IN THE WILDERNESS
“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
There
are many references throughout scripture to a place called simply “the wilderness.” Some of those references are to a literal
place of desolation such as the wilderness of Sinai where God led the
Israelites after they were delivered from Egypt, or the wilderness where Jesus
was led by the Spirit to be tempted after He was baptized. Other references to the wilderness seem to
indicate a more figurative place where God’s children are led to be proven and
their faith to be tried. It is apparent by
all these references, though, that God draws all believers into a “wilderness
place” so that they can learn to trust Him no matter what circumstances life
may bring them.
In
1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul draws a comparison between the Christians of his
time and the Israelites of old. He says
that the lessons and experiences that they had in the wilderness were “our examples” and were “written for our admonition.” The comparison Paul uses is just as applicable
to modern day believers as it is to those of the first century.
Paul
wrote that the Jews were all “under the
cloud,” referring to the pillar of cloud that was always present in their
camp after they left left Egypt. They
could rely on the cloud to lead them to wherever God intended them to go. Just the presence of the cloud hovering over
the tabernacle brought the Israelites comfort because it was evidence that God
was with them and was leading them. During
the daytime, it would be a great pillar of cloud, and at night, it was a pillar
of fire that illuminated their way. This
corresponds to the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to every believer that loves
Him. The Spirit comforts us and guides our
way through life’s wilderness, reminding us that He is always with us, even to
the end of the world.
Paul
also wrote that the Jews all “passed
through the sea.” This, of course,
is referring to the Red Sea crossing. It
was there that they faced certain death – in fact, they passed through death - but miraculously passed over
alive and whole because of the miracle that God worked in dividing the sea for
them. Paul is comparing this to
Christian baptism in which believers pass through death to new life in Christ Jesus
(Romans 6:3-5).
Finally,
Paul refers to the Israelites eating “spiritual
meat” and drinking “spiritual drink” as
they wandered in the wilderness and that these things were what sustained them
as they wandered. He is very clear when
he writes, “…for they drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ.” This
comparison is very easy because Jesus refers to Himself as both the “true bread from heaven [or manna]” and “the living water.”
Despite
all of these advantages that the Jews had under Moses, Paul writes that God was
not pleased with many of them because they were “overthrown in the
wilderness.” His inference is that though we modern day Christians
have been saved, baptized, led by the Spirit, and have been partakers of
Christ, we can still be overthrown in the wilderness if we are careless. Paul writes that “…all these things happened unto them for [examples]: and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
(1 Corinthians 10:11, 12). There are
many lessons that we must learn as children of God, and those lessons can only
be learned in the wilderness.
God
made it plain to the Israelites what the purpose of the wilderness was. He said, “…thou
shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in
the wilderness, to humble thee, and
to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His
commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee
to hunger, and fed thee with 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 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man
live…Thou shalt also consider
in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God
chasteneth thee. Therefore thou
shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to
fear Him.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-6). The
wilderness is a place that does not easily support life. We are stripped of the things that we can
normally depend on for survival. It’s
there that we learn to rely, not on our natural strengths or on the help of man,
but on God Who supplies our every
need. The wilderness teaches us that we
can’t function in the same way that we have become accustomed to all our
life. That old life doesn’t work in the
wilderness. The rules have all
changed. Foolishness becomes wisdom,
weakness becomes strength, and death becomes new life! We find that it is the Word of God – the
heavenly Manna – that sustains us in the wilderness. It is there that His Word comforts and
nourishes us in ways that we have not known before. Faith becomes the key commodity that
determines whether we survive or not.
This is the place also where we pass under the rod of God’s discipline
and He proves His love for us through chastening.
In
the wilderness, we may be tempted in ways that we are not used to under normal
circumstances, and many of our faults may become more sharply focused. Don’t despair. God has us right where He wants us! Yes, our world may change in the wilderness,
but God has not! He intends to “humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what
[is] in thine heart, whether thou [will] keep His commandments, or no.” This is a time to trust in the Lord for
every need and learn to let go of all self-reliance and self-centeredness. This is a time to make our home our
tabernacle and learn to worship God in spirit and in truth. The message is clear and the messenger is sounding
forth the call! “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3).
God
spoke through the Prophet Isaiah and said, “Behold,
I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19). The “new
thing” that God wants to do is to turn this time of apparent drought and
desolation into a place of flowing rivers and fruitful fields. “Then
shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break
out, and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:6). It is here that God can teach us that His
grace really is sufficient and that His strength is perfected through our
weakness. It is here where we can learn
that faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
Ezekiel
also spoke of the necessity of the wilderness when he said, “And I will bring you into the wilderness of
the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the
wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord
GOD. And I will cause you to pass under
the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant: and I will purge
out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me.”
(Ezekiel 20:35-38). You don’t have to be
in a church or a formal tabernacle only for God to speak to you or to change
your nature. God wants to speak to you
in the sanctuary of your home and the tabernacle of your heart. He is a personal God, and He wants to speak
to us in a personal way, even “face to
face.”
It
is a rare opportunity that we have to focus on the Creator of the universe and
what He has called us to do. As we draw
near to Him, His Holy Spirit can begin to speak to us in new ways and direct us
into new opportunities for ministry and witness. He can open our eyes to the needs of others
around us.
Today,
as I was hauling trash out to the curb I saw my neighbor come out on his front
porch and I waved and said “hi” to
him. He just lost his dad last year and
has been caring for his mom who is 88 for a few years and I know it has been a
challenge for him. As we began to talk,
he told me how difficult it has been for him and how his siblings have been of
little help. He is unsaved and once led
a very rough life having been in and out of prison. After unpacking his frustrations and
complaints for a while he told me that his mom (who is a believer) tells him
that she prays for him every time that he goes out so that he stays protected
from harm. She tells him that she prays
the blood of Jesus over him and that God will protect both of them. I told him what a wonderful thing that is
that his mother loves him so much to pray for him like that, and then I asked
him if he knew where the idea of praying the blood came from. He looked unsure so I proceeded to tell him
about the angel of death, the Passover lamb that was without spot, and the
shedding of its blood to save those who believed from the plague of death in
Egypt. I told him how that God had said,
“When I see the blood, I will pass over
you.” Then I shared with him about Jesus the Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. I told him that
God loves the world so much that He sacrificed His own Son so that we all could
be saved by His blood, and I told him that if he were the only soul alive that
God would have still given His Son for him because He loved him that much. There were many other things that the Lord
gave me to share with him and he was very attentive to it all. I was thankful for this opportunity and
marveled how God opens doors for us where it appears none exist. This is not the first chance I have had to
witness to my neighbor, but God is faithful to water the seeds that have been sown
in his heart over the years by his mother and by others. I am confident that God will nurture those
precious seeds and one day they will break forth into new life! The words that I shared may have been for
him, but it also watered my spirit and encouraged me as well!
The
wilderness may be a difficult place, but it is a place of spiritual growth
where we begin to see God move in miraculous ways in our lives. Though we are tempted and tried, at the same
time we are encouraged and enriched by God’s promises. Paul writes, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to
bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).
Peter also tells us, “Whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter
1:4). As we embrace and trust what God
is doing right now, our faith will grow and we will be transformed.
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