“AND THEY took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of Egypt.” Elim had been a welcome resting place, but the children of Israel were pilgrims, and so they were to travel on, and not to rest.
Now they are in the Wilderness of Sin, but, sad to relate, they are not going on in the joy of God’s salvation, but are complaining about their pilgrim fare. “And the whole congregation... murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Alas, many of the Israelites did not have real faith, and they found it a hard path. The Christian’s path is one of faith, and although the unbeliever may start in it outwardly, he can never continue in it. For a time he may be carried along by others, but he will hanker after, and want to get back to, the world. Eventually he will go back too (2 Peter 2:2222But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:22)). A true child of God is often tried by the hardships of the way, but he finds his resources in God, and rejoices in the provision God makes for him day by day.
Do not the murmurings of the children of Israel tell of our own poor hearts’ complaints as Christians, when we allow the old nature to assert itself? How forgetful we can be of the bitter bondage with which we were once connected with sinners and of the true character the “fleshpots of Egypt.”
But the Lord has His object in lowing us to hunger. It is to we us from the fleshpots of Egypt, a to attract us to Himself — to tea us that true satisfaction can found only in Himself and His word, God had something far better for the people than all the food and treasures of Egypt. They were His people, and He wanted them for Himself that He might dwell among them. He was bringing them to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He must wean them from Egypt. The food of Egypt was entirely different from that of Canaan. The onions and the garlic of Egypt (speaking of earthly things) would not mix with the grapes of Eshcol (heavenly things)... Nor will the pleasures of this world mix with our heavenly joys. The “fleshpots” which satisfy the man of the world, are very different from the “manna” (Christ) which nourishes and satisfies the new life of the Christian.
Israel’s complaint here was addressed to Moses and Aaron, but Moses replied to them, “Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.” verse 8. What a trial it must have been to this man of God, yet he did not reprove them all for it, but bore it all with meekness and patience. In this He reminds us of the One whom he portrayed whose soul “was grieved for the miry of Israel” and who “in His love and in His pity... bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” Isaiah 63:99In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9).
ML-08/31/1969