Some practice with types.

In 1Cor 10:1-12 Paul points out that the experience of Israel in coming out of Egypt has parallels to the Christian life. As has been discussed, passing through the Red Sea is a type or our being baptized into Jesus Christ, 1Cor 10:1-4.

The experience in the wilderness then is symbolic
of the Christian life in this world!

We are now separated from Egypt, but have not yet reached the promised land.

Egypt civilization advanced for that day. At the time of the exodus from Egypt there was no parallel to the level of civilization in Egypt. Their expertise in mathematics, architecture, astronomy, and so on, was unparalleled.

But the Sinai peninsula, where Israel came into,
was literally a desert … a desolation.

Israel now had very little meat to eat. God was feeding them with a wafer sort of thing which settled on the earth, and which they could eat. But this was nothing compared to luxurious eating in Egypt, even for a slave! The Israelites complained,

“5 We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: 6 but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all save this manna to look on.”
Num 11:5 WEB

They were missing the fact that now they were free from a very harsh slavery in Egypt, which they had called out to God for deliverance (Ex 3:7). And they were forgetting that they were being promised a very rich “promised land,” a land of milk and honey.

We as new Christians are increasingly isolated from
the pleasures and riches of this world.

We are warned,

“Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.”
1Jn 2:15 WEB

If you are used to partying, drunkenness, drugs, abundant sexual pleasures without restraint, it is quite a shift. It is like a shift from the riches of Egypt (with some bondage, yes!), all the way to the desolation of a desert, with food yes, but not all the pleasures of excess and indulgence.

It is a situation where we may be tempted to
rebel against the training with
which God attempts to
reform us.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. ”
Deut 8:3 WEB

There is no promised land in Egypt

And no promised land for us unless we submit under the Lord’s hand, and do not rebel against the commands which are designed to deliver us.

It is ironic that sometimes “scholarly” men can teach and instruct on the Exodus and miss so many of the rich spiritual lessons.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901