Anchored in Christ

Note: The following is an excerpt from David Kaywood’s brand new book, A Call to Contentment: Pursuing Godly Satisfaction in Restless World (Christian Focus: March 2024).

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Constant grumbling is the number one sign of a discontented person.

Lament, doubt, and anguished prayer are part of what it means to live Christianly in a fallen world. When doubting Thomas said that he wouldn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless he saw and placed his fingers into the mark of the nails on Jesus’ hands, Jesus didn’t scold him, but allowed Thomas to do so, urging him to believe (John 20:24-29). When Nathaniel wondered: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Jesus, knowing Nathaniel spoke ill of his hometown, replied: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (John 1:47). God cares about the doubts, fears and questions of his people.

The Psalms are filled with raw emotion: “O God, why do you cast us off forever?” (Ps. 74:1a). Although the line between grumbling and lament is blurry, the psalmists aren’t afraid to be honest with God. You too should sprint to God in prayer when under distress in order to discharge any and all feelings, concerns, and requests that you have (1 Pet. 5:7). As it’s been said, perhaps the difference between lament (not-sinful) and grumbling (sinful) is that, with lament, you complain to God; with grumbling, you complain about God. Occasionally grumble? You’re human. But if you habitually grumble, you have a heart issue to examine.

No other account in Scripture reveals the hatred God feels toward grumbling more than when the Israelites moved from Egypt to the Promised Land. In Egypt the Israelites were slaves. Economically, they were oppressed. Part of their religious freedom was denied. They were afflicted with heavy burdens (Exod. 1:11) and their lives were characterized by oppression and grueling toil (Exod. 1:14). They were under tyrannical leadership and lacked provision; they feared for their lives.

And then God steps in: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew” (Exod. 2:24-25). Through a series of dramatic and supernatural events, God miraculously rescues the Israelites from slavery, foreshadowing the act of redemption that takes place for all who trust in Christ. The Israelites walk on water when God parts the Red Sea and they eventually arrive in the Promised Land to enjoy fellowship with God as their covenant Lord.

But then within one month of leaving Egypt, something terrible happens. The Israelites begin to grumble: “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’” (Exod. 16:2-3).

The Israelites grumble about food (Num. 11:4-6) and water (Exod. 15:24). Moses grumbles about the people God entrusted him to lead (Num. 11:10-15). Miriam and Aaron grumble against Moses (Num. 12:1). The Israelites grumble about the battles that stand between them and the Promised Land (Num. 13:28-29). They also grumble about their hardships and the leadership of Moses (Num. 14:1-14).

God is patient, and he demonstrates his patience toward his people through provision. Despite the Israelites’ unfaithfulness, God provides them with manna and quail, and sweetens the bitter waters (Exod. 15:22-25). But God’s patience is limited, and he does not feel indifferent toward habitual grumbling: “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me” (Num. 14:26-29). The plague kills over 14,000+ Israelites (Num. 16:49). “We must not . . . ,” the Apostle Paul writes, hundreds of years later, “grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10). A person might protest that’s the God of the Old Testament, but the God of the Old Testament is the God who never changes (Heb. 13:8). It’s alarming how much God hates when his people regularly grumble about their circumstances.

Jude writes that one day Jesus will come back to “execute judgment” on the “grumblers” and “malcontents” (see Jude 14-16). Malcontent means complaining about your lot in life. You might expect Jude to say, “Jesus is coming back to execute judgment on all unrepentant murderers and abusive people.” But “grumblers” and “malcontents” top the list: “These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage” (Jude 1:16).

Grumbling is the action, but what’s the heart issue of grumbling? Idolatry, usually. Grumbling is a worship issue. When we grumble, we pronounce a theological statement; we’re admitting we don’t truly believe God is good and has our best in mind. Grumbling reveals your idols. Where your grumbling is, there your idols will be also. We consider ourselves mature Christians because we are sexually faithful and don’t have alcohol problems, but we conveniently overlook the habitual spirit of grumbling in our lives, as if it’s not a big spiritual problem.

Here’s good news: Those in Christ will never experience the eternal wrath of God. We’ve been rescued forever from eternal condemnation. Yes, and amen. But it’s incorrect to assume that we can now express any attitude and commit any action we desire and expect only God’s blessing because we are in Christ. No, we are saved from God’s wrath in order to live lives of holiness. Christians incur God’s Fatherly chastisement through ongoing and unrepentant disobedience. So we live with joy and peace, knowing our greatest need in life has been covered by God, but we strive for obedience until the Lord comes back or calls us home. Knowing that we are free from God’s eternal wrath, but can still receive God’s Fatherly discipline, should not lead to paranoia and unhealthy fear, but instead motivate godly living.

People say our actions spring from our character. True. But what’s equally true is that your actions affect your character.1 Grumbling is the result of a character deficiency, but grumbling also makes your character worse. What you do is the result of who you are, but what you do determines who you will become. In his commentary on Proverbs, Derek Kidner, the late Old Testament scholar, says, “Superficial habits of talk react on the mind; so that, e.g., cynical chatter, fashionable grumbles, flippancy, half-truths, barely meant in the first place, harden into well-established habits of thought.”

Let’s not speed pass what Kidner says. The little remarks you make on a regular basis form the kind of person you will become.

The more you complain, the more tempted you will be to complain and the less of an issue it will seem to you.

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Note: The following is an excerpt from David Kaywood’s brand new book, A Call to Contentment: Pursuing Godly Satisfaction in Restless World (Christian Focus: March 2024).