“I WILL REMAIN LOYAL TO GOD.” EXODUS 13:17-16:36.
EXODUS 15: 22-26; 16: 2-4, 31-35.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO EXODUS 15.
Last Sunday after crossing dry shod through the Red Sea and witnessing the destruction of Pharaoh’s military armada, Moses and the Israelites burst into song in Exodus 15: 1-19.
In Exodus 15: 20 Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron took an timbrel and led the women in singing and dancing. In this way they expressed their thanksgiving and joy for their deliverance from Pharaoh and his army. The Israelites and those with them are now free from slavery and on their way to the land of milk and honey.
PLEASE READ EXODUS 15: 22-26.
Part of God’s educative process is that His children suffer His discipline in order to become strong in faith and life. To know this purpose may not make trials easier to bear, but at least knowing God is working His purpose gives trials meaning. Therefore we are better able to endure them.
The Epistle of James opens in James 1: 2-4 with the remarkable words: “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
Often we view testing either as punishment from God or as originating from some other source---perhaps from the Devil or even as mere fate or coincidence. The Devil doesn‘t test, however; he tempts, as James made clear in James 1: 14-15. And as for random happenings occurring in a believers’ life, there is no such thing in a world subject to God who is sovereign over all.
The Israelites transitioned from the mountaintop of God’s mighty exodus redemption to the deep valley of doubt and wicked deprivation in the Sinai desert and all within three days. Ironically they had just contended with more water than they knew what to do with, but now there was no water in the Wilderness of Shur. The Israelites depended on God to save them through the Red Sea. Now could they depend on Him for drinking water?
Perhaps the lesson learned at the Red Sea should have been enough to solidify forever the Israelites’ faith in God. God knew better, though. God would use the rugged wilderness regions of the Sinai peninsula to test and to strengthen the Israelites loyalty.
The Hebrew word for wilderness can be translated “desert.” The wilderness terrain in the Sinai area consists of rocky (even mountainous), dry wastelands rather than of Sahara-style sand dunes.
Occasional rains as well as the sporadic presence of wells and oases allow for at least some nomadic or semi-nomadic human occupancy. Shepherds sometimes drove their sheep and goats into the wilderness to find grazing spots, a fact born out by Moses’ earlier experience tending his father-in-law’s flocks in Exodus 3: 1.
Nevertheless, the wilderness was a foreboding and inherently dangerous place. No migrating horde the size of Israel’s congregation could expect to traverse even one wilderness region unscathed, much less several wildernesses.
First came the Wilderness of Shur. The place name means, “wall” and thus possibly refers to a defensive wall (or string of forts) the Egyptians built to protect their northeaster border or to a wall-like mountain range that runs from north to south-east of Suez
Geographically speaking, however, the Wilderness of Shur describes a broad region stretching across the northern Sinai Peninsula. The Israelites moved southward through the region. They journeyed for three days…without finding water.
This is the first of several incidents that took place between the crossing of the Red Sea and accepting God’s covenant at Mount Sinai. The Israelites had witnessed two great divine deliverances, but they were immature in their faith. Moses brought them into the wilderness. They were on their way toward Mount Sinai, and they were traveling through an arid region. Vegetation was sparse, mostly around the few water holes. The Israelites followed Moses through this desert land. After three days, they had found no water. The people were desperately thirsty. The human body can last a number of days without food, but we need water more often. Have you ever been really thirsty? When this happens, the thought of water preoccupies your attention.
The people began to face the harsh dangers of nomadic desert life. Danger number one was dehydration. Dehydration occurs when a person does not adequately replace lost body fluids. Survival guides indicate the average adult loses and therefore requires four to six pints of water daily. In an extreme climate, especially an arid one, a person can require five to eight pints of water per hour! By the time people “feel thirsty” in such an environment, they already have lost 1 percent of their body fluids: death can occur when more than 15 percent of body fluids is lost.
Even if the Israelites had brought stores of water with them out of Egypt, eventually they would have needed to re-supply along the way. Going three days without finding a fresh water supply spelled trouble.
