Walk Your Way Out of Your Wilderness

Deuteronomy is a book written to instruct the new generation of Israelites emerging from the wilderness.   In Deuteronomy 1:6, God tells His people, “you have dwelt long enough on this mountain:.  The children of Israel had wandered around for almost 38 years searching for the promised land. Now encamped on Mount Horeb, they receive this message.  What does it mean?  Why is it significant?  For 38 years, the blessing of the promised land never manifested.  Day after day, month after month, year after year, nothing but endless wandering came about. Each day ended like the one before it.  Have you ever felt that all your efforts in life were in vain? Have you ever felt like you were spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast?  Though the Bible never actually describes what the children of Israel were thinking and experiencing during this 38 year journey, we can probably guess with accuracy as we could imagine ourselves in their shoes.  It’s not too hard to reenact what was going through their mind.  What we need to do though is look at the “why” of this whole thing.  Why were they experiencing all this?  To answer that question, we would have to turn back the hands of time, to the place this whole story began.

Close your eyes and paint a picture on the canvas of your mind.  The place is Egypt. The circumstance is slavery.  At this time, the children of Israel are slaves.   They are treated inhumanely and cruelty.  Life is hard.  Each day, life is more miserable than the day before.  Like a child screaming for the attention of their mother.  God’s children cry out to Him. Their  cries reach His ears.  His heart feels the pain and agony of His children.  Unbeknownst to His children, God already had a plan and it was about to unfold.  On the scene comes His man, Moses.  With God’s guidance and care, Moses leads the children out of bondage.  God show His power and mighty hand at work, and His children are eyewitnesses as the plot and plan unfolds before their very eyes.  The children are released into the able hand of their leader, Moses.  This is where the plight begins.

As the children make their way out of Egypt, they find that life has dealt them a number of challenges.  They that held them in bondage are now in hot pursuit for their return.  Without hesitation, the children forget all that happen and fear.  God moves, parts the sea, ensures their safe crossing, ensures their enemies’ death and provides for their needs.  They rejoice, but even that is short lived.  Every challenge that arose only brought about fear, doubt, unbelief, discontent and more.  Where was their faith in the God who brought them through the impossible?  Where were the memories?  Had they forgotten already?  Over and over God made a way. Over and over the children responded the same.  But when is enough, enough?  How many times did God have to prove Himself before the children believed, trusted, and had confidence in Him? God draws the ine and their journey begins.

By the time Moses delivers God message to the second generation, the unbelievers have all died off, that is all but Caleb and Joshua.  Moses must teach this new generation God’s commands.  He must show these people how the previous generation erred in their behavior and thinking.  How does He do that?  Moses reenacts the journey; he plays the movie in their minds and as they watch he points out where they went wrong.  Ok, what that have to do with us?

Have you ever felt that you have been stuck at a point in your life for too long?  Do you feel that life is racing by you and still your situation hasn’t changed much?  Well, that’s where the children of Israel were.  They encamped on a mountain waiting for God to take them to the next place, just as we are.  Our mountain is our challenges we face. Just as God led them from the mountain to the promised land, He has to lead us from our situations into our solutions.  Just as the children of Israel had to travel through the great and terrible wilderness, so we have to travel through some very trying times, tests and trials.  How long we stay depends on us. for the children of Israel, their attitudes determined the outcome.  Ten times trials came.  Ten times, they forgot. Ten times they complained, mumbled, grumbled, moaned, groaned, and provoked God to anger.  Finally God drew the line and withheld the promised land from the unbelieving generation.  God in His mercy, allowed the new generation, Joshua and Caleb to receive the covenant promise.  We are no different than the children of Israel.  How many times has God brought us through trying times? How many times has God made a way out of no way?  How many times has God provided, healed, taught, protected, guided, comforted, loved and forgiven us?  Yet at the first sign of trouble we panic, worry, lose faith and more.  We mumble, grumble, complain, moan and groan.  We question and even at times refuse to see past what our human minds can control and rationalize through.  Where is our faith?  Where is our trust?

We control our minds – what enters and what stays.  As long as we rest upon our human side, we have no hope of seeing anything but despair and failure.  We stay in our wilderness place, roaming from place to place in search of the promised land.  We allow the enemy to feed our mind with lies and deception, and we believe.  We allow these lies to take root and ultimately we choose to remain where we are instead of allowing ourselves to walk through the storm to the promise.  Are you wandering in the wilderness of life bogged down with fear, doubt, and unbelief?  Has your way of thinking kept you from being led into the promised land?  Every man has a choice of what to feed their mind. Will your choice be to walk out of your wilderness? Take the chance.  Allow God to lead you into all He promised, that is, your promised land.

Tags: Attitudes, Bible, bondage, Caleb, confidence, Deuteronomy, Egypt, God, God's mercy, Israelites, Joshua, Mount Horeb, promised land, Trust, trust in God, wilderness