Since listening to a talk about the Israelites going through the wilderness to reach the promised land, I have increasingly found myself discovering the importance of this subject for believers.
The wilderness was the in-between stage of God’s chosen leaving Egypt and arriving at God’s promised land, so we as Christians must also complete the same journey by going through our wilderness, in order to grow from believers into disciples. It is a valuable training ground where our relationship with the Lord can be defined, developed, deepened and therefore progressed.
When initially accepting Jesus, it can often be with a feeling of a release from the old ways, through the freshness of a new lease of life which changes the way we look at the world and ourselves. However, for many this initial burst of enthusiasm can steadily dissipate as Satan soon comes at us through worldly situations and seemingly insurmountable challenges that we feel unable to cope with and we therefore come to see ourselves as being inadequate believers. Rather than looking on these situations as a sign of God’s love where He wants to strengthen the relationship He has with you and I.
To explain further, let’s consider what a wilderness looks like, in the Old Testament and human interpretation of today it would be thought of as a place where nothing could grow and only the hardiest could survive on the most meagre resources with a harsh sun beating down on its resultant sparse unforgiving rugged landscape.
However, for 2 million odd Israelites it should have been a time to adapt from a reliance on the Egyptians meeting their requirements to becoming dependent instead, on God’s love through His provision of their needs and protection against their enemies. In addition, the wilderness was also to prepare them for the promised land by helping each individual to appreciate God’s fulness of care rather than having an over familiarity where they took both Him and His miraculous provision for granted.
For Christians we need to realise not only what we have in Christ but equally to also not become over familiar with what He provided on the cross to avoid a religious carnal assumptive faith rather than one that is spirit filled. Effectively the wilderness is a proving ground where we learn that from the initial euphoric feelings of Christ, we need to go deeper in Him. Paul talked about running a race to win, surely, he must have been referring to a marathon rather than a sprint, hence why the word patience features so much in the Bible. This is also backed up with the necessities of going into the wilderness.
Paul in Ephesians 1 talks about our knowing what is the hope of the Lord’s calling, His inheritance for the saints and power (see verses 16-19). In chapter 3 v 14-19 Paul also prays that we will be strengthened by the Lord’s power again as well as Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith as we are to be rooted and established in His love. The latter of which can enable us to appreciate the length, and width, height and depths of His love. All these passages when depended on help us to come through our wilderness
In taking these resources with us, our spiritual provision, we also need to recognise when we are in a wilderness. Unlike the Israelites it is not always a hard, scorching rugged barren landscape but a situation, a challenge or obstacle where we feel isolated and inadequate with no obvious means of support. This could be, spiritual, financial, medical, relational or just personal and even when we are amongst people or appear to many to have everything sorted. It could be a big or small challenge, look at Elijah facing Baal’s prophets and then how he reacted to Jezebel’s threat!
As with last week’s blog when we find ourselves in a wilderness can we feel (and rely on) the love tonight or put another way when in the darkness of the wilderness do, we still believe that God is present through His love for you and I? Or like the Israelites do we go back into the world and develop the idol of separation by depending on our own resources of limited thinking, emotions and feelings?
The spiritual wilderness is one where are to go through, by relying on God to overcome our doubts, our shortcomings and our questions, in short what we think about God, ourselves and our lives to not only live in the promised land of Jesus but to be an effective active part in it as well.
Equally, its not going to be a one-off wilderness that we face, because each time it’s our preparation ground for going deeper, and then deeper again as we increasingly come to depend on God for all our needs and thereby develop our faithfulness. The wilderness’s barrenness brings about a greater holiness, an increasing separation from the world, to where we become more reliant on our holy God to supply all our needs (Phi 4 v 19)
If the wilderness was sufficient for Moses, for Joseph following the abandonment by his brothers or David when he was hunted by both Saul and Absalom along with Daniel in Babylon not to mention John the Baptist and of course Jesus
Then surely it must be appropriate for us.
With all blessings
Tony
PS this blog is normally updated each Monday.