Wilderness Wanderings
You have been found wanting…wanting something more, something greater that will satisfy your soul. But you feel as if you are walking aimlessly around in circles for so long that you begin to feel lost and if this dreaded time will ever end. You along with so many others are seeking, seeking for the treasure that doesn’t seem attainable. You ask yourself, what is the point of all of this? Where am I going? Where the heck is God in the midst of it?
Thankfully, He is right here…
Yes, right now it may feel like you have no direction, no purpose, yet you do! You 110% have purpose, and direction. It all starts with a single step of faith into the unknown. Take for example the nation of Israel when Moses lead them out of Egypt and towards the Promise Land. At first there was excitement, wonder and fear at how God was going to get them out of Egypt, I mean should they even trust Moses? Uncertainty I’m sure filled them, doubt, and the unknown of what was going to happen if they chose to follow the man the Lord had placed before them to take them to a place where supposed “milk and honey” was flowing forth.
They decided though to step forth…
Why would they leave a place they knew of, even if it wasn’t the best of situations? To you and me it makes sense, they were no longer slaves, they were their own nation, their own people! Yet, sadly not shortly after they left and walked through the Red Sea, they were asking the same question. What were they thinking asking that? Didn’t they just see what happened in Egypt and the Red Sea, what God had done for them? But, they were unsatisfied, they wanted more, they wanted the Promised Land NOW not later! God though had other things, He wanted to teach them, to build them up in a nation filled with His eternal purposes and not man’s own demise and damnation. Our hearts though are selfish and misleading because we live in a broken world. It came to a point where God set for laws, a tabernacle that only the high priest could go into, and sacrifices need to be made for atonement of sins.
It was all part of His plan…
Israel though made it, they made it to the Promise Land! I can only imagine the shouts of joy and praises that were on their lips when they made it. Yet, the spies that went in, other than two, said that they shouldn’t go in. Joshua and Caleb though were confident in the Lord for “He has given us the land…” Why the lack in confidence? Fear I believe in this moment stopped them in their tracks, made them freeze and second guess everything. When they chose to not go in how devastated and frustrated Moses, Aaron (the high priest) and God must have been! For they were so close to all they had ever dreamed of having. Because, fear won that day, the Lord had them turn around and walk back into the wilderness until the older generation died off.
Fear of the Lord that day would have been their greatest victory!
Everything that the Lord had done, every law given, was meant to protect, to uphold, to sustain, to guide, to fix the people’s hope on Him. Every offering was meant to serve a purpose and build a relationship with Him. Every festival was a reminder of God’s intended place in their lives. Now they were faced with a new challenge the daily step-by-step journey in the wilderness. Think about it for a moment no other nation had ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire as they had and survived. No other god had taken one nation for Himself by rescuing them through means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, awesome power and terrifying acts. Yet that is what the Lord had done for them right before their eyes! But, they did not believe so they wondered.
For it was training…
We so often look at the outer purposes and think we understand but God is merciful as well as just. As Israel was free, we are free too, but we need to learn obedience. We must all learn. For when we accept Christ we are free, but most often what do we do with it? We drag our old ways with us. We must learn to wait upon the Lord, to keep our eyes and ears open, to learn to move when God tells us to move and not before. One day God will say “Take the land,” you must be ready to go in and take and hold it. Just as Israel had to learn so do we. As the old generation grew old they passed on their lessons, their wisdom onto the younger generation. Because of that they grew strong as they walked in the wilderness and learned to rely on the Lord for everything they needed to live.
God though, keeps His promises…
Moses walked off in the distance passing on the leadership to Joshua for his eyes were on the face of the Lord and His full Glory! They had learned to move when God moved, to rest when He rests. The wilderness is hard, its challenging, its difficult and so many questions run through our minds as we walk through it. Yet, it is one of the best places, seems silly, for wouldn’t you want to be in the Promised Land? Of course, but we must learn just as Israel did, step-by-step they learned to understand that the Lord was always with them, guiding them, training them, to fear Him. For He so longs to fulfill His promises for us, to bring us closer to Him with full reliance on Him. Because He loves us, it doesn’t come without discipline though, just as any of our parents have done Papa does the same, because He loves us. In the moment it may not feel like love as we live in the wilderness, but love it is. Hard and true, lasting love.
Hard…true…lasting…
