In the Wilderness
359
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. Moses declared to them, “As a man chasteneth his son, so the
Lord thy God chasteneth thee,” “to humble thee, and to prove thee,
to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His
commandments, or no. And He ... suffered thee to hunger, and fed
thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know;
that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth
man live.”
Deuteronomy 8:5, 2, 3
.
“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilder-
ness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of
His eye.” “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His
presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.”
Deuteronomy
32:10
;
Isaiah 63:9
.
Yet the only records of their wilderness life are instances of re-
bellion against the Lord. The revolt of Korah had resulted in the
destruction of fourteen thousand of Israel. And there were isolated
cases that showed the same spirit of contempt for the divine authority.
On one occasion the son of an Israelitish woman and of an Egyp-
tian, 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. He was immediately brought
before Moses. The command had been given, “He that curseth his
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father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death” (
Exodus 21:17
);
but no provision had been made to meet this case. So terrible was
the crime that there was felt to be a necessity for special direction
from God. The man was placed in ward until the will of the Lord
could be ascertained. God Himself pronounced the sentence; by the
divine direction the blasphemer was conducted outside the camp and