Author Archives: Neal

Multiple Types of the beast: the Man of Lawlessness

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Admittedly the man of lawlessness is not actually a type of the beast. Rather it another description of the beast, and another name for the beast.

There is a variation here between versions
and manuscripts on the name.

Some of our oldest manuscripts show the reading of man of “lawlessness” (anomias). This the preferred reading by most scholars today, and this matches with calling this organization the “mystery of lawlessness” in verse 7. The alternate reading is man of “sin” (hamartia). If we take the reading “man of lawlessness” as being correct, that means this man is characterized by lawlessness, and of course, “Sin is lawlessness,” 1Jn 3:4

A great rebellion must come first.

The Greek word is apostasia, and is actually a very strong word for a rebellion or a “defection” or desertion of one’s obligations to someone or thing. Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford, 1889, a lexicon of Classical Greek, lists the primary reading as “1. a defection, revolt.” It is a word for what we would call a political revolution, or an attempt to overthrow. Implied in both Revelation and 2Thessalonian 2 is that this is a world-wide phenomena that takes in “all” of the lost of this world, 2Thes 2:10-11, Rev 13:8.

In English this word apostasia has been watered down in some of the older Greek dictionaries, translations and commentaries. This word is much stronger than just “falling away,” or a “departure.” It has the idea in context of shaking your fist in the face of God. The newer dictionaries/lexicons are going back to the old Classical definition, and the watering down was never justified.

There is going to be a world-wide rebellion against God and against all law and order before the man of lawlessness comes. This has to happen BEFORE the the second coming of Christ, 2Thes 2:2-3.

This man is against the worship of ANYTHING or
ANYONE except himself.

“he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.”
2Thes 2:4 WEB

He is brought to power by a “mystery of lawlessness”
that has been working since the
first century, 2Thes 2:7.

See the previous posts about the mystery religions. So this is a multi-melenia struggle to seat this servant of Satan (Rev 13:2-3) as the true “god” of this world.

There is someone or thing who is restraining this mystery, to keep it from having success, until just the right time, 2Thes 2:6.

“even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.”
2Thes 2:9 WEB

God also helps this man succeed, so that all
who “didn’t believe the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness,”
would be lost.
2The 2:12

“Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;”
2Thes 2:11 WEB

This man is destroyed by the Second
Coming of Christ.
2Thes 2:8, Rev 19:20.

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

Multiple Types of the beast: Kings of Babylon

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The word “Mystery” in Mystery Babylon seem to indicate her secret or semi-secret nature. The beast and Mystery Babylon seem to work together to suppress Christianity. The beast at the last turns on Babylon the Great and destroys her (Revelation 18), within history because it is the will of God that he do this.

Now Mystery Babylon the Great has no problem
with false gods,

Further it is no exaggeration to say that she loves dictatorships. It is the beast organization (of Rev 13:1-2, and Rev 17:7) that “carries” Mystery Babylon the Great (Rev 17:7) to success.

Now the great harlot sits on seven mountains that are also seven kings, Rev 17:9-10. The beast is one of those seven kings on which the harlot sits, one of the main supports of Babylon the Great. You might say he is one the kings of Mystery Babylon the Great, but he secretly hates the Great Harlot who organizes all the wars and conflicts of this age.

“In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
Rev 18:24 WEB

Clearly Ancient Babylon is a model for Mystery
Babylon the Great.

Both are associated with great power and with great luxury. As Mystery Babylon the Great (working with the beast who has a mortal wound that is healed) overcomes Christianity; so also ancient Babylon conquered the people of God of ancient times: Israel and Judah. There are other points of similarity between the ancient and the entity of Revelation.

Both ancient Babylon and Mystery Babylon the Great are known for their immorality.

Both seem impossible to overcome. Ancient Babylon had great walls and great armies, and plenty of money. Mystery Babylon is seated on a beast with seven heads and ten horns. The beast is one of those seven heads, and those ten horns seems to indicate ten rulers. Also she is seated on “many waters” Rev 17:1, which is “peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages,” Rev 17:15.

