The Curse of Murmuring and Complaining

Divine Whispers | Viju Jeremiah Traven

My Beloved Bride, let us examine a poison that consumed an entire generation: murmuring. It disguises itself as harmless speech. It calls itself venting. It pretends to express disappointment. Yet Heaven sees deeper. Scripture unveils murmuring as rebellion clothed in casual words. It is the language of a thankless heart. It ultimately speaks against God Himself.

Israel’s Fatal Flaw

Israel did not fall by idols alone. They fell by their tongues. The people complained, and it displeased the Lord (Numbers 11:1). What they called frustration, God named rebellion. The Spirit testifies: The tongue is fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body, corrupting the whole person, setting the whole course of life on fire, and itself set on fire by hell (James 3:6). What begins as a whispered complaint becomes a consuming blaze. It scorches faith. It burns unity. It destroys destiny.

The Source Revealed

My Beloved, I asked: How long will these people reject Me? (Numbers 14:27). It speaks with a Human voice. Yet Heaven sees its true face. It is the key to darkness. Through it, the demonic realm opens. Rebellious thoughts flood in like waters through a broken gate. These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires, using flattery to gain advantage (Jude 1:16). They thought it was a shortcut to success, but they ended in a curse.

The Darkening of Hearts 

Although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21). When gratitude departs, darkness enters. When praise ceases, the heart hardens. They became darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts (Ephesians 4:18). 

Ingratitude is the first step toward spiritual blindness. Murmuring completes the descent. The Light broke into the world, exposing truth and offering life. Yet Humanity loved darkness more, because darkness concealed what the light would reveal (John 3:19). Every complaining word draws the curtain against Heaven’s light. Every murmur builds a wall between the soul and its Savior.

The Doorway to Ruin

What sounds reasonable often becomes the quiet doorway to ruin. When the tongue burns without restraint, it exposes a heart that has ceased to trust God. In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength (Isaiah 30:15). To refuse rest in My promises does not make you strong. It makes you restless, weakened, yet destructive.

The Devouring Mouth

A soul that will not trust will murmur. A mouth that speaks without faith becomes a devourer. Paul warned: If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by one another (Galatians 5:15). The murmuring mouth feeds on itself. It starves while it consumes. James exhorts: Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge above all stands at the door (James 5:9).

From Frustration to Rebellion

Frustration spoken without faith becomes rebellion in God’s ears. It spreads like wildfire through a camp. It leaves an entire generation standing in ashes where promise once waited. Hence, Moses told complaining Israelites: You are not murmuring against us but against the Lord (Exodus 16:8).

My child, they tasted manna from Heaven yet despised it with their words. They walked under glory-clouds yet questioned the Lord Who led them. The Apostle warns: Do not grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer (1 Corinthians 10:10).

The Swift Judgment

Few sins invite such swift judgment. Murmuring opens the door to the destroyer. Murmur dethrones gratitude. It enthrones unbelief.

The Wilderness Generation: A Cautionary Tale

Consider Israel, delivered from Egypt by mighty signs and wonders. The Lord split the Red Sea before them. Its walls stood like sentinels of mercy. Pharaoh’s armies drowned behind them, swallowed by the very waters Israel crossed in triumph. By day, the Lord led them with the cloud. By night, with fire above. Never withdrawing His presence for a moment (Exodus 13:21–22).

Destroyed by Words

Yet within days, evil murmuring began. The whole assembly of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2). Not a few voices. The entire assembly rose as one. Every soul. Every tongue. Lifting accusations like smoke choking the desert air.

The Bitter Cry

Their cry was bitter and brazen: If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! (Exodus 16:3). They romanticized bondage. They glorified slavery. They called captivity “comfort.” There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, they said. They preferred full stomachs in chains more than freedom from slavery.

The Great Reversal

In their words, deliverance became cruelty. Unbelief Twisted the Truth. Provision became neglect. Even as He rained bread from Heaven. Even as God gave them water from the rock (Exodus 16:4; Exodus 17:6). The Promise Keeper became the Accused. They tested the Lord: Is the Lord among us or not? (Exodus 17:7).

Mercy Became Malice

What God called redemption, they renamed a death march (Exodus 20:2). This time, unbelief twisted mercy into malice. Salvation into suspicion. Their mouths reversed Heaven’s verdict. They refused to believe His Word but grumbled in their tents (Psalm 106:24–25).

The Power of Words

My Beloved, recall what I said: By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:37). Those who are called are justified (Romans 8:30). They are rescued by faith that dares to speak aloud. With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one professes faith and is saved (Romans 10:10). Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).

Faith Finds Voice

Faith finds its voice: Paul said: I believed; therefore I have spoken (2 Corinthians 4:13). The Blood of the Lamb secures victory. The word of testimony enforces it. Thus, the saints overcome the evil one (Revelation 12:11).

The Tragic Exchange

They had crossed the sea, yet Egypt still spoke through their mouths. Though the Lord had triumphed gloriously, casting horse and rider into the sea (Exodus 15:1, 21), their hearts turned back to old Egypt (Acts 7:39). Their feet were free. But their souls still bowed to the memory of bondage.

