top of page

Lord of the Wilderness

writertaboland

I had a bad day. And it snowballed. Sometimes, life is hard. We can thank Disney and Hallmark for convincing us that life isn’t going to be hard. Then emotions climbed on board and that snowball became a freight train.


I found myself questioning life choices and telling myself its only hard because I made decisions that changed my life. I should have stayed where I was. When I got the emotional monkey off my back and brought the freight train to a stop, I could see how far from the truth I had traveled. I am thankful for my life and the journey and the struggle and the hardness of it all. It has changed me.


Having recently read the biblical story of the exodus (found in Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), I began to think of the Israelites in the Old Testament. (Cue the soundtrack for the motion picture “The Ten Commandments” 1956). The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. It was a brutal life. God sent Charlton Heston (AKA Moses) to lead them out of slavery. God performed many miraculous signs so that the Israelites would believe in Him as the one, true, God; plagues, parting the Red Sea, water from a rock, manna from heaven for food, among others. Yet, how is it that the Israelites, now walking in freedom, wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt?


“We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:4).


In Egypt, they lived an oppressed life where every moment of their day was determined by someone else. Now they must make their own decisions and stand on their own convictions. In Egypt, they weren’t fed much or treated well. But they knew what hardship to expect when they got up in the morning. In the wilderness, they didn’t know what new hardship lie just over the next mountain. This is a true case of preferring to deal with the “devil” they knew instead of the “angel” they didn’t know.


God told Moses “I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:17 NLT). Maybe the Israelites found it hard to believe that they would be given a magical, mystical kingdom with abundant food sources. All they knew was the hardship of Egypt and the hardship of wandering around a wilderness. Maybe this is what caused them to think of going back to Egypt.


I suspect that the problem ran deeper than that. God communicated a lot with the Israelites through Moses and his brother, Aaron, with regular instructions on how to live and how to get along with Him. God performed miraculous signs so that the Israelites could see His power and ability. But many of the Israelites still clung to Egyptian gods that they brought with them into the wilderness. The problem wasn’t that they refused to believe in a magical kingdom flowing with milk and honey. The problem was that they refused to believe in God and what He can do.


They didn’t know where they were or have GPS coordinates to the promised land. But they weren’t lost in their wilderness. The Lord went ahead of them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead the way (Ex 13:21). They came to bitter water and didn’t have a food source but they didn’t starve or die of thirst. God provided fresh water from a rock and bird and bread from heaven. Even though God was before them, behind them, and beside them, the Israelites couldn’t see Him because of their unbelief.


I am feeling very ashamed of my unbelief this week. God has been before me, behind me, and beside me in my own wilderness and I haven’t been able to see it. If I don’t make it to the promised land in my timeline, I whine and want to go back to Egypt. Maybe it’s not as important to believe in a place or ministry goal or a miracle that I am hoping for tomorrow as it is to believe in the God who is right beside me, leading and providing for me today.


I knew a preacher years ago who would frequently say, “Jesus is either Lord of all, or He’s not Lord at all”. If Jesus is Lord of all, that means He is Lord of my brokenness and weakness. He is Lord of my confusion and weariness. He is Lord of my high and holy moments and my low and lonely moments. And Jesus is Lord of my wilderness. He is before me, behind me, and beside me, leading the way and providing. I am not lost in my wilderness. I am being led to the promised land that I can’t yet see.

May God grant me the courage and faith to repent of unbelief and follow faithfully the path where He leads.


“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” Exodus 15:11-13







Copyright @ TA Boland 2021

Photo credit: google photos

17 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


Post: Blog2_Post

Subscribe Form

Thanks for submitting!

©2020 by The Little Things. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page