Recently, a friend of mine wished to help me with my Origen project [1] by pointing me to the sermons of a pastor in our church organization who has shown a great interest in giving God the Father His proper regard and respect. The message was fairly short, of split sermon length, but it pointed out very well areas where what is normally ascribed only or mainly to Jesus Christ was actually speaking about the Bible concerning God’s love and His plan for humanity. Then, yesterday at services, it was my responsibility to teach my Sabbath School class, filled with young people on the cusp of their teenage years, about the giving of Manna and the reminder of the Sabbath in the wilderness in Exodus 16. Then, after finishing up the class, and hobbling back to my seat in time for a lovely special music duet from two of the ladies in our congregation about God providing us a lamb in Jesus Christ, the sermon from one of our speaking deacons was about four lies that Satan would have us believe in this season. As I was reflecting upon all of this, I realized that they were all connected, and in my customary way of trying to make a problem larger to make it possible to solve, I would like to examine the departure of Israel from Egypt on the way to Mt. Sinai as an example of a fractured fairy tale, in which the three perspectives are quite different.

One of the most frustrating parts of the Bible to read is that of Israel’s interminably long wilderness experience. What could have (and should have) been a task for a couple of years or so ended up being a task that lasted for 40 years and ended up in the death of nearly every adult that departed from Egypt before God had judged Israel as being of sufficient moral fiber and faith to enter into the Promised Land, where they then proceeded to make a mess of things. Yet what makes the journey of Israel so frustrating is that it is one of the areas that are explicitly pointed to us, several times in scripture, in fact, to remind us not to behave this way and the example of Israel in the wildnerness is one area where it is extremely easy for us to mimic their bad example, so easy that it comes to most of us naturally. For example, when I was speaking to my class, most of them seemed to grasp fairly easily the way that Israel continually complained about God. What was a bit harder for some of them to grasp was the way that they responded to life’s difficulties in the same spirit of frustrating and whining and complaining. Nor could I hold it against them–they correctly noted that maturity and not mere calendar age was the issue, a very prescient observation–for I see the same tendencies in myself which I struggle against, however successfully.

In the section that I discussed with my young but astute students yesterday, Israel made the following complaints about God to Moses. In Exodus 15:22-26, they complained about water: “So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”” In Exodus 16:1-12, they complain about lacking food, and so God promises them meat and bread: “And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?” Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.” Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’” Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”” Then, in Exodus 17:1-3, they complain about water again: “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. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?” 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?””

In light of what Israel was thinking about God during this departure from Egypt, it is worthwhile to consider how God viewed them. The statements of God about Israel during their time in Egypt are not as obvious as the monotonous complaining from the Israelites, and surely the frustration of God makes itself evident. But added to this understandable frustration with someone who refuses to see and understand what you are about, a frustration I am deeply familiar with myself, there is something else, passionate love. As it is written in Ezekiel 16:1-8: “Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.””

This passage gives a stirring picture of God’s feelings about Israel during the experience of slavery and during the departure from Egypt. God had compassion on the nation in its infancy being subjected to exploitation and abuse, without the pity of anyone, and He adopted the unloved orphan Israel for Himself and formed them into a nation. And when it came time for them to enter into a marriage covenant with Him at Sinai, for that is what it was, He had fallen in love with the beautiful orphan who had grown from a troubled early childhood into a beautiful adolescence. And yet despite God’s passionate, even extravagant love for Israel, a love that is described in Ezekiel, as we have seen, in ways that are shocking to contemporary sensibilities, Israel had no idea that they were loved by God. While they thought that God had brought them into the wilderness to kill them with hunger or thirst or the armies of the Egyptians, or with the monotony of eating manna, God had actually brought them into the wilderness to engage in a covenant marriage with the nation, something that never entered into their minds, and might have filled them with horror had they been aware of the depth of His love and passionate interest.

What is to account for this clear miscommunication? God loved and adored Isarel, patiently endured their continual carping and complaining and brought them safe and sound to Sinai for a marriage covenant. Israel grumbled their way through the wilderness thinking that God was trying to kill them when He was trying to give them an extraordinarily abundant life that they refused to take. They never came to a meeting of minds–Israel never understood what God was truly about, and what He actually wanted, and so of course they could not respond to it. How did things get to such a state? How did the communication go so wrong? How did the signals get so disastrously crossed? It is here that we must introduce the third perspective, that of Satan himself. In our contemporary age, it is fashionable to deny the existence of personified evil and corruption, at least in the spiritual realm, even as we decry institutionalized and personal evil among human beings in history and within our own time [2]. Yet it is worthwhile to take a look at what Satan was about when it came to the wilderness experience, even if we must do so indirectly because his presence nor his particular thoughts are not directly noted.

The most relevant example we have of Satan’s own conduct was when Jesus went into the wilderness to face the temptations of Satan, which are recorded for us in the Gospels. Let us look first at Luke 4:1-13, which records: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

There is a lot that could be said about this passage, but as we do not want to make a general study of demonology here, but rather only examine Satan’s behavior in light of the departure from Egypt and his likely role in Israel’s continual complaining. What appears to be the most relevant temptation here is the first one. The complaints of Israel regarding material sustenance, food and water, have been discussed above. It is noteworthy that Jesus’ reply is that man does not live by bread alone, a reminder that despite the fact that we may lack what we need in life, and not only lack what we want, that our needs are in the hand of God, and that it is not only our needs by which we live, but by becoming more godly, so that we may live forever. The children of Israel were never able to rise above their mere material feeling of shortfall. They had no faith in God’s ability or desire to provide for them, no resilience in the face of trouble and difficulty, no ability to recognize what God was trying to accomplish in their departure from the wilderness experience, and so Satan was able to lure them into discontent and continual bad attitudes. How often can the same be said about us?

Let us take a minute to examine the larger picture here. In the departure of Israel from Egypt, God was the lover, ardently pursuing His beloved, delivering Israel from the evil of slavery and exploitation. Israel was the beloved, but was unaware of God’s fervent and devoted love, unresponsive to His efforts at proving His love through extravagant generosity. And Satan was the evil friend corrupting communication, inciting Israel to a hostility, focusing on the austerity of life traveling in the desert, and largely successfully deceiving Israel about God’s intentions. Obviously, the same malign problems that pervert and tamper communication are present in our own lives. But would Israel have responded any better had they known the truth? Quite possibly not. Quite possibly the longing of God for Israel would have been just as terrifying as believing the lie that God was a harsh and unloving and cruel being who only wished to torment them. What are we to do when we are neither comforted by the thought that we are loved, nor by the thought that others simply wish to torment us? How are we to act in such a way that the thought of either God’s love or the love of others for us does not fill us with panic and dread, and deep anxiety over our knowledge of our own imperfections and our own disastrous beginnings, and to be secure in the knowledge that we are loved even as we are known in all of our ridiculous follies and our deep flaws? After all, we too are being brought out of slavery and abuse and exploitation through our own wilderness experiences? How are we to do better than Israel did?

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/some-preliminary-notes-for-a-defense-of-origen-on-the-biblical-doctrine-of-subordinationism/

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/a-universal-evil/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/evil-friends/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/and-say-all-kinds-of-evil-agianst-you-falsely-for-my-sake/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/inventors-of-evil/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/book-review-missoula/