That spectacular deliverance from Egypt, as the slave people were led out through the Red Sea in that great victory over Pharaoh, was to be followed by a 40-year journey around the Sinai peninsular – a journey punctuated by continual disaffection by the people. At the least excuse they were going to voice their dissatisfaction with the situation they had found themselves in (and very often their longing to be back in Egypt and in slavery again). We can see from the passages that we have had read today how quickly it began and how often it occurred – three different incidents: at the end of chapter 15, then in chapter 16 and another in chapter 17. They had started, in fact, before they had even got to the Red Sea: back in chapter 14 they had begun complaining and wishing they were back in slavery. And they are going to keep it up right through the 40 years until they reached the Promised Land.
It is a theme which gets picked up elsewhere in the Old Testament: in the Psalms – most famously, Psalm 95: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest”’ (Psalm 95:7b-11). And, as we know, that generation who left Egypt never did – only two men from it actually did enter the Promised Land. And the New Testament picks it up too: that Psalm is quoted in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, where the writer comments at length on it. And then Paul makes it clear, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that we are to learn not to test the Lord in the way these Israelites did back in the desert, and not to grumble: ‘These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us…’ (1 Cor. 10:11).
But nevertheless I think there is something slightly puzzling here – at least it puzzles me, as our first point shows.
1) Grumbling or Crying Out? (Exodus 15:22-25)
I have put a question mark in that heading to communicate to you my puzzlement, which I hope you will share as we look at these verses together.
Look back at chapter 15, verse 22: ‘Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet’ (Ex. 15:22-25). Notice first how quickly the swing occurred: chapter 15 begins with that tremendous song of triumph: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted ...” [after they had just come triumphantly through the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his chariots had been drowned there]. But within three days at Marah they are complaining because there is only bitter water to drink.
I guess we should note that there is a great difference between singing hymns and choruses of triumph and living the life of faith. But nevertheless it is very understandable, isn’t it? Here is a slave race of pastoral farmers, and in a few days they have had to turn themselves into a tribe of desert nomads. No wonder they grumbled. Here they are making their way through the desert for three days without water. When we look on to chapter 16 we see just the same pattern: ‘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 round 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). They may have been slaves back in Egypt, but there was a certain safety and security in the slavery there. The diet of the Nile delta looked pretty appetising from the Sinai desert. It must have been very hard indeed to make these adjustments so rapidly. And it must have been very natural to blame Moses for their discomfort: ‘ . . . the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron . . . ’ (16:2); ‘The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, travelling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarrelled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”’ (17:1, 2).
When life gets difficult, self-pity wells up very naturally in the human heart. And it is very easy to lose a balanced perspective. I remember a clergy friend of mine telling me once how he had visited someone who said, “You cannot know how I feel. You have never suffered as I am suffering at the moment.” This friend said, “Tell me about it.” She said,. “I’ve just failed my driving test!” There is a truth in that, isn’t there? Suffering is different for all of us, and as somebody who has failed quite a few driving tests I know what it can feel like. But the real puzzlement for me is that this seemed not an unreasonable complaint. If you have just been taken out into the desert and there isn’t any water, it seems not an unreasonable thing to say: “What are we going to drink?” And I guess that the urge to complain is not in itself culpable. The Israelites had to recognise and adjust to their change of circumstances. They were a huge community setting out into the wilderness after over four centuries of settled existence in one of the most fertile areas, and as a part of one of the most advanced civilisations, of the ancient world. It was a very tough change. And I don’t think they were expected to shut their eyes and grit their teeth and pretend that the suffering was not there. I don’t think the Bible teaches that – that the people of God are called to become sort of Stoics or Buddhists, and to rise above pain as though it were a lower reality that should not affect the truly spiritual person. The reality of suffering is important in Christian thinking, very important; and what we do with our suffering is even more important.
