wandering around in the wilderness

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The Wilderness Wanderings

The wandering in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 2:7 - For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness : these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

The Old Testament - A Brief Overview

From Sinai, God led the Israelites through "the great and terrible wilderness" to Kadesh (the border of the promised land). Moses sent 12 spies, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, into Canaan to explore the land. The spies returned with glowing reports of the fruitfulness of the land. They brought back samples of its figs and pomegranates and a cluster of grapes so large that it had to be carried between two men on a pole (Num. 13:1-25)

The majority of the spies, however, voted against the invasion of the land because of the huge inhabitants of Canaan, and fortified cities "walled to heaven" . It was a report of doom. Yet two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, brought back a report full of faith and encouragement.

Num 13:30-33 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." . . . Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."

But the people lost heart and rebelled, refusing to enter Canaan and crying for a new leader who would take them back to Egypt. To punish them for their lack of faith, God condemned all of that generation, except Caleb and Joshua, to perish in the wilderness for 40 years (Num. 14:26-38). All those 20 years old and up would indeed perish in the wilderness with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.

During these years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses' patience was continually tested by the murmurings, grumblings, and complaints of the people. At one point, Moses' patience reached its breaking point and he sinned against the Lord, in anger against the people. When the people again grumbled against Moses, saying they had no water, the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and water would flow forth. Instead, Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Apparently because he disobeyed the Lord in this act, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:1-13). That privilege would belong to his successor, Joshua.

After 40 years the sandglass ran out and Moses brought the tribes back to Kadesh. They camped on the plains of Moab where Moses spoke to them for the last time. Moses then turned his leadership over to Joshua. God led him to the top of Mount Nebo to see the land and there Moses died.

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The Story of the Bible

Summary of the old testament books, read the old testament stories, bibliography resources on the old testament, table of contents, abraham the first hebrew, adam and eve, ancient mesopotamia, bibliography and credits, cain and abel, chronology of the prophets in the old testament, deuteronomy, ecclesiastes, jacob and the 12 tribes, joseph and egypt, joshua and the promised land, king solomon, lamentations, moses and the exodus, noah's ark, old testament lands, old testament peoples, quick summary, saul, israel's first king, the 7 days of creation, the assyrian captivity, the babylonian captivity, the book of the song of solomon, the divided kingdom, the fall of man, the giving of the law, the kingdom of egypt, the land of israel's natural features, the messiah, the nile river, the northern kingdom of israel, the prophets, the return from babylon, the southern kingdom of judah, the tabernacle, the tower of babel.

The Israelites’ Wandering: A Map of Their 40-Year Journey in the Wilderness

The story of the Israelites' wandering in the wilderness is one of the most well-known and powerful stories in the Bible. According to the Book of Exodus, after being led out of Egypt by Moses, the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness before finally reaching the Promised Land. But have you ever wondered exactly where they traveled during this time? By using maps, we can trace their journey through the wilderness and gain a deeper understanding of this powerful story.

The journey of the Israelites began at the Red Sea, where they crossed on dry ground after God parted the waters. From there, they traveled south to the area of Marah, where they found bitter water that was made sweet by a miracle from God. They then continued eastward to the desert of Sin, where they were provided with manna from heaven and quail to eat.

The Israelites then traveled to Mount Sinai, where they received the Ten Commandments and other laws from God. After spending several months at Sinai, they continued their journey northward towards the Promised Land, but their progress was slowed by their disobedience and lack of faith in God.

The Israelites continued to wander in the wilderness for another 38 years, traveling back and forth across the desert and encountering many challenges and trials along the way. They fought battles against other nations, complained about their lack of food and water, and even rebelled against Moses and God on several occasions.

Finally, after 40 years of wandering, the Israelites reached the Promised Land, which was located on the eastern shores of the Jordan River. By using maps, we can see the locations of the places where they camped, the routes they took, and the challenges they faced during their journey.

In conclusion, a map of the Israelites' 40-year journey in the wilderness can help us to better understand this powerful story and the faith and perseverance of the Israelites. By tracing their journey, we can see the locations of the places where they camped and the routes they took, and gain a deeper appreciation for their struggles and ultimate triumph. So why not take a journey through the wilderness with the Israelites and discover the power of their story?

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The Wilderness Years

The Torah is not intended as a history book. Its narrative is never restricted to dry facts alone, but comes to reveal the human factors and the psychological/spiritual import of events. It is a book designed to address humanity’s achievements and foibles, grandeur and pettiness, and great capacity to do good and be evil.

The fourth book of the Torah, The Book of Numbers , is devoted to the narrative of the experiences of the Jewish people during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness of Sinai. It is full of character sketches and descriptions of people who by their actions changed the course of Jewish history, not only in the desert of Sinai but for all times as well.

It is striking that many of the great men named at the beginning of Numbers are no longer there at the end of the book. Positions of power take their toll on their holders.

The desert was a harsh learning place for the Jewish people. However, its lessons were absorbed and translated into Jewish individual and public life, and thus have proven to be of eternal value.

Reality Sets In

Victories and triumphs inevitably are followed by letdowns, frustrations and disappointments. The exultation of Israel at seeing its hated oppressors destroyed at its feet knew no bounds. Its wildest dreams of success and achievement had been fulfilled and realized. However, almost immediately, the people of Israel, faced with the problems of the real world, turned sullen and rebellious.

Food, water and shelter were all lacking. Even when God performed miracles to take care of those needs their mood of foreboding and pessimism was not easily dispelled.

And this mood was heightened by the sudden unprovoked attack of Amalek ( Exodus 17:8). Amalek was defeated by Joshua and Moses, but the mere fact that such an attack occurred so soon after the events of the exodus had a disheartening effect upon the people.

With the most positive of intentions, Moses commissioned twelve leaders to spy out the land God had promised ( Numbers 13:1-16). He undoubtedly had unquestioned trust in their piety and wisdom, and expected them to return with an enthusiastic assessment of the Land of Israel.

Instead they returned with a report about the land and its inhabitants whose negative parts overwhelmed the positive statements they uttered ( Numbers 13:27-29). They eventually backed up their report with personal agendas, woeful predictions and demagogic pronouncements. And Moses was powerless to tell the people to reject the negative report.

A mood of wild depression overwhelmed Israel and God informed them that they would not enter the Promised Land. That honor and opportunity would be given to the next generation. It is the children of the generation that left Egypt who will take on the task of nation-building. They had never been slaves; had never known the taskmaster’s whip.

The question arises why Moses, who was able to convince Israel to leave Egypt, march through the desert, accept the yoke of the Torah, reject the Golden Calf, build the Tabernacle, etc. was unable to convince his generation about the importance of the Land of Israel.

The harsh truth is that most Jews find it easier and more comfortable to live under foreign rule than to have to build their own self-governing society and nation. The exile mentality of the Jewish people, formed already in Egyptian bondage over three millennia ago, remains part of Jewish DNA even today.

The Rebellion of Korah

Like one domino falling after another, rebellion broke out in the camp directly following the failure of the spies. Korah — a leader of the tribe of Levi, one of the bearers of the Holy Ark, the wealthiest man in Israel, and a close relative of Moses and Aaron — aroused others to mutiny and appoint him leader.

Although Korah couched his motivation in idealistic-ideological terms — that all of the people are holy and worthy and Moses had no right to rule over them in a single-handed fashion ( Numbers 16:3) – his real motivation was personal vendetta against those who had failed to appoint him to the high office he thought he deserved. Nevertheless, his populist slogan resonated amongst the Jews and hundreds of leading kinsmen joined him in his complaint against Moses’ rule.

Moses, the most humble of all humans, reacted in an uncharacteristically harsh manner. The true reason for that is because Korah wished to convert Judaism to a man-made “democratic” faith, not its original and true source as a faith revealed to humans from on high, a faith and life system ordained in Heaven and revealed to humans. Therefore, it was not merely Moses and his leadership that were the core issues in this dispute, but the very definition of Judaism: Is it revealed and Godly or man-made and invented?

On that basic core issue of Judaism, Moses saw no room for compromise or tolerance. It was not Moses’ status that was at stake here. It was the understanding and true meaning of Judaism. Its very future was at risk.

The end result of the rebellion was that the Earth miraculously opened and swallowed up Korah and his followers, dragging them down into bottomless pit of no return (as, historically, has been the fate of man-made “Judaisms” over the centuries). The lesson was learned and Moses’ leadership was never questioned again.

Balak and Balaam – Two Types of Jew-Haters

Another major incident in the desert was the attempt of a Moabite king Balak to hire a non-Jewish prophet, Balaam, to curse the Jewish people ( Numbers 22-24). Balak is brutal, direct and minces no words. The existence of the Jewish people itself is somehow seen as a lethal threat to him and Moab. Balaam, on the other hand, is suave, cunning, full of sweet words and blessings, but no less inimical to the existence of the Jewish people.

Whereas Balak seems to be safely ignored by heaven, not so Balaam. Apparently there is no human force possessed by the Jewish people that can safely counteract Balaam’s venom. He is a prophet, soothsayer and “holy” man, possessed of great charisma and intelligence. But behind that veneer of sincerity and good intentions lays the real villain of the story – the greedy, frustrated, amoral Jew-hater.

In the end, God turns Balaam’s curses into blessings. Without God’s interference, so to speak, Balaam’s true wishes could have been fulfilled.

Both Balak and Balaam are recurring characters in the Jewish story throughout the ages and present in our current world. Balak threatens physical extermination, openly stating his aims and threats. Balaam organizes boycotts, and speaks in the name of skewed justice and human rights.

The Torah nowhere describes the demise of Balak; it only deals with the death of Balaam. For the end of Balaam is in fact the end of Balak as well. Balak is the hateful enemy, the bully and seeming aggressor. However, it is Balaam who carries the key to the ultimate resolution of the situation. With his defeat and elimination, the situation can return to a manageable normalcy.

Travelers of Time and Space

The Book of Numbers concludes detailing all the places the Jews stayed from the time they left Egypt to the end of their 40 years in the desert.

Jews are inveterate travelers. In their long exile there is almost no place in the world they have not visited, settled and eventually moved from. Thus, the recording of all of the travels and way stations that the Jews experienced in their years in the Sinai desert is a small prophecy as to the future historical experiences of Jews over millennia of wandering.

The paradigm of Jewish history in exile is that Jews arrive at a new destination, settle, help develop that country, begin to feel at home and attempt to assimilate into the majority culture and society. Suddenly, everything collapses. A mighty and unforeseen wind uproots them after centuries of living there and they move on to new shores.

