Introduction
As Christians, we are familiar with the story of how God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt: through mighty signs and wonders exercised in judgment, a nation of slaves brought the mightiest nation on the planet to its knees. We are also familiar with the parallel between the story of Israel and our own; as Israel were slaves to Egypt and Pharoah, we were slaves to sin and Satan, incapable of freeing ourselves.
God sent a Deliverer to Egypt in the form of one man, Moses, backed by the power of God to perform mighty miracles of judgment against Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. God sent us a Savior, Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, who performed miracles of a different type: acts of compassion in healing the sick, and preaching God’s love. The end was still the same, to deliver people and bring judgment against those who held us in bondage, but the methods were different.
1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
The final ties with Egypt were cut when Israel crossed the sea on dry ground, and the waters closed over the chariots of Egypt. They were destroyed, and had no more power to do Israel harm. On the other the side of the Red Sea, Israel was truly a free nation.
We have a symbol of this separation in water baptism: we are buried in the water, and our old man dies with Christ. We are raised from spiritual death with Christ, and the person who comes up out of the water is a new man, freed from the dominion of sin and Satan. This actually takes place when we accept Jesus and are born again; water baptism is an outward symbol of what has already taken place inwardly.
But God’s plan for Israel was not just to bring them out of Egypt, but to bring them into somewhere – the Promised Land. It was understood by all that the Promised Land was a place of blessing and prosperity. As slaves they owned nothing; in fact, they themselves were property. In the Promised Land they were to have their own land with their own houses, with their own crops from which they could enjoy their own harvests.
That promise was not given first through Moses to Israel. It was originally given to Abraham. In Genesis 13 we have the story where Abram and his nephew Lot dwelt together, and the Lord prospered them so much that the land could not support all their livestock together. So Abram said to Lot, “You choose one direction to go, and I’ll choose the other”. Lot saw the green and fertile valleys that contained the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and chose those. Abram went the opposite direction towards Canaan.
After their split, God gave Abram this promise:
Genesis 13:14-17 14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are–northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.
16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never saw the fulfillment of this promise in their lifetimes.
Hebrews 11:8-10 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Hebrews 11:13-16 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
All the experiences of Israel were written to us as examples. 1 Corinthians 10 relates some of the incidents of the children of Israel, and ends with this:
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
There are some spiritual truths to be gained by studying the experiences of Israel that are applicable to us as Christians. Some are examples of what we should do, and some are examples of what we should not do.
It is a good thing to be able to learn from your mistakes. It’s an even better thing to learn from the mistakes of others.
When I went to Bible college, the Dean had a saying: “Experience is a good teacher, but the tuition is high.”
To enter the Promised Land, You have to Get Through the Wilderness
A lot of Christians are confused over what purpose the wilderness served for the Israelites, and especially how it applies to the Christian. Typically when a Christian says “I’m going through the wilderness”, they mean they are in a period of trials and testing where God is supposed to be teaching them something. And those trials can be anything from lack of finances to health problems to problems with relationships. The emphasis is they are going through hard times.
There is a little truth in the above statement, and a lot of misconception. Let’s see if we can clear some of it up.
Why in the Wilderness?
First of all, why would God take over a million people out into the middle of a wasteland where resources were scarce? The answer is actually very simple. Because there were no people out there. As soon as God brought Israel to a populated area, they would have a fight on their hands, and they were not prepared for that.
The reason there were no people out in the wilderness was because it was a harsh environment. But God knew He could sustain them. It wasn’t that He purposely wanted Israel to go through hard times, but that He wanted to get His people alone with Him for a time uninterrupted.
Alone with God
So the first major purpose of the wilderness for the Israelites was get them away from people and distractions and focused on Him. And the reason He wanted to get them alone with Him was so He could teach them His ways and give them direction.
Israel had been a slave nation and frankly did not know that much about God. God had to teach them what kind of people He wanted them to be, by giving them the Law.
We see a pattern also in the New Testament, where individuals went into the wilderness for a time to spend time with God, learn and get direction.
John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness. I suppose he had to come near enough to civilization for people to hear him preach, but then he went back out and people followed him. One of the directions he received when out in the wilderness was how to recognize the Messiah.
Saul of Tarsus, after his Damascus road experience, went into the deserts of Arabia for three years, where he received his revelation.
And Jesus Himself, after He had been baptized by John and was anointed with the Holy Spirit, went out into the wilderness where He fasted. Matthew 4:1 says that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil”. If you read the next couple of verses, it appears that He fasted for 40 days, and afterward the Tempter came and said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones be turned to bread”.
