So this whole wilderness of sin, the wilderness of thorns, was to bring to their attention they were now going to experience some difficulties, frustrations, some challenges, where they're not getting what they want, and in the midst of it, God is going to reveal Himself. He revealed Himself just before; He's the God who heals. Now He wants to reveal Himself as the God who provides - so it says: what happened there was, the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained. Oh, isn't that lovely? Complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Then the children of Israel said to them: oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when they ate bread in full! Forgot about the slavery and the taskmasters and stuff, and the bitterness. You brought us out into this wilderness to kill us, the whole assembly with hunger.
Then the Lord said to Moses - see, when you read in that chapter there, you find out that the issue of complaining is mentioned about four times, look at it. Verse 7: In the morning you'll see the glory of the Lord; He hears your complaints against the Lord. What are we, you're not complaining against us? Verse 8: You're complaints against the Lord. Verse 9: Come near before the Lord, He heard all your complaining. Verse 11: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I have heard your complaining. Oh, I didn't think when I complained, God heard it. Four times see, four times He makes it very clear, that when we complain, He's listening. In fact the whole spirit world's listening to what comes out of mouths in the midst of a difficult time, and we have a choice what comes out of mouth, because what comes out of our mouth's in our heart, so whatever comes out of our mouth reveals the heart issues we're struggling with, as we go through a difficult time. That's a great thing to think of, so what's been coming out of your mouth recently? Can you remember very, very angry words? Bad words? Yeah well, we have those days.
Actually they're a heart response to a difficult situation, that's all. They show what's in your heart - it comes out of your mouth. Want to find out what's in the heart, listen to the mouth, every time. Sweet, blessing, faith, confidence, boldness, courage, defeat, negativity. Whatever it is that's in the heart, will find it's way out. It doesn't come out on the good times, it comes out in the difficult times, because - there's a reason for that in a moment. Okay, so I want you to see their responses to their lack of food. Now first they lack water, and God sorted that out for them. Now they're lacking food. Don't you think God can sort that out as well? God sorted the last one, He can sort this one out. Okay, now I want you just to read again what they said. They complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said: oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full! You brought us out to this place to kill us, and this whole assembly, with hunger.
Now I want you to notice four things that emerge out of their mouth. There's four things come out of their heart, and you can read this very easily. Now these are things that are very common to people, common. I've had to wrestle with them, have to continually ensure my heart's getting free of them. It's just so easy. The first thing is bitter judging. You notice what they say to Moses: You, you brought us here, to kill us. Now that is a judgement, and it's a judgement rooted in deep bitterness of heart. You brought us here to kill us. It's the same, Moses later on, when God said stand aside, I want to kill them, and he said: no, and he interceded for them. [Laughter] Don't kill them Lord, see? So this is the first thing that came out. Here's the second thing that came out; they complained, the whole congregation complained. They complained about Moses and Aaron. Now I want you to have a look here. The word complaint means to stop overnight. It means to stay permanently. It means to find fault. It means to protest against something that's been judged to be wrong, to make an accusation. Isn't that interesting?