In The Wandering--Part 3

This week we are reflecting on the challenges and blessings of wilderness seasons in our lives.  Identifying the challenges comes easy...finding the blessing in it sometimes takes a while longer.  

  

Years of wandering will mess with your mind a little if you don’t keep your eyes on the Lord.  We see this happening to the Israelites when they begin to grumble against God despite the fact that He miraculously provided for them time and time again.    Remember Psalm 78:19?  “They spoke against God, saying ‘Can God really provide a table in the wilderness?’”   The Psalmist is describing the attitude of the Israelite people even AFTER they had been given manna in the desert, quail so numerous that they feasted and were full, and even water from the rock.  (Exodus 16) It had been two and a half years since they had been rescued from slavery in Egypt, and God had already provided everything that they needed to survive their wilderness season.  But in their wandering, their weariness eventually overshadowed their awe of what God had done to bring them to this place on their journey.   Extraordinary wonders were revealed time and time again in the desert, but still their stomachs growled for more.   As the months passed, their miraculous manna became so routine that they grew cold to the  power of God’s provision.  Their “god was their stomach” and they were bored of eating the same thing over and over again.  

Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!” Numbers 11:4-6

Now that they were in a new type of distress, the Israelite people romanticized the past and minimized its discomforts.  The memory of their terrible bondage in Egypt had somehow faded in the midst of a different suffering.   They had put themselves and their desires in the place of honor at the table in the wilderness.  

Jesus warned about this attitude in Matthew 23:  “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:  ^“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees…do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach… they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the       synagogues.’”   The world often tempts us to put ourselves in the seat of honor, where our desires reign as king. 

 However, the problem is that when we ignore God’s work on our journey and instead desire more, it generally does not end well.  For the Israelites, we know their fate:  God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.  (1 Corinthians 10:5)  Because they slandered God and demanded their own way, they were not allowed to enter the promised land.  The entire group of Israelites paid the price for the foolishness of a few, and wandered for 40 years until that grumbling generation died off.   We have already established that God intentionally sends us into wilderness seasons to humble us and reveal himself to us.  However, we can learn from the example of the Israelites that how long we end up staying in the wilderness can depend on how we respond to it. 

So, back to the Israelites’ question:  CAN God prepare a table in the wilderness?  The answer, of course, is YES.  God had already provided them good things in the wilderness, even though they were stiff-necked and rebellious people.  Ultimately they paid the consequence for rejecting His way:   as it says in 1 Corinthians 10:21, “You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”

So, here we see two distinct and very different tables:  the table of the Lord and the table of demons.  Eventually, in our wandering through the wilderness seasons of life, we will have to sit down somewhere. 

As the Israelites demonstrated, at the demon’s table, we are tempted to demand our own way and to crave more and more.  We put ourselves in the seat of honor, and are discontent with anything less.    Unfortunately, too many guests at the demon’s table may even decide to return to the past bondage of slavery because it just looks so good in comparison to the current wilderness season. 

However, at the Lord’s table, He alone is exalted.  He alone sits in the place of honor.    But because He loves us, He extends an invitation for us to join Him at the table, and to feast on His goodness.  Even in the wilderness, the blessing comes in simply being near to Him.  At this banquet, He wants us to come just as we are. 

So, where are you in this moment? 

Are you looking back on a season of life when you walked through this wilderness, and can now see how God brought you through?  You certainly wouldn't ask to be back in that dry, barren land again, but still you can see all the ways that He provided for you.  Hindsight is always 20/20, and it’s easy to look back and see how God had been at work, even if we weren’t aware of it in the midst of the wandering and suffering.

However, maybe you’re in the driest season of your life and you can't find God at work anywhere.  All you see is sand in front of you, sand behind you, and sand on both sides.  Maybe you’re starting to question if God really can set a table of good things before you. 

The truth is that wilderness seasons will either drive you TOWARDS God or AWAY from God.  When you again find that this world does not satisfy, you have a choice to make.  At which table will you be seated? 

Therefore, this is what I will do:

I will block her way with thorns;

I will enclose her with a wall,

so that she cannot find her paths.

Therefore, I am going to persuade her,

lead her to the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

Hosea 2:6,14