When walking with God, the going isn't always smooth.
When you give your life to God, you may very well find yourself in the midst of a vast wilderness. This was the experience of the Israelites. After they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and passed through the Red Sea by walking on dry ground, and
watched God hurl Pharaoh's formidable army into the great depths, they found themselves in the midst of a vast wilderness.
A desert wasteland stood between them and the promised land of Canaan. And in that wilderness they came face to face with bitterness, disease, hunger, thirst, and danger. This wasn't exactly what they had hoped to experience.
Earlier in Exodus 13:21-22 (NIV) we're told how, "By day the Lord went ahead of them (the Israelites) in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so they could travel by day or by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day
nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people."
At first, the Israelites were exhilarated to feel the presence of God.
What an exhilarating experience to feel the presence of God! What must it have been like to see his glory manifested so visibly and powerfully and undeniably on the earth! As detailed in Exodus 14, by this same power God delivers the whole Israelite nation from death. In Exodus 15 Moses
and the Israelites sing songs of deliverance. In Exodus 15:21 (NIV) Aaron's sister Miriam, and all the women following her, break out the tambourines and begin dancing and shouting. "Sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."
There are few highs as high as when you first begin to follow God. You turn away from your old life. You pass through the waters of baptism. The assembly of God are lifting their hands in praise for the mighty work God has done, and is doing. There is great singing and rejoicing. The choirs of angels in heaven are singing, and the presence of God is manifest among his people.
In Exodus 15:2 (NIV) Moses sings, "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him." In Exodus 15:11 (NIV) he sings, "Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you-- majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?" In Exodus 15:18 (NIV) he sings, "The Lord will reign for ever and ever!"
This is pure, unadulterated jubilation! But then comes the pain, and physicality, and hardship of the wilderness.
In the wilderness, the Israelites tasted "bitterness."
For three days they traveled without finding water. If we go just a few hours without water, we panic. Imagine three days without water! When they finally discover water, it was bitter. Talk about becoming angered! Bitterness is a form of grieving. It's realizing that something good has become defiled, tainted, or soiled. It's realizing that something good is no longer usable, and needs to be redeemed.
God wants us to set our affections on holy things, but our hearts keep turning to lust and greed. Our minds keep focusing on that which is worthless and vile. Our mouths spew unholy words. Can God redeem our heart, mind, and body?
God created man and woman to live in holy union as husband and wife, to keep the marriage bed pure, and to bear godly offspring. Yet our marriages lay in ruin, we've defiled ourselves sexually, our kids have become jaded, or those we love have turned from God. Can God redeem these relationships?
Bitterness is realizing that everything that should be refreshing, holy, good, and life-giving in our lives isn't as it should be. We want our lives to be good, as God intended, but instead our lives have a bitter aftertaste. The Israelites cried out to the Lord, "Make this bitter water become sweet." Maybe that is what you have been praying lately.
In the wilderness, the Israelites feared "disease."
There are a number of examples in Genesis where entire households became inflicted with a disease as a direct result of immorality. When the Bible says in Romans 6:23 (NIV), "...the wages of sin is death," that isn't just spiritually true, it is physically true too. Sin exposes us to sickness and disease.
In the wilderness, the Israelites were concerned whether God would grant them physical healing, or whether they'd be subject to the same punishment, suffering, or death as their Egyptian oppressors. See Exodus 15:26. A lot of believers wonder this same thing. Now that I am a Christian, should I pray for healing? Should I resign myself to my fate? Should I wonder whether God will inflict some disease on me for my past sins?
I just saw an article written by prominent pastor who got cancer. Heis a pastor who's inspired faith in thousands of people. Yet he found himself wrestling with God's purpose and plan. "Why am I sick? Why do I have cancer? Why this pain?"
In the wilderness, the Israelites experienced "want."
We always assume that God's will for our life is abundance and overflow. In reality, more often than not, abundance kills our faith in God. In Egypt, the Israelites had homes, warm beds, all the bread they wanted, pots of meat, and security. But in their abundance, they forgot about God.