What is the purpose of fasting? What should it always be accompanied by? Prayer. If you fast without praying, you are just dieting (which, for a lot of us, is still not a bad idea). It is removing distractions of the flesh. Usually when you begin a fast, your flesh is still quite a distraction, saying “feed me!” But once you get over that hump, the voice of your flesh will get softer and the voice of your spirit louder, if you take advantage of the time to get alone with God.
Jesus was praying and communing with His Father, and getting direction for His ministry during that 40 days. And afterwards, the devil showed up and tempted Him (Satan didn’t know who Jesus was until it was revealed when John baptized Him).
Now don’t make the mistake that God is going to lead you out somewhere so you can be tempted by the devil. You and I would probably just give in to the temptation. But it was necessary for Jesus to be tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Learn how to Trust and Obey
The second purpose for the wilderness was to train Israel how to trust and obey Him. He had to get them to a place where they believed God favored them and would take care of them, regardless of what circumstances they found themselves in.
Tests of Obedience
And so, God gave them a series of instructions to obey. And the tests were, would they obey? Would they follow the instructions? The problem is, over and over, Israel failed the tests.
For example, there was the manna test. To feed His people in a land where there was little food, God rained a substance supernaturally from heaven that could be gathered and ground into flour. When they first saw it, they asked “What is it?” which is man-náh in the Hebrew tongue. His instructions were, only gather enough for your needs that day. Don’t gather extra, thinking to keep it overnight for the next day. What was the lesson to be learned here? To trust that God would provide for you tomorrow also.
In the New Testament, we are taught to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:11). Jesus also taught us not to be anxious for our lives, what we would eat, how we would be clothed, etc.
Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
And of course there were those who didn’t heed the instructions, and kept some of the manna overnight. It bred worms and stank. It would be obvious who didn’t obey, because their tent smelled to high heaven!
The next instruction was concerning the Sabbath. On the day before the Sabbath, they were to gather twice as much and keep half of it overnight, because no manna would fall on the Sabbath. Again, some of Israel flunked the test. Some went out looking for it on the Sabbath, which probably means they didn’t gather twice as much the previous day.
There were tests of patience. Like when Moses was gone for 40 days up on the mountain, receiving the Ten Commandments and the Law. Their instructions? Wait here, I’ll be back. They got impatient, and decided Moses was gone for good. “What should we do? I know, let’s go back to Egypt, maybe we can get our old jobs back. But we can’t go back empty handed, so let’s manufacture a god to go before us.” They copied the world and made an image of a golden calf. After all they had seen and experienced of the hand of the Lord, they wanted to do this.
There were other tests of patience. When Israel had a need, God didn’t always instantly provide it when it came up. Many times He waited until they asked. Unfortunately, Israel never just asked. They complained.
Exodus 17:1-7 1 Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?”
3 And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Every time Israel was faced with difficulty, they complained, and accused God of wanting to kill them. It happened over and over. They just flat out did not learn the lesson of trust and thankfulness.
It culminated with the incident in Numbers 13 – 14 where the spies brought back an evil report from Canaan. The spies did what they were asked to do, to get the lay of the land and assess the strength of the people. But, they took that information and concluded that they were not able to what God said to do, and take the land. They spoke words to discourage the people of Israel. And Israel reacted by crying, and accusing God of wanting to kill them, and wishing they had died in the wilderness instead.
Even God’s patience has limits. He finally came to the conclusion that they were unteachable.
People talk about God putting them to the test in a wilderness experience. But God says that Israel was putting Him to the test:
Hebrews 3:7-11 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ “
A Time of Miraculous Provision
The wilderness, although it was a harsh environment, was a time of miraculous provision. Let’s list some of them:
- Their daily bread was provided by the manna falling from the sky
- God gave them water out of a rock
- A cloud shaded them from the sun by day, and a pillar of fire warmed them by night
- The cloud also gave them direction when to move
- God gave them meat in the form of piles of quail blown in from the winds
- The clothes they brought out of Egypt did not wear out for 40 years
- There was no feeble or sick one among them.
I want to say a bit more about the last item. God healed every one of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. The only sickness they encountered in the wilderness was through judgment (i.e., plague, or the fiery serpents/poisonous snakes, etc.).
Many Christians think that sickness or disease is one of the things God will use in a wilderness experience to test them and train them. God only used sickness (i.e., plague) against the Israelites to kill them because they disobeyed. They came under the Curse of the Law.
The Curse of the Law is listed in Deuteronmomy 28:15-68. Many types of sickness are mentioned there, and are summarized in these verses:
Deuteronomy 28:58-61 58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,
59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues–great and prolonged plagues–and serious and prolonged sicknesses.
60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed.
God never used sickness to train them, but to judge them. As for Christians, we are under grace and not judgment. And specifically in regards to the Curse of the Law (for more, see my series on Redeemed from the Curse).
