wilderness,
an event which, for a sign, _outwardly_ also took place in the
wilderness--is Deut. viii. 2-5: "And thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to
afflict thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether
thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no. And He afflicted thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with the manna which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that He might make thee know that
man doth not live by bread only, but by everything which proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon
thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. And thou knowest
in thine heart, that as a father chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy
God chasteneth thee." The essential feature in the leading through
the wilderness is, accordingly, the _temptation_. By the wonderful
manifestations of the Lord's omnipotence and mercy, on the occasion of
Israel's deliverance from Egypt, a heartfelt love to Him had been
awakened in the people. (Compare the tender expression of it in the
Song in Exod. xv.; and also the passage in Jer. ii. 2: "I remember
thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, thy going
after Me in the wilderness in a land not sown,"--which cannot but
refer to the very first time of the abode in the wilderness, before
the giving of the law on Sinai, as is evident from the mention of the
youth and espousals; for the latter ceased on Sinai, where the marriage
took place.) The whole conduct of the people at the giving of the
law,--their great readiness in promising to do all that the Lord should
command,--likewise bear testimony to this love. The Lord's heartfelt
delight in Israel during the first period of their marching through the
wilderness, of which Hosea speaks in ix. 10, likewise presupposes this
love. Thus the first station was reached. The people now hoped to be
put in immediate possession of the inheritance promised to them by the
Lord. But, because the Lord knew the condition of human nature. His way
was a different one. A state of temptation and trial succeeded that of
entire alienation from God. The first love is but too often--nay, it
is, more or less, always--but a flickering flame. Sin has not been
entirely slain; it has been only subdued for a moment, and only wants a
favourable opportunity [Pg 257] to regain its old dominion. It would
never be thoroughly