And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to go round the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became impatient on the way;
Israel is close to the promised land, but the shortest road is shut. The long way round wears the people down, and the verse raises a question: why did God allow the detour at all?
Edom's refusal in the previous chapter turned a short crossing into an enormous loop. One writer counts what the detour cost them. He also reads Edom, the nation descended from Esau, as a picture of the flesh — the old nature in us that will not work with God:
On the road they take now, Edom is clearly the great barrier. It is less than twenty miles across, but going round it is more than six times as far. That road also had a king's highway and wells of water. What a pleasant alternative to the trackless desert route! But Edom is there in force, and he will not permit it. And you cannot turn this hostility into friendship. It is exactly the same with the flesh: "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot" (Romans 8:7).
Edom's stubbornness was not the whole story. God was setting Israel's route, and He closed a road they were never meant to take:
They had just come up to Kadesh, right on the borders of the land. Between them and it lay a small strip belonging to Edom, and "the king's highway" ran through it. Edom refused to let them pass that way, and God ordered that it should be so. It was not the way for the redeemed to enter Canaan. They were then turned back for two years to have their testing, and to bring out what had been hidden in them until now. They had to go south around Mount Seir, Edom's territory, then turn north up the eastern side of the Jordan, and pass into the land through its dried-up waters, behind the ark of God. Death and resurrection is the only pathway there.
The desert road was hard. Older translations say the people were "much discouraged," where the ESV says they became "impatient." One writer will not let the hard road explain their collapse. He points back to the victory God had just given them over Arad, a Canaanite king:
A wilderness path is always beset with difficulties, but not necessarily with discouragements. Was the victory over Arad not enough proof, along with their own history, that God would not let them die in the wilderness? The flesh never trusts God. It is always ready to take His benefits, but it gives the Giver nothing back except ingratitude.
The timing is striking. Their spirits sank right after that success, and one writer treats it as a standing warning:
This is a common case. We have to watch a time of victory, in case danger comes right behind it. A time of defeat, on the other hand, again and again prepares a person for a fresh and greater blessing from God. His grace is that rich. He knows how to lift up the fallen. But when people take their victory too lightly, He makes them feel their total weakness and their constant need of Himself.
There is another way to take a road you did not choose. Moses and the leaders with him were ready to enter the land, and instead had to turn back:
There is always deep blessing in bowing to the will of God, even when we cannot see the why and the reason for things. We do not read a single complaining word from these honoured servants of God. They were quite ready to go up into the land, yet they had to turn back into the wilderness for forty years. No, they simply turned back. And well they might, when the Lord turned back also. How could they complain, when they saw the travelling chariot of the God of Israel turn back toward the wilderness?
The mood did not stay a mood. It turned into grumbling, and God did not answer as He had before:
This time there was no shred of excuse for their grumbling, except that they felt discouraged. So God did not answer as He did in chapter 20:8, but instead sent a plague of fiery serpents among the people, so that many died when bitten. The serpent is a picture of Satan. Israel had already fallen into his trap through their unbelieving discouragement, so God was now impressing on them what it means to let Satan take control of them.
- The way — God Himself closed the short road through Edom. The long way round was the road for the redeemed, not a wrong turn.
- The heart — a hard road need not discourage anyone. What sank Israel was a nature that takes God's benefits and gives back only ingratitude.
- The timing — their spirits sank right after a victory. Success needs watching more than defeat does.
- The choice — Moses turned back without a complaint, because he saw God turning back with them. Bowing to God's will brings deep blessing, even when the reason is hidden.
- The end — discouragement grew into grumbling against God. The serpents showed what it costs to let Satan take charge.
and the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have ye brought us up out of Egypt that we should die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and no water, and our soul loathes this light bread.
Israel's complaint here is not that God has failed them. They are tired of what He gives — in one sentence they attack their leader, their route, and the food God provides, and commentators call this the low point of the whole desert history.
This outburst comes straight after a victory, which makes the collapse more striking, not less. Where ESV has "we loathe this worthless food," the older wording the writers quote is "our soul loathes this light bread."
Despite this victory the people became discouraged again because of the way. They spoke against God and against Moses. "Our soul loathes this light bread." Here we may trace our own experience. As one has said, "A time of victory has to be watched, in case it is the forerunner of danger."
Earlier they had grumbled at Moses. Here the direction changes.
They had often murmured against Moses (it was really against God); now it is openly against God. The Holy Spirit marks it, putting God's name first. "The people spoke against God and against Moses." It is the first time their murmuring takes on this bold character.
They claim there is no food and no water. Yet they still had the manna — the very thing they call worthless in the next breath.
Probably there was at least some water available, and they still had the manna, but they spoke of loathing it. The manna speaks of Christ in His lowly humiliation on earth. Does He become distasteful to us? Do we need attractions of the flesh as well as Christ?
If the manna pictures Christ, calling it worthless is no food complaint. One writer reads the verse beside John 3, where the Son of Man must be lifted up.
John 3:14 stresses the necessity for the "lifting up" of the Son of Man. The heart of man is exposed to the very limit. No sin in the history of God's people had the same enormity as the one recorded here — "Our soul loathes this light bread." The manna speaks of Christ Himself as God's provision for man's need, and they despised it. In God's sight that kind of man must go, and only the death of Jesus could remove him. In that precious "lifting up" that whole order of man has been completely judged and set aside.
God's valuation of the manna ran the opposite way to theirs.
What the manna presented to God was so precious to Him that He commanded Moses to store a measure of it before Him in a golden vessel. That golden vessel points us to the glorified Christ. In Christ glorified there is the treasured remembrance, for the pleasure of God the Father, of all that His Son was for Him as a Man on earth. The time came when Israel despised the "light bread." But what Israel despised, God delighted in. Israel despised and ill-treated the Christ of God when He was on earth. Yet God has glorified the Christ they rejected.
The same distaste can grow in a Christian. Where does it come from?
How, then, is it possible for the believer to grow tired of it? We have two natures, the old and the new, and "these are contrary the one to the other." So if we are not walking in the Spirit (see Gal. 5), the flesh will assert its desires. The flesh never loves Christ. The mind of the flesh, indeed, is enmity against God. (Rom. 8.) It is the flesh, then, that wearies of Christ. Wanting its own food, it breeds in us a distaste for the heavenly manna. But the flesh is subtle. When it acts this way in a believer, it usually loves to hide its true character.
God's answer in the next verse matches the sin.
The serpent was the source of their discontent. Once the serpents bit them, their condition was well suited to show them the true character of that discontent. If the Lord's people will not walk happily and contentedly with Him, they must taste the power of the serpent.
The judgment fit the sin. The cure lay deeper — in the "lifting up" of the Son of Man, where God judged and set aside that whole order of man.
- Gift. The manna was God's provision for Israel and a picture of Christ in His humility on earth.
- Distaste. No new hardship caused this outburst; discouragement did, straight after a victory. Their circumstances had not worsened; their appetite had.
- Words. The complaint was false — they still had the manna. And for the first time they aim their grumbling openly at God, with His name first.
- Verdict. What Israel called worthless, God had already stored in gold before Him. Their estimate of the bread was a verdict on themselves, not on it.
- Remedy. The serpents exposed the poison already at work. The cure was the Son of Man lifted up, where God judged and set aside that whole order of man.
Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.