Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this last weekend in October;
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you find yourselves discussing a common experience of many years ago? How did you feel when their description of that experience seemed so different from what you remembered, even though you had both been in that ‘years ago experience’ together?
Yesterday we concluded our time at an oasis called Elim in the Sinai desert. We weren’t alone there, in fact about 1 million people were there with us at this place of 12 springs and 70 palm trees. We presume it was a place with lots of good grass for the flocks and herds traveling with us. This group of people around us are the Hebrew slaves who have very recently fled out of slavery in Egypt, following the 10 terrible plagues which finally convinced Pharaoh to release these people. As chapter 16 of Exodus opens, it’s been about 45 days since that Passover night when the angel of death passed through Egypt and because of their faith in God and their obedience to God’s instructions, as they put the lambs blood on their doorposts, these people did NOT experience the death of their firstborn sons, and they were told by the Pharaoh to “GO”, quickly, and so they fled in the middle of the night, with all their belongings.
It appears this huge throng of people may have spent some extended time in that beautiful oasis Elim, because the record says: “The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they came out of Egypt.” (Ex. 16:1) I’ve included a map here to help us gain some perspective. While we don’t know exactly the route they traveled, many Bible scholars believe this may be a fairly accurate perspective:
It shouldn’t be difficult for us to imagine 45 days with 1 million people and their animals and all their belongings, slowly traveling in the hot desert! We presume there was very little if any rain, so we can imagine the people slept on mats on the sand or in tents they were able to erect. They had no permanent structures for they were on the move, heading toward a land God had promised them, but a land none of them had ever seen. If you look at the map you’ll see the cloud by day guiding this huge throng had actually led the people south into the desert, rather than north east toward Canaan, the ‘Promised Land’. God explained in Ex. 13:17 that God was protecting them from attack from the Philistines through whose territory they would have to travel to get to “Canaan”. But after a few days in the desert, I wonder how many people were thinking it might have been better to fight than travel in this hot desert?
The Exodus record says: “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Ex. 16:2,3) Now before we throw stones at these people, let’s consider the heat, the sand, their sense of homelessness and purposelessness. They have no idea where they are going, or what they should do each day. That’s bad enough when it’s just one family, but imagine 1 million people in this situation! No wonder they were remembering and complaining. But let’s be honest. Knowing what you do about slavery and the plight of slaves, do you think their recollection of sitting around pots of meat and eating all they wanted was accurate? So easily our pain or problems or discomfort DISTORTS our perceptions, both of the past and even of our current reality, isn’t that true?
I can only imagine how quickly grumbling spread through this huge group of 1 million people in the hot desert! So Moses of course turned to God for help and the LORD said to Moses: “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” (Exodus 16:4,5) So let me ask you my friends, if you had been Moses and received this news, what would you imagine was about to happen? In your mind do you see loaves of bread falling out of the sky, and people running round and picking them up, dusting off the sand and having lunch? No human being had ever heard anything so preposterous! And what’s this matter of a bread delivery for six days but not on the seventh, and every person needing to prepare twice as much on that sixth day? Do you recognize this is the first glimpse of the concept of “Sabbath”?
Do you see the powerful phrase I underlined in the middle of that statement from God? This was a test. Back at Marah, God had told the people that their survival in this desert journey would hinge NOT on IF or HOW God would provide for them, but on this matter of OBEDIENCE! IF the people obeyed God’s instructions, they would be provided what they needed and protected from enemies. IF the people did NOT obey, then they’d find themselves in great danger. This fundamental life principle would provide the foundation of life for these 1 million people in the desert, but it would also be foundational for every generation which followed them, right up to our present day, and you and me! Do you understand this my friends? Since God has designed humanity and our planet and our ecosystem God can teach us and guide us in living life as HE designed it, here on earth. But our disregard of God, our rejection of God’s instructions, our refusal to live life as God has designed it will always brought disaster.
The LORD also said to Moses: “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.” (Ex. 16:11) So Moses did. Moses sent word through the communication chain… the elders to the clan leaders to the family leaders to every family, all the way to the children. Word of mouth can travel fast when you’re hungry right? By the way, they were also learning to pass along information exactly as they heard it, for the integrity of what God spoke to Moses was essential if all 1 million people were going to understand their instructions and obey them properly.
The record says Moses spread the news God had given him, but at the same time Moses issued a caution to the people about the danger of grumbling against God. Moses said: “You will know that it was the LORD when He gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD… while he was speaking to the people they looked toward the desert and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.” (Ex. 16:6-10)
Now friends, I can’t tell you exactly what the people saw there in the desert that is described as the ‘glory of the LORD’, but what I can tell you is this was the first of many times that Moses and Aaron warned the people about God’s full awareness of their every word, every attitude and God’s intolerance of grumbling against Him. It’s important we remember this entire Exodus adventure began with Moses at a burning bush and God saying to Moses “I have seen the misery of My people and I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned and I have come down to rescue them…” (Ex. 3:7,8) Our pain and suffering does not go unnoticed by God. He sees it all, hears it all, is concerned and takes action to accomplish His purposes for His glory. So, may I ask you, how often do you find yourself grumbling in your discomfort or your disappointment concluding God is unaware of your situation? What have our children learned from you and me regarding how we should speak with God when life hurts?
Let’s pause here, sitting with families or groups of families, all around that desert area on this the 45th day after leaving Egypt, pondering this good news from God sent through Moses. How will God bring meat into this camp, enough to feed 1 million people in the desert this evening? And how will God bring bread in the morning, enough for 1 million people? What great miracles were these people about to experience? We’ll find out on Monday… for today, I invite us this weekend to ponder our expectations of God and our tendency to grumble when things are not as we expect.
Do you see that grumbling is ultimately our expression of disappointment in God! God has not performed to our expectations. . .so we grumble. Have you learned that grumbling is like a cancer that can spread very rapidly and steal your peace, break your relationships, and breed bitterness and even anger which can consume you!? The antidote to grumbling is PRAISE! But it’s a choice isn’t it… every day. Here’s a song to help us with this choice. . .
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 16:1-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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