Be careful not to grumble at the corner.
Picture this: The children of Israel are marching on their way to the promise land. Suddenly someone at the front of the group sees what look like a break in the road. New sceneries lies ahead. there is an image of something different. someone shouted, "I think we are here, this feels like it." the enthusiasm in the group grows, like wildfire, from the front to the back it travels.
The older folks have been down this road before; they know the drill and are not putting their hopes out there like that. the lord had said forty years and it was not that time. Over the clamor of scraping feet and painful moans, they shouted. "no, it is not." the young among them are hopeful, if not the promised Land that at least the abundance, maybe some rest, a little shade for their weary souls. They kept pressing forward. From the back of the group comes a shout, "I see it, that aren't no corner, its just a mirage, Moses' God brought us into the wilderness to kill us." and the murmuring increases, row by row, from the back to the front it trickles. what does God hear? (Numbers 14:27) He hears the voice of Egypt! their whining, their complaining, their disbelief and ungratefulness. this was not the voice of his chosen people. Israel had entered Egypt four hundred years ago but Egypt had left with Israel on their return. So the sharp break in the road, to their eyes was just another corner, so on they went to another round: around the mountain.