Then the Israelites heard that they were approaching a place where there was water. However, those who tasted it found it bitter and undrinkable. They called the place Marah, which means bitter.
Do you remember the story of Ruth and Naomi? When Naomi arrived back in her hometown of Bethlehem after losing her husband and two sons in Moab, she told her friends to call her “Marah.” The name Naomi means “pleasant,” but she said in Ruth 1: 20, “The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” This was the same word. The water may have been salty or had some other substance in it. Like the ancient mariner in Coleridge’s memorable poem, the Israelites at Marah saw “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.”
This was the last straw for the people. They felt they were dying of thirst. Then their hopes were raised, only to be dashed, by the bitterness of the water. They took their spite out on Moses. In an action that became a characteristic response in their wilderness years, the people murmured or grumbled, against Moses.
Of course in grumbling against Moses, they were grumbling against God. They asked the obvious question, “What shall we drink? How might they have responded differently? For starters, they might have pondered, “What is God trying to teach us here at Marah? Or given what they’d already witnessed in Egypt and at the Red Sea, they might have asked expectantly, “What new, great work is our mighty God about to perform on behalf of His people?”
Instead of viewing their situation only in terms of their own weakness and perspective, the Israelites gave in to temptation. They had yet to grasp that their Savior is never limited by human circumstances. They failed to trust in God’s goodness.
“Grumbled” translates a word that describes the repeated behavior of the Israelites when they encountered difficulties in the wilderness. It arises from an attitude of dissatisfaction when one’s lot is an inability to do anything about it. Inner discontent expresses itself in hostile complaining.
While this shows the ingratitude of His people at all that had been done for them, and also their forgetfulness---it was only days before they had passed through the sea---the principle problem is their lack of awareness of the spiritual dimension of their situation…At root their problem was not giving the Lord His due place in their lives---and in their problems. They had a long way to go not only in geographical distance but also and more importantly, in spiritual growth.
How true to life this is. When life is smooth and easy and everything is going right, we are devoted saints whose praise of God flows with abandon. But the moment we begin to taste the bitter waters, our praise tends to dry up and we become self-pitying martyrs.
Moses knew where to turn---He cried unto the Lord. God’s response to Moses’ prayer was swift but clearly unexpected. As was so often the case in O.T. times, God used an indirect means of intervention rather than a direct miraculous act.
God showed Moses a tree. This tree had miraculous powers about it. When Moses threw it into the bitter water, the water was sweet, and the people were able to drink the water. Some writers suggest that Moses knew of such a kind of tree that had this ability. The theory is that he had learned about it during his earlier years in this area. However the text sees the tree as the work of God in response to the needs of the people and the prayers of Moses. It was a sign of the Lord’s mercy and love.
A similar incident occurred later when Elijah “healed” the water of Jericho by casting salt into it in 2 Kings 2: 21-22. When we visited Jericho in 1974 we were given water to drink from that spring to prove to us that the water was still palatable.
Keep in mind that the Israelites had not yet reached Sinai and received the law when you read in Ex. 15: 25 that God made for them a statue and an ordinance. The basic law is the need to trust and obey the word of the Lord. This is what is spelled out in vs. 26. They were called to diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, and they were to do that which is right in His sight. The Lord promised that if they did these things, He would not bring on them the diseases He had brought on the Egyptians. Illness and disease are among the things most feared by all human beings.
Vs. 25 includes the key words for this lesson---He proved or tested them. This means that the thirst and the bitter water along with the transformation were designed to test the Israelites’ faith and obedience.
The bitter waters were not to punish God’s people---for there is nothing in the text to suggest they should be punished---but to test and thus permit them to see what kind of people they really were. How does God test His people? In this passage they were tested by thirst and disappointment. They seem to have failed this test. God also tested them by His patience with them. His command to trust and obey, and His promise not to afflict them with the plagues of Egypt. In other words, some of God’s tests are afflictions and some are blessings.
Why does God test His people?
