Hearts Of Stone Series

[Note: The theme for this Lenten series is "stone." I have stones at the church and each week the people are asked to pick up a stone and hold it during the service and then place it at the foot of a wooden cross placed at the front of the sanctuary. Each stone has a meaning. On the Easter, the stones are gone and we do a blooming cross.]

When God liberated the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, He didn’t just dump them in the wilderness, point them towards the Northeast and say, “The Promised Land is that way. Good luck. I hope you make it.” No. He parted the Red Sea and went with them, leading them in a pillar of cloud during the day and column of fire and lightening at night. When they came to Marah, the Lord entered to a covenant with them: “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give heed to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the LORD who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). Heal them Exodus from what? Well, four hundred years of servitude. Plus they had just witnessed God’s power crush the most powerful people in that region, culminating in the death of every Egyptians’ eldest son and God wants to reassure them what they saw Him do to the Egyptians He would never do to them. Having God on their side had to be pretty reassuring but … they saw what God could do if He were, shall we say, displeased or angry with them.

God took advantage of the time that they would spend in the wilderness to begin building a relationship with them. When the people began to run out of food, God rained bread down from Heaven. Each day the people were to go out and gather enough for that day. “In that way,” said God, “I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not” (Exodus 16:4). Sounds a bit scary, doesn’t it? God testing them? But it is important to remember that God doesn’t want to see them fail. He wants them to trust Him, to have faith in Him because they are going to need to trust Him and have faith in Him if they are going to make it to the Promised Land. Plus, a lasting relationship must start on the basis of trust and faith, right? A relationship based on fear and distrust isn’t going to last very long unless it changes, amen? God doesn’t want that kind of relationship. He wants the Israelites to know that they can trust and depend on Him because He loves them. “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God” (Exodus 16:12). We hear it all the time, but let that sink in: “I am the Lord YOUR God” (Exodus 16:12; emphasis added). Whose God? OUR God. YOUR God.

We have to remember that all this was new for the Israelites. For four hundred years they’ve lived in a pagan land that worshipped many gods. For four hundred years it seemed like God had turned His back on them, was ignoring their prayers, or off somewhere in the universe doing God things and was either too busy or too unaware of what was happening to them. What we see in the wilderness is God attempting to build a relationship with the Israelites.

Stay with me now because what I’m about to talk about is, in fact, related to what is happening to the people in the wilderness. When you meet that person who you think might be that “special someone” you date, right? The point of dating is to get to know each other. It may start out with general conversation … favorite food, favorite music, favorite movie. At the same time, you’re seeing how well you get along. Is this person nice? Kind? Funny? Considerate? Punctual? Do they measure up to the standards that you have for a possible husband or wife? Are they for real or just putting up a front to get what they want and then disappear after they get it? As time goes on, you get to know more and more about each other and, eventually, you reach a point where you feel that you can trust this person. You decide that you want to build a future with them, they feel that they can trust you and want to build a future with you, and you both decide to enter into a marriage covenant.

When a couple decides to enter into a marriage covenant, they make certain promises to each other, don’t they? The husband promises to love his wife, to honor her and cherish her, to take care of her until death … and hopefully beyond … and the wife pledges to do the same. These vows are not made so that the husband can control or dominate the wife. Nor are they made so that the wife can control and dominate her husband. The conditions of the marriage are expressions and promises of love. There are certain things that the husband promises to do because he loves his wife and there are certain things that the wife promises to do because she loves her husband … and this is what God is attempting to establish with the Israelites in the wilderness. He makes certain promises to the Israelites and asks them to make certain promises to Him and the goal of the promises is to create an environment where their love and faith and trust of each other can flourish and grow.