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Most of will know of the Israelites and the time they spent in the wilderness on their way to the promised land.
Geographically, the distance between Horeb and Kadesh Barnea (on the border of the Promised Land) is an 11 day journey by foot. Given the fact that they had children and the elderly with them, lets be generous and allow them two weeks to make the trip.
So why they did they stay in the wilderness for 40 years?
Simple, like all humans they didn’t believe in or accept the promises of God because they had not yet been delivered to them.
In the wilderness they escaped through the Red Sea miraculously, they were given the law, manna fell from heaven and they even experienced God in smoke and fire.
Yet despite all of this, they were so focused on their wilderness experience that they could not believe that God was going to keep his promise. These daily miracles to keep them going were not enough proof that God was good and would keep His promise.
A few millennia on, and not a whole lot as changed with the human race. Seeing is still believing and as a result we still spend more time in the wilderness than we should.
Like the Israelites we focus on the promise and not on what God want for us in the moment.
You see the promises of deliverance from our particular wildernesses are not without cost. Yet as humans we want the reward without the cost. This is not how it works. This is not the purpose of a wilderness.
Wilderness is not a barren place that we have to endure until it finally comes to an end. Wilderness is the most fertile place in our lives. Weird statement I know. I will explain.
The wilderness is our learning ground. It is the place in our lives where God teaches us. Moreover, it is the place where he teaches us the important stuff. Things like faith, wisdom, joy, peace, patience and anything else that he thinks we need before we can move into His promises.
Unfortunately, with our eyes fixed on the promise and not on the moment, we act like petulant children and continue in our wilderness for longer than we need to. We want the promise but don’t want to change in order to move into it and we certainly don’t want to trust that God will deliver.
We all have wilderness in our lives. If you want an exit strategy, seek God on what he wants you to learn. Stop looking at it with human eyes and look at it with spiritual eyes. The “upside down” world of God looks at wilderness as opportunity to grow closer to Him, to learn that which he wants us to.
Paul’s considered his trials as “pure joy” for this very reason. God was working in his life in his rather extended wilderness and he was wise enough to see God in it.
Moreover, his priorities were such that he was grateful for it. God was teaching him. Paul recognised the importance of that as being far greater than the trivial things his flesh desired.
Wilderness is tough. But as Christians we need to be equipped to rise above the tough bits and learn why God has us there. Otherwise it could be a long stay in the wilderness.
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