There are no more Jews in numbers sufficient to speak of in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, etc. This was the Jewish heartland for centuries. But now Jews have moved on again to other shores.

Every way station and desert oasis is recorded to serve as a reminder that the future of the Jewish people lies only in the Land of Israel.

Moses’ Last Words

The Book of Deuteronomy , which consists of the final lectures of Moses during his last month on Earth, is the most human of all of the five books of the Torah.

Moses’ final words to the Jewish people are words of love and blessing. He has already warned the people of his dark visions about their future and has advised them of the terrible costs that will be exacted from them in their long exile. Nevertheless, at the end his thoughts turn toward the future, to the greatness of the eternal people, its resilience and stubbornness and its tenacity.

Moses, who is the supreme realist, nevertheless emphasizes that blessings overcome curses and that eventually goodness triumphs over evil. The future is still within our grasp to improve and succeed.

Revelation and Beyond

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The Six Day War

The Sinai Campaign

Ingathering of the Exiles

The State of Israel

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Biblical Theodicy & Why God Made Israel Wander in the Wilderness

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Moses strikes water from the stone.  Krzysztof Lubieniecki  (1659–1729)

The great theological challenge of the problem of suffering in ethical monotheism has been described as a “trilemma,” namely reconciling the reality of human suffering with the beliefs that,  

• God is all-Good (omnibenevolent).
• God is all-Powerful (omnipotent).
• God is all-Knowing (omniscient). [1]

The term “Theodicy” (from Greek  theos , God, and  dike , Justice) was coined to describe the philosophical enterprise of justifying or defending God and, more broadly, for attempts to grapple with the theological and existential problem of human suffering. The Bible contains many texts that grapple directly or indirectly with theodicy.

Retributive Theodicy

The second word of  Parashat Ekev,  after which it is named, denotes “consequence.”  The  parashah  opens with a strong claim for “retributive justice,” the idea that God rewards good behavior and punishes wrong-doing. Indeed, this conception underpins the structure of the  parashah  as a whole.

ז:יב  וְהָיָ֣ה׀  עֵ֣קֶב  תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן אֵ֤ת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְשָׁמַר֩ יְ-הֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לְךָ֗ אֶֽת הַבְּרִית֙ וְאֶת הַחֶ֔סֶד אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֖ע לַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ:

7:12  And  as a consequence   (עקב)  of your obeying these rules and observing them carefully, Yhwh your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers…

ח:יט  וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־שָׁכֹ֤חַ תִּשְׁכַּח֙ אֶת־יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְהָֽלַכְתָּ֗ אַחֲרֵי֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וַעֲבַדְתָּ֖ם וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִ֣יתָ לָהֶ֑ם הַעִדֹ֤תִי בָכֶם֙ הַיּ֔וֹם כִּ֥י אָבֹ֖ד תֹּאבֵדֽוּן:  ח:כ כַּגּוֹיִ֗ם אֲשֶׁ֤ר יְ-הֹוָה֙ מַאֲבִ֣יד מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם כֵּ֖ן תֹּאבֵד֑וּן עֵ֚קֶב  לֹ֣א תִשְׁמְע֔וּן בְּק֖וֹל יְ-הֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם:

8 :19  If you do forget Yhwh your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish;  8:20  like the nations that Yhwh will cause to perish before you, so shall you perish— as a consequence   (עקב)  of your not heeding Yhwh your God. (NJPS with adjustments)

The retributive theory of theodicy is also the basic explanation offered both in the book of Deuteronomy and the book of Leviticus for Israel’s eventual exile from the land (Deut 28-29, 32; Lev 26).  Thus, one of the Hebrew Bible’s main approaches to theodicy presumes some sort of consequential system of divine justice. [2]

This approach is applicable for both individuals (especially in the Psalms and Wisdom Literature), and nations. It is fundamental to the covenantal framework of the Exodus and Wilderness narratives in Torah and the historical narratives of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.  Similarly, the primary message of the prophets is that Israel’s well-being as a nation is dependent upon its conduct.

Examination Theodicy: Divine Testing (נסה)

Elsewhere, the Bible follows a belief that may be characterized as examination theodicy, the idea that God wishes to see what the sufferer will do in order to reward the sufferer if he/she/they “pass” the test. The most famous examples of examination theodicy are in the stories of the binding of Isaac and the book of Job.

Binding of Isaac

The beginning and end of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22 use “testing” language:

כב:א  וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם…

22:1  Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test.

כב:יב  וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַל תִּשְׁלַ֤ח יָֽדְךָ֙ אֶל הַנַּ֔עַר וְאַל תַּ֥עַשׂ ל֖וֹ מְא֑וּמָה כִּ֣י עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה וְלֹ֥א חָשַׂ֛כְתָּ אֶת בִּנְךָ֥ אֶת יְחִידְךָ֖ מִמֶּֽנִּי… כב:יז  כִּֽי בָרֵ֣ךְ אֲבָרֶכְךָ֗ וְהַרְבָּ֨ה אַרְבֶּ֤ה אֶֽת זַרְעֲךָ֙ כְּכוֹכְבֵ֣י הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְכַח֕וֹל אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־שְׂפַ֣ת הַיָּ֑ם וְיִרַ֣שׁ זַרְעֲךָ֔ אֵ֖ת שַׁ֥עַר אֹיְבָֽיו:   כב:יח וְהִתְבָּרֲכ֣וּ בְזַרְעֲךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל גּוֹיֵ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ  עֵ֕קֶב  אֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁמַ֖עְתָּ בְּקֹלִֽי:

22:12  And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”…  22:17  I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes.  22:18  All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants,  as a consequence  ( עקב ) of your having obeyed My command.”

Here the relationship between the language of consequence and the suffering is inverted. Because Abraham submitted to suffering, he will be rewarded as a consequence. This is the only explicit case of Abraham undergoing a trial in the Torah, but it serves as the basis for the well-known tradition about the ten trials of Abraham, found already in the Second Temple book of Jubilees (17:15-18; 19:8).

A similar understanding is implied in the narrative framework of the book of Job. [3]  Although the term נסה itself is not used in Job chs. 1-2 and 42, the cause of Job´s tragic suffering is ascribed to instigation by “the  satan ”, [4]  who hoped to demonstrate that Job would fail to maintain righteousness in the face of trying circumstances. [5]  God appears to allow the satan  to inflict terrible suffering on Job to “prove” to the  satan that Job would not sin even under these harrowing circumstances. In the end, God rewards Job for his fidelity and grants him wealth, more children, and long life.

God’s Lack of Omniscience

Implicit in the stories of Job and the binding of Isaac is the belief that God is  not  omniscient, and does not know the outcome of the test in advance. [6]  Jacob Licht has argued the case that these episodes should be taken at face value—they presume that divine knowledge is less than complete, and that God must engage in experimentation to acquire further data about human beings’ character and behavior. [7]  The responses of human beings to divinely inflicted trials and ordeals provide God with such evidence, and God can then punish or reward them based on their behavior.

Which Theodicy Best Explains the Wilderness Wandering?

These two theories of theodicy are not mutually exclusive. (God can both punish sinners and test believers.) But how might these abstract theories be used to help explain Israel’s history as recorded in the biblical text? The punishment of the generation of the wilderness provides an excellent test case.

Retributive Theodicy (Numbers)

Numbers offers the retributive theodicy as the explanation for the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the wilderness:

יד:לג  וּ֠בְנֵיכֶם יִהְי֨וּ רֹעִ֤ים בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים שָׁנָ֔ה וְנָשְׂא֣וּ אֶת זְנוּתֵיכֶ֑ם עַד תֹּ֥ם פִּגְרֵיכֶ֖ם בַּמִּדְבָּֽר: יד:לד  בְּמִסְפַּ֨ר הַיָּמִ֜ים אֲשֶׁר תַּרְתֶּ֣ם אֶת הָאָרֶץ֘ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים יוֹם֒ י֣וֹם לַשָּׁנָ֞ה י֣וֹם לַשָּׁנָ֗ה תִּשְׂאוּ֙ אֶת עֲוֹנֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם אַרְבָּעִ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם אֶת תְּנוּאָתִֽי:

14:33  Your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness. 14:34  You shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days — forty days — that you scouted the land: a year for each day. Thus you shall know what it means to thwart Me.

In this model, the wandering is a direct punishment for the sin of the scouts, and the Israelites’ complicity in that sin by refusing to go up the land.

Examination Theodicy ( Parashat Ekev )

Alternatively,  Parashat Ekev  seems to offer an examination theodicy explanation for the wilderness wandering:

ח:ב וְזָכַרְתָּ֣ אֶת כָּל הַדֶּ֗רֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹלִֽיכֲךָ֜ יְ-הֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ זֶ֛ה אַרְבָּעִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר  לְמַ֨עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֜ לְנַסֹּֽתְךָ֗ לָדַ֜עַת אֶת אֲשֶׁ֧ר בִּֽלְבָבְךָ֛ הֲתִשְׁמֹ֥ר מצותו מִצְוֹתָ֖יו אִם לֹֽא :

8:2  Remember the long way that Yhwh your God has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years,  that He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep His commandments or not .

ח:יד  וְרָ֖ם לְבָבֶ֑ךָ וְשָֽׁכַחְתָּ֙ אֶת יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ הַמּוֹצִיאֲךָ֛ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֥ית עֲבָדִֽים: ח:טו  הַמּוֹלִ֨יכֲךָ֜ בַּמִּדְבָּ֣ר הַגָּדֹ֣ל וְהַנּוֹרָ֗א נָחָ֤שׁ׀ שָׂרָף֙ וְעַקְרָ֔ב וְצִמָּא֖וֹן אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֵֽין מָ֑יִם הַמּוֹצִ֤יא לְךָ֙ מַ֔יִם מִצּ֖וּר הַֽחַלָּמִֽישׁ:  ח:טז הַמַּֽאֲכִ֨לְךָ֥ מָן֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא יָדְע֖וּן אֲבֹתֶ֑יךָ לְמַ֣עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗ וּלְמַ֙עַן֙ נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ לְהֵיטִֽבְךָ֖ בְּאַחֲרִיתֶֽךָ :

8:14  Beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget Yhwh your God— who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage;  8:15  who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its  seraph  serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock;  8:16  who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers had never known,  in order to test you by hardships only to bene fi t you in the end .