Both fall because of their overwhelming immorality.

But back to the Kings of Babylon.

They both employ God’s people in their work. In ancient times it included Daniel and those with him. God’s people are warned to come out of her or they will go down with her (Jer 51:6 and Rev 18:4).

Once again the superiority of God’s ways are clearly demonstrated to the kings of Babylon, through Daniel, and Meshak, Shadrach, and Abednego and others.

Like the other types, the King of Babylon comes
close to complete repentance.

Nebuchadnezzar actually praises God when he writes about what happened to him in Daniel chapter 4. Read his abject confession there. But at the last, repentance doesn’t last, and the kings of Babylon must go down to defeat. So the King of Babylon is pictured as entering the world of dead as almost alive, though deprived of all strength in Isaiah 14, and maggots are his bed and worms are his covering, Isa 14:11.

It seems that the kings of ancient Babylon are types of the beast of Revelation, and this short essay only touches the surface.

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

Multiple Types of the beast: Ahab, King of Israel

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In most important things, Scripture gives us more than one opportunity to see, and understand, and be ready, for what will be. In prophecy, if something is very important, quite often times God gives us more than one opportunity to understand.

Ahab has a kingdom that is united
around false religion.

Subversion of God’s Holy religions began with the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. It was all about subverting true religion to serve the political purposes of government. Many rulers, as perhaps mini-types of the beast, fall guilty to such temptations. Ahab then increased the turn to evil religion.

He did “evil in the sight of Yahweh above all that were before him,” 1Kgs 16:30.

Ahab toke as a wife a Sidonian worshipper of Baal: Jezebel. She soon organized the extermination of the prophets of God, 1Kgs 18:4; and Ahab began in Israel the worship of the Mother Earth “goddess” Asherah, the covert passion of the modern ecology movement. It was a fertility cult involving religious prostitution and infanticide.

Elijah responded,

“… As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. ”
1Kgs 17:1 WEB

James tells us,

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months.”
Jas 5:17 WEB

That is exactly the amount of time that the beast rules in Revelation. This amount of time is variously expressed as “three years and six months, 1,260 days, forty-two months, or as “time, times, and half a time.”

Also the two witnesses in Revelation 11,
for 1,260 days, Rev 11:3

“have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy.” Rev 11:6 WEB. Indeed, the two witnesses seem a little like Moses, and a little like Elijah.

Elijah even proved to Ahab that Yahweh, the Lord our God, was superior to Baal at the dramatic confrontation on Mont Carmel in 2Kings 18.

And Ahab, multiple times, was close
to true and lasting repentance.

When his conscience afflicted him over the murder of Naboth in 1Kings 21, it says,

“… when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.”
1Kgs 21:27 WEB

His repentance was sincere enough to touch God’s heart, 1Kgs 21:29;

but Ahab never let his repentance last.

So in the end he had to be lured to his death, as is clearly depicted in 1Kings 22. In the end, the dogs of Samaria licked up his blood, 1Kgs 22:38.

Of the beast himself, he is destroyed in the great battle against God at the Second coming of Christ, Revelation 19 and many other passages, and is thrown alive into hell, Rev 19:20, where the worms will eternally eat on them.

“… for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.”
Isa 66:24 WEB

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

Multiple Types of the beast: Pharaoh of the Exodus

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The oppression of Israel began out of fear.

Political fear of these “outsiders” taking over their country, or siding with their enemies. So the Pharaoh said,

“Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.”
Ex 1:9 WEB

So a Egypt far less populous that even in later ancient times, oppressed God’s people and “set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens,” Ex 1:11 WEB. The purpose was not just to use them for labor, but indeed to ruin them with hard labor and oppression. Often in history political fears drive religious oppressions, with genocidal results. Then God sent Moses to secure their release.

