We ask God for the grace to respond to complainers with the kindness God has shown us.  We try not to complain by trusting God even when our circumstances test us.  We ask God for the grace to see the cross and sing of His goodness.

She looked at me in anger and said, ‘you don’t care about us.’  She gave me a real dressing down.  I didn’t know what to say, but for the next few months (actually for the next couple of years) I went over that conversation again and again.  Mostly I defended myself.  But the greatest sting of criticism is where we know there is at least some truth in it.  I know that at times I do not care enough for people.

It came to an end when she wrote me a letter of apology.  She was so kind and gracious, because when I tried to explain that I too was at fault she explained that her apology was unconditional.  She was not insisting I meet her halfway.  Her initial words may have been harsh, but she had allowed God to reshape her heart.  My heart had simply ruminated.  Grace had softened her, but I had not let grace shape me.

This morning we are looking at how God responds to complaint.  Of course, he has not done anything wrong.  While there are times that God responds to his complaining people with acts of discipline, here he simply responds with immense kindness.  This is a challenge for us when we are on the receiving end of criticism.

What You Should Do When People Complain

‘Now there was no water for the congregation.  And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.  And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!  Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into the wilderness, that we might die here, both we and our cattle?  And why have you made us come out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?  It is not place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink”’ (2-5).

Their complaint is so unfair!  They have forgotten that Egypt was a place of slavery.  They had had cried out in great suffering and God had rescued them.  Besides, it wasn’t Moses who had brought them into the wilderness, it was God.  The reason they were still in the wilderness was that they had refused to trust God and let him lead them into Canaan.  They might not have figs or vines or pomegranates, but that was their fault.  The twelve spies had brought figs and pomegranates back from the Promised Land, along a vine so great that it took two men to carry it on a pole, but they refused to trust God to bless them!

Moses and Aaron did what we should do when people complain against us—they prayed!  When you can’t ever please your parents, bring it to God.  When that workmate is a faultfinder, bring it to God.  When your spouse never seems pleased, bring it to God.  When your children think you are the worst, bring it to God.  ‘Lord, I don’t know what to do.  Help me!  They are saying things that hurt.  Please keep my heart from bitterness.  Give me wisdom.’

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.  So, you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle’ (8-9).

God is so kind!  The people’s complaint against Moses and Aaron was really a complaint against him.  They were implying that he could not be trusted, and that he had let them down.  Yet he blesses them.  God does not treat us as our sins deserve but according to his loving kindness.

What You Shouldn’t Do When People Complain

God was wanting to treat the people with undeserved kindness, Moses was not!  He speaks to them harshly.  ‘Hear now, you rebels’ (10a).  James tells us that ‘human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires’ (James 1:20).  He not only acts as their judge, he is thinking of himself as their savior. ‘… shall we bring water from the rock?’ (10b).  He is not the one who can make water gush from the rock, only God can do that.

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