Numbers 33:10-11 (KJV)
And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea. [11] And they removed from the Red sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.
Encamped in the wilderness of Sin. Wilderness of Sin was when God began to rain bread from heaven for Israel, the Manna. It is interesting to see here that God had not given them this Manna until they had reached this wilderness. Israel perhaps took bread from their homes in Egypt and had eaten from these reserves until this moment. Since Israel arrived in Sin in the second month after they had come out of Egypt (Exodus 16:1), it appears the rations from Egypt had only lasted for about two months. But that was when God finally rained Manna from heaven.
God also makes us to spend every resources of righteousness that we have, that we would hunger and thirst after God's perfect righteousness. We still have the remains of self-righteousness and self-trust that we carry with us even after we are saved. But our righteousness is like pitiful leaves that Adam sewed together to cover his nakedness. It lasts for a while, but it soon dries and withers until it becomes useless. It is insufficient to make us right before God. It is insufficient to cover our every sin and shame. But when we realize our lack of righteousness, that is when God provides Jesus Christ for us to wear, that our whole being may be covered with Christ.
Through our hunger, we realize that God must rain down His righteousness from heaven. There is no righteousness by which we can cover ourselves on this earth. All the righteousnesses that we can produce are like filthy rags that waste away after a season. But when God sent Jesus Christ His own Righteousness from heaven, and we were clothed by His perfection, we were justified in God's sight forever. As the word Manna means 'What is it?', God sent down from heaven this alien righteousness which we had never seen before. This perfect being, full of glory, truth, holiness and love that came down from heaven was like Manna, a strange thing before our eyes. Jesus Christ was the righteousness of God that was revealed to us, which was apart from us and was outside us - outside our own resources. Christ was righteousness from another Source, sent down from heaven:
Romans 3:21-22 (ESV)
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
And we are justified when we put our faith in this Righteousness sent from heaven, just as Israel ate of the Manna and lived. Believing is as simple as eating. We feed on Christ by faith, and by faith Christ's righteousness is applied to our souls by the Holy Spirit. By faith, we are accounted to be righteous as Jesus is righteous. Not that we are righteous at all in our own selves, but we forever rely on this foreign, external righteousness that God gives. Israel had no other source of food, and likewise, we have no source of righteousness except Christ that was sent from on high. Let us, then, trust in Christ forever to be our righteousness, until we go home to heaven, where righteousness dwells, and where God shall crown us with righteousness.
God makes us to starve, hungry for life that we may seek and find Jesus Christ. The bread that we took from the world is not sufficient to satisfy our eternal hunger. Though we eat food in this world, we need to eat again in a few hours that we may live. Likewise is the insufficiency of the things of this world to satisfy the hunger of our souls. It is like a boat that is stranded in the middle of the sea, and a person in it is dying of thirst, but there is no water around but the sea water. The man may drink the sea water and thirst may be relieved for a few seconds, but later it will make him thirst even more, and eventually it will kill the man. It is likewise with the world. There is nothing in the world that can give eternal life. The more the man eats from the world, the more hungry and thirsty he will become. Though the hunger and thirst may be relieved for a few moments, he will eventually die, and that forever. Only Jesus Christ has life. Jesus Christ is the Bread that is sent from heaven, that whoever eats, shall live forever:
John 1:4 (KJV)
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 6:35 (KJV)
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
When our life dries up and our own resources dry up, that is when Jesus Christ appears. When we believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, our souls are satisfied of all our eternal cravings. The craving and hungering for other things than Christ is called lust. Lust is the hunger of the soul that is pointed towards things other than God. We see then why God is then so offended with lust. Man's soul was made to desire, crave and hunger after God, but man has desired and filled this appetite with things that are evil and for self-pleasure. Only by believing in Jesus Christ crucified can a man destroy his lusts and fulfill his longings:
Galatians 5:24 (KJV)
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Through the cross we have crucified our longings with Christ, that we may be satisfied in Christ alone. Christ is the believers' only sustenance, our only source for strength and nourishment. When we have Christ, our souls are satisfied, for by having Christ we have God, who is our life.
God also makes us to hunger after God's word. When we escape from the kingdom of darkness and are translated into the kingdom of God by His salvation, we still carry within our selves the remains of the words of man, of self, of the world and of Satan. We try to live off by the commandments, dictates, doctrines, ideas and the philosophies of man for a season. Though we have been saved, we for a season still live according to these other voices, for so we have been accustomed all our lives. But there comes a point where God makes us to see the futility and the foolishness of listening to anyone else apart from God. We begin to realize that all men are liars, but that only God is true. We begin to hunger for truth, as we realize truth is nowhere to be found in this world. We realize that truth is harder to found than rubies, gold or diamonds. We begin to ask as Pilate did: "What is truth?". We are confused, because everyone claims to be telling the truth, but we don't know which one is right, nor which one is most reliable. But in the midst of our confusion, God comes and sheds light on us. He opens our eyes and lets us to hear these words:
John 17:17 (ESV)
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
John 14:6 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Christ did not answer Pilate, but He had already given the answer before: God's word is the truth, and this word and the truth is not a thing, but it is a Person: Jesus Christ. God's word is the only reliable truth. By fulfilling the scriptures during his work on earth, Christ proved to the world that God's word is the only reliable word, and that He Himself was God's Message to the world.
Our sanctification is achieved by listening to this word of God. Christ takes away other voices in us that has led us to sin, but He calls us by His voice:
John 10:4-5 (ESV)
When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. [5] A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
We are sanctified by listening to our Shepherd alone, when we do His commandments, not the commandments of other voices. Eve fell because she listened to the devil, and Adam fell because he listened to the voice of his wife. But we are made alive again when we listen to God's voice through the mouth of His Son:
John 5:25 (ESV)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
If we, even when we are dead, can be made alive by hearing and believing in the voice of the Son of God, should we not be diligent in reading and studying the Bible, or be attentive to the ministers of the Gospel, praying that God may speak to us through these means? Faith comes from hearing, and hearing the Word of God. Let us be diligent to hear from Him, even when we feel like we are dead, for read: "Those who hear will live". And those who cannot hear shall remain dead. Silence from God is the most horrible judgment that a man can go through. It is what eternal death is. A man without ears to hear God's voice is like a man who has no mouth and therefore cannot eat. Man needs truth for his soul to live. Man needs God's word. Man needs Jesus Christ the Truth. Sinful man is born and bred in lies, therefore must be born again by the truth, and needs to be continually cleansed by truth until he enters into glory. Let us never cease speaking the truth of the Gospel to our unbelieving neighbors and to our brethren. Christ is the truth that sets people free from sins. As the Apostle John commands, let us "speak the truth in love", for if we love others we will speak the truth to them, and this truth is the Christ. Truth is not simply honesty, but the real truth is the person of Jesus Christ. Let us uphold this Truth like a banner upon all the earth, that all men who have been destroyed by lies may see the banner of Christ, and live again.
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