Numbers 14:27: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me?  I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me.”

 

The NIV says the children of Israel grumbled against God, the GWT says they complained, and the BBE says that they made an outcry.  Bad Israel, how dare they grumble, murmur, complain or even make an outcry against God after all the mighty miracles he did for them.  You surely can’t blame God for not being able to bear such an evil congregation.  I know if I were God my patience would surely run pretty thin against a nation that would keep demanding more and more and then belly ache because they did not get enough.

 

Is it the fact that Israel was acting like a spoiled child that made God declare they were evil? What did he mean by “evil” anyways?  Was God’s patience really running thin?   Were the children of Israel really grumbling, complaining, murmuring and making an outcry to God?

 

I read this verse and I think of a Bible study I once attended where they were going through a workbook.  Everyone seemed quite excited over the fact that they were actually studying one of those obscure books of the Bible that nobody ever reads, the Book of Numbers.   One of the blanks in the workbook to fill in was:  “God called the children of Israel  evil because__________?     Well that was an easy one, because they were murmuring against God.  Some asked: “What does it mean to murmur.”   Immediately the response was: “My translation says…”   I thought, this is good, here is a group who really want to think and dig deep.  I was really pleased when I heard someone ask: “Why is it that after all the miracles would someone complain against God?”   But the immediate answer:  “Because they were evil.”   started everything going downhill.  The discussion that followed can be summarized as follows: “Of course we are Christians and we have more of a revelation today and, of course, we would never complain or murmur to God.”   There was even the suggestion that now that we are living in the New Covenant, there was really no need to study the Old Testament.   Oh Yeah?

 

First let’s look at that word for evil  It is one of the ra words.  This one ends with a Hei.    This evil is an evil of consumption. It is an evil that comes from letting natural desires consume you.  It an evil that comes from being so consumed with the needs of the flesh that you fail to hear the voice of God.  This evil congregation is one that focuses on the natural needs to the exclusion of addressing the spiritual needs.  I have to admit that I feel like a member of this evil congregation even if it died out 3,000 years ago.

 

This congregation tended to do a lot of murmuring.  The word in the Hebrew that is used here is layan which basically means to remain or stay.  It is a refusal to move forward out of lack of faith and receiving divine instruction.  I would give this a rendering of worry or fretting.   Worry is nothing more than a lack of faith and refusal to receive divine instruction.

 

Finally we see that God could not bear it.  Oddly, the word bear is not in the Hebrew.  The phrase is literally “Until when will this evil congregation murmur to me?’’ In fact, let’s look at this whole verse in a literal way: “Until when or How long will this congregation be so absorbed or focused on their natural needs that they will continue to refuse to move forward to the promised land. I heard the Children of Israel worry and fret and they are fretting against me.”  As Christians who belong to Jesus, when we worry for fret over our circumstances, we are fretting against Jesus.

 

I think before I pick up rocks and get ready to stone Israel, I should heed the warning of Jesus: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  In all my three score and six years of walking this earth, I have never known God to fail me. He is the one person who has never let me down, who has never rejected me.  Yet, when I worry and fret over my circumstances, I am taking all those years of faithfulness and throwing them back in the face of God saying: “I don’t trust you.”   Yeah, me, the guy who is always talking about seeking the heart of God and I am breaking His heart in the cruelest way.  After years of proving Himself trustworthy, in my worry and fretting I am literally saying to God: “I don’t trust you.”

 

You see, Hebrew is a language of emotions.  The words al mati” (until when) are not an expression of anger, but a cry of the heart, a heart that has been broken.  God is not expressing anger at the children of Israel for their murmurings, He is expressing a broken heart over having giving so much to prove Himself trustworthy and then to be told he could not be trusted.

 

If you are sitting back worrying and fretting over your circumstances, pause just for a moment, look beyond the natural and consider that you may be breaking God’s heart.

 

Andre Crouch once wrote:

 

When trouble is in the way,

I can’t tell my night from day,

When I’m tossed from side to side,

Like a ship on a raging tide,

 

I don’t worry, I don’t fret,
My God has never failed me yet,

Troubles come from time to time,

But that’s alright, I’m not the worrying kind,

 

Because I’ve got confidence,

God is gonna see me through

No matter what the case may be

I know he’s gonna fix for me.

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