Galatians 3:13-14 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Don’t ever think God is sending sickness on you to test you and train you. That is the devil trying to steal, kill, and destroy you (John 10:10). We should resist it because we are redeemed.
So we see that even though Israel was in the wilderness, it was a time of miraculous provision. But, it was a hard life. There wasn’t much variety. They wore the same clothes for 40 years. They had to eat manna, day after day, for 40 years.
They got themselves in trouble over that. It is natural to want some variety in your diet. But Israel was totally ungrateful over what they had. Their attitude was rotten.
Numbers 11:4-6 4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?
5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
I am absolutely convinced that if they had approached Moses with a different attitude, grateful for what they did have but asking if they could have some variety in their food, that God would have given them the quail without the judgment (read all of Numbers 11).
Side note: notice Numbers 11:4 mentions the “mixed multitude” that yielded to intense craving. When Israel departed Egypt, a fair number of Egyptians went with them, realizing that God was really God. That was the “mixed multitude”. It was these Egyptians, who had not been slaves, that were complaining the loudest about only having the manna.
So Israel had their needs provided, but just barely. If Egypt was the Land of Not Enough, then the wilderness was the Land of Just Enough.
The Wilderness Experience is Supposed to be Short
God never intended the Israelites to be in the wilderness for 40 years. In His plan, there would have been the travel time from Egypt to Sinai, the 40 days when Moses was on the mountain, a period of time when Moses taught them the Law, some time traveling around when they were to learn how to obey, the 40 days the spies were spying out the land, and that’s it. Had the spies not come back with the bad report, had all of Israel taken the attitude of Caleb and Joshua and been ready to take the land, they could have crossed the Jordan right then. All in all, a period of about 8 – 9 months since they left Egypt.
The wilderness was supposed to be like a boot camp. A short period of intense training in preparation for the real purpose, which was to go to war. And they reason they stayed in the wilderness for 40 extra years, was because they failed to learn the lessons they were supposed to.
Hebrews 3:14-19 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Verse 19 gives the reason – unbelief. Why is it that some Christians seem to go through the wilderness most of their lives? Most likely for the same reason. Unbelief.
There are two types of unbelief; one is due to ignorance: you don’t believe because you don’t know. In 1 Timothy 1:13 Paul says that although he was a blasphemer and persecutor of the church, he received mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. This type of unbelief can be fixed with knowledge.
The second type of unbelief is more dangerous. Some translations render Hebrews 3:19 as “… they could not enter in because of unpersuadableness.” Even though they saw all the mighty power and miracles that God did, they refused to believe. They rebelled.
I’m convinced that most Christians who go through an extended time in the wilderness are in the first group – they don’t know. The devil has convinced them that the wilderness is God’s plan and will for their life. They don’t know that there is more for them. Or, if they do have an inkling that God wants them to do better than just barely make it, they don’t know how to take their Promised Land.
Errors in Christian Application
Most Christians get what lessons God was trying to teach Israel in the wilderness: Believing God, trusting Him for your basic needs, being thankful and not complaining, obedience to His direction. To believe that they could do what He said they could. And these are also lessons that we as Christians need to learn.
By far the most common error in interpreting and applying these lessons that I see is people assuming that any and every hard time or difficulty that they go through was sent by God to teach them. They seem to forget that there is an enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy us (John 10:10). And the problem with this is anything you think is coming from God for your “good”, you won’t resist.
Like Israel, we are in a harsh environment. It is called the world. Earth is a dangerous place. And the test that we go through is life. It’s not that God is purposely throwing difficult challenges our way, it is just a matter of fact that “In the world, ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33).
But Jesus also said “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And that is His will for us also; not to take us out of the world, but to be overcomers. To be victorious. To take possession of our Promised Land.
What is Your Promised Land?
For Israel, the Promised Land meant
- Freedom from bondage. They could be their own masters, free to choose what to do with their lives. Both on an individual and a national level
- Freedom to worship freely
- Possessions. They would have their own land, their own homes, they would enjoy the fruit of their own labor
- To experience the Blessing of the Lord
The Promised Land could be summed up in the word abundance. If Egypt was the Land of Not Enough, and the wilderness was the Land of Just Enough, then the Promised land is the Land of More Than Enough.
So how does this apply to the Christian?
I think entering the Promised Land has to do with moving beyond yourself and your own needs, to being an influence and a blessing on others. It means entering into God’s plan and purpose for your life. Entering into and fulfilling your ministry.
The points I use in this series were inspired by an article by Pastor David Harris of New Life Church, entitled How to Possess the Land. Unfortunately the original article no longer seems to be available.
