Bootcamp in the Desert — God's Road Was Never Meant to Be Easy

A Mixed Multitude Left Egypt

The Torah reading of Beshalach starts with the children of Israel led by Moses and Aaron leaving Egypt and starting their long journey to the land of Canaan. But we must remember that it was not only Israel that left. Last week we read the story of the deliverance of the children of Israel along with a mixed multitude of people from different nations that saw what Israel was doing on the night that the angel of death passed through the land of Egypt and copied them. They watched the homes of the Israelites and saw the blood of the lambs that was put on their doorposts. They watched the Israelites packing their belongings and they packed their belongings. They watched and saw that at dawn the children of Israel were marching out and they joined them.

For the vast majority of those Israelites leaving Egypt with their families and their belongings, the land of Canaan, the land given by God to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their seed forever, was an unknown land. They were all born in Egypt, and most had been born into slavery — and that is all that they knew, slavery under hard labor in building the cities of the dead for the Pharaohs and the nobility of Egypt.

God Chose the Harder Road — on Purpose

Right at the beginning, when the Israelites are taking their first steps to leave Egypt, we are given information that would not have been exactly encouraging if it had been us who were living there at that time:

God is not going to take them through the easy, quick, simple, regular, and usual way to travel from Egypt to the land of Canaan. The way that goes north to the seacoast of the Mediterranean and follows one of the main highways of the ancient world, the Way of the Sea (the Via Maris). That highway connected Africa, Asia, and Europe. By using it, the travel to the land of Israel would have been between 11-14 days — definitely not 40 years.

The Lord wanted to educate Israel, and give them the Torah, and have a virtual wedding at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and feed them the manna and sweeten their water, and train them to trust Him and see His faithfulness. In other words, God wanted to take the children of Israel through bootcamp!

Pharaoh Thought He Had Them Trapped

Pharaoh probably said to himself and to his wise men, "See how stupid these Israelites are? They were walking right into a great trap. The Egyptian army is behind them, and the Red Sea (the sea of reeds) is in front of them. These Israelites deserve to be slaves, for they know nothing at all! They are just so uneducated about warfare. They are walking right into my trap!"

Of course, if you don't take the existence of God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, into account, you would think like Pharaoh and Egypt. If the scholars are right, and the Exodus took place either in the time of Ramses II or earlier, both periods were some of the greatest periods in ancient Egypt's history. During this time, Egyptian armies ruled in Africa all the way to the land of Somalia, and in the North and East, Egypt was the owner of all the land of Canaan, with Lybia in the West. A vast empire. On the one hand, you have slaves who were not learned in warfare. On the other hand, you have the Egyptian army, with their chariots and the best-trained army in the world.

Moses finds just the right words at the right time to say in order to encourage the people. This is of great importance for those who stand in pulpits and speak the word of God to the people in these difficult times. Moses knows God personally! Moses knows that all that has happened in Egypt was not done to bring Israel to the wilderness of Sinai to die. And then comes the word of the Lord:

This is one of these texts that I keep in mind always. The complaining and the crying and the dark clouds that we raise over our own heads, dark clouds that rob us of hope and keep us from joy and inject depression into our hearts. The Lord says to Moses — Stop crying, tell the people to go forward!

Step Into the Sea — and Don't Complain When the Manna Comes

Reading this Torah portion we must draw the following conclusions: the battle belongs to the Lord, if we belong to the Lord. With our weaknesses, and with our problems, and with our failures and successes. If we really belong to the Lord, our battles (if for righteousness) also belong to the Lord. When the Lord is involved through His children in the battle — the victory is always His! The Lord God of Israel is not allergic to victory. When He enters the battle, the victory is guaranteed.

Please read this portion of the Torah and put yourself (with your mind and imagination) on the beach on the edge of the waters of the Red Sea, with the army of Pharaoh in pursuit, and ask yourself, "Do I have the faith to put my toe in the water, and take the first step into the sea, trusting the Lord to carry me through?" If you are a disciple of Yeshua, and you have never had to take that leap of faith, and walk out into the unknown and into the adventure of trusting God, I want to encourage you in your life that when the challenge and opportunity to step out by faith comes — take that step. It is not a gamble if you believe that you will never walk alone, but that Yeshua is here with you now. Don't be foolish. Be faithful and trust the Lord. When He says to you, "walk" — walk!

And yet, after the crossing of the sea, this is what happened:

Put yourselves in the place of those Israelites that were born and raised in slavery. Yes, slavery, where you have no rights and no freedom, but someone takes care of your food and lodging no matter how poor and how hard your conditions might be. You don't have to worry about it — you are like a horse in the stall — you work, you ride, you race, but the master brings you your corn and hay. Now, there is no one to feed you and there is nothing much around for you to go and pick from the field.

From my experience in the Sinai Desert traveling with some of the most famous Pentecostal (Charismatic) church leaders of the West, I can tell you that when difficulties occur on the road and cars break down, those leaders, who are considered super spiritual and full of the Holy Spirit and perform miracles and cast out demons and heal the sick, act like faithless heathens, even when experiencing much lesser difficulties than the children of Israel faced. We are all human and all selfish, and in difficult situations, we all look out for number one.

I am not blaming the children of Israel! I am praising the Lord for His patience and grace, for His understanding of the people, and of their circumstances, and who for 40 years fed them the manna — bread from heaven.

O Lord our Lord how wonderful are Your ways, and how great is Your love and patience with all Your children! We owe You so much!