A Lesson from the Wilderness

I've been reading through the Pentateuch for my Old Testament class. This past week I was reading Numbers. One of the recurring themes in Numbers is the continual sin and rebellion of the Israelites as they travel in the wilderness. And I mean continual. It almost gets old as you're reading it. You get to, "The people spoke against God and Moses..." and you're like, "Oh come on, guys! Again?! Don't you get it by now?"

And as I was doing that, I was convicted about giving the Israelites a hard time. We've all said this and have heard it said a million times, but if it was us, we wouldn't do any better. So, after mocking the Israelites, my sinful heart engaged in some mocking of those who mock the Israelites.

And before the day was over I had done each again.

But in my sin and subsequent confession and prayer the Lord led me to the following thought.

What's Israel's problem over and over again, even before we get to Numbers? What's their complaint? Check this out:

• Exodus 16:3 - The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
• Exodus 17:1-3 - ...and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink " And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"
• Numbers 11:1 - Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD.
• Numbers 11:4-6 - The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna."
• Numbers 14:2-3 - All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder.
  
• Numbers 20:2-5 - There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why then have you brought the LORD'S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink."
• Numbers 21:5 - The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food."

Could you imagine putting up with these people? And did you catch their problem? Either they have no food, or they have no water, or they're afraid that the peoples of the land of Canaan are going to destroy them and take their families as plunder. Even though those might seem like legitimate concerns, it manifests a clear lack of faith in the God who has promised to bless them, and has already proven Himself willing and able to bless them as long as they've known Him.

But that's not the big thing. Aside from the food and water, did you see a theme in their complaints? Maybe this will help:

• Exodus 16:3 - The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
• Exodus 17:1-3 - ...and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink " And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"
• Numbers 11:4-6 - The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna."
• Numbers 14:2-3 - All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder.
  
• Numbers 20:2-5 - There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why then have you brought the LORD'S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink."
• Numbers 21:5 - The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food."

Amidst all their complaining, most foundationally they're upset because they think they had it better in Egypt. That's just amazing. This is the land in which they were enslaved, the land in which their hard labor and affliction caused them to sigh greatly and to call out to God for deliverance! This is the land whose people treated them as less than human, the land in which an edict was issued to kill all their firstborn children. They had it better, there?!

It actually gets worse. Do you know what their proposed solution was?

So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt" (Num 14:4).

They wanted to go back.

This is the land that Yahweh Himself had judged with the most amazing display of successive judgments since the creation of the world, culminating in the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea! If there was any doubt about their God's opinion of Egypt, there it was. And if that's not enough, how many times since the beginning of Exodus has Yahweh said, "... so you will know that I am Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt"? God wants them to remember forever that He brought them out of Egypt.

What do you call someone who wants to go back to slavery?!

I call them, "You." I call them, "Me."

Just as God has delivered Israel from their slavery of Egypt, He has delivered us from our slavery to our sin. And yet, we want to go back. We want to go back to prison. It doesn't matter that God has executed the most amazing events that have ever taken place in history, that ever will take place in history -- namely the incarnation and death of God Himself -- to deliver us from our slavery. It doesn't matter that it cost Him the life of His Son. It doesn't matter that it brought shame, disrepute, scorn, and hatred on the most precious Being in the universe. It doesn't even matter that it made our lives miserable.

We want to go back.

Despite all of that, we love our sin, and we want to go back to our slavery. God forgive us. And we deserve the fire to come out from His presence and consume us (Num 11:1). We deserve the plague (Num 11:33; 16:46, 49). We deserve the fiery serpents to poison us (Num 21:6). We deserve the ground to open up and swallow us into Sheol (Num 16:31-33).

But because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord, we don't get that. He got that. We got adoption as sons (Rom 8:15). We got every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies (Eph 1:3). We got God Himself (1Pet 3:18).

And we still want to go back to Egypt.

Dear friends, I pray that God gives you and me the grace to see how insane that is. I pray that our spiritual eyes would be so open and so fixed on the glory of Jesus -- on the glory of what we've got now as compared to what we deserve -- that our sin looks ludicrous to us. It is easy to criticize the Israelites sometimes. But the next time you think to do that, let their bad example show you that you're doing the exact same thing.

Don't go to back Egypt. There really isn't anything there for you but miserable slavery for eternity. We've got a better country, that is, a heavenly one. One that God Himself has prepared for us.

Hate your slavery.

Prefer the better city.

And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country,
that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God;
for He has prepared a city for them.
- Hebrews 11:15-16 -