It has been briefly discussed in posts on Identifying Types, that the wilderness wanderings are typical (symbolic) of the Christian life, with the Red Sea finally separating Israel from the Egypt of this world. That means: that Egypt is symbolic of this world, and then the Pharaoh is symbolic of the “god of this world,” 2Cor 4:4.

The beast in Revelation 13 is trying to unite a one-world government, with a single religious focus on himself, as the true god of this world! Christians then become obstacles to the political unification of this world. This is indeed like the ancient Caesars as “gods,” but what is pictured in Revelation is far more complete and thorough than anything done in ancient times, and “All who dwell on earth will worship him,” Rev 13:8, even all who are not written in the book of life. The phony man/god will make war on the saints and overcome them, Rev 13:7. However neither ancient Rome nor the caesars ever overcame the church.

Similarly, Pharaoh did overcome and enslave Israel in ancient Egypt.

God’s people are to have their spokesmen.

It was Moses in ancient Egypt. It is the two witnesses in Revelation 11. It seems an attempt is made in both cases to bring this arrogant king to reason. The pattern seen over and over again, is that Moses bargains for freedom for Israel, the Pharaoh responds with greater oppressions, and God responds with increasingly harsh strokes on the beast and his kingdom.

Moses turns the waters of the Nile into blood. The two witnesses “have power over the waters, to turn them to blood,” Rev 11:6. “A great mountain burning with fire” is thrown into the sea and turns it to blood in Rev 8:8 WEB.

Repeatedly the Pharaoh ALMOST relents.

Pharaoh’s servants repeatedly plea “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh,” Ex 10:7. There was frogs, darkness, locusts, hail, and boils on all the people. All of these things have their equivalent in Revelation. At one point the Pharaoh even says,

… “I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”
Ex 9:27 WEB

But the Pharaoh of Egypt will never let
repentance stick.

So in the end he has to be broken and destroyed, when he goes to fight directly against God.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 9 of 9

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Ancient Israel has a huge “exodus” from the
Egypt of this world

They had been in bondage in Egypt, a bondage directed by the Pharaoh as a type of the god of this world (2Cor 4:4). Then God personally delivered them from Egypt and bondage, and put a separation between them and the Egypt of this world, and led them into the promised land.

A new “god” of this world will come.

“he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.”
2Thes 2:4 WEB

This man has the entire world worship him.

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him …”
Rev 13:8 WEB

This has obviously NOT happened yet! No one man has been worshipped by “all,” yet! He will be destroyed by Christ’ second coming, 2Thes 2:8, Rev 19:20.

This man will overcome the church.

“It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.”
Rev 13:7 WEB

I am sorry to tell you this folks. Rome and the caesars did NOT overcome the church. Instead the church overcame Rome and the caesars! But this beast will overcome the church.

And one more time the true church will be forced
out into the wilderness.

The church is pictured as the faithful woman.

“The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.”
Rev 12:6 WEB

Hosea speaks of the future of what God “will” do.

““Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
And bring her into the wilderness,
And speak tenderly to her.”
Hos 2:14 WEB

For the days that this vicious beast rules (1,260), the church will be protected in the wilderness (Rev 12:6 above).

God will send plagues on the beast and his kingdom
like the plagues of Egypt.

Read of those plagues in Revelation chapters 15 and 16, and other places in Revelation and the rest of Scripture. They are very much like the plagues God sent on Egypt in 15th century BC, including waters turning to blood, darkness, and hail and all the rest.

Then will come Greater Exodus to Come

Ancient Israel came out of Egypt, into the wilderness, an into a this world promised land. The saints will have an exodus, The Great Exodus into the wilderness, and then into the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells, 2Pe 3:13.

“16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.”
1The 4:16-17 WEB

The Greater Exodus into the Greater Promised land.

Understanding types is essential for understanding prophecy. This has been some practice.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 8 of 9

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How sin or righteousness may affect our lives.

Many of God’s commands may affect our lives, including how long or how well we may do in this life.

