Those Grumblin’ Israelites:
Pilgrims in the desert
Intro
I am not sure what your day has been like so far, but it cannot be going worse than the experience of Mathieu Boya. Boya was practicing his golf swing in a pasture adjacent to Africa’s Benin Air Base. With one swing of the golf club, a shot he later described as "a glorious slice," Boya hit a bird, which in turn dropped onto the windshield of a trainer jet whose pilot was taxiing into position for takeoff. The pilot lost control of his trainer jet and ploughed into four shiny Mirage jets, totally demolishing the entire air force of Benin.
Boya was jailed immediately for "hooliganism," and his attorney said he had no chance of winning a trial. The country wanted Boya to pay £25 million to replace the jets. Since Boya made only £175 per year, he figured it would take 145,000 years to pay off his debt to society.
As you know if you have been in church the last few Sundays, we have been looking at the story of the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. The experiences of the Israelites are so common and well-known to us that we forget that if these sort of things happen to us, we immediately ask questions like Are we really God’s people? Are we not in God’s will? Hardship breeds swarms of Why is this happening? Why is this happening to me? Why us? Why her? Why now? Why so protracted? Does it have to be so savage? Where did I go wrong?
Our fellow Christians are often very quick to offer reasons for our troubles: it’s all down to the malevolence of Satan – he wants to go after those people who want to follow God. Or else we must be operating outside the boundaries of God’s will.
Yet these reasons don’t make sense to me as I read the story of Exodus. God took the Israelites to the desert. He made his guidance so unmissable that there is no explanation that holds water except that he wanted them there. Yet, they ran into crisis after crisis while they were there.
So if you wonder why God is treating you so badly or why your life is in the desert, then listen up. Today’s message is for you.
1. What is life like under divine leadership?
Over the past few Sundays, we have been looking at how the people of Israel are brought out of captivity in Egypt by God’s miraculous actions on their behalf. After Pharaoh reluctantly let them go, God led them on the road out of Egypt. They reach a fork in the road – turn left and you get to the Promised Land in a fortnight. So they turn right. Yes, you heard me. They turn right because God leads them there. He has put a pillar of cloud in the sky during the day and a pillar of fire at night to show them where to go. Yes, they know where God wants them to go because he is taking them there.
Almost immediately, they get very specific instructions to retreat, and they find themselves trapped with the Red Sea behind them and Pharaoh’s army in front. I for one would certainly forgive them asking a question or two of God right at this point, along the lines of “What on earth are you thinking?”
Instead of losing their lives, as Adrian pointed out last Sunday, God parts the Red Sea and they get through in a miraculous way while the Egyptian army is drowned.
That’s when they take the desert road again. It’s hot and they are walking for miles. And they are getting thirstier all the time. They continue to follow God’s leading and he brings them to an oasis. “Just in time, God, I don’t think I could have taken another step without a drink.” But the water is completely undrinkable. It is bitter. In their disappointment and frustration, they call the place Marah, which means bitter.
What’s it like being a pilgrim in the wilderness with only God’s divine guidance to lead you?
Don’t stop now, I hear you say to the Israelites. The next stop is Elim and there’s some great tasting water there. And that’s where the cloud is headed. Yes, but Elim is 10 miles away. And this is not a 20 degree English summer that we are talking about. It is more like the 45 degree heat I grew up with in Delhi where only mad dogs and Englishmen would venture into the mid-day sun.
Somehow they screw their courage to the sticking point and walk on. In verse 27, we read that they camped at Elim near the water. I’ll tell you what they did – they collapsed in a heap at Elim.
Of course, it’s not just thirst that they have to deal with – they also run out of food. I love the description of their complaints to Moses their leader written in Numbers 20vv3-5: “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there’s no water to drink.” No pomegranates? It must have been a terrible place. And their sense of proportion is so messed up that the lack of water to drink is a little afterthought. No pomegranates.
What is it like living under divine leadership? A very thirsty and hungry place, it seems. Every night, a mile long train leaves the Tropicana factory bound for New York, carrying orange juice to slake the thirst of that great city’s inhabitants. How much those Israelites would have given for that Tropicana train to make an unscheduled stop right by them. And bring some pomegranates as well.