Educative Theodicy: Testing as Purification

But is that what Deuteronomy really means? This understanding of theodicy as divine testing (examination) works well with Deut 8:2, which ends with “whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Whereas Deut  8:16 , which concludes with “to benefit you in the end,” suggests that the wilderness wandering and afflication had a purpose beyond just to test the people’s loyalty. 

The key to understanding verse  16 may  be found in the ambiguity of the word נ-ס-ה, which does not only mean “to test.” Like its synonymous biblical Hebrew root ב-ח-נ, it also originated as a term denoting the refining of metals. For example, both roots appear as a parallel to the root צ-ר-פ (smelting) in Psalms (26:2), another word for smelting:

בְּחָנֵ֣נִי יְהוָ֣ה  וְנַסֵּ֑נִי (צרופה) [צָרְפָ֖ה] כִלְיוֹתַ֣י וְלִבִּֽי׃

Probe me, Yhwh, and  try me , test my heart and min

Similar semantic overlap between purification and examining underlies the English “test,” derived from the Latin “testum,” an earthern vessel used in metallurgical processes. [8]  An extension of the metaphor supposes that “ordeals” can be edifying, and “trials and tribulations” (the latter word comes from the Latin for “pressure”) can contribute to growth.

Thus, in Deut 8:16, the statement about God afflicting and “נ-ס-ה-ing” of Israel for the nation’s benefit may indicate a process of improvement through overcoming difficult experiences. The pairing with “affliction” in לְמַ֣עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗ וּלְמַ֙עַן֙ נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ points to a sense of, “no pain, no gain.” [9]  This verse indicates that the purpose of the wilderness wanderings was to strengthen the nation and prepare the children of Israel for settlement in the Promised Land. [10]  It may thus be unconnected to the issue of divine omniscience.

Vicarious Educative Theodicy

Educative theodicy is sometimes extended pedagogically. If sufferers are toughened by their difficult experiences, others can learn similar lessons vicariously through narratives about the suffering, and about retributive justice. The wilderness wandering functions this way, as a paradigm for later instances of Israelite sin and punishment, and a cautionary tale. [11]  So, for example in Psalm 95 (8-10):

אַל תַּקְשׁ֣וּ לְ֭בַבְכֶם כִּמְרִיבָ֑ה כְּי֥וֹם מַ֝סָּ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּֽר: אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִ֭סּוּנִי אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּ֝חָנ֗וּנִי גַּם רָא֥וּ פָעֳלִֽי: אַרְבָּ֮עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה אָ֮ק֤וּט בְּד֗וֹר…

Do not be stubborn as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah, in the wilderness, when your fathers put Me to the test, tried Me, though they had seen My deeds.  Forty years I was provoked by that generation (Ps 95: 8-10).

Thus, even if the wandering is understood as retributive justice, it also functions as a kind of education for the future.  

נסה as Retribution, Examination, and Education

Jacob Licht, in  Testing in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Post-Biblical Judaism , suggested that biblical texts sometimes invoke the idea of divine testing as a sort of last resort to resolve greater theological difficulties. He shows that the book of Judges offers multiple explanations for why God left nations in the Land, requiring the Israelites to engage in conquest warfare:

Judges 2 (Retributive plus Examination)

Retributive.

ב:כ  וַיִּֽחַר אַ֥ף יְ-הֹוָ֖ה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיֹּ֗אמֶר  יַעַן֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָבְר֜וּ הַגּ֣וֹי הַזֶּ֗ה אֶת בְּרִיתִי֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּ֣יתִי אֶת אֲבוֹתָ֔ם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמְע֖וּ לְקוֹלִֽי:  ב:כא  גַּם אֲנִי֙ לֹ֣א אוֹסִ֔יף לְהוֹרִ֥ישׁ אִ֖ישׁ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם מִן הַגּוֹיִ֛ם אֲשֶׁר עָזַ֥ב יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ וַיָּמֹֽת:

2:20  Then Yhwh became incensed against Israel, and He said,  “Since that nation has transgressed the covenant  that I enjoined upon their fathers and has not obeyed Me,  2:21  I for My part will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.”  

Examination

ב:כב  לְמַ֛עַן נַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל הֲשֹׁמְרִ֣ים הֵם֩ אֶת דֶּ֨רֶךְ יְקֹוָ֜ק לָלֶ֣כֶת בָּ֗ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר שָׁמְר֥וּ אֲבוֹתָ֖ם אִם לֹֽא:  ב:כג  וַיַּנַּ֤ח יְ-הֹוָה֙ אֶת הַגּוֹיִ֣ם הָאֵ֔לֶּה לְבִלְתִּ֥י הוֹרִישָׁ֖ם מַהֵ֑ר וְלֹ֥א נְתָנָ֖ם בְּיַד יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ:

2:22   For it was in order to test Israel by them  — [ to see] whether or not they would faithfully walk in the ways of Yhwh , as their fathers had done —  2:23  that Yhwh had left those nations, instead of driving them out at once, and had not delivered them into the hands of Joshua.

Judges 3 (Educative plus Examination)

ג:א  וְאֵ֤לֶּה הַגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הִנִּ֣יחַ יְקֹוָ֔ק לְנַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אֵ֚ת כָּל אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא יָדְע֔וּ אֵ֖ת כָּל מִלְחֲמ֥וֹת כְּנָֽעַן:  ג:ב   רַ֗ק לְמַ֙עַן֙ דַּ֚עַת דֹּר֣וֹת בְּנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְלַמְּדָ֖ם מִלְחָמָ֑ה…

3:1  These are the nations that Yhwh left so that He might test by them all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars of Canaan,  3:2  so that succeeding generations of Israelites might be made to experience war …  

ג:ד   וַֽיִּהְי֕וּ לְנַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לָדַ֗עַת הֲיִשְׁמְעוּ֙ אֶת מִצְוֹ֣ת יְ-הֹוָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּ֥ה אֶת אֲבוֹתָ֖ם בְּיַד מֹשֶֽׁה:

3:4   These served as a means of testing Israel, to learn whether they would obey the commandments which Yhwh  had enjoined upon their fathers through Moses.

The two passages in Judges each initially explain the nations that remained as a form of retribution or education, but supplement this explanation with a second, namely, examination (testing) theodicy. Licht suggests that the multiplicity of explanations hints at their inadequacy. Moreover, he argues, the “testing” motif is introduced, even though it is theologically unsatisfying, because it is a way of deflecting the greater theological question of why God subjected Israel to the hardship of the conquest.

A Place for Mercy in Theodicy

In the continuation of the passage in Judges 3, we learn that the nation actually fails the test and receives punishment (retributive theodicy), but the story doesn’t end there:

ג:ז וַיַּעֲשׂ֨וּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל אֶת הָרַע֙ בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְ-הֹוָ֔ה וַֽיִּשְׁכְּח֖וּ אֶת־יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶ֑ם וַיַּעַבְד֥וּ אֶת־הַבְּעָלִ֖ים וְאֶת־ הָאֲשֵׁרֽוֹת:

3:7  The Israelites did what was offensive to Yhwh; they ignored Yhwh their God and worshiped the Baalim and the Asheroth.

ג:ח  וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֤ף יְ-הֹוָה֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַֽיִּמְכְּרֵ֗ם בְּיַד֙ כּוּשַׁ֣ן רִשְׁעָתַ֔יִם מֶ֖לֶךְ אֲרַ֣ם נַהֲרָ֑יִם וַיַּעַבְד֧וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל אֶת־כּוּשַׁ֥ן רִשְׁעָתַ֖יִם שְׁמֹנֶ֥ה שָׁנִֽים:

3:8  Yhwh became incensed at Israel and surrendered them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim; and the Israelites were subject to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

ג:ט  וַיִּזְעֲק֤וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ אֶל־יְ-הֹוָ֔ה וַיָּ֨קֶם יְ-הֹוָ֥ה מוֹשִׁ֛יעַ לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיּֽוֹשִׁיעֵ֑ם…

3:9  The Israelites cried out to Yhwh, and Yhwh raised a champion for the Israelites to deliver them…

Here we see a hint of an additional feature of biblical theodicy, in which divine justice is complemented by mercy. 

The strong voice of retributive theodicy in this  parashah  is consistent with the great rebuke in Deut 28, though that latter chapter concentrates on punishments, while ours concentrates on rewards. But the carrot of Deuteronomy 7-8 and the stick of  Deuteronomy 28 complement each other. Significantly, they both emphasize that the land is not a permanent gift, but, as noted in the first gloss of Rashi to the Torah, is given at God’s pleasure, and residing in the land is a privilege, not an absolute right. Dwelling securely in the land is a privilege that Moses exhorts the people to earn, and that can be regained even after stumbling.

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August 4, 2015

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[1] This is the formulation of R.M. Green, “Theodicy,” in M. Eliade (ed.),  The Encyclopedia of Religion , 430-41. It is useful, but should not be taken too literally. The stance of the Hebrew Bible may be debated for each of these elements. For example, most Bible scholars today would say that many biblical texts presume the existence of other gods, distinguishing between henotheism, monolatry, and monotheism. Moreover, some texts seem to indicate an understanding that God’s knowledge and power are subject to limitations. And, significantly, the philosophical difficulty is not confined to the question of human suffering, but applies also to human sin: how can there be any badness in a world governed by an all-powerful benevolent Deity?

[2] A. Laato and J.C. de Moor provide a thorough survey of the problem and biblical perspectives in their  Theodicy in the World of the Hebrew Bible  (Leiden: Brill, 2003). In their “Introduction,” pp. vii-liv, they survey categories suggested in earlier scholarship. I tend to think of the various types of approaches not as solutions, but as “strategies” or “coping mechanisms.”

[3] In many biblical Wisdom texts, the authors do not question the justice of suffering, but rather its absence: they are troubled by the flourishing of the wicked, especially in contrast to the suffering of the righteous.

[4] In Job, he is always called “the  satan ,” with a definite article (“the”), meaning “the adversary.”  Since definite articles may not appear before personal names, this may not be translated as “Satan.”

[5] Compare the role of Mastema in the account of the Binding of Isaac in Jubilees 17:16 and parallel midrashic traditions concerning “accusing angels” in b.  San . 89b and  Gen. Rab.  55:4 (ed. Theodor-Albeck, 587).  For a discussion of additional Second Temple and rabbinic sources, see James L. Kugel,  The Bible as it Was  (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 171-172;  Traditions of the Bible  (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), 301-302; Moshe J. Bernstein, “Angels at the Akedah: A Study in the Development of a Midrashic Motif,” in  Reading and Re-Reading Scripture at Qumran  (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 323-351.