“When a man’s ways please Yahweh,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. ”
Prov 16:7 WEB

We have promises related to good conduct, such as,

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.”
Ex 20:12 WEB

Paul in Eph 6:1-3 said this was “the first commandment with a promise.” Actually there are many. For instance.

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; …”
Mk 16:16 WEB

Despise such prophetic instruction at your own risk.

So how might sin affect our lives?

If we look at the symbolism is 1 Corinthians 10 and at the history to which it refers, we see more than one way that sin may affect our lives. One of the ways mentioned specifically in this text is that we may die as a direct result of our sins. Paul mentions.

“Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.”
1Cor 10:8 WEB

Some say, well God doesn’t act that way today. I would ask, where did you get that? The Bible says “For I, Yahweh, don’t change,” Mal 3:6 WEB, or

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Heb 13:8 WEB

None of that sounds like a God who has changed! In fact, almost every day we hear of people who die as a direct result of their sins, in committing robbery, drug abuse, food abuse, etc. I am not talking about so-called miracles, merely God working in history, as He does everyday. It happens everyday! Often we see these things on the evening news. We just don’t connect the dots.

We can also just waste away as a result of our sins.

Just as Israel did in the wilderness. The Lord said that all of those men who saw His glory and His signs would ever enter the promised land, but would have to waste away in the desert until they all died, Num 14:22-23, 33. In other words, sometimes part of our just punishment for our sins is to not die suddenly and soon, but to just waste away in our wickedness. David says the same of many of the wicked,

“Don’t kill them, or my people may forget.
Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.”
Psa 59:11 WEB

And so it is with many of our age.

“Now all these things happened to them
by way of example,

“and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.”
1Cor 10:11 WEB

This is rich material for preaching if we use it correctly, and good preparation for dealing with types in prophecy. If fact, some of this IS prophecy, both of the world to come, and the Christian age, and you and I.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 7 of 9

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Some practice with types.

Rivers are indeed substantial barriers to ready crossing, especially to armies on the move. If you have a great river like the Mississippi, bridges are few and far between. Sometimes great landmarks in our lives here on earth are such barriers. Death is the ultimate one of these. It is at intellectually known, often dreaded or feared. As it is written, Jesus came that he,

“and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Heb 2:15 WEB

So what is the last river we cross before we
enter the true promised land?

For us as Christians it is obviously the river of death, that dreaded of all obstacles. And the last obstacle the children of Israel had to pass before the promised land was the river Jordan. It is thus a fitting symbol of our death before entering heaven.

Our songbooks are full of testimony to
Jordan as the river of death.

“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye,
to Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie.”

“One more river, and that wide river is Jordan …”

And so on. These songs and sentiments are not out of place. It is implicitly part the imagery of Canaan as the promised land of heaven, and rising to take possession of it.

And when we finally come to the river of death?

What happened when Israel finally came to the Jordan? The priests led the way bearing the ark of the covenant. They were to stop when their feet were in the water, and the waters stopped flowing, “and rose up in one heap, a great way off.” The people of the land upstream were drowned by the waters, and the children of Israel passed over on dry ground.

So it is that the children of God cross over the river of death on dry ground, but the wicked are drowned by these same waters.

As it is written,

“… he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, …”
Rev 20:6 WEB

One of the shortcoming of the modern church
is ignorance, or the ignoring, of types.

The so called “scholarly” often treat such as unintended impositions on the text. They sometimes view these as things invented to cover for failed prophecies. They ignore the direct statement of types as evidence, and there is much of that. For instance, “a prophet … like you,” and “circumcise your heart, ” and so on. Or David writing in the first person in Psalm 22 of things which never happened to him! This was clearly intentional. Psalm 22 is a very clear prophecy of the crucifixion of the Christ. We should asking question like the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:34:

“Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?” WEB

Incredibly, many act as if God could not/would not possibly be that sophisticated! This is a huge blind spot in much of our preaching. We have let the unbelief of some, influence the preaching of many believers.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 6 of 9

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Some practice with types.