I want to apologise for not having had longer to study today’s verses and to wrestle with them. I think there may be some distinction to be made here between action and attitude. Perhaps it is between the words ‘grumbling’ or ‘quarrelling’ and the ‘crying out’. Do you see that contrast in chapter 15? ‘So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”’ (15:24); ‘Then Moses cried out to the Lord…’ (v. 25). I don’t know whether those words are meant to convey some slightly different way of voicing a complaint. It is the same thing in chapter 17 although the words are slightly different: ‘So they quarrelled with Moses … Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord …’ (17:2-4a). It seems to me that the Israelites were justified to complain and to cry out. Notice in 16:11 that their complaint triggered God’s gracious action and revelation: ‘The Lord 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.’”’ Ringing in the back of my mind is the book of Job that we were looking at just before Easter, and the way Job complained and complained and complained, and prayed and prayed and prayed, in his suffering – and was not condemned for it. At the end of the book, it is he who is said had spoken rightly of God – unlike the comforters who come with a tight theology which is going to explain everything.
I suggest it was natural, it triggered grace, but it is condemned. There is no doubt about it, Paul is quite clear, we are not to grumble, we are not to put God to the test as the Israelites did. So how are we going to apply this? I think we need to consider the two things that can result from grumbling: it can lead to either testing God, or being tested by God.
2) Putting God to the Test
That is what Moses says they are doing when they blame him: ‘Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”’ (17:2b). It is a very different thing for people to test God, to put the Lord to the proof, than it is for God to test us and to prove us (as we shall see). And in blaming Moses they are blaming God. Notice that they impute the very worst of motives to Moses: “ … you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (16:3b); “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (17:3b). He is not just incompetent, according to them, he is positively homicidal, indeed genocidal – like the cross-eyed discus thrower who never broke many records but certainly kept the crowds on their feet. “He’s trying to kill us,” they said. It was a ludicrous accusation, but it is the sort of thing people say when their view of life is distorted by anxiety and self-concern.
But Moses is quite firm in showing the people where their problem really lay: “You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord” (16:8b). “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” (17:2). Remember that by chapter 17 they had witnessed the ten plagues, the pillar of cloud and fire, the opening and shutting of the Red Sea, the miraculous sweetening of the water at Marah and the sending of the manna and the quails. But still they test the Lord by saying (the verse with which our reading ended), “Is the Lord among us or not?” (17:7).
It is extraordinary when you think of it, and yet we so easily think that way too. I am talking especially to those who are committed Christians now (I hope if you are not one you will be happy just to listen in to this bit). We wonder if we are really better off as Christians: if God had really done the good for us that we thought He was promising to do when we first started the life of faith. We look back to Egypt and we long for it. “If I hadn’t grown up in a Christian family,” says the teenager, “then I’d have sown my wild oats like everyone else. Who wants to be a chapel-going virgin in 2001?” “If I hadn’t become a Christian I’d have married that good-looking millionaire businessman by now,” says the single girl. “Now look at me – 28, on the shelf, no prospects.” “If I hadn’t become a Christian,” says the student, “I’d be having a whale of a time this week at all the May Balls, with all my old mates. What have I got instead? Fruit juice and choruses at the CU end of year party!” “If I hadn’t followed you, God, I’d be far happier ….”
Well, it is a misuse of the memory for a start; a failure to remember what God has done for us in forgiving sin. That is the great and stupendous act of God on behalf of the Christian. And we easily forget it, and our hearts easily go back to Egypt, and we easily start to moan. You see, God is not actually there for my comfort and convenience. And so faith does not test God, but it is tested by God, which is the right result, I want to suggest, of that natural urge to complain and to grumble and to say, “Why is this happening to me?”
3) Being Tested by God
Notice that in one sense the Israelites were right to blame God. After all, it was He who had guided them to where they were. They had arrived at these desolate places by obedience, not by disobedience. It was doing what God told them to do that had got them there. They were in His will, not out of it. So they were right to look to Him for His solution. Having guided them into these problems, God provided for them within the problems. He showed Moses the tree that sweetened the water at Marah (chapter 15). He sent the manna and the quails in the Wilderness of Sin (chapter 16). He commanded Moses to strike the rock at Rephidim (chapter 17). The provision did not precede the problem, it came when it was needed and it was sufficient: the quails and manna were provided day by day. So:
(a) God guided the Israelites into these situations.
(b) God provided for them within these situations.
(c) God trained them through these situations.
I think that is the most important thing that you and I need to ponder. He met their need in such a way as to teach them more.
