Student Page

How many times will God be angry before he really gets mad? The Israelites who emigrated from Egypt enraged him with their complaints 10 times before he cut them off at Kadesh Barnea, the place where God wanted them to enter the promised land.

… yet (you) have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice…. Num 14:22 NASB (bold italics mine)

What were these ten complaints, these ten testings of God, that so angered the Lord that the entire population of Israel, except for two people, died in the wilderness, never settling in the land of Canaan originally promised to them in Egypt? Other scriptures comment, "And in their heart they put God to the test…" Ps 78:18 NASB and "…your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they had seen my work." Ps 95:6 NASB.

At the command of the Lord, twelve spies, representative of the twelve tribes of Israel, are sent to spy out the land of Canaan (except the tribe of Levi, whose place was filled by Manasseh, one of the half-tribes of Joseph). Approximately two and one-half years in the desert after leaving Egypt, Israel is now at Kadesh Barnea near the border of the land of Canaan. They are on the verge of entering the land and taking it by conquest.

Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder, would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? Num 14:3,4 NASB

How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? Num 14:11,12 NASB

Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers… Num 14:22,23 NASB

Your children, however, whom you said would become prey – I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected…. And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they shall suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. Num 14: 31,33 NASB

Moses Responds:

At this occasion, God reiterates for the second time his desire to obliterate the 12 tribes of Israel, and start from scratch with the descendents of Moses. The first time God had raised this plan was when the people cast a golden calf to worship it and to ascribe to it their miraculous deliverance from the Egyptians. Again, Moses pleads with God to spare the disobedient people for the sake of his reputation among the heathen nations. Moses fears that the nations will see any wipe out of the people as proof that God’s mighty miracles in Egypt were chance, and not the work of a greater God than their own gods.

At midnight, all the first-born in the land of Egypt died, from Pharaoh, the slave-girl, to the cattle. Ex 11:5 NASB

God Responds: A Command to Israel regarding the first-born:

… this ordinance, when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own, the males belong to the Lord, … and every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem. Ex 13:10-13. NASB

To confirm their complaint, the Israelites in the wilderness said they would rather die in the wilderness than die by the sword. This death wish was granted.

The Israelites where concerned that their children would die in the conquest of the land of Canaan at the sword of its inhabitants. Instead, the Israelite parents lost their lives in the desert, but their children spent their lives in eventual peace and freedom in the promised land. The grumbling Israelites lost their privilege to enter the promised land, an inheritance from their forefathers, and their heirs received it instead.

The Egyptians lost their oldest male children in the 10^th plague of punishment by the angel of death. The Egyptians lost not only their heirs, but also the labour force to complete the buildings of their dreams. And this labour force also walked away with a lot of Egyptian wealth.

The Israelites also have a legacy from the 10^th plague; they were required to redeem their first-born males. Even though the angel had already passed over them when he saw the doorposts covered by the blood of the Passover lamb, God set up an ordinance for them henceforth to redeem their first-born, to remind them of their nations deliverance in Egypt and of his sovereignty as the giver of life. God said by this he was the source of fertility, not the fertility gods of other nations.

The issue of God’s sovereignty and whether his loving kindness is real seems to be at the core of the complaints of Israel in the wilderness.

Miriam and Aaron spoke out against Moses, because he married a Cushite woman. Both believed that they ought to have dual leadership positions with Moses.

Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well? And the Lord heard it. Num 12:2 NASB

… Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses? Num 12:8 NASB

God says he speaks to a prophet in visions and dreams, with the exception of Moses, whom he talks to mouth to mouth. God sees Moses as faithful in his position as leader.

God’s anger burned against both Miriam and Aaron. Their presumptuous assumption, that they could assign themselves as equal in leadership roles with Moses, infuriated Him. Their offense at the non-Israelite wife of Moses was absolutely no criteria to judge his position as leader. They assumed that only Hebrews who married Hebrews qualified for leadership. No doubt, this opinion was shared by others, and could easily breed ill winds for Moses’ leadership.

As punishment and discipline, God smote Miriam with leprosy so that her skin was white as snow. She was shut out of the camp for seven days for her reproach before she was healed. Because of his office as high priest, Aaron merely suffered the anguish of seeing his sister smitten with a deadly disease, and share in her utter disgrace. Both also died in the wilderness, as their peers did.

Egyptian dwellings were in darkness for three days. It was a darkness that could be felt. However, the Israelite dwellings had normal day and night. Egyptians could not see one another, and consequently everyone stayed in their places. (Ex 10:21-29) NASB

Pharaoh tried to negotiate (change) with Moses the request of God. Pharaoh would allow the Israelite families to go and worship in the desert if their livestock would remain in Egypt. The Lord did not change his command nor accept the compromise and in response sent his ninth plague. Neither did the Lord change his leadership for Israel’s wilderness journey to Canaan.

In the second year, second month, the twentieth day in the wilderness, the children of Israel had no meat (fish or fowl), as they had had in Egypt. [Did they complain because either they didn’t want to eat their own livestock, or they were tired of their own meat? Since the tabernacle also had animal offerings for sacrifices, there should have been ample meat on the hoof in the camp.]

