MURMURING AGAINST GOD

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1881

MURMURING AGAINST GOD.

EVERY word of complaint at our lot in life, every whine at seeming ill-fate, every question of the goodness and personal care of God towards us is a far worse rebellion in us than the cries of Israel for bread and flesh in the desert; for we have accumulated proofs of God's ability to protect and feed us, and of his faithfulness to his promises. To doubt an untried leadership then was far different in its moral quality from doubting him whom all the saints have tested and who never was found faltering or untrue to the frailest or least worthy, trusting soul. He is a tried and proven friend, and failure to trust his providence now is in the face of thousands of mercies.

The object of leaving the Israelites so many weeks without the manna which it was apparent would be necessary for their sustenance, was probably to prove them, and to enlarge by exercise their faith and trust in the all-powerful arm and all-bounteous mercies of God; so the object of his leading us through the unknown wilderness and along barren wastes, where, to the human eye, there is nothing sustaining or delightful, but on the contrary disappointed hopes, a gloomy outlook, few friends, and a circumscribed field of labor, may be the same—to lead us to trust him for our daily bread, and look only to him for comfort and rest.

Had Israel found abundant supplies in the wilderness of Sin, like the rich men of to-day, they would probably have forgotten all about God. Not having to depend upon him daily they might have thought that they, the new nation, had done wondrously, and were able to do all things. Prosperity and success in the affairs of this world fatten and puff up our pride; while sorrows and felt dependence chasten the spirit and make it fit to companion with the pure and unselfish.—Golden Censer.