Exodus 17:3: “But the people thirsted there for water and they grumbled (worried) against Moses and said: Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
Matthew 6:25-26 “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them? How much more valuable are you than they?
Kiddushin 4:14 “Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar asked, have you ever seen a wild animal or a bird practicing a profession? Yet they have their sustenance provided for without anxiety and were they not create to serve me? But I was created to serve my Maker. How much more then, should I have my sustenance provided for without anxiety. But I have done wrong and so I have given up my right to sustenance without worry.”
The KJV renders this passage as the people grumbled against Moses. The rendering of grumbled is good, that is one usage of the Hebrew word yalan. Yet in its root meaning it is commonly used to express the idea of worry. The word against is ‘al and you could also render that as about or because of rather than against. It really depends upon the context as to whether or not you would render this as the people grumbling against Moses, or whether they worried about or because of Moses. Ultimately it all means the same but if we use the word worry we get a better understanding of what is going on. The people were not just complaining to Moses, they were frightened, scared because Moses had them camped out at a place where there was no water. In an earlier study I showed where the word thirsted is in an imperfect tense, it was a future event, the people were not yet thirsty, they were just worried (yalan) that they were going to be thirsty.
Think about this. The people of Israel had just witnessed some great miracles, the crossing of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, not to mention all the signs and wonders that led them out of Egypt. You would think such demonstrations would leave little doubt in the minds of the people of Israel that God would take care of them. No doubt as soon as they realized they had no water they would say among themselves. “No sweat, remember all that manna we get every morning? Remember how God brought us across the Red Sea? Remember that cloud by day, that fire by night? Just a matter of time and we will have water, we just can’t wait to see how God is going to pull this one off.”
Yet, we learn that the people began to grumble or worry. The word in the Hebrew yalan means to worry, fret, complain etc. It is spelled Yod, Lamed and Nun. In its shadow form the Yod represents no foundation, irrational actions, the Lamed shows narrow thinking, self-importance, and the Nun shows lack of faith.
Why did the people not trust God for water? Why did they yalan or worry? The word itself explains. First they had no foundation (Yod). You would think they have plenty of foundation with all the miracles in the past. All those miracles were building blocks to a foundation, but they were not building a foundation with them. As the miracles came they just shouted their Hallelujahs, and praises, but they were filled with the Lamed, narrow thinking and self-importance. They thought the miracles were just for them. Those miracles were not just for them, but for future generations and for us today to read and find comfort. When they received manna from heaven they failed to ask God why He was providing in this way. Had they done so they would have learned that getting fed was only one small reason. A greater reason was the final letter, the Nun, to build their faith, to discover God’s lovingkindness, to declare to the world the mighty power of God. They were so self-absorbed that they failed to see the whole picture. As a result they never allowed the miracles to build a Nun (faith) in them, they only saw its shadow which was a lack of faith. While chowing down on manna from heaven they worried if they were going to die of thirst. Isn’t that crazy? Almost as crazy as working at a job that God clearly opened up to you. One in which He fulfilled your every request and then you worry if you are going to lose that job. “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord” as old Job said.
You hear these great testimonies about people who get struck down by a bolt of lightning, their spirits leave their bodies and floats out over Russia and China and Iraq, they see the needs of the world, then they step into a golden chariot and take a trip to heaven, visit the throne room where God commissions them to a worldwide ministry, they might even get a short side trip to Hell to give them more evangelistic zeal, then on to the bright light where they get special knowledge of future events and then they wake up in their rooms with the left foot lengthened by four inches. We listen to these testimonies and look at our puny little testimony of how we fell off a ladder ten years ago and didn’t break our necks and wonder: “Why God, why them and not me?” Perhaps we are like the people of Israel. “I want , I need my miracle.” We are too wrapped up in our own personal problems, to see the wider picture of God’s workings.
Jesus said it best, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” He has it all under control, there is a greater good out there. Stop worrying about your own gizzard, He’s got that covered and just get with the program. Stop with the yalans already (worrying and complaining) when God has given you got a mouthful of manna.
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