Then God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the waters will come back over the chariots and the drivers.”
Moses obeyed quickly and stretched his hand out over the sea, and immediately the waters crashed down upon the entire Egyptian army. Not one of them survived.
I was worn out from the stress. Since I knew he would be watching from the second heaven, I wondered if I had time to lie down for a while before heading back to give Satan my report.
When the Hebrews turned back and looked at the Egyptian dead, some of whom were already washing up on the shore of the sea, they realized the tremendous power that God brought against their enemy. The people were in reverent awe and pledged their everlasting trust in God and in Moses. There was no mistaking the relief on Moses’s face. He was as exhausted as I was and sat down to rest, thinking the worst of it was over.
I could have told him it wasn’t.
T
HE DEMON HORDE
stood on the rim and watched the sea return to normal as if nothing unusual had happened to it, much less that the fighting glory of Egypt now lay at the bottom. I wondered how Satan was going to respond to all of this.
At first, he didn’t seem to be all that worked up about what had occurred. Then I remembered that Satan could not have cared any less about what happened to the Egyptians. They were of no further use to him. In fact, Egypt was of no further use to him. There was no leadership left to manipulate, and the people themselves were just a mess what with dealing with the dead firstborn and all that.
Deciding to cut his losses, Satan ordered the demon hordes to evacuate. I naturally assumed he would send them after the Hebrews into the desert. Everybody else thought that would happen as well. When he ordered the troops into Canaan instead, we looked at each other, wondering if we had heard correctly but not daring to ask. Finally, Bezel spoke up.
“We can still catch them.”
“Forget it,” Satan said. “We don’t have to waste our time chasing them. They are slaves. They don’t know how to take care of themselves. They can’t function without someone driving them. There’s six hundred thousand of them and one of Moses. Moses will have a heart attack from frustration before long. They’ll wander around in the desert, and most of them will die there. If any of them make it across, we’ll be waiting on the other side. Besides, the Nephilim are in Canaan. If some of the Hebrews do get through the desert, the freaks we created will be all too happy to have another chance at them.”
The others congratulated Satan on being a brilliant strategist and then began forming battalions to move out. I assumed I would be going along and joined up with Bezel’s brigade when Satan grabbed my tail.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Obviously, I don’t know, sir. Where would you like for me to go?”
“We have unfinished business.”
I didn’t like the look in his yellow eye, but I followed him back to his lair and waited for him to make himself comfortable on his throne. He summoned several of the others to come and witness what I was certain would be something bad for me.
“So, moron, run this by me one more time.” His voice held that tinge of sarcasm again. “I want to be sure I understand that part about how much God cared about the Egyptians.”
He was making sport of me. Satan stood up and strutted back and forth in front of his throne, waving a claw in the air for effect, stroking his ugly chin with the other, mocking deep thought.
“Let me see if I remember this correctly: all the chariots got stuck in the mud.”
“Yes, sir,” I barely whispered.
“And all the soldiers were drowned; even Pharaoh was drowned.”
I nodded.
“Like, say, a pack of rats; it was something like that, wasn’t it?” His eyes narrowed, and the sinister grin that split his misbegotten face only encouraged the others who hadn’t left for Canaan yet to snicker louder at my humiliation.
“Well, then.” He sat down on his throne. “Help me out here. Why don’t you reconcile that unfortunate event with your insistence that God cared about the Egyptians and wanted to save them?” Everybody laughed.
One look at his sneer told me there was no way for me to win, so I said nothing.
“What? No defense? No glib comeback?”
I shook my head, avoiding looking at him directly.
“Why don’t you just go on with your report? God drowned all the Egyptians, and then what happened?” One last snicker came from the onlookers.
“The Jews started singing and dancing and praising God for their salvation. That’s it.”
“Idiots,” he spewed. The mere mention of worship and praise to God ruined his mood every time. “Have they started to move toward Canaan yet?”
“Moses was working on it when I flew back to report.”
“How long before they get close to Canaan? I want their welcoming committee to be ready.” He laughed, and so did everyone else except me.
“It depends. If they take the direct route, a couple of weeks, maybe a little more.”
Satan turned as if to give an order to one of the waiting demons when I interrupted.
“But God is unlikely to lead them along the shortest route, sir.”
“And why would that be?”
“History, sir.” I hoped that answer would be sufficient, but a look in his other yellow eye told me it wasn’t.
“God has rarely, if ever, led His people in a straight line to anywhere. My guess is He will lead them around in the desert for a while—maybe even years.”
“Why? Doesn’t He know what to do with them now that He’s got them?” Several snickered.
I knew I was stepping out far beyond my actual knowledge if I ventured a guess about God’s strategy, but why not? After all, I’d been watching God and humanity for eons. Besides, Satan’s quotient for humiliating me had reached its peak for one day. My guess would be as good as anyone’s and better than most.
“He will keep them in the desert until they’re ready to fight.”
“Fight against what?” Satan seemed surprised.
Here’s what I wanted to say: “Oh, puh-leeze. Do you for one moment think God doesn’t know what you’ve got planned through all of those demon-possessed people you have waiting for them on the other side? You will never outmaneuver God, and He will never let you get away with a massacre.”
Here’s what I said instead: “God will anticipate trouble once they leave the desert, and He wants them trained to defend themselves.”
