Acts 13:18 Cross References

Acts 13:18

18: He put up with them through forty years of wandering around in the wilderness.

And by means of many miraculous signs and wonders, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years.

I took your sin--the calf you had made--and I melted it in the fire and ground it into fine dust. I threw the dust into the stream that cascades down the mountain.
"You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.
And at Kadesh-barnea the LORD sent you out with this command: `Go up and take the land I have given you.' But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to trust him or obey him.
Yes, you have been rebelling against the LORD as long as I have known you.

"Remember how angry you made the LORD your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have constantly rebelled against him.

So I brought my people out of Egypt and led them into the wilderness.
There I gave them my laws so they could live by keeping them. Yes, all those who keep them will live!
And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me. It was to remind them that I, the LORD, had set them apart to be holy, making them my special people.
"But the people of Israel rebelled against me, and they refused to obey my laws there in the wilderness. They wouldn't obey my instructions even though obedience would have given them life. And they also violated my Sabbath days. So I threatened to pour out my fury on them, and I made plans to utterly consume them in the desert.
But again I held back in order to protect the honor of my name. That way the nations who saw me lead my people out of Egypt wouldn't be able to claim I destroyed them because I couldn't take care of them.

I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground.
As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea.
And all of them ate the same miraculous food,
and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.
Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness.

And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.
" `Because the men who explored the land were there for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years--a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. You will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.'

But our ancestors were a proud and stubborn lot, and they refused to obey your commands.
"They refused to listen and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt! But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and full of unfailing love and mercy. You did not abandon them,
even though they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, 'This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!' They sinned and committed terrible blasphemies.
But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night.
You sent your good Spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them bread from heaven or water for their thirst.

There, too, the whole community of Israel spoke bitterly against Moses and Aaron.

And you saw how the LORD your God cared for you again and again here in the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.'

Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn't wait for his counsel!
In the wilderness, their desires ran wild, testing God's patience in that dry land.
So he gave them what they asked for, but he sent a plague along with it.
The people in the camp were jealous of Moses and envious of Aaron, the LORD's holy priest.
Because of this, the earth opened up; it swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and the other rebels.

"Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
No, your real interest was in your pagan gods--Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god--the images you yourselves made.

Yet they kept on with their sin, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
They willfully tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.
They even spoke against God himself, saying, "God can't give us food in the desert.
Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat."
When the LORD heard them, he was angry. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,

The LORD says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
For there your ancestors tried my patience; they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles.
For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, `They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.'
So in my anger I made a vow: `They will never enter my place of rest.'"

So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived in the land of Canaan, where there were crops to eat.

not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they tested me by refusing to listen.

That is why the Holy Spirit says, "Today you must listen to his voice.
Don't harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested God's patience in the wilderness.
There your ancestors tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
So I was angry with them, and I said, 'Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.'

"But our ancestors rejected Moses and wanted to return to Egypt.
They told Aaron, 'Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don't know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.'
So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and rejoiced in this thing they had made.
Then God turned away from them and gave them up to serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, 'Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
No, your real interest was in your pagan gods--the shrine of Molech, the star god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into captivity far away in Babylon.'

And who were those people who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Weren't they the ones Moses led out of Egypt?
And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And to whom was God speaking when he vowed that they would never enter his place of rest? He was speaking to those who disobeyed him.
So we see that they were not allowed to enter his rest because of their unbelief.

Home