Why Have You Brought Us Up Out Of Egypt To Die In The Wilderness?

Why Have You Brought Us Up Out of Egypt to Die in the Wilderness?

—Numbers 21:5

Have you ever felt like you were on your own journey of wilderness wandering? . . .

Few people had seen the incredible miracles witnessed by the Israelites. They had been delivered from death on the night of that first Passover. They had been delivered from slavery when they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. Even as they wandered in the wilderness because of their rebellion, they were being led by a miraculous cloud by day and a stunning pillar of fire at night. And, as if that were not enough, God was feeding His children each day with bread that fell from heaven.

But we all have a way of forgetting yesterday’s blessings, especially when we become immersed in today’s burdens. So Moses records that “the people [in the wilderness] became very discouraged” (Numbers 21:4). They took it out on Moses and even on God Himself, asking, “Why . . . Why . . . Why have you brought us up out of Egypt?”—then their frustration burst forth—“just to die here in this God-forsaken wilderness?”

Too often we find ourselves walking in their shoes. Life has been moving along pretty well, but we didn’t appreciate how good we really had it. Then we suddenly find ourselves with no direction. We see problems mounting all around with no apparent way out, and we point our own finger at God and ask the same question: “Why have You brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?”

Discouragement can have a devastating and sometimes debilitating effect on our own life journey toward the promised land. Yet Moses recorded this story for all posterity to reveal that discouragement has its reasons and results, but it can also have its remedies. After all, in the New Testament, Paul reminded us that “all these things happened to [the children of Israel] as examples, and they were written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10:11). Since that is so, we have much to learn from this particular stop on their long wilderness wandering.

THERE IS A REASON FOR DISCOURAGEMENT

It’s easy to forget not just where we have been but also where we are going. When this happens—when we only have eyes for the “now”—discouragement comes easily. Then the accumulated complexities swirling around us have their own way of demanding our immediate focus and fueling our discouragement. The Israelites’ discouragement boiled down to the fact that they did not like two things: the way they were being led and the way they were being fed.

These chosen people of God complained, first, about the way they were being led. They began to murmur against Moses, but the real object of their complaint was God Himself. After all, Moses was simply following God’s lead and relaying God’s instructions to the people. But they didn’t like Moses’ leadership—and they rebelled.

Their other subject of complaint was the way they were being fed: “Our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5). The manna the people hated, however, was God’s gracious gift of sustenance to these multiplied thousands of people who were without a food supply. The manna fell fresh every morning—a picture, we later learn, of the sustaining life we can have in Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.

When discouragement comes, it has a dastardly way of diverting our focus from God and His blessings to the circumstances and situations around us. The Israelites’ situation boiled down to the fact that they did not want God’s Word through Moses to lead them, and they didn’t want God to feed them!

THERE IS A RESULT OF DISCOURAGEMENT

Discouragement left to fester can have devastating results. Ask any one of these Jews in the wilderness. They learned that when we openly rebel against God’s leadership and provision in our lives, He often disciplines us for our own benefit: “The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:6). These consequences may seem overly harsh, to say the least. But there is a deeper lesson here for all of us. In the Bible, the serpent is a picture of Satan and sin, and the serpent still comes slithering up to us exactly as it did in the garden.

In this Numbers 21 incident, the serpents’ bites were terrible and, in some cases, terminal. Moses described the serpents’ bites as “fiery” (v. 6), and when they bit, apparently every nerve in their victim’s body turned into a burning ember. The pain was undoubtedly excruciating, and the same can be all too true of the results of sin. I am amazed that some people have the idea that sin is enjoyable and harmless in the long run. It is not. Sin always has consequences, and those consequences are often painful in a myriad of ways. Simply put, “the way of the unfaithful is hard” (Proverbs 13:15).

These bites were not only terrible, but some were terminal. Moses reported that “many of the people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:6). God revealed here—as He does elsewhere in Scripture—that death is the ultimate end of sin and rebellion against Him. Paul was very direct: “The wages of sin is . . .”—what?—“death!” (Romans 6:23). James, who centuries later would be the leader of the Jerusalem church, went straight to the point as well: “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:14–15).

THERE IS A REMEDY FOR DISCOURAGEMENT

The people of Israel learned their lesson and changed their minds in a hurry. They ran to Moses and said, “We have all sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us” (Numbers 21:7). Moses did pray . . . and in response God made what seemed a strange demand. Moses was to make a bronze serpent and place it high up on a pole. When the people looked upon that serpent, they would live.

This strange-sounding command was a sure remedy because it was God’s remedy. Moses didn’t say, “Here is a way to be cured.” He revealed that this was the only way. This was also a sufficient remedy. It didn’t matter where a person was bitten or how many times. God’s remedy was sufficient for healing. And, finally, God’s strange remedy was a sustaining remedy. It never failed. Everyone who looked at the bronze serpent lived.

Exactly what does this incident with the bronze serpent have to do with believers in the twenty-first century? First, remember that when the resurrected Christ spoke to the two men on the Emmaus Road, His intent was to, “beginning at Moses,” explain “to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Yes, that healing serpent lifted above the people and bringing healing foreshadowed Jesus, and thus, we find our Lord right there in the middle of the wilderness.

Fifteen hundred years later, when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus of His crucifixion, He pointed back to this wilderness event: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). And so it was. Jesus was lifted high on a Roman cross so that all could see Him, and to this day, everyone who looks to Him for healing from their sin—for salvation—lives . . . and lives eternally.

How much clearer could the remedy be? The remedy God has provided for death due to our sin is sure: Christ is not a way; He is the way. The remedy is sufficient: no matter how much we have sinned or how little, He is sufficient to provide forgiveness and to save. Finally, God’s remedy for sin is sustaining: no one has ever looked to our Lord to be saved and been turned away. Look to Jesus and live!

Q & A: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” Are you discouraged today? Remember from whence you have come and where you are going. And look to Jesus. He has brought you out of your own Egypt to take you into His promised land. Look to Him . . . and live!