Wilderness Times
As Christians, we understand that God is always at work leading us to eternal life. It is incredible to know that we have a covenant relationship with the Creator and His hand is upon us. However, what we see in scripture is that life is always a journey, never a straight line to the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 8, the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land, but it’s been a struggle getting there. For the last forty years, they've been forced to live in the wilderness, not knowing what the future held. In the Bible, the wilderness has a significant theological meaning. It represents a time, place, or season of life filled with trials, suffering, and testing. Being in the wilderness often causes us to ask what is God doing? Can trouble, suffering, and sadness really be part of God’s plan for us?
Deuteronomy 8:1-4 says, "Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years."
In this passage, we see that the Lord had a purpose in driving the Israelites into the wilderness. Verse 2 says it was His will to humble them and test them in order to know what was in their hearts. With the hardships, would they still love God? Would they obey him? Verse 3 says he caused their hunger in order to teach them that food can come from anywhere but the truth comes only from God. More than food, we need God's Word. Are you in a wilderness time? Are you going through hardship, suffering, and stress? At times, do you feel like you're being pushed to the edge?
Though we have Jesus, we live in a fallen world. The wilderness is a reality. But, like the Israelites, even in the midst of trials and suffering, we are not forgotten. God does not waste the trials we go through. He has a purpose for us in the wilderness. Maybe He is humbling us, testing what is in our hearts. Maybe He's teaching us to hunger for His Word. Maybe He's calling us to depend on Him and not the world around us. These are often the hardest seasons of life. But it is not meant to be where we stay. It is not God's ultimate place for us. Isaiah 43:19 says, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness, and streams in the wasteland." Beloved, God sees your brokenness, your wandering, your desperation. Call out to Him. Cling to Him. Place your trust in Him. And He will guide you through the wilderness to the place He has promised.
God bless,
Pastor Darren