They complained to Moses. It started with the rabble who had greedy desires (the non-Jews who had joined the migration from Egypt), and this attitude spread throughout the camp.

The Israelites also complained that they only had manna to eat. (In fact they also had livestock, and the milk and other milk byproducts. Pharaoh said they had livestock, and God said after Kadesh Barnea that the sons would be shepherds for the rest of the wanderings. Num 14. Were the Israelites afraid to eat this source of food because they might run short? Were they hoarding? Were they bored with their menu? Did they just like to indulge in their perceived delicacies?]

Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, and now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna. Num 11:5-6

Moses, say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the Lord…. The Lord will give you meat and you shall eat … until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you.

The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail … and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck … {those} who had been greedy. Num 11:23-34. NASB

The Egyptians lost their cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic to the plague of the locusts. What a food shortage!

The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt … They covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Ex 10:14,15 NASB

Pharaoh actually confessed he had sinned against the requests of the Lord, and asked for Moses to intercede to God for the removal of the plague. Moses did so, and the east wind blew the locusts into the Red Sea.

The Israelites received quail in the same type of quantity as the Egyptians had received locusts – it covered the land in darkness.

Israelites received meat in the form of quail. As a lesson, the Lord provided an overabundance to nauseate the greed of the people. Regrettably, the abundance did not fill the people with gratitude.

The people did not believe that the quail would come for thirty days, and started to stock pile the birds. The Lord’s anger flared out at the greed of some of the Israelites who collected meat two feet high for 36 hours straight. The extent of their greed so aroused his anger, that he destroyed the greedy (the guilty).

Pharaoh saw the loss of his food stocks, and saw the damage in horror. In contrast to the Israelites, it moved him to a self-interested confession of wrongdoing and a request for mercy.

Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; Num 11:1a NASB

… and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. Num 11:1b NASB

The Lord sent thunder, and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the hail struck all that was in the field through all the land of Egypt, both men and beast. The hail also struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, there was no hail. Ex 9:23b-26 NASB

The Egyptians who feared the Lord saved their livestock. They took their cattle home from the field. Those who did not fear the Lord suffered, as their livestock in the field died from the hailstorm. This plague is in part a repetition the fifth plague, which killed the livestock left in the field (those not at home) by pestilence.

The tabernacle was completed on the first day, the first month of the second year of the wilderness journey. Ex. 20:17. This test occurs as Moses is introducing the people and the priesthood to the functions of the tabernacle and the details of the Law.

Now Nadad and Abihu, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. Lev 10:1 NASB

And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Lev 10:2 NASB

The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you may not die… so as to make a distinction between the holy land the profane, and between the unclean and the clean. Lev 10:8-10 NASB

Taking handfuls of soot from a kiln, Moses and Aaron threw the soot into the air, and boils broke out on man and beast, even on the magicians of Pharaoh’s court. Ex 9:8-12 NASB

The prohibition against being intoxicated when in the service of the tabernacle arises now with this incident. The two sons of Aaron may have been intoxicated when they were performing their duties in giving offerings to the Lord. Question: Could you make wine from manna? It’s very likely possible, however, we have no proof.

The punishment of the Lord for Israel and Egypt extended to the clergy of the two nations. The priest’s presumption to follow their own interpretation of protocol is not exempt from the Lord’s anger. Nor are the Egyptian magicians protected by the devil.

The Hebrews had left Egypt three months ago, and the memory of their deliverance was still fresh in their minds at Mt. Sinai. The people realized that Moses was delaying his stay on the mountain. They felt leaderless and unsupervised, and decided to fill the vacuum with worship which was familiar to them. They requested Aaron to replace Moses and his God with a different god of their own. Aaron used their gold earrings to make a golden calf. The day after the calf was cast and mounted, the people worshipped and offered peace offering sacrifices to it and began to sing and dance. Ex 32

God told Moses about the people’s apostasy in the camp. They were worshipping an idol of their own cunning to celebrate their escape from Egyptian slavery. God said he would kill them all. Moses interceded for mercy for his people’s transgression.

Moses was so angry at Israel that he smashed the tablets of stone on which the law had been written with the finger of God. He burned the gold idol and ground it into powder, scattered the gold into the water, and forced the people to drink it. Secondly, following Moses’ direction, the Levities killed about three thousand people as a punishment.

God Responds:

I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people…

Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made. Ex 32:9,35 NASB

God reveals his desire to obliterate the 12 tribes of Israel, and start from scratch with the descendents of Moses. These people, says the Lord, are too difficult to lead and to guide towards the promised land. Moses intercedes for his people, and God relents his plan, and kills only some of the people.

… the Lord will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks. … and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died. Ex 9:3,4,6 NASB

The 5^th plague kills the Egyptian livestock in the field. Paradoxically, the children of Israel choose to worship the animal that Yahweh kills in a plague. In the face of irrational observations, the Israelites still believe in this form of the Egyptian deities, the calf. The Egyptian influence is still very strong. The Egyptian enemy is still providing answers to a people in an emancipated environment, far from Egypt and slavery. Removing people from an evil environment does not remove them from the influence of that environment. Only a new law (wineskin) can do that.

