Moses 11 LIFE WITH GOD IN THE WILDERNESS
Exodus 15:22 - 19:1
1 Cor. 10:5-6 / 11
“God was not pleased with most of them because they were overthrown in the wilderness. These things are warnings to us, not to crave evil things like they did / These things happened to them as warnings to us and were written down as a warning and were written down to teach us.”
D. The Steps to Sinai (15:22-19:1)
1. The Murmuring (15:22- 17:7)
2. The Marauders (17:8-15)
3. The Management Problem (Ch. 18)
4. The Mountain of God (19:1)
When the songs of Israel’s “Independence Day” celebration ended the people, for the first time in 430 years were free from Egypt. A good parallel is our salvation – the term means “to deliver or rescue or set free”. We are freed from the guilt of sin by the cross of Christ (Rom. 3:24-27); the dominating power of sin in the new birth (1 Jn. 3:1-10) and one day, when we are in heaven we will be delivered from the very presence of sin (Rev. 21:27,22:15).
It is no wonder then that Paul, writing to the sin riddled city and church at Corinth, used Israel’s deliverance and their years in the desert as an example of how we should live as Christians. We will draw some lessons today from the wilderness years as a whole and then turn to their three months walk to Sinai.
I. THE LONG JOURNEY (Ex. 15-Josh. 1)
1. A Time of Suffering
The trip to Canaan on foot would take two or three weeks. All you had to do was walk up the super highway by the sea. But imagine the surprise when Moses turned to East, to the desert he once live in and which he called a “burning furnace” (). God took them the hard way.
They found water holes made bitter (15:22-27). They saw their food run out (16:1-36). In the first months they were attacked by the wild nomadic Amalekites (17:8-16). They had rebels in their ranks to lead them away for God’s way.
2. A Time of Strengthening
Struggles like this are intended to make us strong. Romans five tells us suffering produces endurance, which means waiting on God and not worrying and staying on God’s road laid out for us no matter how hard it gets.
This produces character or godliness that gives us hope and love. After a hard life with much suffering (2 Cor. 11:21-33) Paul said he had fought a good fight and finished his course (2 Tim. 4)
The Babies We Are
The struggles and sufferings in the will of God home the hard way - the way of struggle, seduction and sorrow because it was the way of strengthening. Deuteronomy eight says it was to humble (8:2) and discipline (8:5) them for the battles it would take to remove the powerful, giant Canaanites (13:17).
The Babies We Are
God looked back at this time and said through Hosea that this was when He taught Israel to walk like a mother or father holding the hands of their little child. It was also when he said it broke his heart to see them walk away in rebellion against Him (11:1-3).
Every pastor knows the heartache of seeing beautiful children in his church singing in the children’s choirs who grow up to lead filthy lives. God, the Father in the parable of the Prodigal son knows it too (Lk. 15)
When we are born again we are baby Christians. The Bible says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. . .” (1 Pet. 2:2).
Nothing is more helpless than a baby. It can do nothing for itself; all it can do is cry for help. The longer we live with the Lord when we come on to hard times we are humbled by our weakness and know Jesus is right when he says, “Without me you can do nothing.”
3. A Time of Sinning
Sins Werd Present
Sadly these desert years were a time of sinning. Suffering is intended to make us better but it makes some people, like these Israelites bitter and disobedient.
Before the parting of the sea they blamed Moses and wanted to go back to Egypt. And then soon after God parted the sea in answer to prayer, they forgot all about this and complained when the drinking water gave out (16:1-3)
They complained a few weeks later when the water hole they found was bitter and the food was gone.(Ex. 15:24; 17:2). They complained the entire forty years (17:3-4; Nu. 11:1-6; 14:1-4; etc.). On more than one occasion they wanted to kill Moses (Ex. 17:4; Nu. 14:10).
At Sinai, with Moses gone, they built a golden calf to worship and had some kind of wild orgy (Ex. 32; 1 Cor. 10:7). When Moabite women came up and seduced the Hebrew men to have sex with them, they gave in gladly (Nu. 25).
Soon after they left Sinai they came to Kadesh, on the southern border of Canaan, and when the spies reported about Canaan’s giants, they refused to go in (Nu. 13-14). Because of this God let them wander in the desert for the next 38 ½ years until every man over age 20, who came out of Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, died in the desert (Nu. 14:20-25).
Moses, himself will disobey God and not be allowed to enter Canaan (Num. 20). Miriam, who drew him from the water as a baby, will give in to jealousy and try to take Moses’ place as the leader of Israel (Num. 11)
When we are converted God leaves our old nature (the flesh) in us (Romans 7). We are at war on the inside when temptations come (1 Cor, 10/ Gal. 5), We are free from the controlling power of sin, so we are no longer “slaves” to it (Rom. 6) but sins do intrude, even though they do not rule.
Sins Were Punished (Deut. 8:5)
Historian Leon Wood estimates there were seven funerals every hour for 38 ½ years, a constant reminder to the nation to trust God and obey or pay a horrible price.
At Sinai after they worshipped a golden calf God and Moses killed thousands who refused to repent. God wanted to wipe them all out but Moses intervened (32:16).
E,V. Hill said it was a good thing God and Moses did not get mad at Israel at the same time. If they had there would be on Israel.
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God turned Miriam into a leper when she rebelled against Moses’ leadership (Num. 12) and let the ground swallow up a group of rebels when they did it (Num. 16)
Punishments shows us we are God’s child.
The mark of a true child of God, Hebrews twelve says, is that God will punish him or her when they do wrong. If we are not punished we are not his children (v8) .
Punishments strengthens us
We don’t like discipline but we need it because it will make us better people (Heb. 12). Hebrews 12 says he chastises every one He “receives” and by it, “produces a harvest of righteousness in those who have been trained by it.”
