Imagine a situation where a certain family has been struggling to pay school fees for one of their children. Then a donor appears who commits to pick up the tab. The family is thankful, but once the child is admitted, they discover that while the donation covers the full tuition, there are other needs—like the uniform—that are not covered. Realizing the full amount is not covered, they start complaining, even wondering why such a limited offer was given!

Does this sound familiar? If not, you can relate it to the story of the Israelites who were enduring hardship while in Egypt. It was a nasty situation. “So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor and worked them ruthlessly… They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of labor in the fields…” (Exodus 1:11-14).

God saw their plight and sent Moses to liberate them. But now, liberated from the whips of the Egyptians, having encountered certain obstacles along the way, not a few but multitudes started wailing with a deluge of complaints: “The Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now… we never see anything but this manna…’” (Numbers 11:4-6). Even with the gift of manna, they still found room to vent.

That’s what we call being ungrateful or forgetting too soon. Indeed, we see that while the Lord would yield and give them quail from the sea, “the anger of the Lord burned against the people and He struck them with a severe plague” (Numbers 11:33).

Lesson to note: May our lives not be so poor and fickle that we too are quick to forget and start wailing with constant complaints after the Lord has delivered us! We would do better to count our blessings, knowing that God is at work and has never left us alone! As the song goes: “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!”