A study of the biblical references shows that it might be for one or more of these reasons: to evaluate, to educate, to discipline, to purify, or to strengthen. But God’s tests are always designed for the good of those being tested. He wanted the Israelites to learn to depend on Him and to obey Him.
God knew that this would enable Him to bless them and to spare them the judgments that come on ungodly people. Deut. 8 recalls the tests God sent on Israel during the wilderness years. One purpose was to humble them and test them to know what was in their hearts. He repeated this in vs. 16 but added that the test was “so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.”
Often we cannot understand why God allows sufferings and afflictions to come to us, but because of Rom. 8: 28 “we know that all things work together for good of them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
As much as the Lord was helping the Israelites see the measure of their faith. He also was teaching them something important about Himself: “I am the Lord who heals you.”
The Bible never separates faith from wellness and healing. It teaches us that the Lord can be trusted to act for the well being of His people and that no situation is beyond His ability to help.
The Epistle to the Hebrews in Heb. 12: 11, speaking of God’s testing His saints, observes that, “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
This was what the Lord was doing by testing Israel at Marah. He wanted them to sense their utter dependence on Him and to see that when they trusted Him in times of trial He would be there to hold them up.
Today when God allows believers to experience times of scarcity or uncertainty about even necessities of life, they can keep doing what is right, fully assured that God is committed to their well-being. The sovereign Lord cares for His people!
From Exodus 15: 22-26 we have learned that difficulties and disappointments can be tests in the lives of believers. Immature believers may grumble about these trials, but God is patient with those who are immature in their faith. God tests us, but He does not tempt us to do evil.
PLEASE TURN TO EXODUS 16.
PLEASE READ EXODUS 16: 2-4.
Their experience at Marah taught the Israelites the Lord could care for them by miraculous means. Their next encampment showed the Lord could also lead His flock to “green pastures” and “quiet waters. Elim must have been a welcome sight for the Israelites. This oasis was located in a large, grass-carpeted valley. Numbers 33: 9 informs us that at Elim, which means trees, had 12 wells and was populated by 70 date palm trees.
It was the kind of place the nomads heading eastward across the barren, mountainous heart of the Sinai peninsula, might have been hesitant to leave. Nevertheless, the Israelites moved on from Elim and entered the Wilderness of Sin, their third such region to traverse since leaving Egypt less than two months earlier.
From Exodus 12: 1-6 we learn that they left Egypt on the 15th day of the first month. This shows that they had been gone from Egypt one month. During that month God delivered them from slavery, rescued them at the Red Sea, and gave them water when they were thirsty. One would think that these recent miraculous events would have made them content with what God was doing for them. But once again they murmured against Moses. This time they included Aaron in their grumbling. To make matters worse it was the whole congregation against them.
The peoples’ complaint in the wilderness was even more severe than at Marah.
Less than six weeks had passed since the Lord tested them regarding water, a test they had failed, and now it was exam time again. God’s miraculous supply at Marah should have produced a change of attitude in His people that would enable them to face this challenge with faith and confidence, but this was clearly not the case.
This time the Israelites grumbled about the lack of food, especially compared to the amount and kind of food they claimed to have eaten in Egypt. They apparently were not starving, but they were hungry. They said they expected to die in the wilderness. Their situation had wiped out their recollections of the grinding slavery and oppression in Egypt but caused them to remember that they had food to eat. Their memories were likely unrealistic. The Egyptians no doubt allowed them to eat, but probably just enough to keep them alive.
Exodus 2: 23 records their condition, which caused them to cry out to the Lord. Now they drew a happier picture of life in Egypt. In their memories, they said that they had all the meat and bread that they wanted. They blamed Moses and Aaron for bringing them out of that land of plenty to this wilderness.
The Israelites were so shortsighted and lacking in perspective that they gladly would have exchanged the momentary affliction of hunger for the permanent chains of Egyptian slavery. Conspicuous by its absence is any recollection on their part of the Lord’s mighty exodus redemption and the more recent miraculous provision of water at Marah.
