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One of the more colorful parts of the story about Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness is watching him deal with all the grumbling.

It begins early. The feet of the Israelites barely have had time to dry from having crossed the Red Sea before they start complaining. Read about it in Exodus 15.

One day they are singing with joyful abandon. They are beating their drums and shaking their tambourines. The Lord has rescued them from total annihilation by Pharaohs army.

“Sing to the Lord,
For he has triumphed gloriously,
The horse and rider thrown into the sea.”

The next day: Grumble, grumble, grumble.

And it is not just that day. Periodically the whole congregation of Israel breaks out in complaint. It is quite funny, this recurring misery. It is funny as long as one is not Moses who has the responsibility to lead them.

Today’s reading from Numbers 11 presents more grumbling, more complaining. Now the people are complaining because they don’t have meat to eat. Apparently Manna, the “bread of heaven,” is not good enough for these people. The scripture says that in response the Lord became very angry and that Moses was displeased. That is an understatement.

Read out of context this can seem like an unreasonable response from the Lord and from Moses. What ever happened to patient leadership? Long-suffering compassion? Sympathetic understanding? Moses’ response to the Lord is characteristic of a man who has come to the end of his rope.

“Put a fork in me!” Moses says. “I’m done!”

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

People grumble as a way to avoid taking responsibility for something. Instead of addressing the fundamental internal unease of their soul, they find something external they can complain about.

“The reason I am so unhappy has nothing to do with me!” The people complain. “It is because I don’t have meat to eat.”

Yeah right. If I roast a turkey. You want roast beef.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

The Lord has a solution. But it has nothing to do with meat. It has everything to do with transforming people’s hearts so they step up and take responsibility, not only for the disquiet in their own hearts, but for more important and of much greater consequence, for the purposes of God as well.