Glory for Grumbling

The wilderness echoed with a tragic exchange: Glory for grumbling. Promise for protest. Inheritance for insult. They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe God’s promise (Psalm 106:24).

The Peril of Murmuring

This is the peril of grumbling: it causes the redeemed to speak like the unredeemed. They forgot what their Redeemer did for them, and forget that death and life are in the power of their tongue (Proverbs 18:21). It causes the delivered people to crave for chains of slavery. Disowning their Deliverer, they said: Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt (Numbers 14:4).

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

The Spirit warns: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion (Hebrews 3:15). Grumbling hardens the heart. It blinds the eyes to glory. It turns freedom into a mere memory.

The Lie of the Wilderness

My Beloved, the path grows steep. You paint your prisons as glittering gold. You call your chains “security.” You name your slavery “the good old days.” The Israelites said: We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost (Numbers 11:5). You forget I delivered you. You forget your Deliverer. You remember what you lost. You have rejected the glorious promises I have given you.

Between Slavery and Promise

The wilderness stands between slavery escaped and promise not yet possessed. You open your mouth. Not in worship, but in accusation. Not in thanksgiving, but faultfinding. You questioned Me: Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us die in the wilderness? (Exodus 17:3). You do not trust the Lord Who brought you out of four hundred years of darkness. You charge Me with bringing you out to die in the desert (Numbers 14:2).

I Make Ways

My Beloved, do you not know? I make ways where there are none. I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of Egypt (Psalm 81:10). I split the waters for you. I rain bread from Heaven. Man ate the bread of angels (Psalm 78:25). Every step through this barren place, I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

Follow Me in the Wilderness

Your tongue can wound your own soul. Trust Me in the wilderness. I am leading you home. Beware the lie that the wilderness is the destination. The Psalmist said: He led them by a straight way to go to a city where they could settle (Psalm 107:7). The wilderness was only a passage to promises.

The Voice of Destruction

Beware the deceiver’s voice that says God brought you out to destroy you (Exodus 14:11). Yet the Lord declared: I brought you out of Egypt to be your God (Leviticus 25:38). Beware the poison of a thankless heart: They despised the pleasant land and did not believe His promise, but grumbled in their tents (Psalm 106:24–25).

Gratitude Guards Destiny

My Beloved, remember this: Gratitude guards destiny. Murmuring aborts it. A complaining heart will perish on the way. With most of them, God was not pleased, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:5).

Never because God proved untrue. But because they would not trust the Faithful through. Their grumbling hearts denied His grace, and judgment met their bitter face. When unbelief called God unfaithful,
the wages of complaint were awful. 

Kadesh Barnea: The Point of No Return

At Kadesh Barnea, the spies returned with reports of the Promised Land. Ten unbelievers spoke of fear and doubt. Thus, the people’s response sealed their fate: The whole assembly raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and without faith, the whole assembly said: If only we had died in Egypt (Numbers 14:1-2).

God’s Response

God’s response reveals the gravity of irreverent complaint. How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? Say to them: As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say, their bodies will fall in this wilderness (Numbers 14:27-29).

The Verdict

An entire generation died without entering into My promise. Not because of idolatry. Not because of murder or adultery. Because of reckless murmuring.

Why Grumbling Invites Severe Judgment

1. It Questions God’s Character

When we murmur, we essentially declare: God, You are not good. You are not faithful. You don’t know what You’re doing or what we are going through. They spoke against God, saying: Can God really spread a table in the wilderness? (Psalm 78:19). Murmuring reveals what you believe about God. It exposes your faith, or lack thereof.

2. It Reveals Ingratitude

The destroyer comes where thanksgiving has departed. Grumbling flows from a heart that has forgotten God’s past faithfulness and new mercies every morning. Hence, Paul said: Do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel (1 Corinthians 10:10). The Scripture warns the Church by pointing back to Israel’s example. This is not merely an Old Testament concern.

3. It Spreads Like Leaven

Senseless complaint is contagious. Murmuring is contagious. It infected the entire congregation. It turned their hearts from faith to fear. From gratitude to grumbling.

Therefore, My Beloved, you do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped generation, among whom you shine like stars (Philippians 2:14-15). Notice the connection: no grumbling equals shining as lights. But murmuring dims your light. It stains your witness. It blocks the flow of blessing into your life.

4. It Opposes God’s Purposes

Every complaint against His providence is resistance against His will. Apostle reminded: These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires (Jude 1:16). Every complaint against His providence is resistance against His will. You cannot complain your way into a great promise. You cannot grumble your way into glory. Remain humble and faithful. 

The Two Who Entered: Joshua and Caleb

Only two men from that generation entered the Promised Land. What set them apart? They had a different spirit and followed the Lord fully (Numbers 14:24). While others murmured, they believed. While others complained, they praised. While others saw obstacles, they saw opportunities.