[6] A strand of the exodus story may also be working with this model of God’s lack of omniscience. See David Frankel’s TABS essay,  “When Pharaoh’s Stubbornness Caught God by Surprise.”

[7] J. Licht,  Testing in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Post-Biblical Judaism  (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1973. Hebrew). Licht contrasts early Jewish interpretation of divine testing with early Christian sources, which understand  נסה  as denoting temptation. See also M. Carasik, “The Limits of Omniscience Author(s)”  Journal of Biblical Literature  119.2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 221-232. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3268484

[8] The etymological origins in metallurgy are also relevant for the meaning of testing in the sense of a process to determine the nature of a substance, since one use of the testum was to smelt a portion of metal in order to evaluate its purity.

[9] The JPS collapses the two Hebrew verbs in the purpose clauses, עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗, נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ, into a single verb “to test”.

[10] There is some tension among biblical assessments of the manna. On one hand, it represents divine providence, nurturing Israel and sustaining the nation in the wilderness. On the other hand, it is depicted as a strangely foreign substance (Deut 8:3). Deut 8:16 is ambiguous. The purpose clause “in order to afflict and to test” may refer to the giving of the manna, the final participial clause in the series, or it may refer to the entire series begun in verse 15 with the Exodus.

[11] See Deut 6:16, 9:22, 33:8.

Dr. Shani Tzoref is currently a Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg.  Her previous positions include Chair of Hebrew Bible and Exegesis at the University of Potsdam and coordinator of the Biblical Studies program at the University of Sydney. Tzoref holds an M.A. in Jewish History from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. in Ancient Jewish Literature from New York University, and is pursuing an additional M.A. in Digital Humanities from the CUNY Graduate center. She is the author of The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169 .

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Wandering in the Wilderness – Free Bible lesson for kids

by truewaykids | Jun 1, 2023 | Bible Lesson , Genesis , numbers , Old Testament | 3 comments

Introduction

Bible Lesson

Remind the child of the spies rejecting God’s promise that He would give the Promised Land to them, and the punishment that God gave them of never entering into the Promised Land. You can look up some photos of the land where the children of Israel wandered. Ask the child if it looks like a pleasant place to live.

Talk about actions having consequences. To demonstrate, you can use a tube of toothpaste. Squirt out a small amount onto a piece of wax paper. Ask the child to put the toothpaste back into the tube. You can offer a spoon, toothpick, etc. After the child realizes that one cannot put the toothpaste back, remind the child that every choice they make has a consequence, and cannot always be undone. If you prefer not to use toothpaste, you may employ a piece of paper. Have the child crumple the paper into a ball and then ask them to make it as smooth as it was before. When the child realizes that they can’t make the paper perfect again, remind them that actions have consequences. Note: You can use either one or both of the previous examples with your child.

Remind the child that even though God was going to be unhappy His people still disobeyed Him, but He still took care of the children of Israel in the desert. Point out how shoes and clothes get worn out, but God kept the Israelites’ clothes from growing old. Point out some ways that God takes care of us, such as the sun, rain, food, water, etc.

Talk about how often the Israelites complained. Ask the child if they have ever complained about something. Talk about some of the ways they can focus on gratitude, e.g. if they often complain about the color of their shoes, think about how the shoes protect their feet, keep them warm, etc. Keep this fun by creating some very silly reasons to be grateful such as being grateful that even though broccoli might not be their favorite vegetable to eat, they can be grateful it doesn’t make their skin turn green. You may even create a simple flower for their wall with their reasons to be grateful written on the petals. You can play a game so that every time someone in the family starts to complain, everyone else can call out “Attitude of Gratitude,” and the complainer has to come up with a reason to be grateful.

Pray with your child and ask Jesus to help cultivate gratitude in your hearts.

Bible Story

Games and Activites

Included in this week’s downloadable lesson is a selection of games and activities that can be used to reinforce this week lesson.

• A long walk
• Thank you cards
• Quail or manna relay game

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To prepare people for eternal life.

Bible Study Guides – Wandering Through the Wilderness

February 14 – 20, 2021.

“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

Study Help: Patriarchs and Prophets, 406–410.

Introduction

“The wilderness wandering was not only ordained as a judgment upon the rebels and murmurers, but it was to serve as a discipline for the rising generation, preparatory to their entrance into the Promised Land.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 407.

1 A DELAYED ENTRANCE INTO THE PROMISED LAND 

1.a. How long did the children of Israel wander in the wilderness before they came again to Kadesh and crossed the Brook Zered? Deuteronomy 2:14. Why did it take so long?

Note: “God gave positive evidence that He rules in the heavens, and rebellion was punished with death. Only two of those who as adults left Egypt, saw the promised land. The wanderings of the people were extended until the rest were buried in the wilderness.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1113.

“Had Israel obeyed the directions given them by Moses, not one of those who started on the journey from Egypt would in the wilderness have fallen a prey to disease or death. They were under a safe Guide. Christ had pledged Himself to lead them safely to the promised land if they would follow His guidance. This vast multitude, numbering more than a million people, was under His direct rule. They were His family. In every one of them He was interested.” Ibid . , 1118.

2 GOD PROVIDES AND INSTRUCTS 

2.a. What evidences do we have of God’s care for His people during their time of wandering in the wilderness? Nehemiah 9:19–21; Psalm 105:37.

2.b.      How was the wilderness wandering a discipline for the rising generation? Deuteronomy 8:2, 3.

Note: “God permitted these lonely travels through the wilderness that His people might obtain an experience in enduring hardship, and that when they were in peril they might know that there was relief and deliverance in God alone. Thus they might learn to know and to trust God, and to serve Him with a living faith.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 409.

“As the people journeyed through the wilderness, many precious lessons were fixed in their minds by means of song. … The commandments as given from Sinai, with promises of God’s favor and records of His wonderful works for their deliverance, were by divine direction expressed in song, and were chanted to the sound of instrumental music, the people keeping step as their voices united in praise.

“Thus their thoughts were uplifted from the trials and difficulties of the way, the restless, turbulent spirit was soothed and calmed, the principles of truth were implanted in the memory, and faith was strengthened.” Education, 39.

2.c. What was the main reason why many of the Israelites were unable to enter the Promised Land? How can we avoid falling into the same sin? Hebrews 3:7–14.

Note: “It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness. … In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning and find in Him a shelter before the wrath of God shall be poured out.” The Great Controversy, 458.

3 THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNCONVERTED

3.a. What class of people often proved to be troublemakers? Numbers 11:4.

Note: “The mixed multitude that came up with the Israelites from Egypt were a source of continual temptation and trouble. They professed to have renounced idolatry and to worship the true God; but their early education and training had molded their habits and character, and they were more or less corrupted with idolatry and with irreverence for God. They were oftenest the ones to stir up strife and were the first to complain, and they leavened the camp with their idolatrous practices and their murmurings against God.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 408.

3.b.      What was God’s command with regard to uniting with unbelievers? Deuteronomy 7:3, 4; 2 Corinthians 6:14. What about today?

Note: “They [the Israelites] were warned not to have any connection with idolaters, not to intermarry with them, nor in any way put themselves in danger of being affected and corrupted by their abominations. They were counseled to shun the very appearance of evil, not to dabble around the borders of sin, for this was the surest way to be engulfed in sin and ruin.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 2, 1000.

“God strictly forbade the intermarrying of His ancient people with other nations. … But the heathen were in a more favorable condition than are the impenitent in this age, who, having the light of truth, yet persistently refuse to accept it.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 508.

3.c. What is always the result of being closely associated with the unconverted? 1 Corinthians 15:33, 34.

Note: “It is wrong for Christians to associate with those whose morals are loose. An intimate, daily intercourse which occupies time without contributing in any degree to the strength of the intellect or morals is dangerous. If the moral atmosphere surrounding persons is not pure and sanctified, but is tainted with corruption, those who breathe this atmosphere will find that it operates almost insensibly upon the intellect and heart to poison and to ruin.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 125.

4 CONTEMPT FOR DIVINE AUTHORITY

4.a. How was contempt for divine authority and violation of the third commandment punished? Leviticus 24:10–16, 23.

Note: “On one occasion the son of an Israelitish woman and of an Egyptian, one of the mixed multitude that had come up with Israel from Egypt, left his own part of the camp, and entering that of the Israelites, claimed the right to pitch his tent there. This the divine law forbade him to do, the descendants of an Egyptian being excluded from the congregation until the third generation. A dispute arose between him and an Israelite, and the matter being referred to the judges was decided against the offender.

“Enraged at this decision, he cursed the judge, and in the heat of passion blasphemed the name of God. … God Himself pronounced the sentence; by the divine direction the blasphemer was conducted outside the camp and stoned to death. Those who had been witness to the sin placed their hands upon his head, thus solemnly testifying to the truth of the charge against him. Then they threw the first stones, and the people who stood by afterward joined in executing the sentence.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 407, 408.

4.b.      Why was the punishment for these offenses so severe? Exodus 20:7.

Note: “There are those who will question God’s love and His justice in visiting so severe punishment for words spoken in the heat of passion. But both love and justice require it to be shown that utterances prompted by malice against God are a great sin. The retribution visited upon the first offender would be a warning to others, that God’s name is to be held in reverence. But had this man’s sin been permitted to pass unpunished, others would have been demoralized; and as the result many lives must eventually have been sacrificed.” Patriarchs and Prophets , 408.

4.c. How do we sometimes show contempt for God’s authority today? Judges 17:6.

Note: “The sin of this age is disregard of God’s express commands.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 483.

5 CHOOSING OBEDIENCE INSTEAD 

5.a. Why did the Lord require obedience of His ancient people? Deuteronomy 6:1, 2, 24, 25. Where does true obedience spring from? Deuteronomy 6:5, 6.

Note: “All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.” The Desire of Ages, 668.

5.b.      Where should we begin to teach obedience and why? Deuteronomy 6:7–9.

Note: “From their earliest life children should be taught to obey their parents, to respect their word, and to reverence their authority. … In respecting and rendering obedience to their parents, they may learn how to respect and obey their heavenly Father.” Child Guidance, 82, 83.

“Let the youth and the little children be taught to choose for themselves that royal robe woven in heaven’s loom—the ‘fine linen, clean and white’ (Revelation 19:8), which all the holy ones of earth will wear. This robe, Christ’s own spotless character, is freely offered to every human being. But all who receive it will receive and wear it here.

