful heart. Always giving thanks to our God, in everything. This is God’s will for us. We should believe in absolute Sovereignty of our God. God is in control of everything in our life. He is still on the throne.
Romans 8:28, “28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” He has already planned our life. All things work together for good in our life. Let us trust our God. Ephesians 5:20, “20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;” Holy Spirit says, give thanks for all things. Give thanks to our God. In all the verses we read, we may think, how is it possible in our Christian life? God assures us, it is possible in our life. That is why, Holy Spirit has written in the Bible. We have to take this very seriously. We see in Luke 1: 35, 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason, the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Ephesians 5:18-20, “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is possible in our life. We have to continually depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. We can live a victorious life, without complaining or grumbling or disputing and always giving thanks to our God. This is God’s will in our Christian life.
Psalms 17:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” This should be our prayer. My heart should be without grumbling or murmuring and my mouth should have words that are acceptable to God. 1 Corinthians 10:10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Holy Spirit is giving us instruction, particularly in this verse. Also, this passage is a warning for our life. Let us take this verse seriously in our Christian life. Because, murmuring or complaining or grumbling or disputing is a serious sin. Holy Spirit has given us an example, that they were destroyed because they had grumbling spirit in their life. We don’t want to have this spirit but we always need to give thanks for all things in every situation.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us commit ourselves with a word of prayer. “Lord, we come before you with a needy heart. Lord we have Your instructions, Your warnings. Help us. We have fallen in many areas. We did not keep Your verse in many areas or situations of our lives. We come before You, as we are, Lord. Please change us Lord. Please change our life, Lord. Have mercy on us Lord. Please forgive us, Lord. Help us to have a life without complaining or grumbling, but to have a thankful heart, in all things, in all situations. Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You Lord. Amen. “
May God bless us.
