“If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death” (Exodus 16:3, NLT).

When Joseph (son of Jacob > son of Isaac > son of Abraham) was sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers, Joseph’s obedience to God allowed him to become second in command over all of Egypt. So when there was a great famine in what would become Israel, Joseph forgave his brothers and had them move to Egypt where food was plentiful.

But 400 years later, God was ready for His people to move from Egypt back to Israel, so He chose Moses for the task of leading them home. However, getting Pharaoh to “set My people free” was easy compared to a very unique challenge that Moses faced along the journey northward to the land that God had promised them.

When faced with hardships, slim resources for food and water, and traveling through the harsh Middle Eastern desert, the Israelites began to complain about God. They felt that God had brought them into the desert to KILL THEM! They wondered why Moses would lead them into this trap of starvation from such a wicked God.

Question: why would they think this regarding a God about which Moses was trying to teach them was a LOVING GOD, a compassionate God, a God that was providing for them their very own country?

See, though they were Hebrew people, they had fallen under the influences of Egyptian gods and idol worship. They had been subjected to this influence for over 400 years, and, quite frankly, they just assumed that ALL gods were temperamental and were out to punish them just for the fun of it.

These were GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE, yet they were in the midst of an IDENTITY CRISIS! They didn’t know WHO THEY WERE, and they didn’t understand WHOSE THEY WERE!

Because they couldn’t IDENTIFY THEMSELVES as God’s beloved children, God did not want their misguided and Egyptian-tainted mindset to influence the Holy Land. So, God had them wander in the desert for forty years in order for the generation that had been influenced by Egyptology to die off, and allow a new generation of Hebrews who had been brought up knowing ONLY the ONE TRUE GOD of Israel to enter the Holy Land.

God often provides for us opportunities that seem TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Yet, when we hit some bumps in the road and our path seems challenging, it’s easy to think that God is punishing us in some way or that He has abandoned us completely, or that He doesn’t even understand us.

However, just like the Hebrews, our journey to the Land of Milk and Honey is going to be attacked by the devil. He does not want us to seek God’s will. He wants us to think that God is mean and that He’s punishing us. But, in the end, if we remember WHOSE WE ARE and STAY THE COURSE in the WILL OF GOD, God will lead us to the Promised Land beyond our current situation, and the truth that the devil is a liar will be laid bare for all to see.

David McCall

Executive Pastor