“Let the children be taught that as they open their minds to pure, loving thoughts and do loving and helpful deeds, they are clothing themselves with His beautiful garment of character.” Ibid., 190.

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS 

1    Had the Israelites obeyed Moses, what would have happened to them?

2    What role did singing have in the wilderness journey?

3    What is to be our sole purpose in associating with unbelievers?

4    How can we reverence God’s name today?

5    How may we be daily clothing ourselves with Christ’s character?

Copyright 2019, Reformation Herald Publishing Association, 5240 Hollins Road, Roanoke, Virginia 24019-5048, U.S.A.

7 Lessons We Can Learn from the Israelites' Wandering the Desert

Debbie mcdaniel.

Not a day goes by that we're not in need of God's huge grace and peace. Every morning we need his Spirit to fill us again, to strengthen us for what's ahead. Every day we need a fresh word that he speaks to our hearts, to keep our focus on what's most important. Trying to run this race of life without him will do nothing but drain us dry.

In the book of Exodus, we read the story of how God’s people had endured years of bondage under the Egyptians. They were oppressed, abused, mistreated people. They needed rescue, they needed a way of escape. God saw their need, he didn’t miss a thing, and in his perfect timing, he acted on their behalf. 

“God met them where they were.”

Miracle after miracle God performed, leading them straight out of slavery, away from the cruel hand of the Egyptians. He set them free. Free from oppression. Free from captivity. Free from bondage. And the adventure was just getting started.

The people of Israel spent 40 years in the desert. 40 years of wandering. 40 years of journeying towards the promised land that God had given them. That’s a very long time. The days must have been intense, hot, dry, I'm sure they got weary. But God met them where they were, he made sure they had what they needed. They learned through every hard and grueling step, how much they had to rely on Him.

We see it over and over in his word. Stories that prove how God never leaves us fending for ourselves when problems arise or seem too big. Miracles that remind us when we leave the battles in his hands, he can do what would be impossible for us to ever accomplish on our own.

Here are 7 Things We Can Learn from the Israelites’ Wandering Years in the Desert:

1. The way to our promised land is not always easy, in fact, it rarely is. But it’s worth it.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn’t lead them on the road that made the most sense. The Bible tells us in Exodus 13 , that though the path was shorter right through the Philistine country, God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” Exodus 13:17

So He led them around the desert road over towards the Red Sea. Hot, dry, barren wasteland, the sea looming off in the distance. We can almost hear the grumblings starting then. Feel the fear rising. And that was just the beginning of their journey.

God had promised his people land that would be full of blessing, it was worth fighting for, it was worth going the distance. But the way there would stretch their faith and lead them through journeys where they’d have to depend on God like nothing before.

We too often face these journeys as God leads us into our own “promised land.” Maybe you feel like the blessing is too long in coming, maybe you feel like giving up. Be assured again today that God is faithful and he will use all things to strengthen our faith and bring goodness to his people. Stay strong, keep pressing through.

2. God will make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way.

“So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea…” Exodus 13:18

As the Israelites got closer that sea must have looked bigger and deeper. An obstacle that seemed too difficult to overcome. Their eyes focused on the problem. They forgot about the bigness of their God. But God didn’t forget about them. He split the sea in two so that his people walked through on the dry ground. The enemy in hot pursuit had no idea what they were up against. They lost the battle that day and were swallowed up in the waves.

God had rescued his people and led them straight through the biggest obstacle they’d ever encountered, and that was just the beginning of his miracles.

Even if the way He’s leading doesn’t seem to make much sense and His timing seems off, or the wait feels long, and wandering in desert places is the last thing we want to do, we can trust Him. Always. He knows our way. He sees the big picture. He has good in store.  And though it may not have been what we would have chosen, or how we would accomplish things, we can thank Him for His Sovereignty, His care over us, and His powerful leadership.  

3. God will lead us day and night.

“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to given them light…” Exodus 13:21

God never left his people alone in their journey. His presence was always there, a reminder to them that they hadn’t been left on their own in the wilderness. As a pillar of cloud in the day and fire by night, He guided them, giving them shade from the fierceness of the desert sun, and a light in the darkest of nights.

God will not leave us to fend for ourselves, struggling to find our way. He will lead us. He promises to be faithful.  We may not see him in a pillar of cloud or fire these days, but we have his Word, and the Holy Spirit to give guidance to our days. He is with us, he gives wisdom, he provides direction, so we never have to fear being left on our own to figure things out. He goes ahead of us, he walks with us, and he guards our way against behind. His Word gives truth and life, it shows us the way to walk in this world.

4. God fights on behalf of his people

“Then the angel of God…withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them…” Exodus 14:19

Even when the Israelites faced cruel attacks from the enemies surrounding them, God was faithful to deliver them. He works in miraculous ways and the toughest of battles are never too hard for God to work through. He gives us victory and power even when it doesn’t make sense. After a battle against the fierce Amalekites, when God gave his people a great victory, the Bible says, “Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, ‘For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord…” Exodus 17:15-16

Still today, God will send his angels to fight for us and guard us. He Himself will fight for us and guard us. That’s how much He loves us and desires to set His protection over us. He will hem us in from all sides and keep us under His care. It doesn’t mean we won’t ever face the battle, but we can know that He is sure with us right in the midst of it all. He reminds us from the very start of this desert journey, “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

We’re never left to wrestle through on our own in hard places. He doesn’t send us out to fight the enemy in our own strength. He just tells us to be still, to stand strong, and to know he’s fighting on our behalf.

5. God provides in miraculous ways

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you…” Exodus 16:4

“Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Exodus 17:6

They were hungry. God sent manna. They were thirsty. God sent water gushing from a rock. Every day a miracle was right before their eyes. They just had to pick up the manna, drink the water, accept the blessing. Another time he made the bitter waters sweet again, so they could drink. Over and over, God provided for their needs.

And just like the people of Israel had to look to God to meet their needs, to be refreshed by what he offered, and gather the manna every morning in the wilderness, so it is with us. They couldn't store it up, they had to look for it daily. And God always provided, each morning it was there, waiting for them. Every day he made sure it met their needs, they were satisfied, they were nourished, they were cared for. And they never lacked, for God's resources never run dry.

Sometimes we miss the miracles of his provision, out of busyness or stress. We try to get things going too fast all on our own, spinning around, trying to get it all done. Or other times we might start to forget what matters most.

But even for those days, there's His grace. He waits for us. His provision and blessing, they never run dry. Every day, his miracles lie right before our eyes. We just have to choose to look for them and stay close in his presence.

6. Sin will always take us farther than we want to go.

“I have seen these people, ‘the Lord said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people…” Exodus 32:9

Grumbling, complaining, sin, hearts far away from God – these things were far too common for the Israelites in these desert wandering years. And often like us, they lost sight of how far sin could carry them down the road we never wished to go. God had great mercy over them for all those years, they tested him even after he graciously provided for all their needs and offered them protection and strength. In Exodus 32 we read the story of how the people turned away from God when Moses seemed too long in coming back down from the mountain. The very people that just had watched God perform miracle after miracle on their behalf, and guide them through desert days, were now bowing down to a golden calf they’d set up in the place of God himself.

How easily we often forget. What starts as complaining, grumbling, hearts going astray, leads us deeper into pathways we wished we’d never entered. Sin gets ahold of our minds and hearts. It’s like a disease we can’t shake off on our own strength. But God, in His mercy, forgives and sets free. He redeems us from the pit that far too many of us have wandered into and been stuck in. He lifts us out and places our feet on solid ground. He gives us fresh purpose and hope. 

7. We may feel forgotten and left on our own, but God is always with us.

Even after all these things the Israelites had done, and how they’d wandered away from God, he said these words just a few verses later, “The Lord replied, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14

God’s presence is powerful and strong. It is never dependent on how good we are, he is faithful even in our hardest struggles. Only in him can true rest and peace be found. The years of desert wanderings must have been difficult to endure. 40 years is a very long time. But God doesn’t always work on our timetable. And he saw them through to the end. He never abandoned his people. They kept pressing through and God continued to be with them, and he is with us as well. 

“The hardest struggles we face have the greatest potential to teach us patience and endurance.”

We often face battles and problems that press hard. We feel forgotten, all alone. And yet the hardest struggles we face have the greatest potential to teach us patience and endurance like nothing else can. The years of our own “desert wanderings” may prove to be our most power-packed, strengthening, faith-building time of life, but we may not fully recognize it until after we’ve passed through.

And sometimes when we find ourselves there, we just need that reminder from the whispers of God down deep in our soul, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest…”

In whatever you’re facing, be assured, God is with you, he’s providing for your needs, he has a plan, and nothing is too difficult for him.

The God of miracles fights for you today, and he will never let you go. 

Originally published Thursday, 20 January 2022.

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84 Bible Verses about Israelites Wandering In The Wilderness

Exodus 12:1-51 esv / 4 helpful votes helpful not helpful.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ...

Hebrews 4:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Deuteronomy 34:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.

Exodus 14:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’

Jude 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

1 John 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Hebrews 11:24-26 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Hebrews 11:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

Hebrews 11:23-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. ...

Hebrews 11:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Hebrews 3:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Hebrews 3:16-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Ephesians 3:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

2 Corinthians 3:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

1 Corinthians 10:6-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. ...

Acts 26:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:

Acts 7:38 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.

Acts 7:37 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’

Acts 7:24-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ...

Acts 7:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Acts 7:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house,

Acts 7:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

Acts 7:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’

Acts 3:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

John 18:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

John 10:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 1:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

Mark 9:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

Matthew 17:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

Matthew 11:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Amos 8:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God , you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord . Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ...

Isaiah 29:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

1 Kings 6:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord .

Deuteronomy 32:48-52 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 29:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

Deuteronomy 26:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord , have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 26:1-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ...

Deuteronomy 18:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

Deuteronomy 18:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

Deuteronomy 8:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 2:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber. “And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’

Deuteronomy 2:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’

Numbers 22:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.

Numbers 21:1-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.” And the Lord heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah. From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ...

Numbers 14:26-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord , what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ...

Numbers 14:1-45 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. ...

Exodus 33:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Exodus 20:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

Exodus 18:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”),

Exodus 17:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord , and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord ?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord , “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ...

Exodus 15:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord , saying, “I will sing to the Lord , for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. ...

Exodus 14:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord .” And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” ...

