How do you feel when someone complains about what you do? Okay, now what if you have done a lot of nice things for the complainer, and have gone out of your way to help him or her out of lots of tight spots? How would you respond to surly ingratitude under those circumstances?

The southern thing, of course, would be just to smile and say, “Well, bless your heart,” and never speak to such a person again. It’s just human nature to turn away from those who complain about what we try to do for them, to let them alone to stew in their own juices, to say, “If you don’t like the way I’m leading the tour, just get off the bus!” So let’s face it – would any of us have blamed God if He had just walked away from those who grumbled about every setback they faced on their trip out of Egypt?

But what if the one grumbling about you is your child? In such a case where abandonment is not possible, the judicious application of some rather unpleasant consequences might come to mind. As my mama would say, we might want to “jerk a knot in his tail” if a child proved to be so ungrateful.

So, isn’t it interesting that God doesn’t do either of these things in today’s passage? Even though He had redeemed His people from slavery, they continued to complain every time anything didn’t go their way. No matter how many miracles He had done for them, they just didn’t trust Him. But instead of abandoning them or blasting them, God responded to their faithlessness with grace. He literally showered food from Heaven on them. And as verse 12 says, He did this to show His people that He is the Lord their God.

And that’s the good news for us today. For no matter what we do, God always does what is best for His children. God is always faithful to His promises. And God gives us grace, grace we can’t earn and grace we don’t deserve, because He loves us. And He shows us this grace most clearly, of course, not in the manna He gave His people in the wilderness, but in the Bread of Heaven He provided for us on the cross of Christ.

So, if all that’s true of our God, shouldn’t that mark the way we deal with the ungrateful people around us? If we are truly to follow Jesus, doesn’t that mean we should also be patient and gracious, showing love even to those who grumble and complain, seeking to earn their trust with our love?

Exodus 16:9-12 (ESV)

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'”
10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
11 And the LORD said to Moses,
12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'”