Punishments Scare Us
The first time Israel sinned after the Red Sea was parted was three days later when they complained and wanted to go back to Egypt because their water gave out. He put his switches on the refrigerator with this warning:
“If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.” (15:25-26)
God’s people do get sick. What he was talking about was the plagues he on Egypt.
We should obey the Lord because we love Him and believe His ways are right and he will see us through. When a senior citizen in my church was told she had Parkinson’s disease she told me with a smile, “Pastor, God brought me to it and He will see me through it.”
But in dark times when we sometimes wonder if God cares and if we are really His children. We become weary in well doing and it seems God has turned a deaf ear to our cries for help.
When we think the devil’s crowd in Egypt seems to have it far better than us, we are tempted to quit following His ways and go back to our Egypt.
This is where the fear of God comes in. We don’t want Him to punish us. Every parent knows the value of strong of LOVING discipline (Eph. 6:1-4). And so does God. It would be so nice if our children obeyed all the time because they loved us. But we all know they obey sometimes because they know what they’ll get it if they don’t. Whether it is fear or faith, God uses troubles to make us strong but. . .
A Lesson in Grace
. No wonder God said to them through Moses,
“. . .it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people” (Dt. 9:6).
The closer we get to God the more we see how sinful we really are. Our old nature gives in and we are driven to the cross as our only hope of making heaven. A true, mature Christian would no more try to go into the presence of a holy God without Jesus that try to life face down on the Sun and live.
4. A Time of Sustenance (Dt. 2:7; 8:2-4).
At the close of the wilderness years Moses stood before the people and said to those about to enter Canaan:
“God has blessed you. . . He has watched over you through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. . . Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. . .” (Dt. 2:7; 8:2-4).
God was their cloud above them to keep them cool in the daytime. He was their fire to keep them warm at night. Both showed them when to strike camp and move and where to go.
After their bitter complaints God gave them sweet water out of the bitter (Ex. 15), water from a rock- Paul compared to Jesus in First Corinthians 12 (Ex. 17), and food from the sky (Ex. 16). He defeated their enemies (Ex. 17) and kept them safe (Dt. 2:7).
II. THE SHORT JOURNEY TO SINAL (Ex. 15:22-17:7)
We see all these struggles, sins and lessons play out in the three month’s trip from Egypt to Sinai.
The Trip
1) The Water gave out, they complained, God warned them not to stop and led them to a beautiful oasis.
2) Leaving there they complained about having little food, Moses told them their complaints were not for him but for God and God responded by raining the Manna from heaven and Quails from everywhere, enough for two million people.
3) Later the water gave out again and the people grumbled again, this time saying, “Is the Lord really with us or not” and making plans to kill Moses with stones. Moses cried out to God with Pastoral exasperation, “What am going to do with these people? They are about to stone me”.
God, in mercy and grace, gave them a huge rock to travel with them and from it came all the water they needed. Paul compares this to Jesus (1 Cor. 10) who stood near well one day and said, “He who drinks from this water will thirst again, but he who drinks from the water of life will never thirst again.” (Jn. 4)
The Teachings
1) Troubles Come in the Will of God (Jn. 16:33; Ex. 15-17).
If we expect to breeze through life like a knife through warm butter we are sadly mistaken. Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn.16:33).
2) Troubles Produce Either Strength or Sin
Philips Brooks, quoted by John F. Kennedy said, “ Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men and women. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your task.”
3) Complaining is a serious and destructive sin that destroys homes and churches. It made Moses pray to die (Num. 11). Paul said to New Testament Christians, “Do not grumble as some of them did - and were killed by the destroying angel” (1 Cor. 10:10).
4) We need to trust God when we come to apparent dead ends; when the water runs out and there is no water in sight. The Bible says, “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).
5)Don't “pay the price and buying nothing” We are like a wide receiver in football going across the middle knowing he is going to get hit whether he catches the ball or not. Someone said, “The bad thing about opportunity is that it comes disguised as a problem.
6) Don’t Forget the Tree
(Ex. 15:25; 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4).
When God made the foul water pure He did not tell Moses or Aaron to use their miracle rods. We read:
“. . .the Lord showed him a piece of wood” (Ex. 15:25) to use. Paul compared the rock to Jesus, can’t we see in this piece of wood, the cross of our Lord? When we gripe and complain about the troubles of life, God will show us a piece of wood.
Life was hard for the people who received the Book of Hebrews and the Holy Spirit in Chapter 12:3-4, pointed them to Jesus.
:
, “Consider him (Jesus) who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (
When life becomes hard in your walk with God and are tempted to become let God show you a piece of wood, let God show you Jesus and his cross. Let God put that piece of wood into your bitter, complaining heart and it will become sweet.
No matter what the Lord asks us to endure for Him, it’s not one one-thousandth of what He has endured for us. At the cross complaining will die and rejoicing will come alive.
The Christian life is fight from beginning to end. This was true of Jesus and is true for us. In Revelation 12 we see Christ being born with Satan ready to devour Him.
He goes to heaven and the church, “fled into the desert (wilderness) to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1250 days” (Rev. 12:6). And right behind her was a raging devil bent on her destruction
This 1260 days is called “42 months” (Rev. 11:2,3) pointing to the 42 encampments of Israel in the wilderness (Dt. 33). This points to the time we live in between Jesus’ ascension and his return, the time Satan is allowed to attack us.
. God takes us home like He took His Son home - the hard way. But the beauty is - He goes with us. The poet says,
Is this the right road home, O Lord
The clouds are dark and still
The stony path is sharp and hard
Each step brings some fresh hill.
Yes, child, this very path I trod
The clouds were dark for Me,
The stony path was hard to tread
Not sight, but faith can see
