What Is Grumbling?
I’ve recently tried to reflect on why I’m so prone to grumbling. The Collins Dictionary defines grumbling as “to murmur or mutter in discontent; complain sullenly.” I’m not the first to struggle with this sin. It has been a constant for the people of God.
The first instance of grumbling in the Bible is in Exodus 15:24. The newly redeemed people of God were fresh from joyfully singing the Lord’s praise:
The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Ex. 15:2)
Just three days later, they grumbled against Moses in the wilderness, saying, “What shall we drink?” (Ex. 15:24). What began in Exodus 15 as a trickle of grumbling becomes a torrent in the next chapter. In Exodus 16, verses 2, 7, 8, 9, and 12 all make reference to the people’s grumbling, and it moves from grumbling about Moses to grumbling “against the Lord.” In Numbers 14–17 we see the same pattern: the people grumble against Moses and Aaron and about their situation, but when God addresses them, He states that their grumbling is actually against Him.
When the people of the Lord lost sight of who God was, what He had done, and how He had provided, they very quickly began to grumble, an action to which they often reverted.
Grumbling reappears in the Gospels when the Pharisees and the scribes (those socially upright and religious leaders) murmured at Jesus’ receiving and eating with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:30; 15:2; 19:7). The Jewish people grumbled at His teaching, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41–42). This is a mirror image of the people of Israel complaining in the wilderness. The disciples followed suit, grumbling to themselves that Jesus’ teaching was too hard (John 6:60), and from that point on, many turned away from Him (John 6:66). In the Gospels, grumbling reveals a heart of unbelief.
The Danger of Grumbling
When we come to Epistles of the New Testament, there are commands to be obeyed, imperatives to be heeded: “Do all things without grumbling” (Phil. 2:14), “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged” (James 5:9), “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9), and do not “grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10). The New Testament writers see the obvious danger of grumbling and have no problems commanding us to avoid it.
Grumbling’s evil twin is discontentment. Refusing to recognize the providence of God—that He is sovereignly in control of my life such that the circumstances I face are not random fate—will lead to discontentment. Discontentment inevitably leads to grumbling and vice versa. They go hand in hand, and they are also contagious.
I spoke at a young people’s camp a number of years ago. It was toward the end of the week, and everyone was tired. In the midst of my preaching, I saw one of the young lads deliberately turn to his friend and yawn, and his friend responded in seconds by yawning involuntarily. I saw scores of young people in front of me putting their pens down to yawn. There was a chain reaction. It only stopped when I pointed it out and told them to stop yawning. Even as I write about it, I find myself yawning, and you might feel like yawning as you read that story.
There must be some psychological explanation, but yawning is contagious. It is the same with grumbling and discontentment. It happens in a marriage, in families, and certainly in congregations. Sadly, a little grumbling goes a long way.
Seeing grumbling for what it is helps us. My grumbling is not just against others or against circumstances but against the Lord. It is not a little thing.
I’ve found it helpful to think of what the Lord Jesus endured. He was so often misunderstood, abominably mistreated, and spoken against. His words were twisted against Him. He was doubted, denied, and betrayed—even by His closest followers. There were false allegations and insinuations laid against Him. He was bitterly opposed by the powerful. He knew deep loneliness. He had nowhere to lay His head. He had to borrow a coin for an illustration. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude,” He did not grumble. There are no recorded words of His discontent or murmuring.
As we look to Jesus for strength and help, we see in Him the perfect Man. Our faith and hope is in Him. It is only in Him that we find the power to change.
Thankfulness Drives Out Grumbling
Psalm 103:2 tells us,
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
I so easily forget who God is, what He has done, and how He has provided for me in Jesus. Recognizing that our grumbling is sinful, taking it to God, confessing it, and acknowledging that we need the help and strength of the Holy Spirit to deal with it is how we can free ourselves from the death spiral of grumbling and discontentment.
I also think we can help one another. If grumbling is infectious, like yawning, and is only stopped by us recognizing it and calling it out, then we can call it out in one another gently and with love, recognizing that all of us need God’s grace in this area. It is interesting that the instances of grumbling recorded in the Bible are corporate—Israel, the Jewish leaders, the disciples, and so on. We need to help one another in this area.
May the Lord be gracious to us and keep us from being a grumbling people.
Ligonier Ministries