When we don’t like the truth, and falsehood is our only alternative, regardless of how irrational and foolish the alternative is, we accept the error because of our stubbornness in unbelief.

At Rephidim, the children of Israel had no water to drink, and the people murmured.

People Grumble #4: No Water

The people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may 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 they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? …Is the Lord among us, or not?" Ex 17:2, 3, 7

Moses struck the rock at Horeb with his staff, and water flowed for the people and their livestock. The place was called Massah and Meribah by Moses.

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness; when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart. And they do not know my ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into my rest. Ps 95:8-11 NASB

When Pharaoh resisted again to letting the people go, God sent swarms of insects that covered houses of both Egyptians and their servants, an on the ground. The sons of Israel were spared this plague. Ex 8:20-32 NASB

On the second month of their journey in the wilderness, the 15^th day, the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Sinai. They had no bread or prepared meat. When the manna came initially, it took some time until everyone learned to throw out the leftovers of the previous day’s collection before morning, and to collect a double portion on the sixth day. The seventh day’s portion of manna, collected on the sixth day, did not go foul on the seventh day. They were to rest on the seventh day, nor to collect any food, which was a form of work. However, livestock and other animals were still monitored as a normal routine.

People Grumble #3: Manna and Over Collecting

Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you (Moses) have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Ex 16:3 NASB

Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in my instruction. And it will come about on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. Ex 16: 4, 5 NASB

For meat, he sent them quail in the evening, and in the morning, manna. Ex 16:13,14.

Moses struck the ground and from the dust of the earth, gnats rose and covered man and beast throughout Egypt. The land of Goshen, where the Israelites resided, had no gnats. Ex 8:16-19

The people had just traveled for three days since their triumph over the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Now they had water, but it was very bitter at Marah.

People Grumble #2: Bitter Water

The people grumbled, "What shall we drink?" Ex 15:23-27

If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer. Ex 15:26 NASB

The water was bitter, but as their healer, the Lord had designed the bitter water to cleanse their physical bodies, and to heal them.

The people witnessed a miracle as Moses threw in a tree into the water, making it sweet. Later, they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of fresh water. It was always God’s plan to give them fresh water.

The above command was given before the law was actually given on Mount Sinai. It was pointless, however, because nobody heeded it.

Frogs came out of the Nile, and entered the houses of Pharaoh, his servants, and on all the fields. They were in the bedrooms, on the beds, the ovens, and the kneading bowls. Ex 8:1-15

The children of Israel left Egypt the night of the Passover and walked with their livestock towards the Red Sea. What a great victory of liberation, freedom gained without Hebrew bloodshed! Yet, when the Egyptians pursued the escaping Hebrews, they were terrified and complained to Moses that it would be better to serve the Egyptians than die in the wilderness. How similar to the tenth complain!

They said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ " Ex 14:12

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Ex14:15 NASB

God sent a protective cloud that shielded them from the Egyptian army, and Moses lead the people through the Red Sea on dry ground. When the Egyptians pursued, they drowned as the waters returned and filled in the dry path on the seabed floor. The Hebrew people all arrived safely on the other side of the sea, delivered from slavery.

Behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in your hand, and it shall be turned to blood. And the fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul…. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. Ex 7:17-19 NASB

The Lord’s deliverance at the Red Sea is one of the few instances where the Lord and Moses had credibility in the eyes of the Israelites.

And when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses. Ex 14:31 NASB

The very first complaint is excused. When Pharaoh withdraws the support of straw for the bricks, he does not reduce the quota of brick production. The foremen of the sons of Israel complain of their hardship to Moses. In this instance, the Lord is not angry with them; rather, he continues to speak hope to Israel through Moses. To encourage his people, the Lord tells Moses to retell the story of God’s covenant with their forefathers. Their grievance or complaint appears to be excused because the people were too despondent on account of their bondage to have any hope and faith. Furthermore, they have seen no miracles of God’s awesome power.

Note: The difficulty of the Hebrew slaves to sustain the quota of bricks without first receiving the straw from the Egyptians occurs before the ten Egyptian plagues begin. Ex 5:10-21

The Lord is just:

both Israel and Egypt each had ten offenses,

and both were punished.

At the tenth plague, Egyptians complied to Moses’ request at the death of their first-borns, and let the Hebrews go, giving them riches as an incentive to leave.

At the tenth test, Israel out rightly disobeyed, complaining that the Canaanites would kill their offspring's. They refused to go and fight at the Lord’s command; they disobeyed and God punished them severely. Then, to make up and atone for their disobedience, they reacted on the basis of their punishment. They sent an army to capture Canaan; their army was utterly defeated. The disobedient parents died in the wilderness in the next thirty-eight and one-half years. They could never make up with God because their defiance blocked the pathway to humility and repentance.

Israel complained because they simply could not continue their trust in the Lord after they crossed the Red Sea.

Both the Egyptians and the Hebrews had ten opportunities to comply with God’s commands.

Now we know approximately how many times God can get angry before he gets really mad (full of wrath).