Exodus 16-17

Moany ranger was what I called my children when they were younger and moaned about everything. Starting from “are we there yet, why mum, can I, I don’t want to, not again,” to mention a few.
I am sure some of you have experienced this, not only from children but adults too. Children moaning about things is frustrating but for adults, it’s doubly frustrating and annoying.
The Israelites would qualify as “moany rangers” in every sense of the word. They were ungrateful people who loved the sound of their groaning.
Murmuring against the Lord is a sin, but it didn’t seem to bother them, they wanted what they wanted when they wanted it, regardless of what the Lord said.
Sounds like children, right? But that’s true for a lot of adults as well.
Fancy them emerging from the wilderness of “sin” with a long list of complaints against God and Moses. They moaned about everything, especially for water. But their moaning was that God wasn’t doing a good job of caring for them, which became a habitual thing for them. With everything God had done for them, you’d expect them to not only appreciate Him but understand that He’ll never fail them.
Sadly, the motif of moaning runs right throughout the Exodus story, they wanted water, complain! Wanting food, complain! Tired, complain! They even complained about the miraculous provision of all their needs.
In Exodus 16:3, they felt death in Egypt was better than being killed in the wilderness. There’s a difference between complaining and crying out to God for help seen in Psalm 50:15. God always hears us when we cry to him for help but complaining is like the whining of a child who doesn’t get their way.
There are people, even believers who’ll complain about anything that goes wrong: seeking to apportion blame; decrying the current situation. Perhaps you’re guilty of it, I know I fall into that sometimes.
We all tend to be moany rangers when things don’t go according to our plans and desires.
Pauls says to believers in Philippians 2:14 to not complain at all, but we do daily, we find things to murmur about — secret murmurings and complaints against other people which arise from selfishness, pride, envy, and ignorance. When we moan about our problems more than we praise, we are blaming God for idleness to the Lord, He never is, He is constantly working behind the scenes to bring His will and plan for us to pass.
Do not murmur declares Philippians 4:6.
Moses got nothing but grumbling and moaning from the Israelites, as Jesus did from the Jews in His time when He proclaimed himself as the bread of life in John 6:41-51-The Jews of Jesus’ day grumbled a lot-especially when Jesus reveals who He is, the Son of God. Rather than responding to this Good News with faith, rather than responding with “Lord we believe, please help our unbelief,” they asked how in the world can this be?” Even after He performs miracles for them and showed through His actions who He is and how much He loves and cares for them, they still grumble.
You and I do the same, we, like the Israelites, soon forget the glory, the blessings and promises of God and focus on the little things that shouldn’t matter.
Don’t be a moany ranger, be a praise ranger.
Shalom