Rev. Don Campbell
Exodus 16-18 Ref: 1 Corinthians 10
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019: TESTING IN THE WILDERNESS
At first sight, one might think that today’s thought is about the test the newly-delivered Israelites faced in the wilderness. The primary test they faced was their putting God to the test by their unbelief: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.” As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest” (Heb 3:7-11).
God had delivered them from Egypt, and they sang a song of victory in which they praise God for his marvelous works. Three days later they were complaining that they could not drink the water. God made the bitter water sweet (15:25). Forty-five days later they are grumbling again: “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (16:3). God gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening (16:4-13). They move on to Rephidim where they complain again: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (17:3). God, through Moses, gave them water, but the place was named Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarreling) because “they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (17:7).
Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah (65:2): “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (Rom 10:21). It is worth noting a few different translations of the word rendered “contrary.” The NLT translates it “rebellious.” The NET says “stubborn.” The NASB and the NIV render it “obstinate.” How sad it would be to be remembered by any of these words.
This is all ancient history. What does it have to do with us today? Let Paul answer: “I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, ‘The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.’ And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Cor 10:1-13).
CONNECTION
1. Some believe they have found a contradiction in the Bible. The Israelites had flocks and herds with them when they complained that they were going to starve (Num 11:18), so this story must be the sophomoric piecing together of various traditions by some priest many generations later. We do not know how many animals were in their flocks and herds, but Moses’ word suggests that there were not enough to feed the people for weeks: “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not’” (Num 11:21-25). Are those who search for something in the Bible about which to complain as a contradiction the spiritual descendants of those contrary, rebellious, stubborn, obstinate ones who tested God in the wilderness?
2. Compare Psalm 109:12 with verse 24 and then compare those verse with Hebrews 3:11-13. What does this tell us about the possibility of apostasy?
