Ex 16:2+3, And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." 
	This morning we will bring our look at the grumbling and the complaining and the rebellion of God’s Chosen people to a conclusion. As we do so, let us read together a brief summary, in Psalms, of what happened in the hearts of these redeemed people. The purpose of this entire time together is that we would see that this is our history in attitude and mannerisms and deliberately seeking after what we want rather than what the Lord provides for us. We must, instead of criticizing and deriding this stubborn people, recognize that it is far too easy for us to follow the exact same path if we are not on guard with our hearts and thoughts and desires. 
We truly have no place to disparage the walk of these Israelites in the wilderness, because we have all grumbled and complained our way through our various and many wilderness experiences, some of us over and over again. That is not to say that we are to wear that as some badge of honor, but rather that we should see ourselves as desperately in need of the every salvation and provision of God. We have been unfaithful and insincere and unthankful and grumbling and taking Him for granted day, after week, after month, after year, after decade. 
As we read together the Psalmist’s this summary in Psalms 106, let it be with the yearning that we would cease from this same attitude and demeanor. We need to beseech God do everything necessary in us, individually and as His people, to honor and to reverence and to bless Him for all that He does, every moment of our lives on this earth. Let us fully hunger for His righteousness and His holiness in the commitment for our lives to be absolutely pleasing unto the Lord from this instant onward into eternity! 
Ps 106:6-48, We have sinned like our fathers, We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Thy wonders; They did not remember Thine abundant kindnesses, But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He might make His power known. Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up; And He led them through the deeps, as through the wilderness. So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries; Not one of them was left. Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But craved intensely in the wilderness, And tempted God in the desert. So He gave them their request, But sent a wasting disease among them. When they became envious of Moses in the camp, And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And engulfed the company of Abiram. And a fire blazed up in their company; The flame consumed the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt, Wonders in the land of Ham, And awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe in His word, But grumbled in their tents; They did not listen to the voice of the Lord. Therefore He swore to them, That He would cast them down in the wilderness, And that He would cast their seed among the nations, And scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds; And the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed; And so the plague was stayed. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, To all generations forever. They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, So that it went hard with Moses on their account; Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips. They did not destroy the peoples, As the Lord commanded them, But they mingled with the nations, And learned their practices, And served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices, And played the harlot in their deeds. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, And He abhorred His inheritance. Then He gave them into the hand of the nations; And those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were subdued under their power. Many times He would deliver them; They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, And so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless He looked upon their distress, When He heard their cry; And He remembered His covenant for their sake, And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors. Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to Thy holy name, And glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord! 
	Oh that we would all come to the place where instead of grumbling and complaining against God and against His Word and against each other and against our circumstances, we would fully and joyously proclaim with every fiber of our being, Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to Thy holy name, And glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord!
	Our Lord was continually beset with the attitude and the demeanor that we have highlighted in this study. It is an outlook and behavior which elevates oneself over anyone else seen as less worthy. Whenever what we want conflicts with what the love of God is working to establish, this attitude of entitlement and dissatisfaction and judgment rears its ugly head.
This is highlighted in Luke 15:1+2. Luke 15:1+2. Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." 
	Lest we declare how piously fraudulent and hypocritical we find these Pharisees and scribes to be, think long and hard about how we have considered those in need whom we have shunned in our hearts and minds and from our tables and homes. We often find ourselves grumbling against those for whom the Lord came, those in greatest need. Sadly, we also grumble against those who do not meet our standard of being someone worthy of our time and energy and resources. Jesus came to seek and to heal and to save. That requires that the ones in greatest need are those who are sick and lost and in need of The Savior. 
When we grumble about serving those with whom we have such a hard time, often even those within our very families, or meeting the needs of the ones who just cannot take care of themselves, we are no better than these very Scribes and Pharisees. They thought that Jesus should only associate with the pious and the religious and the higher classed among society. They were shocked that He would openly go to the sinners and the sick, the ones they considered the dregs of society. 
	Luke 19:5-10, And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly. And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." And Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." 
	The love of God, brought forth by The Only Begotten Son of God, was not exclusively for those religious few who would discuss and dissect and appreciate the historical and theological basis of their religious studies. It was for the very sake of those whose lives were in such desperate straits. If God didn’t save them, no one could! It was for those who were starving and frantically seeking for God’s salvation to be effective and their life. 
The religious few were afraid of the message that Jesus brought and the people whom He attracted unto Himself because it was eating away at their very base of power and prestige and influence. Rather than delighting in the wonderful manner in which Jesus was of complete service and aid to those in such frantic and distressed want, these leaders banded together to eradicate this troublemaker. They despaired and grumbled among themselves about this Jesus because He showed them a very vivid and detailed picture of their own selves.  
	John 6:35-44. John 6:35-44, Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. "But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." The Jews therefore were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." And they were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 
	As represented by the manna sent from Heaven in the wilderness, Jesus came down from Heaven to earth to bring salvation, the means of God loving His creation unto Himself. In His Son, He draws those whom He knows will respond to being raised up together in the power of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. There is no place to bring forth those hearts and minds and attitudes that are filled with grumbling and with rebellion against the One Who gave His life for the sake of those so Chosen by God to receive eternal life. 
In this course of our walk on earth, we need to pay very close attention to the warning of the Apostle Paul that is recorded for us in 1 Cor 10:1-13, if you would please read along with me. 1 Cor 10:1-13, For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play." Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. 
	Please take to heart the fact that …these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. We are to know about the manner of their grumbling attitudes, their rebellion, their disobedience, and their punishment in order that we do not follow their example of decline and destruction. 
We know that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God by Whom we are saved. We know that we can not do anything of our own to earn or to keep our salvation. It all rests in the mighty and wonderful hand of God. Knowing this, we need to be very careful that our hearts are set on seeking to please Him for the very reason that He has done so much for us and in us and through us unto His glory filling the entirety of His creation! He deserves the very best that we can offer Him in lives that are completely sacrificed to His service for the sake of His Honor and His praise! So be it!
	And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Amen

				
This morning’s benediction is Deut 10:20+21. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. Amen.