Satan leaned back on his throne as if the thought had never crossed his mind. After a while he motioned my dismissal.
“Follow them.”
So, that’s how it happened that I went winging it across the Red Sea to catch up with the jubilant now ex-slaves.
As I watched Moses leading the throngs across the desert sand, I wondered if he had the first idea what to do next.
I
T WASN’T LONG
before they moved beyond the Red Sea toward the land of Shur. By the third day when they still hadn’t found any water, the people began to complain to Moses.
“What are we supposed to drink?”
“You should have thought about water before we left Egypt.”
Moses resisted the urge to scold the people for their short memories. Not even three days from God having split the sea on their behalf, here they were complaining to Moses about a lack of water. I tried to imagine what it would have been like for anyone in the demonic ranks to have complained to Satan about a lack of provision when they followed him in his rebellion.
Moses might have suspected there would be water at Marah, but he didn’t count on it being so bitter as to be undrinkable. Frustrated with the people whining about how they should have stayed in Egypt, Moses cried out to God for help. God pointed out a pile of sticks, which Moses could have found for himself if he had been looking instead of expecting God to do every little thing for him.
“Throw the stick into the water, and it will become sweet,” God said with no enthusiasm whatsoever.
Moses should have known to do this without being told. It was one of those bits of desert-survival training he learned while herding goats. He seemed to have a lot of trouble applying his prior life skills to his present situation. I’m not sure he ever made the connection between his training in herding goats for forty years and his present job to herd people through the same desert. The difference between the two was negligible as far as I could see.
Once the people filled their vessels with water, God told Moses He was ready to establish some laws and procedures for the rest of the trip.
“If you listen obediently to how I tell you to live in My presence, obeying My commandments and keeping all My laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am God your healer.”
If I’d been Moses, I wouldn’t have let that decree pass without reminding God of a few things.
“God,” I would have said. “Have You forgotten what happened with Adam and Eve when they had only one law in the entire universe to uphold? Two human beings in a garden couldn’t successfully obey one simple rule. Now You’re thinking about imposing multiple rules to thousands of people wandering in the desert and ready to flee back to Egypt at the first inconvenience?”
Although Moses didn’t challenge God’s idea, he must have been concerned about how well it could work. He sighed, roused himself, and got the people moving again. On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt, the whole company of Israel moved on from Elim to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. As Satan predicted, the whole company complained loudly against Moses and Aaron again, and I’m sure Moses was having chest pains.
“Why didn’t God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? You’ve brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death.”
It was true that if God didn’t intervene, the people were likely to starve because they were deep in the desert and there was no readily available food source. I could have pointed out to God in the very beginning that He would regret many times His decision to make humans from flesh and blood. To make it worse, He threw emotions into the mix, including the penchant to feel sorry for yourselves over the slightest difficulty. Human beings are simply too high maintenance to be of any real use in a pinch. Sorry to say, but none of you can be counted upon in less-than-perfect circumstances. Every few hours, you have to be fed and watered, not to mention needing sleep every single day.
For a fleeting moment, I wondered if, based upon prior history, He might not just let them starve after all. He certainly had precedent to do so. In all the centuries I had watched God and His humans, I had seen Him rescue them many times, but always in response to that “faith” requirement. You know what I’m talking about—when humans face a catastrophe fully believing God will rescue them because He loves them. Oh, yes, I’ve seen God swing into action more than once—often at the last possible minute—to respond to the faith of one who trusts Him in times of trouble, even when there is no visible evidence whatsoever that He intends to do anything. But would God respond to whining, complaining, and self-pity? I couldn’t recall ever having known God to respond well to such behavior, especially after having proven Himself as many times as He had in their exodus from Egypt.
I don’t mind telling you I was a little more than perturbed when I heard how God intended to give in to their griping.
God spoke to Moses: “I’ve listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them that at dawn they’ll eat their fill of bread.”
In the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine, flaky, frostlike something all over the place. The Israelites, having no idea what it was, took one look and said to one another, “
Man hu.
” (“What is it?”)
So Moses told them, “It’s the bread God has given you to eat, and these are God’s instructions: ‘Gather enough for each person—about two quarts per person—enough for everyone in your tent. Eat all of it. Don’t save any of it for tomorrow. If you do, you will find it spoiled and inedible.’”
Stiff-necked people that they were, a couple of them just had to try it. They saved some of the stuff overnight, but it became full of worms and smelled all the way to the second heaven. Moses lost his temper over their action, but really, what did he think was going to happen? Especially when the rules changed for the sixth day.
“Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to God. Whatever you plan to bake, bake today; and whatever you plan to boil, boil today. Then set aside the leftovers until morning,” Moses instructed them.
So they set aside what was left until morning as Moses had commanded, and contrary to its prior behavior, the manna didn’t smell bad and there were no worms in it. Go figure.
Moses said, “Now eat it; this is the day, a Sabbath for God. You won’t find any more of it on the ground today.”
True to character, on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather anyway, but they didn’t find anything. Once again, Moses’s temper flared.
“How long are you going to disobey my commands and not follow the instructions God has given me for you? Don’t you see that God has given you the Sabbath? On the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. So, each of you, stay in your tent. Don’t try to gather on the seventh day.”
Whether they were afraid of God or not I can’t say, but they were definitely afraid of Moses, so the people quit working on the seventh day. The phenomenon of the manna continued for forty years.