In the wilderness, God's will was for the Israelites to learn dependence. No more pots of meat. No more stuffed cupboards, fridges, freezers, deep freezes, and pantries. God only provided what they needed on a daily basis. Just enough manna for a day, not for a week and not for a month, but for one day. And if they tried to gather up manna for more than a day's need, it became infested with maggots.
Think about it. If in your abundance and pride you've spent your whole life being self-sufficient, one of the first things God will teach you is dependence. Some of us Americans have a pretty big learning curve in this regard! What does it look like to depend on God daily for our needs?
In the wilderness, the Israelites experienced "thirst."
When we talk about thirst, we are talking about physical thirst. It's hard to estimate how many Israelites there were. Some think there were as many as a million people, including men, women, and children. Plus they had livestock. Springfield is nowhere near a million people in size, yet look how big Lake Springfield is! Some would like to see a second lake! Now imagine looking for a water supply for that many people in a desert! If thirsty enough, most any of us would kill for water. The Israelites threatened to stone Moses when they couldn't find water. Yes, our compulsion to live is that strong! But in the New Testament, it's the living water, the Holy Spirit, that we are taught that we should most crave.
In the wilderness, the Israelites experienced "danger."
In Exodus 17 the Amalekites threatened the Israelites. So Moses instructed Joshua to assemble some fighting men to go out and defeat the threat. But depending on their own strength, the threat was too great for them to overcome. As they fought, Moses went with Aaron and another man up on top of a mountain to pray for the battle victory. As long as Moses raised his hands in prayer, the Israelites gained victory. But when he lowered his arms from fatigue, the Amalekites grew stronger.
In the wilderness, God was testing the Israelites.
As it stood, God was testing the Israelites in the wilderness. He was strengthening their faith.
When the Israelites cried out to God because of the bitterness of their water, the Lord showed Moses a piece of wood. If that wood was cast into the water, it made the water become sweet. See Exodus 15:25.
It's hard to imagine a piece of wood purifying much of anything, except when you consider the cross. The tree, the wooden cross, upon which Christ died, has to redeem us from the cursed life of sin we once chose for ourselves. The cross is powerful to redeem the most bitter thoughts, the most bitter marriages, the most bitter children, the most bitter mouth, and the most bitter soul. The cross of Christ is powerful to turn bitter things into sweet things. But the bitterness only leaves if you take up the cross.
When the Israelites feared death and disease, do you know what God told them? In Exodus 15:26 (NIV) he promised, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."
If sin leads to death, then does holiness lead to life?
Let me ask you a question. If sin leads to death, is it then possible that holiness leads to life? You bet it is! And don't you think that if God was healer then, he is just as much healer today? Holiness isn't just about eternal life, or about your spiritual life. It's also about your physical life, your very health and well-being. The journey toward healing doesn't begin in the afterlife, it begins right now. God wants us to trust him as healer!
When the Israelites found themselves in want, God deprogrammed them, in order to teach them to depend upon God for they needed. There is a difference between wants and needs. Have you noticed how we keep redefining what we need? What do we really need for life and happiness? Do we need pots of meat? Do we really need homes, cars, cell phones, clothes, trinkets, and all the things we accumulate?
Most of our worrying isn't about things we need. It's about the things we want. It's actually just as Jesus says in Matthew 6:31-33 (NIV). "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Physical needs tend to point people to God.
God wants us to trust him with our needs. Abundance isn't the remedy to your needs. Faith is. In fact, you will notice while in the wilderness that the physicality of all these needs served a higher purpose of pointing people to God.
We see this in John 4 when a Samaritan woman comes out to draw water. Jesus asks her for a drink and says to her in John 4:10 (NIV), "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
We also see this in John 15:5-7 (NIV) where Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."
In the wilderness, the Israelites would learn to depend on God in everything-- for redemption, for food, for water, for their physical needs, for their physical healing, and for their protection. Interestingly enough, Jesus, upon his baptism, also entered the wilderness. And in the wilderness Jesus taught us this simple truth. "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" Matthew 4:4 (NIV)