When the Israelites were traveling in the desert, God was with them every step of the way. He made His presence manifest to them by appearing as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. He provided for them. He gave directions to them through Moses. He rained down food for them from Heaven every day except the Sabbath. Once, he caused water to flow forth from a rock to slake their thirst. Once, he caused a huge flock of quails to descend upon their camp in order to provide them with meat. Despite this constant presence of God with the Israelites, St. Paul tells us that, with most of them, “God was not well pleased”. God was not pleased with the Israelites because the Israelites were not pleased with God. They were not satisfied with His care for them. They were constantly engaging in complaining , which is the subject of this sermon. Once, when the Israelites came to a certain place in the desert, they started to complain about the food that God was giving them, because He gave them the same thing to eat all of the time. They cried out loud, “Would that we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna” (Num. 11:4-6). Consider what is going on in this situation: the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians in Egypt. They had a terrible life where they had to work all day long under severe taskmasters. The Egyptians were systematically killing their own children. God delivers them from the Egyptians with great miracles. They have now gained freedom. Despite all of this, they are complaining because they don’t have the food that they want. They are looking back at their life of slavery and desiring to have that life back because they could have a variety of food. They are willing for their children to be killed and for them to be slave workers; as long as they get to eat their favorite food again! Bottom line: the Israelites had almighty God Himself taking care of them in the desert, feeding them and protecting them. Despite this fact, they were not content but complained. The same is true for us. God is with us every step of the way of our life. He is providing for us all of the time. Yet we are not happy. We complain. We have been set free from the slavery to the world by our baptism. We are fed with the very Body of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Yet we feel sorry for ourselves. We think that God is not doing enough. We pine for the material things of this world.
