Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 11:51 PM

Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-173 (Sermon)

MOSES’ MONOLOGUE

by Wayne Dobratz

Ex. 16:2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” … 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt….

Moses has been called “The Man of Many Mountains.” We probably know more about his life than anyone else except Jesus. We know about Moses from birth to death and even beyond death, because he appears with Jesus and Elijah on the Mountain of Transfiguration. He had a lot of Bible heroes after which to model himself. It was he who told us the stories about Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

The enemy knew that the Lord had great plans for this boy, so he tried to kill him. Pharaoh saw that the Israelite population was growing too fast, so he ordered that all male babies be killed. Moses’ mother hid him in the bull rushes of the Nile River, because she knew that Pharaoh’s daughter often bathed there. She found the baby and adopted him. She gave him the name MOSHE–“Moses”, which means “drawn from the water.” Moses was given the best education in the world and Pharaoh paid for it. Clearly God had plans for Moses.

His life of 120 years is divided into 3 distinct chapters–40 years as an Egyptian, 40 years as a shepherd in Midian, and 40 years as the leader of God’s people. He had seen it all. He was an expert on human nature and we all can learn something from him. Human nature just doesn’t change.

If Moses were to write to us today, using today’s text as a starting point, this is what he might say: Shalom Aleichem! Oh, excuse me, I forgot that you don’t understand our Hebrew tongue. “Peace be with you!” is what I meant to say. Our Lord Jesus used that phrase so often.

There are so many things I could tell you this morning, but your shepherd has reminded me that our time is limited. I will try to remember that. He has told me that you have firm benches on which to sit with comfortable cushions. When I spoke to God’s people, they usually sat on the ground or just stood while I was giving them God’s Word.

It is also my understanding that some of you “have dinner on”, as you like to say, and that I cannot speak as long as I would like or your dinner might be overcooked. And that takes me to the subject of my speech today: DON’T COMPLAIN WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL! God’s people did that often in my day.

Please let me explain. Your shepherd asked me to talk to you about this troublesome habit of all who have inherited Adam’s sin–the sin of discontent, the habit of complaining. This sin of discontent is very serious in God’s eyes.

Oh, I could write a book on this! In fact, I did write a lot about it in several books–Books like Genesis, when the people complained that God brought them out of Egypt only to have them slaughtered at the Red Sea. For 430 years, God’s people groaned under the Egyptian yoke. You’d think they would be grateful for having been set free. Think again!

While I was on the Mountain for 40 days with God, they threw a party with all of the sexual sin and idolatry that was so common in Egypt. They even made a golden calf and proclaimed it their god and worshiped it! I was fit to be tied!

So here we are in the desert and the people are complaining again. I wrote about this in the chapter after the one your Pastor read to you this morning. Please listen: 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with (me) Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” (I) Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against (me) Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then (I) Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

I’ll make a short list of how my people and yours are alike: Human nature is so fickle! It is never satisfied with what it has and always longs for something different! You have a saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Well, the people I was working with wanted to go back to Egypt. Oh, you should have heard them: “Oy Vey!” Oops, there I go again–that means “Oh, what a pain in the head.”

This what they actually said: “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” I couldn’t believe my ears– Our people had prayed for more than 400 years that God would deliver them from slavery–and now they wanted to go back! Oh, that part about the flesh pots–they were talking about boiled meat. They were lying-they ate bread–the Egyptians didn’t share meat with slaves. These people had the desert heat on the brain, that’s all that I can say. Such ‘kvetching’–as your Yiddish people say– such complaining!

You’d think that God would just give it up and let these ungrateful people die in the desert. But no–he is well known for his grace, even to the ungrateful. This is what your shepherd read from my book of Exodus: Then the Lord said…”I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they follow my instructions.” Oh, yes, and then he said that they had to gather twice as much as Friday, so they could rest on Saturday.

That’s when Aaron and I said to them: “In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. We told them: Who are we, that you should grumble against us? You call that “shooting the mailman.” Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny. But it isn’t so funny when you realize that when you complain, you’re complaining against God. Here’s what I told the people that day: You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord. I told them that the Lord would raise up another prophet, like me, from among their brothers. “You must listen to him,” I told them.

This happened when they didn’t want to see God’s glory anymore, so frightened were they of their sins against him. (Ex. 20:19) This prophet was more than that–He is God’s only Son. He came as the Savior from all of our sins, your sins of complaining and mine too. He was nailed to the tree, carrying all of our sins of ingratitude and rebellion against the Almighty. He became as weak as a worm and allowed them to nail him to the cross, just so he could die there for all of our sins.

He is the only way that our sins can be forgiven. He is to our spirits what the manna and the quails were in the desert for my people. You can’t live without food for your spirit any more than your body can live without food. It doesn’t surprise me one bit to know that the Lord Jesus himself was on the receiving end of complaints. His dear friend John told the story in his Gospel:

John 6: 41) … the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

Well, my time is growing short. I have much more to say to you, but perhaps another time. Let me leave you with this. I did business with human nature, as the leader of Israel for 40 years. It is said of our Savior “He knew what was in a man.” Listen to me: there are many in your day who have this naive idea that man’s nature is getting better. Better at sinning, yes. Better at inventing false gods, yes. Extremely creative in inventing ways to sin, as your Apostle Paul says, but not better by nature.

My people sinned so often in the desert that the Lord wanted to wipe them out right there on the spot. I had to intercede for them. Remember how angry I was when I came down from the Mountain? Have you read in my book of Exodus about my conversation with the Lord?

Ex. 32:9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.

13 “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Your new part of the Bible says that Jesus does for you what I did for them. He intercedes for you. But you must repent of your sins each day to receive the benefits of what He did for you when He was lifted up on the cross the way I put up the brass snake on a pole in the desert.

You live in the New Testament–that means that the time of grace could end at any time, now that Jesus has kept all of those many prophecies, some of which I wrote. He is full of grace and mercy, but the time for that is limited. I pray that you will not see his face in anger, as Korah’s sons did (Num. 16:30ff.) when the earth swallowed them.

The Lord’s Disciple Peter said it well. I leave you with his words. Please try to remember what I told you. Have a grateful heart. God is rich in mercy. Please: DON’T GRUMBLE WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!

10 …the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

– Pastor Wayne Dobratz <>

(Scripture quotations from NIV)