Amazingly, God feeds them. Yet another miracle. This time he feeds them with manna and quail. I don’t know how long the manna train that left heaven every night was, but it must have been absolutely amazing for the Israelites to have a heavenly meal every day. Of course, by then they were in solid complaining mode so they complained about the manna as well: Why do we have to have it every day? Yesterday it was manna burgers, today its manna soufflé.
In chapter 17, we find them thirsty yet again when they get to Rephidim and their grumbling reaches fever pitch. This time they are prepared to stone Moses, they are that unhappy with him and that frustrated with God. Again, God provides water through a remarkable miracle.
One thing is clear. Walking the pilgrim path was not easy for those Israelites. They did not anticipate hardship. In fact, their experiences rather surprised them. Read Chapter 16v3. They probably erred significantly in expectation and were astonished to find that the pilgrim path was so full of conflict.
Would it have helped them if they knew God’s plan in advance? After all, his exodus plan features some of the most amazing miracles ever: the parting of the Red Sea, the manna feeds, the pillars of cloud and fire. Who would not want to be part of such a story? Wait a minute. The Bible tells us that the reasons God turned right instead of left at the fork coming out of Egypt was because he knew that turning right would have meant that the Israelites would have met some fierce Philistines. They would have got into a fierce fight right at the start of their journey. We need to remember that they have to fight the Philistines eventually to get to the Promised Land but by the time they get to the battle they are not a soft lot coming out of Egypt but a desert-hardened army. Truthfully, if they knew what was coming they would never have stepped away from all those pots of meat and pomegranates in Egypt.
Would it help us to know in advance God’s great plan for us? Put it in your own terms. Would it help you if God revealed every step of the way for the next five years to you? Does it help us to know in advance that, according to Labour’s election manifesto, the UK’s National Health Service would be sorted out by 2008? Nearly two years I thought I could earn a living doing three days of consultancy a week as the rates were pretty good and spend the rest of the time working for Christian agencies bringing my business skills and experience to the party. Since then, I have really struggled to get any work at all when that had not been an issue before. Why God? Surely, my plan is a good one and would work for the benefit of your kingdom?
2. Living in the light of God’s grace
The Bible’s explanations don’t give us rational answers to our Why questions. Instead, we get two different types of answers.
Answer # 1: the God who walks with us in the wilderness is working his purposes in us
God is revealed to us as a God of glory who loves his people. He walks with them in the wilderness. He is patient with their failings. He is in full control over the people and the environment in which God’s people operate and has the ability to do miraculous things if he so chooses. He is exasperated by their disobedience but he remains patient even when their distrust of him is plain for all to see. He is capable of meeting their every need.
In the book of James we read: Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds because facing and outfacing trials leads to spiritual maturity. The pilgrims may not have liked the lessons but God was transforming them. And he was in control over the situations they faced so that they were not stretched beyond their capability to cope but were stretched enough to grow.
So we don’t need to know what God’s plan is for us because of who he is. We may or may not trust Labour to deliver the NHS but you should trust God to deliver you.
Answer # 2: God wants us to obey him
Read v 26. It says this. “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.”
We have a stark choice: we can complain or we can obey. Actually, we can complain and obey – God does not seem to mind that at all. But the essential ingredient is obedience. God is not interested in my skills and experiences brought to Christian organisations. He simply wants me. My obedience.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by Hitler’s Third Reich, said that when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. He worried about the church which was succumbing to cheap grace. How can grace be cheap when the free gift of god to us is eternal life. Grace which is free can also be cheap when it is grace without discipleship. Grace without the cross, grace without Jesus, alive in us.
Instead Bonhoeffer calls us to costly grace: the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
The Psalmist echoes this many times:
• Our soul waits for the Lord.
• I shall always wait in patience and shall praise you more and more.
• My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
In this world of instant gratification, this could be the worst news you have ever had. I urge you to think it is the best news ever: the best things take time but God is prepared to take the time to supervise your pilgrimage starting now. Will you let him do that today?