The urgency of the moment blocked from their vision the dependability of their God who already had proved Himself over and over again to be loyal to His promises to them.
The people complained that it would have been better if they had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, but Moses and Aaron had brought them into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
If ever justification existed for the Lord to “write them off,” this was it. Instead, the Lord did as He had done at Marah---He set in motion a means of displaying His love and grace. He would rain bread from heaven for them. He would give them their “daily bread.”
What they say reveals the slave mentality that still gripped the Israelites. They just wanted others to provide for them and tell them what to do…But the rosy picture the people presented of their former condition makes no mention of the slavery which had been the price of their Egyptian security. They forget about the cruel oppression from which they suffered, and so reveal how little they valued the freedom the Lord had provided for them. They have no confidence in themselves to surmount the conditions that they have encountered, because they have no confidence in the Lord who had brought them there.
We serve a patient and loving Lord. We might have expected the Lord to say, “That’s the last straw!” or “I’ve had it with these rebellious people.” Instead, He promised to rain bread from heaven on them.
At Marah God had tested the Israelites’ loyalty through an experience of lack; in the wilderness of Sin, God tested the people through an experience of provision. He would shower them daily with bread from heaven, but the people were to go out each day and gather enough for that day. Why the restriction to gather only what was needed for the day? The Lord wanted to see whether the Israelites would follow His instructions.
If the people obeyed, that daily response of loyal obedience would give evidence of their having grown in faith.
The desert tests were not trials for the Israelites to prove they were somehow worthy of God. They were ways of seeking to lead the people to trust and obey the Lord.
Hosea 11: 1-4 describes God as a loving Father who called his son out of Egypt. This passage tells of His tender love in teaching Israel to walk and in holding him in His arms. The early tests in Exodus were done when Israel was like a small child spiritually. This explains the Lord’s mercy and patience with them when they murmured and grumbled. He used the tests to try and teach His immature child to trust and obey Him.
In the wilderness the Israelites often failed their tests of faith. Yet God’s purpose in testing His people never was to set them up for failure. Rather, He wanted His people then, just as He wants His believers today, to grow in their faith. God wants His people to depend on Him each day.
God tests our loyalty or lack of loyalty. Moses told the people their grumbling was against the Lord. For the moment God tolerated their grumbling and moved on to the real test---their obedience to His words about the manna. God’s basic instructions about the manna are in Exodus 16: 5-30. God would send manna each morning except on the Sabbath. On every other day the people were to gather enough for each person for one day. They could gather as much as an omer (about two quarts) for each one. On the day before the Sabbath, they were to gather twice as much so they would have some for the Sabbath.
In spite of these clear instructions, some people did not gather enough, and they were hungry. Others took more than two quarts, but the extra part spoiled. God was teaching them to depend on Him for daily bread. Jesus taught us as His disciples in Matt. 6:11 to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread.”
God not only gave the Israelis manna but He also sent them quail. Immature believers respond to God’s tests with ingratitude and discontent: mature believers, according to Phil 4: 10-13 respond with gratitude and contentment.
The nation Israel thus far gave no evidence of suitability for the mission to which God was calling it in Ex. 19: 6---to be “My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.” But this is precisely where God’s grace enters the picture. What we cannot or will not do as His children, He can overcome by His gracious initiative and intervention. Grace does not overlook sin and unbelief, of course, but it does change hearts and attitudes until they willingly conform to God’s perfect plans.
The Israelites often failed their tests of faith, but God’s aim always was to bring out their best. Believers today must remain humble and faithful, learning from the Israelites’ example and realizing we too can and do fail. We can learn from their mistakes to be more committed children of God.
PLEASE READ EXODUS 16: 31-35.
Thus far we have learned that tests of faith reveal believers’ spiritual strengths and weaknesses. Times of testing also are opportunities for God’s people to grow in faith, to move beyond their fears and other hindrances into consistent loyalty and obedience. In this section we will explore further how tests of believers’ faith reveal God’s absolute faithfulness in providing for His people.