Exodus 13:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. ...

Exodus 12:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.

Exodus 9:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks.

Exodus 7:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,

Exodus 7:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord , when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ...

Exodus 6:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.

Exodus 6:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 6:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But Moses said to the Lord , “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Exodus 6:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

Exodus 6:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

Exodus 6:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.

Exodus 5:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”

Exodus 4:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Exodus 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.

Exodus 3:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

Exodus 3:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

God said to Moses, “ I am who I am .” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘ I am has sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Exodus 3:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

Exodus 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

Exodus 2:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

Genesis 17:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Genesis 15:18-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 13:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

Genesis 12:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord , who had appeared to him.

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What Can We Learn from the Israelites Wandering the Desert for 40 Years?

Even though God’s timeline may not align with ours, he doesn’t keep us in the desert forever. Whether the “desert” we’re currently enduring is a trial or if we think of the “desert” as this world, God doesn’t hold us in limbo forever.

No one likes a detour or delay in a journey. Whenever we encounter a road under construction or traffic that halts our trek by half an hour, we may feel tempted to throw up our hands and say, “Why now? Why did this have to happen to me?’

Enter the Israelites, who had endured hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt. When God freed them, through his servant Moses and via 10 plagues ( Exodus 7-11 ) and a splitting sea ( Exodus 14 ), they must have thought that they’d arrive in the land of their dreams, the Promised Land, in no time.

But sure enough, they hit snags along the way. The journey takes too long, and they turn to other idols and gods to speed up the process ( Exodus 32 ).

The proverbial straw breaks the camel’s back when they reach the Promised Land and send spies to scout the area.

When the spies realize that the fortified city and its people within are intimidating. All but Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, try to dissuade the Israelites from going into the new land ( Numbers 32 ).

Because of their obstinance and disobedience and forgetfulness of God’s promises, God delays their entry into the Promised Land by 40 years. Aside from Caleb and Joshua, anyone over a certain age would not see the Promised Land, since their generation did not exercise a strong faith in God’s provision.

Although the 40 years in the desert may serve as a cautionary tale of sorts, can we learn anything from the Israelites as they wandered for four decades?

Indeed. We’ll dive into some of the many lessons from the 40 years in the desert.

God Provides in Our Darkest Moments 

In the desert , the Israelites had run low on provisions ( Numbers 11:5 ). It gets to the point where the Israelites pine after the “good ole days” of their slavery in Egypt, where they didn’t have to worry about starvation.

They get so hungry that they think hundreds of years doing hard slave labor in Egypt sounds like paradise.

God, seeing their need for food, provides them with a substance known as manna . A heavenly bread of sorts that means “what is it?” He also gives them protein via quail and provides these bread and birds from heaven daily until they enter the Promised Land.

God understood that the desert was a temporary limbo for the Israelites. They wouldn’t stay there forever but would enter the Promised Land decades later. Nevertheless, he meets their needs, nonetheless.

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From this, we can learn that God meets us in limbo. We might be waiting on a job or living from paycheck to paycheck, but God provides for us in the desert and in the Promised Land.

He doesn’t leave or forsake us in our greatest hour of need.

God's Plan Never Seems to Align with Ours

Nor does his timeline .

The Israelites may have thought that everything would be smooth sailing since they left their former lives from Egypt. No longer would they have to operate under cruel taskmasters, and they had a bright future ahead.

But they expected it all to happen so fast. So easily. They didn’t realize that sometimes getting to the Promised Land takes time. That God may have wanted them to learn some lessons along the way about trusting him, and that he fights for them when they are surrounded by a great number of enemies on their way to the Promised Land ( Exodus 17 ).

We can learn that God’s timeline and plan often veer far away from how we expect a situation to play out or an outcome to fall in our favor. Nevertheless, God’s plans always are best, and we have to trust in him. Especially when we need to rely on his provisions, like the Israelites in the desert.

God Doesn’t Keep Us in the Desert Forever

Forty years sounds like a long time. To the Israelites who were in their teens, they didn’t reach the Promised Land until they had turned 50 or 60 years old.

But even though God’s timeline may not align with ours, he doesn’t keep us in the desert forever. Whether the “desert” we’re currently enduring is a trial or if we think of the “desert” as this world (a limbo until we reach the Promised Land of paradise) God doesn’t hold us in limbo forever.

We will reach the Promised Land since promised is in the title. God doesn’t break covenants, and he won’t keep us suspended in the desert for eternity. Whether our trial lasts four years or 40, we will make it to the Promised Land.

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Hope Bolinger  is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com   for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.

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Lessons From the Wilderness

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Powerful images of authority dominate this week’s Torah portion. At the start of B’ha·alot’kha, the priests (and only they) are assigned the task of lighting the lamps in the Tent of Meeting; at the close of the parashah, God reminds Miriam and Aaron that Moses (and only Moses) speaks to God “mouth to mouth, plainly and not in riddles.” In between these framing images, the priests are instructed to blow trumpets to start the movement of the entire Israelite camp from place to place in the desert journey; God tells the people when to move or stay put by means of a cloud and fire visible to all; and God quells a rebellion caused by the people’s lust for meat—putting it down not only with plague (i.e.,  power ) but by sharing the divine spirit that inspires Moses with seventy of the elders (i.e., authority ). How do these images relate to contemporary readers who—despite our distance from the events in the wilderness—remain part of the people Israel’s progress toward the Promised Land? Three lessons seem especially salient.

First, even in the wilderness, where survival depends entirely on God’s favor and Moses’s leadership, power alone is insufficient to secure the people’s obedience.  Authority , too, is needed. Lamps, trumpet, vestments, sacrifices—all mark priests and Levites as guardians of a sacred order that confers a precious sense of  rightness  and therefore commands respect*. Later generations are reminded by the text that their own rightness and survival depend on participation in this very same sacred order. The trumpets blown in the wilderness to get the camp moving will one day serve in the Land to call troops into battle against aggressors: “They shall be for you as a law for the ages throughout your generations.”

We also depend on authority and chafe at mere power. Those who rule us are not the only ones who benefit when we believe that the order we obey is just, legitimate, right. That sense of rightness helps us too, so long as it is not abused. There is so much wrong in our world and in ourselves. We need things to be right.

What is the source of true authority? This, I think, is the second lesson the parashah wants to teach. It does so via the distinction drawn between the rebellious riffraff on the one hand and those blessed with a share in Moses’s divine spirit on the other. There is truth in the distinction—despite its patent exaggeration. The rebels succumb to “gluttonous craving” and, thinking with their stomachs instead of their heads, yearn for the wonderful conditions of Egypt where they (falsely) remember having feasted on cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic to their hearts’ content. The seventy elders, by contrast, are elevated by God’s spirit. They speak in ecstasy—and we learn something else about the divine gift they have received when Moses, first among God’s prophets, is not at all jealous or anxious upon hearing that two of the elders are “acting the prophet in the camp.” Moses says rather, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord put His spirit upon them!”

We too want leaders like this: so content with their lot, so confident of their authority, so unconcerned with their own power, that they are humble and unafraid. We want wisdom, grounded in ultimate meaning and personal integrity—both for our leaders and ourselves. However suspicious we are of dichotomies between mind and body, between lofty individuals who wield power and base masses meant to obey it, of insiders versus “riffraff in their midst,” we’d still rather be ruled by what is noblest in ourselves and not by low desire. We recognize the difference between the two. The Israelites did not lack for food, remember, but only for meat and, we may infer, for variety in their menu. The image captures the nature of desire, which always wants more, is never satisfied. Wisdom is happy with its portion. We want to be led by those who seek wisdom rather than power. We seek authority that has its source in the Author of our existence, the Holy One who is the source of holiness.

The image that most transfixes me in the entire parashah, key to the third lesson it teaches about authority, is the cloud that covers the Tabernacle by day and appears as fire by night. The sun presumably masks the fire by its light each day, as darkness hides the cloud at night. God is one, unchanging, but human vision of God is twofold, changing with circumstances that alter what we are able to see. Even so, the Divine Presence is so palpable to the Israelites, so utterly dependable, and so close by, that it can guide their collective journey through Wilderness to Promised Land.

The Torah, too, seems to find this account of things remarkable. It lingers for nine full verses over the description of what happened “when the cloud lingered over the Tabernacle” and recounts time after time what happened, time after time, when the cloud and fire lifted. “On a sign from the Lord they made camp and on a sign from the Lord they broke camp; they observed the Lord’s mandate at the Lord’s bidding through Moses.” It is as if the text knows what all its readers know: the idyllic order of cloud and fire narrated in chapter 9 will give way in chapter 11 to gluttony and in chapter 12 to the fateful mission of the spies.

This slide from grace occurred, we should note, long before the so-called “age of faith” gave way to modern skepticism and doubt. The Biblical period was rarely marked by Israelite unity of any sort, religious or political. In the centuries that followed, Jews rarely attained anything resembling perfect sacred order: no movement as one, unless forced into unity by external enemies; no direct apprehension of God’s will in fire and cloud, despite multiple claims of exclusive knowledge of God’s will; no signs by God to distinguish true from false authority, right use of power from wrong—but lots of Jews who read signs nonetheless and sought to silence Jews who disagreed with them.

The Torah seems to prepare us for this. We inhabit a sort of Wilderness but do not march aimlessly through it because we have the Torah—not only the Five Books but a long tradition of authorized interpretation that makes the lessons first taught by Moses applicable in changing circumstances. We do not have  one  Jewish view of anything, but we do have a remarkable degree of consensus on some matters. We do not have priests or prophets wielding unmistakable symbols of divine favor, but we do have religious leaders and educators who possess authority based on learning, skill, and personal gifts. Among the latter, for professional and lay leaders in our community alike, integrity and kindness still count for a great deal. So does wisdom that is able to discern where the community stands and where it should be going, in keeping with our Torah. At times of crisis, this ability is perhaps valued most of all.

I had the privilege and pleasure this past week of participating in the graduation of a new cohort of Jewish religious leaders at JTS. We have sought to equip them to serve their communities at a time of uncertainty and change, to follow Torah humbly but with faithful conviction and determination, and always to know the difference between power and authority. May the leaders of the Jewish people always know the difference between the two and act accordingly.

*My thinking about the portrayal of priestly authority in the parashah is indebted to the fine study by my wife, Adriane Leveen,  Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers  (2008), chapter 4, and to conversation with the author.

The publication and distribution of the JTS Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee and Harold ( z”l ) Hassenfeld.