To survive in the wilderness, the people would have to heed, indeed to live by, the instruction of the Lord. He would teach them how to live. So each provision of God was both a revelation about Him and a testing of their obedience to Him. Chapter 16 takes us through it: the manna came a day at a time (16:4). It was not to be stored overnight. But some would not listen (16:19, 20). In spite of God’s command, some of the Israelites tried to make God’s loving provision for today last until tomorrow. How characteristic of us human beings! – always desiring to substitute our own resources for God’s; to walk by sight rather than by faith – even appropriating God’s gifts and trying to bank them in our own name.
So God patiently taught them to trust and obey. On the sixth day they were to collect a double portion, and it would last over for the Sabbath. But some still thought they knew better (16:27-30). It would take 40 years and a whole generation to teach Israel to trust God.
The land of Egypt was a fertile land. But the point about it was that it was fertile because of the labour of man who tapped the water from the Nile river, and by canals and careful channelling brought it through the land. Canaan, on the other hand, was a land of grace. It was a hilly land, but it was the land of promise, because the water that arrived there came down from the sky in the form of rain.
Behind the whole story of Israel lies this image of Egypt as the place of works and Canaan as the place of God’s promise, the place of grace. Now they had come out of Egypt and they are on their way to the Promised Land. It only took God one single night to get them out; but it’s going to take Him 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel, to teach them to trust Him and not themselves.
They have got now to learn to live by grace once they have been saved by grace. And that is a very important lesson for you and me. It is actually what our Communion Service is about. If you are a Christian today, and I know not all of us are, you are saved by the grace of God. Not by your goodness, not by my goodness, but because of His love He reached out and touched us and brought us to Himself. But you and I have to live daily by grace; because what happens in the Christian life again and again is that we try to revert to works. We try to justify ourselves by our busyness: we are so busy for the Lord, we’re doing this, we’re doing that, we’re trying to live as upright people, we’re trying to do good left and right, and that is what keeps us going – it keeps our self-esteem going. We are bringing works back in again, we’re going back to Egypt in our hearts. And the word of God is saying to us again and again, we must live by grace, by God’s word.
God trained them, He taught them, He instructed them through their sufferings. And at the end of the journey Moses is going to point out to the Israelites what God had been doing. And we need to leave Exodus and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. I need to read these verses or this sermon will not be complete. This is Moses, at the end of the 40 years, when they are about to go into Canaan: “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you” (Deuteronomy 8:1-5). We really should read the rest of it, but we don’t have time. We are just going to focus on the second half of verse 3: “ …. to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God was providing bread, He was providing manna, to teach them that they did not live by manna – to teach them that they lived by grace, by God’s gracious revelation, His word to us. And that is the nature of the Christian life for you and me.
I don’t know how you view your Christian life? I don’t know if you see it as a dynamic relationship with a living God who is not content with you as you are, but who is longing to mould you, to change you, during your life here on earth to get you ready for life with Him in heaven. I think that’s a great theme hymn that we have got for these Exodus sermons: God leads His people. But has the penny now dropped that that does not mean God makes life easy? That is not God’s leading. God leading you tomorrow and you praying about tomorrow doesn’t mean a nice tomorrow. It means a tomorrow through which He is going to work dynamically in your life and mine to get us ready to spend eternity with Him in heaven. He is going to deal with sin and selfishness in you and in me – the things that really undermine life and upset it and corrupt it and spoil it.
God’s leading is not making life nice for you and for me. It is Him working in us and with us and through us. He leads us into these situations, He will provide for us within the situations, there will be a way of escape, a way to stay righteous - not to stay rich, not to stay healthy and wealthy and contented – but there will be a way to stay righteous and to grow in righteousness within them. And through the situations He will train. That is what God’s leading is. And that is His promise to you and to me, if our faces are turned toward heaven then we will begin to understand what is happening to us when we suffer and as we suffer when it comes our way. And whatever the circumstances of this coming week may be for us, we will begin to understand what God has provided for us.
The New Testament tells us that the rock from which the water came was Christ. And in John 6 Jesus says that He Himself was the real manna, the true bread from heaven. And when I find myself complaining and grumbling, I am not to put God to the test, but I am to let Him test me so that I am driven to Jesus to find in Him everything I need, and so that He can begin to work out His will in me, purifying my sin and my pride and my selfishness, and preparing me for eternity. Amen.