Moses delivered to the people the Lord’s promise in Ex. 16: 8 to give them “meat to eat this evening and abundant bread in the morning.” In a called assembly and as the people faced the wilderness, the Lord’s glory appeared, reiterating in vs. 10-12, the divine promise to provide daily meat and bread. The evening meal of meat appeared in vs. 13 in the form of quail that “came and covered the camp.”
The morning bread, however, was different from anything the Israelites had seen before, and the Lord’s instructions for gathering it were to be followed carefully. After the morning dew evaporated, the bread appeared as “fine flakes” on the ground. What exactly was this bread the Lord gave the Israelites? Manna was like some others things, but it was a unique gift of God to Israel for a limited period of time.
The Israelites’ response when they first saw it, they asked, “What is it?” No one really knew, so in vs. 31 the house of Israel named the substance “manna. Not being familiar with this food, the Israelites simply gave it the generic name “what.” The bread rained from heaven was not only heavenly in origin but heavenly in substance as well.
Beyond the unusual name given the substance, manna, we learn a bit more information in vs. 31 about its texture, color, and taste. Corinder is a herb belonging to the same family as the carrot. It produces seeds that are used similarly to the way poppy or sesame seeds are used.
Manna resembled coriander seed, but that comparison probably relates more to appearance or texture than to size or shape. Manna’s color was white.
And we know from Vs. 14 that when the morning dew evaporated manna appeared as “fine flakes,” as thin as a layer of morning frost on the ground’s surface. Numbers 11: 8 reveals that the people would grind the substance, boil it, and then bake the softened dough into cakes.
According to Ex. 16: 31, the cakes tasted like wafers made with honey.
The Israelites ate manna for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan.
There was one miraculous exception to the brief shelf-life of manna. The Lord commanded Moses in vs. 32 to preserve two quarts of it so future generations would be reminded of God’s unfailing provision in the wilderness. Later the preserved manna was placed in front of the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. Eventually the manna, the tablets, and Aaron’s rod that budded were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.
Exodus 17: 1-7 tells of a third test for the Israelites. Once again they were thirsty, and they took their complaints to Moses and accused him of bringing them into the wilderness to die. Moses accused them of putting God to the test. Moses prayed to God, and the Lord told him to strike the rock. When he did, the Lord again supplied their needs. The Lord supplied the water, but their testing of Him was condemned in the Scripture in Deut. 6 : 16 “Do not test the Lord your God as you tested Him at Massah.” Jesus quoted this verse during his temptation by Satan in Matt. 4: 7.
These tests in Exodus 15:22-17: 7 were tests to teach people of immature faith to trust and obey God. Life’s tests, however, are not restricted to immature believers, for the best of God’s people continue to have their faith tested.
Abraham was a man of proven faith, yet the Lord put him to a test in Gen. 22: 1.
Job was a man of righteousness and faith, but the Lord allowed him to be sorely tested by Satan.
Peter in 1 Peter 1: 6-7 wrote this about fiery trials of the righteous: “For a short time we have had to be distressed by various trials so that the genuineness of your faith---more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The Book of Hebrews in Heb. 4: 15 reminds us that we have a High Priest in Jesus “who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.” Moreover, the Book of James declares in James 4: 7 that we can “resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” Testing is inevitable. It can serve the purpose of strengthening your dependence on God in trying times by your recalling and reflecting on occasions when God provided for you.
God’s testings undercut any feelings of human self-sufficiency and cause one to trust only in Him in life’s seemingly impossible situations. They reveal that when all human resources fail, God is there to provide from His limitless bounties of grace.
I was made sad when I read in Numbers 20 that Moses, who struck the rock at Massah at God’s command to supply water for the Israelites, later struck the rock at Meribah after being told by God to speak to the rock. The water was supplied but Moses lost his opportunity to go into the Promised Land, after dealing with the people for 40 years, because of his disobedience to God’s command.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM EXODUS 19 AND 20 WE WILL LOOK AT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND SEE WHAT THEY MEAN. A.V. DAUGHERTY