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For some of you, especially the outdoorsy ones, the wilderness is where you go to connect with nature. When you hear the word “wilderness”, it evokes in you pictures of beautiful hiking trails, warm campfires, tall trees, fresh air, and sleeping under the stars.

That is not the wilderness that we find ourselves in today.

It’s a symbolic place where you are tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually. For many, it is a place of instability, where many of us feel lost.

It’s our reality right now, and it’s hard. For some, the wilderness journey began when school was cancelled and now all students need to do online schooling. And it has become a real challenge for many students and teachers.

For some, the wilderness journey began when they lost their jobs, or their businesses.

For some, the wilderness journey began when they had to shelter at home and be disconnected from their friends and family.

For some it began with flu-like symptoms.

And  you may have been in the wilderness way before COVID-19 was introduced into your life. You had mental health issues, money was tight, your marriage was falling apart, you were failing at school or at work.

And the stress of instability, failure, loss, depression, and pain became your wilderness experience.

There are characters in the Bible who went through their own wilderness journey. I believe we can learn something from their experiences to help us as we navigate our own wilderness experiences.

One of those characters was Joseph. You can find his story in Genesis 37-50.

At one point in Joseph’s story we find him at home, and his brothers out with their father’s flock, in the wilderness.

Jacob, Joseph’s father, tells Joseph to find his brothers and Joseph agrees. Of course he would. This could be another chance to rat his brothers out and kiss up to his dad. You see, Joseph and his brothers did not have a good relationship. They didn’t like Joseph because he was a tattletale and a spoiled brat.

When Joseph came to Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the open country. “What are you looking for?” the man asked. Genesis 37:15 (GW)

Have you been wandering while you are in the wilderness, unsure of what you are looking for?

During this pandemic, I have found myself, a few times, wandering around my house. I would hate to have seen an image of myself during those moments. And I have felt lost, not remembering why I have entered a room or what I was trying to do. Has this happened to you?

The wilderness can put you in that state. Not sure of what to do with yourself, walking around without a purpose, not sure of what to do next.

But the question that the man asked Joseph is a crucial one.

“What are you looking for?”

While we are in the wilderness, we must constantly ask ourselves this question. Because in the wilderness we lose a sense of purpose. We lose vision. We become forgetful of what we were made for.

Never forget, especially in the wilderness, that you were wired to pursue and find God. Remember these words by God spoken to you through the prophet Jeremiah:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. Jeremiah 29:13 (NLT)

When you feel like wandering, remind yourself of your pursuit of God by asking yourself, “What are you looking for?”

And then answer that question by pausing your wandering, and restarting your pursuit of God. That will get you back on track.

Photo by Gantas Vaičiulėnas from Pexels

To hear more about Joseph’s journey into the wilderness, click on Chaplain Milton’s message below.

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What We Can Learn from Wandering in the Wilderness

• February 25, 2011
• Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman
• Learning , Relationships , Success

Americans are a goal-oriented people. And we tend to hold a belief that once we settle on a goal, a laser-like focus on it is the best way to reach it — if we block out all distractions, put our nose to the grindstone, and work hard, we’ll soon arrive at whatever Promised Land we have been dreaming of.

Yet if we live long enough, we see that that’s not exactly how life goes. Money gets tight. Family members get sick. Jobs get downsized. The journey to the Promised Land is never as easy as we think it will be — if we even make it there at all.

The truth is, we spend much more time wandering in the wilderness than living in the Promised Land. In fact, that may be why the Torah was given in middle of the wilderness — to remind us that while the Promised Land is wonderful, we learn our greatest lessons on the journey along the way.

So what are those lessons? I can think of at least three:

1) Since the wilderness is a scary place (we never know what may come around the bend), the first thing the wilderness can teach us is that we don’t have complete control over our lives.

Sometimes, we invest far too much time and energy decrying how the world is “unfair” and that we “deserve” whatever it is we are hoping to get. Indeed, we occasionally even hope we can be as lucky as the man in a recent Onion article who received an apology from the cosmos because his life didn’t turn out the way he hoped it would. (“ Universe Admits To Wronging Area Man His Entire Life “).

But if we are wise, we can realize that despite the obstacles life may throw at us, if we accept reality rather than fight against it, we can learn what we actually can affect. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts, and in his book Full Catastrophe Living , he explains that

…[a]cceptance does not mean that [we] have to like everything or that [we] have to take a passive attitude toward everything and abandon [our] principles and values. It does not mean that [we] are satisfied with things as they are or that [we] are resigned to tolerating things as they “have to be.” It does not mean that [we] have to…give up on [our] desire to change and grow…Acceptance…simply means that [we] have come around to a willingness to see things as they [actually] are. (Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living, 38-39)

Life can be hard, and the world can be scary. If we learn to accept that, and not expect the world to revolve around us, we can discover the myriad ways in which we can make a difference, and invest our energy in those tasks.

2) The second thing the wilderness can teach us is that it’s fun, natural, and even important to explore uncharted territory. After all, we never learn or grow if we stay in the same place. So at times, we simply need to be open to new experiences, discover new paths to take, and just see where life may take us, rather than trying to force ourselves along a predetermined course.

I just came back from leading a congregational trip to Israel, where we went to all the usual tourist sites — Jerusalem, Masada, Safed, Tel Aviv. And the congregants had a great time. But one of the high points wasn’t taking pictures of rocks and stones — it was when we went to a restaurant in Jerusalem that was underneath an archway far off the main tourist drag that most of them never would have set foot in otherwise. What they loved wasn’t just the good food and the quirky atmosphere — they were loving the sense of adventure, as well. Think about your own travels, as well — how great is it to wander off the beaten path, meet the locals, and do things that you feel like almost no one ever does?

In fact, we even need to go into uncharted territory every so often, in order to discover new ideas. In the book Where Good Ideas Come From , Steven Johnson describes an experiment by Robert Thatcher, who found that the brain needs to do two things on a regular basis in order to process information. The first is that the brain needs to go into a state called “phase-locking,” where millions of neurons all fire at the same time, creating a synchronized spike of electricity.

But the brain also regularly needs to go into a state of complete chaos for several milliseconds, and Johnson postulates that “…the electrical noise of the chaos mode allows the brain to experiment with new links between neurons that would otherwise fail to connect in more orderly settings…The chaos mode is where the brain assimilates new information [and] explores strategies for responding to a changed situation.” (Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From, 104-105)

Because our lives are always in a state of at least semi-flux, we need to be able to respond to new circumstances, and create new responses. And our brain seems to allow for that, forcing it to periodically “wander aimlessly” just to see what may come up. So the second lesson that the wilderness teach us is to celebrate and embrace our natural desire to discover new things.

3) The third lesson the wilderness teaches us is the most crucial one to remember — namely, that the most important goals we strive for are ones that can never actually be reached.

Hopefully, we aim to be decent people, loving spouses, caring parents, and productive workers. But “creating a strong marriage,” “having a fulfilling career” and “raising kind children” are not things we can do and then say, “All right — that’s now checked off the list!”

Instead, it’s in the day-to-day striving for those goals where life is truly lived. We’ll never know if those goals are reached — but we can try to make sure we are on the right path.

Indeed, that’s the great lesson of the Torah itself. Within the Torah’s narrative, the Israetlies are marching inexorably towards the Promised Land. They wander for forty years, a whole generation dies out, they struggle, they rebel, and finally, they set up camp on the other side of the Jordan, ready to arrive at the destination they had been dreaming of their whole lives.

And how does the Book of Deuteronomy end? In the wilderness, with the Israelites never reaching the Promised Land.

What a wonderful message that truly is — to remind us that our goal in life isn’t to reach the Promised Land, it’s simply to keep moving towards it, and hoping that we can learn and grow a little bit along the way.

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In the Wilderness

D'Var Torah By: Jonathan Stein

Focal Point

• Adonai spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai… (Numbers 1:1)
• The Israelites shall camp each with his standard, under the banners of their ancestral house; they shall camp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance. (Numbers 2:2)
• As they camp, so they shall march… (Numbers 2:17)

D'var Torah

This week we begin reading the fourth book of the Torah. Its English title, Numbers, comes from the census that God commands Moses to take in the second verse of the parashah . But the Hebrew title of the book, taken from the very first verse of the sidrah , is different. The tradition calls this book B'midbar , meaning "In the Wilderness" (or "In the Desert"). This Hebrew name is much more descriptive of the contents of the book as a whole than is the designation Numbers.

The thirty-eight-year wilderness experience of our ancestors was crucial to the development of our self- understanding as a people. In later Jewish consciousness, these years of wandering would be remembered as an ideal time when, despite the struggles for material survival, we were especially close to God. The life of the city dweller would come to be viewed as suspiciously corrupt, while that of the shepherd and farmer, who are closer to the desert experience, would be treasured. Still, these thirty-eight years of nomadic roaming must have been terribly difficult: The environment was physically harsh; the demanding impact of the Torah had just begun to sink into the people's consciousness; and the Israelites, who were constantly bickering, yearned for the imagined comforts of Egypt.

Just like our ancestors, how quickly we can enter into a spiritual wilderness when life is challenging. Living "in the wilderness" can be a metaphor, a symbol for the difficult times we all inevitably experience. These periods of our lives can be terrifying, producing feelings of loneliness, disorientation, uncertainty, and loss of faith, as well as a negation of our values. But this week's Torah portion also offers us some guidance.

Immediately following the census, God instructs the tribes and the Levites to take up positions around the Tabernacle, which was to remain at the very center of the camp. (See The Torah: A Modern Commentary , edited by W. Gunther Plaut, New York: UAHC Press, 1981, p. 1,027.) As the focus of the people's attention, the Ark and the Tabernacle were powerful symbols of God's Presence. "Every individual was located in relation to the Ark and the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was the first thing one saw on leaving home and the first thing one looked for on returning home. Gradually, this physical centrality must have led to the Ark's gaining a central place in the Israelite soul" ( Etz Chayim , New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, p. 774). Like our ancestors, each of us sees God from a slightly different perspective, depending upon where we are encamped in life, but God remains the focal point, our anchor and compass in bad times and good.

Two other teachings derived from this week's parashah can also help us regain our direction when we're lost "in the wilderness." The midrash teaches that by purposely revealing the Torah in the middle of a desert, God was trying to show us the importance of humility. Humility includes an awareness of one's smallness and is a necessary trait for attaining contentment in life. A humble person is satisfied with what he or she has and feels gratitude, thanksgiving, and awe, all of which are essential for finding a spiritual place in God's world. Difficult times remind us of the need for humility.

