Many of us like a good moan, but here we see something of the seriousness of a complaining attitude (v1-3). We are told here that the people of Israel complained “in the hearing of the Lord”. We need to realise that all we say, including our complaining, is done within God’s hearing. We also need to realise that a lot of our complaining is pointing ultimately to our dissatisfaction at God’s providential care over our lives.

We see here that God’s anger was aroused at this complaining and fire broke out from His presence. Yes, God is gracious, God is loving; but God is also a holy, righteous consuming fire against sin. We must walk cautiously before God. But what we also see here that for the repentant there is grace upon grace (v2). When we sin, we must not run from, but run to God for mercy.

The naming of the place Taberah (burning, v3) was surely to be a reminder of the danger of a complaining spirit, but sadly many did not learn (v4-6).
Why are we often so slow to learn?

One of the problems here was that the people’s focus was on the life they once had rather than focusing on God, who He is, what He has done. When we lose joy in the Lord and a sense of thankfulness at His mercy, we easily slip into a complaining spirit.