Walking through the desert

We all like happy places, comfortable places. That's why most of us like to be inbetweeners: not cold, but not hot either. Just comfortable. Comfortable 'inbetweeners', neither cold nor hot.

Dry desert

But funny enough, we hardly get to be comfortable in this life; it is all a journey, and never are we static, but always threatened by change. It is like God can't stand this comfortable fluffy existence, so He's always interrupting our otherwise comfortable nap!!!  In this article I invite you to meditate on the walking through the desert season.

Let's remember God's chosen people, the Israelites, who found refuge in Egypt during the seven-year famine that ravished their country. They came to Egypt, the pagan land, for food and comfort, and they flourished there under the leadership of Joseph, who ruled the country with Pharaoh. In the Egyptian prosperity they had forgotten they were chosen for God's good plans. They forgot that they were chosen to reign, so instead they served as slaves. But when they got abused, experiencing the hot Egyptian weather, not wearing linen, nor enjoying refreshments or sunbathing during the weekends, they remembered God and cried out for help. Only when the Egyptians started to hated these immigrants and "worked them ruthlessly" for few centuries, they remembered their divine legacy and cried to God for help. God heard their cries and send Moses to rescue them and bring them to this promised, blessed land.

Then appears Moses, a man with a divine calling, but also a federal fugitive. This man was sought for with murder charges, and was deserving death under the Egyptian law, but God chose to give him life, and life in abundance - making him the leader of Israel. As as his tainted past was not enough, Moses was 80 years old when God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. He was old! He had  spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt learning first from his mother about God and then learning from Pharaoh the skills needed to run Egypt.  The next 40 years he had spent as fugitive, working as a shepherd for a priest in Midian.  There he took care of sheep all day long, and HAD experienced God's refinement. Moses became the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3). Chosen and refined, this old fugitive is the man that God used for His mighty plan - this so clearly shows the heart of God.

So here comes this fugitive whom God gives specific instructions, and the Israelites miraculously get under his leadership and left Egypt. 

No one likes to leave. Not even the slaves. Their hearts broke leaving the known territory for the Big Unknown.  So their freedom starts with leaving Egypt behind. But somehow God did not work His magic like they must have expected it. God did not get them out of Egypt and did not transplanted them in the promised land immediately. There was no instant miracle in that. They had to WALK through DESERT. They were HOT and THIRSTY. They were HUNGRY. They wanted the food they had in Egypt. Walking, step by step, day after day, though foreign territories, with a cloud guiding them, all this started to look insane in their eyes. The longer they walked, the  more things they had to give up and leave behind: heavy gold they must have saved for years, life possessions they relied on, family members they lived for.

Desert season, anyone?

But God was apparently very interested in their walking though the desert.

Are you having a desert time in your life right now? When it is all dry and you are dragging yourself out of breath and strength. When you see nothing else, but blurry clouds of sand in front of you.The Israelites were walking with their feet towards the promised land, but with their hearts away from God. They were walking and complaining, and when they got the food and water they were complaining about, they were not even grateful for it, and didn't like it. They didn't like God's daily provision as they already knew how that provision should have looked like:  Egyptian meals and Egyptian drinks.  The past was still defining them. Well, this walk took 400 years, so the complaining generations all died before reaching the promised land. Their dead faith eventually resulted in their death.

I wonder if we walk though our desert to live, or to die. I wonder if we spend our time complaining, or praising God. I wonder if we complain about what we had to leave behind, or thank God for his daily provision.  God is right and just, and He took care of them though the desert: their shoes did not break, not their clothes tear apart, they all had food to eat and water to drink. But their dead faith did not allow them to see God's provision. They had their own agenda, and couldn't see  God’s. God had a plan for them, but their unbelief prevented it. They persisted in unbelief for 40 years, separating themselves from the promise of God (Romans 11:20,23). Their dead faith dictated their dead end: "According to your faith it will be done to you."(Matth. 9:28-29). Because of unbelief, they did not entered into God's promised Canaan rest (Hebrew 3:19). Because they did not believe and trust in God's deliverance, (Ps. 78:22), they did not get delivered. They all died in the desert, before reaching the promised land. Only the new generation that was not tained by unbelief entered into the promised land. 

For me, this all looked like refinement. God wanted to refine them and make them ready for His promise, but they just not having it. Ever since I got disrupted from my previous life and came here, on the other side of the ocean, I've felt l that I’m walking though the desert myself. Ever since I came, I had reasons to complain and to be bitter on a daily basis, and some sounded so reasonable. The sun did not set in the summer, and I could hardly sleep at all; the sun does not exist in the winter and I can hardly wake up at all. I am a foreign young wife in this very American land, and I am so very aware of it. I did not find a place to belong yet, nor did I make friends like I wanted to.  Shopping can no longer be my therapy for happiness, as I am now accountable to my husband with our money. I am far from the things I loved, and there's not even a coffee place nearby.  I can complain so very well, and sometimes I do. But then I remember God's calling. Then I thank God for my husband and how well he provides, I thank God for the dog that makes some noise keeping me busy and sane, and I  thank God for the time I have to read and cook, and clean the house. 

I choose to let my walk though the desert build a thankful heart in me. A heart that relies on God and waits for His plan. The desert is not forever… From the winter solstice, we started to get some sunlight, and with every tiny sun we have almost each day now, I get happier and happier, knowing that summer is coming. I can see it. The desert is not forever.

New season sign

.Time will come to rejoice, celebrate and help others with their deserts. The sunrises and sunsets I see almost every day talk now talk about the sun who is coming back to us: 
"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race" (Psalm 19:1-5 NLV.

For anyone wanting to hear more about the signs of the new season God is starting in you, please listen to this podcast, it will empower you and skyrocket your faith: Robert Madu podcast (2nd from top of the list down):
http://www.hillsong.co.uk/podcasts/

Please see Israel's journey below:

Israel's journey to Canaan

Now, sister, go and help your sisters with their faith! Believe for them, pray with them, believe, believe with them! Enjoy this beautiful day, sister and...I see you soon!:)


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus

http://biblehub.com/exodus/13-18.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/wilderness-wandering.html

http://www.bibletimelines.net/article/145/available-timelines-sorted-by-category/moses-the-exodus-timeline

http://www.bible-history.com/maps/route_exodus.html

http://www.localhistories.org/bible.html

Beth Moore: Praying God's Word