Caleb’s Spirit

My servant Caleb has a different spirit, and he follows Me wholeheartedly. I will bring him into the land he went to (Numbers 14:24). What was Caleb’s “other spirit”? Faith that spoke blessing instead of complaint. Possibility instead of problem. God’s power instead of giants’ size.

Murmuring Invites Judgment

The earth opened. Serpents struck. The destroyer came. When Israel grumbled about manna, the Lord sent venomous snakes among them, and many died of snakebite (Numbers 21:5-6). When Korah led a rebellion of murmuring against Moses and Aaron, the Earth opened and swallowed them alive (Numbers 16:31-33). Murmuring is not harmless. It invites Divine wrath.

The Apostolic Warning

Paul warns: We should not test Christ as some of them did, and were killed by venomous snakes. And do not grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel (1 Corinthians 10:9-10). He uses Israel’s example as a warning to you. Murmuring brings destruction. Be careful what you murmur against.

A Warning for Today’s Church

We have normalized what Heaven still condemns. Beloved, we live in a generation that has normalized complaining. Social media platforms thrive on grievances. Cultural cynicism is celebrated as sophistication.

Christians murmur bitterly about their devoted Churches and become atheists. Faultfinders, unwilling to confront or correct their own flaws, complain relentlessly against their anointed and devoted leaders. They grumble against their circumstances and against the trials of faith appointed for their growth. They are quick to examine the speck in another’s eye.  But they remain blind to the plank in their own eye.  

That’s why I asked: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? You must first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3–5).

The Antidote: Thanksgiving and joyful praise in All Circumstances

Not only when circumstances favor, but in every moment. The cure for murmuring is rejoicing in the Lord always, even in the sufferings for the sake of righteousness. Radical thanksgiving is the antidote for the venom of the snakebite named grumbling. Thanksgiving is not only when circumstances are favorable. But thanksgiving and praise in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Prison Praise: The Power of Midnight Worship

Disciples unchained themselves by singing hymns; Heaven responded with earthquakes. Paul and Silas demonstrated how to unlock a prison using the key of praise. Their backs were bloody from beatings. Their feet were locked in stocks. Their future looked hopeless. But at midnight, they were praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16:25).

The Power of Praise and Worship

Their worship in the midst of suffering shook the prison. It broke their chains. It opened doors of salvation. Murmuring would have kept them imprisoned. Thanksgiving set them free. Hence, the Psalmist said: Our mouths were filled with joyful laughter, our tongues with songs of praise, and the nations acknowledged that the LORD had done great things for us (Psalm 126:2).

The Key That Unlocks Gates

My Beloved, when you replace murmuring with praise, you shift atmospheres. You open heavens. You receive a blessing. The psalmist declares: Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name (Psalm 100:4). Thanksgiving is the key that unlocks the gates of blessing. Thanksgiving transforms your trial into testimony. Murmuring turns your blessing into a burden. 

Choose Life: Gratitude Over Grumbling

Murmur makes you weaker, and the joy of the Lord makes you stronger. Will you enter your promise, or die in your wilderness? The choice is made daily through the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart. Keep your lives free from the love of money or fame and be content with what you have, because God said: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

At the Crossroads

When trials come, and they will, then you shall stand at the same crossroads as Israel. There, you must stand firm. Be led by the Spirit and thus reveal your sonship (Romans 8:14), proving it through the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5; 16:26), walking in Christlike obedience even unto sacrifice (Philippians 2:8), and offering your life as a spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2). Before the challenges of life, will you murmur, or will you worship? Will you complain, or will you trust and sing praise?

Guard Your Tongue

My Beloved child, murmuring is rebellion whispered softly. It corrodes faith. It dishonors the provision. It blinds the Human heart to the Divine purpose and God’s promise. Recalling the rebellion of the Israelites, it is written: How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? (Numbers 14:27). Their feet stood at the edge of destiny. Yet their words chained them to the wilderness.

Holy Ground

My Beloved, guard your tongue as holy ground. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault (Philippians 2:14–15). Gratitude preserves inheritance. Murmuring aborts it. One generation died murmuring at the threshold. Another entered the promise by singing praise.

The Final Word

Choose Words Wisely

Your inheritance listens to your voice.  Guard your tongue. Guard your heart. Always remember: the wilderness is not your destination. It’s only a fading passage. Don’t die there through the poison of murmuring when the Promised Land awaits those who trust and give thanks.

It is written: Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever (Psalm 107:1). Choose your words wisely, My Bride. Your inheritance listens to your voice. Let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. Amen!

Prayer 

Father, cleanse my lips and heart from murmuring, and fill my mouth with laughter to express my thanksgiving and faith. Teach me to trust You in the wilderness and to worship You before the glorious promise appears. Guard my tongue as holy ground, that my words may align with Your truth and glorify Your Name.

Reflection 

Every complaint reveals the flaw in my trust and rest in God. Gratitude is not denial of pain, but faith in God’s faithfulness. Today, I choose worship over murmuring, so I may enter the promise prepared for me.