Canaan as symbolic of heaven

It is called the land of promise in Heb 11:9. It was a land that was promised to Abraham, Gen 12:1, etc.

The first occupants of that land, were to lose it
because of sin.

And Abraham was promised that his descendants would get this land in later times. This was a prophecy.

“In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
Gen 15:16 WEB

Abraham could have said, “What??? That’s a long way off. Oh well, I guess we’ll see?” Instead, of Abraham it is written,

“He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.”
Gen 15:16 WEB

Abraham was counted righteous BECAUSE he BELIEVED the prophecies of the Lord!

Israel inherited a country they did not build.

“10… to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build, 11 and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full;”
Deut 6:10-11

Joshua repeats these promises in Josh 24:13.

Many inhabitants of heaven were unfaithful.

The angels that sinned were cast out of heaven in Revelation 12:7-9. Man is made to rule. He is made for a little while, “a little lower than the angels,” Heb 2:7 WEB. But that will change in the world to come.

“ You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet:”
Psa 8:6 WEB

“2 Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? … 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? …”
1Cor 6:2-3 WEB

And we will inherit a land we did not build.

And we will inherit houses we did not build.

“2 In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.”
Jn 14:2-3 WEB

And Abraham himself was NOT just seeking an
earthly home.

“But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
Heb 11:16 WEB

And so we sing of heaven:

“To Canaan’s land I’m on my way, where the soul of man never dies,” and many other songs of Canaan and the promised land, as symbolic of heaven.

Some cautions on types.

What then are the proper limits to be observed? I would suggest that as a start, we not try to make symbolism to say anything plainly contrary to the open statements of Scripture. If used properly it will generally supplement and enforce what we should already know.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 5 of 9

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Israel was passing out of the Egypt of this world,
through desolate places, to a
promised land.

Implied in 1Cor 10:1-12 is that the promised land they were headed to was symbolic of heaven. That symbolism is much more explicit in the book of Hebrews. Previous posts have also discussed “The Wilderness Wanderings as a Type.”

Now God had promised them “rest”
in the promised land.

But Israel often focused on their immediate problems rather than the “land” that they were to inherit “forever.” So an entire generation perished in the wilderness, rather than reach the promised land.

Some rebelled against God’s authority
in the wilderness.

God did and does have authority to put whoever He wants in charge. He did put Moses in overall charge of the people, and He put Aaron and his sons as priests to approach God in behalf of the people. So much authority was centralized and it was male dominated (as also had been the family, even since the beginning).

A true prophetess, in Exodus 15 Miriam led the women in a public celebration of the victory over Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. You may remember some of the words of this song.

“Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Ex 15:21 WEB

But in Numbers 12 Aaron and Miriam wanted
the same authority as Moses.

“They said, Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us? Yahweh heard it.”
Num 12:2 WEB

The Lord Himself answered for Moses, and temporarily struck Miriam with leprosy.

Today we have problems with those who do not like God’s order of things in the world, in society and in the church, and would put aside the ordinances of Christ’s Law, to order things as they please. Christ is the great prophet of whom God said, if they don’t listen Christ, “I will require it of him.” That is still pertinent today.

Then Korah organized a democratic style rebellion
against what God had set in place.

They said,

“… You take too much on you, seeing all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them: why then lift yourselves up above the assembly of Yahweh?”
Num 16:3 WEB

Partly true, but also God Himself had put Moses in charge. The end of it was that the earth itself opened up, and Korah went down alive into Sheol.

“So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.”
Num 16:33 WEB

Korah tried to take Moses role, and Moses was a type of the Christ. Korah is evidently a type of later rebels (the beast and the false prophet), at the end of time, who will try to take Christ’s place, of whom it says they “were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.” Rev 19:20 WEB

Understanding types is essential for understanding prophecy. This is some practice.

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

Identifying Some Types, Part 4 of 9

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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