0743. Wilderness Testings

Wilderness Testings

"Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (Heb_3:8).

It is not difficult to discover the hand of the evil one, behind the many temptings in the wilderness journeyings. Satan never has been one to work in the limelight. He covers his real identity; he works stealthily and unseen. However his footprints are plain and easily detected, when one has once become acquainted with his devices.

The 78th Psalm rehearses for us the great sins into which Israel fell as they marched through the wilderness. It seems almost inconceivable that a people delivered from Egypt with so mighty and miraculous a hand would so soon and so grievously have sinned. When, however, one adds to a miraculous deliverance the fact that Israel journeyed under the guiding cloud of God’s presence every day, and that the eye which watched over her never slumbered nor slept, it becomes still more incomprehensible why Israel should have forsaken the Rock of her help.

Three things, however, were forever established in these wilderness experiences. First, Satan’s mighty power. Second, Israel’s unworthiness. Third, God’s unspeakable grace toward a rebellious people.

And where is the one who would deny that the so-called Christians of today, with even greater light and larger blessings, are not more thoughtless and less appreciative of the Lord than even backsliding Israel?

Let us recount, as set down in Psalms 78, some of the steps that marked Israel’s wilderness experiences.

1. Psa_78:12-16 : "Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers. * * He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as an heap: * * He led them with a cloud; * * a light of fire. He clave the rocks; * * gave them drink as out of the great depths."

In spite of these blessings, we read in Psa_78:17-19 : "They sinned yet more against Him; * * they tempted God in their heart; * * yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"

2. Psa_78:23-29 : "He commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of Heaven; and had rained down manna upon them and had given them the corn of Heaven. Man did eat angels’ food. He sent them meat to the full; * * He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea; * * round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were full."

In spite of all of these favors satan won out again for we also read:

Psa_78:22 : "They believed not God, and trusted not in His salvation."

Psa_78:32 : "For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wonderful works."

Psa_78:37 : "Their heart was not right."

Psa_78:41 : "They limited the Holy One of Israel."

Psa_78:42 : "They remembered not His hand."

Psa_78:56 : They "kept not His testimonies."

Psa_78:57 : They "turned back, and dealt unfaithfully."

Such is the sad story of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. Surely satan corrupted Israel, and led her away from her God. He sought by every means to fill her heart with rebellion. So successful was he, that God refused to allow Israel to enter into Canaan until the sinning multitudes of the men who left Egypt under Moses, were overthrown in the wilderness.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR