From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part one of a series

God tested Israel in the wilderness, and they failed. He tested His Son in the wilderness, but He triumphed. What is the significance of this, the greatest contrast in history?

The Old and New Testaments provide many stark contrasts. One of the most vivid, but sadly one that is often overlooked in our time, is the great contrast between the spiritual failure of Israel after the crossing of the Red Sea (and, forty years later, the Jordan River) and the Lord Jesus Christ's great triumph when He emerged from the Jordan after His baptism by John.

Both came out of water and into the wilderness. Israel emerged to sin deeply and repeatedly in the face of adversity and temptation, despite God's visible presence with them, continual and unfailing provision, and clear commandments. In absolute contrast, Jesus maintained His sinless perfection in the face of the adversity of forty days without food, and direct temptation by Satan himself.

God tested Israel in the wilderness, and they failed. He tested His Son in the wilderness, and He triumphed. In this article we shall briefly examine Israel's abject failure, and in one to follow we shall examine Christ's glorious victory.

By God's miraculous provision, Israel went through water and into wilderness, dry-shod, not once but twice. The first of these miraculous occasions was at the beginning of their exodus from Egypt, as recorded in Exodus chapter 14. The second, after forty years of wilderness wandering and the death of an entire generation of the disobedient, occurred at the beginning of their conquest of Canaan as recorded in Joshua chapters 3 and 4.

Both of these miraculous deliverances were signs to Israel. Their dry-shod crossing of the divinely-parted Red Sea demonstrated that it was none other than Jehovah who had brought them out of Egypt, and would be with them throughout their journey to the land of promise. The crossing of the Jordan demonstrated that God was still among them and that He would drive out the ungodly inhabitants of the land, whose iniquity had reached its fullness.

But in both cases Israel disobeyed God.

Israel's continued complaints against God's providential deliverances from the Red Sea onward, and their idolatry from their days in Egypt onward, resulted in the death of an entire generation in the wilderness. As the inspired psalmist writes,

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by the sea - the Red Sea.

Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.

They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. (Psalm 106:7-15)

After the miraculous crossing of the Jordan forty years later, Israel's failure to fully obey God led to defeat at Ai, and the ongoing presence of pagan people among them whom God had commanded them to destroy.

After hundreds of years of longsuffering with Israel's spiritual idolatry, God sent the northern ten tribes into captivity in Assyria, and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin into captivity in Babylon. Stephen reminded the leaders of Israel of these events after Jesus had been crucified, had risen, and ascended into glory:

And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: "Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images which you made to worship; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." (Acts 7:39-43)

Idolatry is not the sin of Israel only, but of the entire human race from Adam onward. Mankind is in continual violation of God's law from its very first words, "You shall have no other gods before Me." Adam and Eve set themselves up as a higher authority than their Creator when they believed Satan's lying question, "Has God indeed said...?" Thus we all stand condemned before God, sin after the manner of our first parents, and live under the misery of the curse.

But in the greatest contrast possible, Jesus Christ was victorious in all the points in which Israel - and all of mankind - has failed. We shall examine His triumph - and what it means for the redeemed people of God - as we continue.

Next: Christ Triumphant, Our Forerunner

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