THE journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness is full of instruction to the Christian, whose journey is likened to that of a pilgrim. A wilderness is not a place we should choose to live in, as it does not suit us naturally nor minister to the needs of our physical nature. It therefore aptly sets forth certain lessons for us.
It was a desert that stretched from the land of Egypt, a type of the world, to the land of Caanan, a type of the heavenly position which God desires His people to enjoy now in Christ. During their sojourn in it God taught His people how He was able to take care of them under all conditions and circumstances, as He promised Moses; bringing them out of their bondage and taking-them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
In the Red Sea we see the power of God put forth to deliver His people by the judgment of death on the enemy; and in the death of Christ we see the victory He has wrought by going into death, annulling the enemy and atoning for our sin. When Moses brought out the Israelites from under the hand of Pharaoh, and through the Red Sea, the people were so relieved and glad that they sang praises to God, and danced for joy. But there is another lesson we have to learn, and that is how God can keep from the power of indwelling sin, so that sin shall not have dominion over us.
If we summarize what those forty years brought out on the part of the people, it was unbelief, complaints, murmuring and stubbornness, or in other words, the works of the flesh. That is what we are. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and it is incorrigible.
The testing which wilderness circumstances brought to Israel could only be met by faith, so that those forty years of experiences showed that without faith we cannot enter into God’s blessings. This point is taken up in Hebrews, showing that evil generation fell because of unbelief.
In the wilderness they found no water. There was nothing to appeal to them naturally, and so the Christian finds as he sets forth on the pathway of faith. We cannot find from this world anything to satisfy our new nature, and when they reached Marah they found disappointment, as we all do in this world. The tree which God showed Moses changed the condition of the waters altogether. It was a picture of Christ crucified; He was the living tree cut down, as the Word says, “His life was taken from the earth.” If we are willing to take His path because we love Him, then in taking up the cross we find the sweetness of His company and are overcomers by faith.
The Apostle Paul in Galatians tells us “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.” (verse 17.) It often takes us forty years to learn the secret of deliverance, but faith triumphs over difficulties because it looks at God.
It is interesting to see that at the start of their wilderness journey Amalek (a type of “the flesh”) was the great hindrance to progress. (See Exod. 17). What is said about him is that he slew the hindermost; this is often the case in our path of faith. We lag behind because we are not anxious to get on and we are overcome by the temptations of the flesh. He fought against Israel, but what enabled them to prevail was the intercession of Moses. Our safeguard against the weakness of the flesh is the power of Christ’s intercession on high. Moses went into the mountain, uplifted his hands and Israel prevailed.
Then the children of Israel had God’s provision in the manna. The manna was the first thing given for their food and speaks of the heavenly Christ come down to be our food. The tree was Christ crucified. The manna is His humble pathway of faith. Surely this food would keep our hearts from resting in the wilderness, but it is written of Israel, “they loathed the manna and despised the pleasant land.” Alas! how often this is the case with us. We fail to appreciate Christ in His humble pathway, and if we do not feed on Him, we shall not live by Him for it says, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” (John 6:5757As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:57)). This is why so many of us Christians fail in our testimony for God; we fail to feed on Christ, and thus appropriate His grace.
He who was the living bread that came down from heaven manifested forth the glory of God, and in appreciating Christ and living for His pleasure, we also glorify God. God’s object in saving us is not only to take us to glory, but that we may be a peculiar people, zealous of good works in this world. As Christ has been cast out, we are to manifest Him in character and ways. This we can only do by faith and so we have to learn the wilderness lessons of the folly of unbelief, and the corruption of the flesh. This prepares us to accept death with Christ—typified by the passage of the Jordan into the land that flowed with milk and honey. Our death with Christ here means life with Him there. Then we enjoy the portion and liberty which grace has put us into in Him.
Beside the manna two further beautiful things were given so that God’s people might be able to meet the difficulties of wilderness life and be overcomers.
First there was the water from the rock, and that rock was Christ. The Lord Jesus told the woman of Samaria that “the water which I will give shall be in you a well of water springing up unto eternal life,” so that we find all our thirst satisfied in a living Christ once smitten of God and afflicted, but raised again for our justification.
Then, when the guilt of Israel rose to its height in rebellion, so that the plague began, and but for Moses’ intercession, the people would have been destroyed as one man, a new thing is introduced. We read in Numbers 17 how twelve rods were introduced, one for each tribe, and laid up before the Lord. In the morning the one which was Aaron’s had budded, blossomed, brought forth almonds, and then the Spirit of God tells us, “thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from Me.” This rod was typical of a risen Christ as High Priest for His people. This is the power to carry His people through. The twelve rods were in a place of death, being severed from their root; but the rod that budded spoke of that Blessed One who cannot be holden of death, but was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
How beautiful it is to see that in spite or our stubbornness and sin God goes on with us. God kept His word; He ever will, and if we have the faith of Caleb, we shall like him think of God’s delight in us, whom He has redeemed. Then we shall be over-corners and enjoy, as Caleb did all those forty years, the anticipation of our Heavenly Caanan.
A. E. Walker.