And finally, maintaining one's integrity can be a key ingredient to emerging whole from troubled times "in the wilderness." The statement "As they camp, so shall they march…" (Numbers 2:17) has been interpreted homiletically to teach that one should be the same person at home and away; in private and in public; on the inside and on the outside; in our thoughts and our intentions; and in our speech and our behavior. Maintaining integrity when life is difficult can be an enormous challenge: Doing so allows us to emerge from our struggles with our self-respect and dignity intact.

Finding ourselves "in the wilderness" of life, as our ancestors did during this formative period of our history, can be incredibly tough. But we are blessed as Jews to possess the spiritual resources that help us slowly find our way toward the Promised Land.

• Out of the desert, with all of its dangers, came the Torah, which is our proudest possession and gives to our group-life as Jews its most authentic character and to all humanity the most valid promise of continuing creative contributions to the total fund of human understanding. That voice spoke in the desert. (Morris Adler, The Voice Still Speaks , New York: Bloch, 1969, pp. 265-268)
• Only a person who is willing to make nothing of himself, who thinks of himself as a desert, is truly worthy of having the Divine Presence rest on him and of attaining the true light of the Torah. Furthermore, a person should always think of himself as if being in the desert so that he will lean entirely on his own resources. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" [Hillel, quoted in Pirkei Avot 1:14] (Rabbi Menachen Mendl of Kotzk)
• Numbers alone among the books of the Hebrew Bible recounts the story of a single generation of the nation…in a condition unlike that of any other time. In the earthly events and in the cosmic aspect of both continuous and situational miracles, the wilderness generation is like no other, and the book that tells its story is correspondingly unique. (Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah , San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, p. 423)
• Have you ever felt as though you were lost in the wilderness? What did you use as your anchor and compass? Did Judaism play a role in helping you find your way?
• Is it a contradiction to think that God is the unifying idea around which all Jews gather and at the same time that each one of us sees God differently? Is it a contradiction to assert in the Sh'ma that "God is One" and in the Aleinu that "on that day God will be One"?
• Is it possible to be too humble? Is it a sin not to stand up for oneself or not to engage in self-defense? How can we be both humble and created in God's image?
• Does having integrity also mean being consistent? Does changing one's mind result in a lack of integrity? How can we change our minds with integrity and not appear inconsistent in the eyes of others?

Rabbi Jonathan Stein is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Shaaray Tefila  in New York, New York.

B'midbar , Numbers 1:1-4:20 The Torah: A Modern Commentary , pp. 1,028-1,043; Revised Edition, pp. 897-916; The Torah: A Women's Commentary , pp. 787-814

• B'midbar

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Bible Encyclopedias Wilderness, Wanderings in the

The 1901 jewish encyclopedia.

• Wilderness of the Wanderings
• Wanderings in the Wilderness
• Wilderness of The Wandering
• Wandering In The Wilderness
• Wandering in the Wildernesses
• Wilderness of the Wandering of the Children of Israel.
• Wilderness, Wanderings in the

Stages of Wanderings.

—biblical data:.

Next to the Exodus, the remembrance of the wanderings in the desert for a period corresponding to the life of a generation (see see Forty) is central to the historic consciousness of Israel. Hence the scene of these migrations is often called "the" wilderness ("ha-midbar") par excellence ( Exodus 3:18 , 14:11 ; Numbers 32:13 ; Deuteronomy 1:31 ; comp. Judges 11:16,18 ; Amos 2:10 ; et al. ). This wildernesscorresponds to that designated as Arabia Petræa by the Greco-Roman geographers. The story of the Hebrews' wanderings is related in: (1) Exodus 14 - 19:24,32 , comprising the stations from the time Israel left Egypt to the promulgation of the Law on Sinai; and Numbers 10:11 - 22:1 , giving those from the revelation to the arrival of the people opposite Jericho; (2) Deuteronomy 1:2,19 et seq. ;; 3:6 et seq. (comp. ), which are without chronological order, but begin with the desert of Sinai (Horeb) and extend to the incursion into the land of the Amorites; (3) Numbers 33:5-50 , cataloguing the camping stations on the march from Rameses to Jericho. The last-mentioned list differs from the data in Exodus and Numbers in so far as it inserts eighteen stations between Hazeroth ( Numbers 11:35 ) and Kadesh or Sin ( Numbers 12:16 ; 13:2,21 ; 20:1 ) that are not mentioned in the historical narratives, while the stations enumerated in Numbers 11:1 et seq. ; 21:16,19 are omitted. Other, smaller divergences appear between Numbers 33:30 et seq. and Deuteronomy 10:6 , and between Numbers 20:22 et seq. and the same passage of Deuteronomy.

Forty Stations in Forty Years.

—critical view:.

The discrepancies just referred to have been noticed by all commentators, and various theories have been advanced to account for them. The favorite explanation of the precritical scholars was that the historical narratives contain only the names of the localities at which something occurred worth chronicling, while the fuller list includes all the points touched on the march. But this assumption was recognized as insufficient, especially by Goethe ("Westoestl. Divan"), who urged the opinion that the eighteen stations were fictitious and were inserted merely to carry out the theory that Israel wandered about in the wilderness forty years and had one station for every year. Most of the names of the stations can not be located topographically, and comparison of the data shows that the order of the stations varies as well as the events connected with them.

In P a clearly chronological scheme is carried out, the duration of the wanderings being calculated accurately by days, months, and years. On the fifteenth of the first month the Israelites started out from Rameses ( Numbers 33:3 ); on the fifteenth of the second month they reached the wilderness of Sin ( Exodus 16:1 ); in the third month they arrived at that of Sinai ( Exodus 19:1 ), the exact day having been expunged by a later hand (see Dillmann, Commentary, ed. Ryssel, p. 209); on the first of the first month of the second year the Tabernacle was erected (Ex. 1, 17); etc. But these chronological data conflict with Numbers 14:34 (comp. Numbers 1:1 , 10:11 , 13:25 , 20:1 , 33:38 ; and PARAN ; SIN (3) ). The forty years correspond to the forty days of the spies, and they are reckoned at one time from the Exodus, and again from the return of the spies. Still, P did not invent the number forty; it must have been based on an old tradition that the generation of the Exodus perished in the wilderness ( Deuteronomy 1:3 ; 2:7 ; 8:2,4 ; 29:4 ; Joshua 14:7,10 ; Amos 2:10 , 5:25 ; Nehemiah 9:21 ; Psalms 95:10 ).

Historical Foundation.

But at the back of this tradition lies the historical fact that before and after the exodus from Egypt many of the tribes and clans of Israel moved about as nomads in this region, and were only gradually welded together into a union sufficiently close to give support to the effort of some of their number to gain a foothold across the Jordan. Many of the names are those of stations in which even in historic days the nomadic tribes would encamp, being connected with oases ( e.g. , ELIM ). Other names gave rise to legends, e.g. , MARAH ( Exodus 15:23 ) and Taberah ( Numbers 11:3 ); and a few are explained variously, e.g. , Massah and MERIBAH ( Exodus 17:2,7 ; Numbers 20:13 ; Deuteronomy 33:8 ; PARAN and see KADESH ; comp. Numbers 13:3,26 a and ib. 13:26b; Deuteronomy 1:19 , Joshua 14:6 , and Numbers 20:1 ; Deuteronomy 1:46 , Numbers 14:25 , and Deuteronomy 2:14 , for the difficulties in the way of harmonizing the divergent statements of the sources [Wellhausen, "Prolegomena," 4:349]). The religious or, to be more exact, irreligious anti-Moses and anti-Yhwh attitude of Israel in the wilderness ( Exodus 32 ; Numbers 11 , , , ) reflects the conditions of a later historical period. Many of the occurrences are outgrowths of the natural tendency to impute greatness and miracles to the heroic generations ( Exodus 16 , 17:5 , 23:20 ; Numbers 9:15 et seq. , 20:8; Deuteronomy 8:4 ; also Manna; QUAIL ; comp. Hosea 2:16,17; 9:10; Deuteronomy 32:10 ; Ezekiel 16:8 ; Jeremiah 2:2 ; Amos V. 25).

Matthew 4:1-11 New International Version

Jesus is tested in the wilderness ( a ).

4  Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted [ a ] ( B ) by the devil. ( C ) 2  After fasting forty days and forty nights, ( D ) he was hungry. 3  The tempter ( E ) came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, ( F ) tell these stones to become bread.”

4  Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ [ b ] ” ( G )

5  Then the devil took him to the holy city ( H ) and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6  “If you are the Son of God,” ( I ) he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,      and they will lift you up in their hands,      so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ [ c ] ” ( J )

7  Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ [ d ] ” ( K )

8  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10  Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! ( L ) For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ [ e ] ” ( M )

11  Then the devil left him, ( N ) and angels came and attended him. ( O )

• Matthew 4:1 The Greek for tempted can also mean tested .
• Matthew 4:4 Deut. 8:3
• Matthew 4:6 Psalm 91:11,12
• Matthew 4:7 Deut. 6:16
• Matthew 4:10 Deut. 6:13

Cross references

• Matthew 4:1 : 4:1-11pp — Mk 1:12, 13; Lk 4:1-13
• Matthew 4:1 : Heb 4:15
• Matthew 4:1 : Ge 3:1-7
• Matthew 4:2 : Ex 34:28; 1Ki 19:8
• Matthew 4:3 : 1Th 3:5
• Matthew 4:3 : S Mt 3:17; 14:33; 16:16; 27:54; Mk 3:11; Lk 1:35; 22:70; Jn 1:34, 49; 5:25; 11:27; 20:31; Ac 9:20; Ro 1:4; 1Jn 5:10-13, 20; Rev 2:18
• Matthew 4:4 : Dt 8:3; Jn 4:34
• Matthew 4:5 : Ne 11:1; Da 9:24; Mt 27:53
• Matthew 4:6 : S ver 3
• Matthew 4:6 : Ps 91:11, 12
• Matthew 4:7 : Dt 6:16
• Matthew 4:10 : 1Ch 21:1; Job 1:6-9; Mt 16:23; Mk 4:15; Lk 10:18; 13:16; 22:3, 31; Ro 16:20; 2Co 2:11; 11:14; 2Th 2:9; Rev 12:9
• Matthew 4:10 : Dt 6:13
• Matthew 4:11 : Jas 4:7
• Matthew 4:11 : Mt 26:53; Lk 22:43; Heb 1:14

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