Blessing in the desert.
If you were travelling from Egypt to Palestine and you wanted to get there guided by google maps you wouldn’t go through the wilderness of Sinai. Sinai is 200 miles out of the way and when you are travelling with a whole nation it would seem strange doing such a major detour. But here we are not dealing with flight Centre - God is the travel agent. (idea from John Piper.)When you travel with God you often go into places that you never dreamed of – you often go places you would not only not have planned for yourself but also you didn’t want to go.
Just as Joseph didn’t want to go to Egypt via a kidnapping and a prison cell so often we, as Christians find ourselves getting into positions via strange and sometimes difficult situations.
Recently I met a person whose Father managed a facility where a young boy drowned many years ago.
It bought the Father into the wilderness and out of that wilderness he and his family turned to God and they have followed him ever since.
Where has God taken you where you didn’t want to go?
Do you question where God has taken you?
The Israelites did they felt very deeply that God had inspired Moses to lead them into the Wilderness onto Sinai - to perish – But Psalm 78 says
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
When the people of Israel came to Sinai they met with God and received his law so that they would learn to trust in God.
We can often feel that God has lead us to the wrong place through the most difficult experiences for no good reasons.
But although you find yourself in difficult places it is those places where you encounter God’s blessing.
Zechariah 4:10New Living Translation (NLT)
10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
Sinai is a day of small beginnings – God is going to make of Israel a great nation but here camped at the bottom of a Holy mountain something great is stirring –
If the people will only trust God in the wilderness great things are going to happen.
More than this on this incredible detour they come close to the presence of God – He reveals His presence to them.
Exodus chapter 19 The Lord Visits Sinai
17And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. 19When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.…
New American Standard Bible
They have already encountered God in Egypt but here they get a glimpse of the grandeur and the beauty of God and it is often in the wilderness moments of life that we get a glimpse of how great God really is.
When Jesus was in the wilderness with a vast crowd there was a problem – always in the wilderness there are challenges – that is why it is called the wilderness – John chapter 6
3Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.
4The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”
6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,
9“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).
11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Look at the pattern – Faith in God leads the people into the wilderness – a real need emerges – God provides for their need.
The lesson I get from the wilderness experience is that God does not take us there to perish, although it might feel like it – He always provides for our needs. He did for Israel with Moses – He did through Jesus in Palestine and he will for you in your situation.
When you think you are in danger or have a lack in the wilderness remember who bought you to this place – He will provide for your every need – even here.
1.Next time you are in a difficult wilderness situation – remember him who bought you here and trust him.
Secondly – When you are in a wilderness situation – get ready to hear and recognise these words that God will speak into your life when you get most comfortable.
(Deuteronomy 1:6-7).
Deuteronomy 1:1-8
When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God said to us, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on”
In his book Seize the Day, Danny Cox, a former jet pilot turned business leader, explained why pilots needed a new ejection system. In the former system, when pilots initiated ejection, all they needed to do was clear the plane and roll forward out of the seat. During testing, however, the pilots wouldn’t let go of the seat during the process. The engineers came up with a solution. Two seconds after ejection commenced, an electronic take-up reel would immediately take up the slack and force the pilot forward out of his seat—freeing the parachute.
Just as pilots need to be forced out of their seats, God had to move Moses and the people of Israel from Mt. Sinai. After almost a year at the mountain (Exodus 19:1; Numbers 10:11-12), it’s likely they had become a bit comfortable there. God commanded Moses to break camp and move on (Deuteronomy 1:7). They would take the shortest and straightest route, and the path wasn’t going to be easy.
It was time to enter the land of those who were considered skilled and feared warriors—risking the lives of all as they followed God’s will. Though this would be dangerous, it was all part of God’s perfect plan. It was time For Moses to break camp and move on and lead His people into “the land the LORD swore to give to [his] ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants” (Deuteronomy 1:8).
It’s so easy to hold on to our seats and become comfortable where we are. That’s when God has to force us out of them, cause us to break camp, and move us to the future He has for us. He calls us to leave the comfortable, be open to change, take faith steps, and trust Him in the face of the unknown.
God led his people
Raphael Magenene from Zimbabwe says
People have built their own camps, Declared that I am here to stay for good. Its time you break that camp and advance. It’s only in marriage you have to stay for good. The word advance is usually and mostly used in military situations . Whenever the commander shouts advance that means a lot to a soldier. It means attack new targets; start to move, if moving move actively and seriously. The scripture above talks about the places of the Amorites, Arabah etc. These were thorns in the flesh of the Israelites. There were enemies and unwanted people before God. There are certain things in your life today which are stumbling blocks to your success, previous accomplishment which is blinding you not to see more, troubles and problems which need to be attacked but you are enjoying the status quo. Some only think of eating good food, exercising and avoiding harmful foods when the doctor advises them. It’s a fatal camp you are in if you are like that. How long have you been doing what you are doing? How long have been like what you are today? You have been doing the same things, walking the same route, saying the same things and you are surprised why you are not changing. How can you change if you haven’t advanced? Break that same old pattern, that same old thinking, that camp and advance. Some have been giving the same amount of money to God, needy, orphans, praying for the same way, singing the same way, living the same old life and get disappointed why God is not changing or hearing them like we always say. You have stayed long enough like that my friend you need to advance. You need double your activity and productivity. You need to multiply seven fold your effort to take possession of your victory.
Break camp!
By the way - Perhaps the lesson for us as Christians today is this: that God’s wisdom will not lead us where his grace cannot keep us. Faith can firmly trust him, come what may!
Thirdly – When God leads us by His Spirit we can not dare stay in our place of comfort – in the wilderness. The Spirit leads us by Fire at night and cloud by day.
I was observing two kinds of people that Jesus encounters in the wilderness in the Bible – A demoniac who is naked and cuts himself with stones – and John the Baptist a Godly man whom God has lead into the wildrness to sharpen and shape him for the ministry he is called to. We note that the wilderness is a Godly place but we also need to note it can be the place of lunatics as well.
When you are lead by the Holy Spirit into new adventures of faith it is God who protects and guides you. Imagine the hot days we have had recently – being blocked out by the cloud of God or the cold nights of the soul being warmed up by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Chris Lee of Eastside Baptist church writes
The pillar of fire and cloud was supernatural. It was the presence of God with his people. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in our lives.
When God calls you to move then, you need to move. Charles Dickens’ pitiful character in Great Expectations, Miss Havisham, was a person who was never able to overcome her painful memories. Miss Havisham experienced the trauma of being jilted on her wedding day. Her fiancee left her waiting at the altar.
On that day Miss Havisham’s life stopped. The clocks in her house stopped. Her wedding cake was decorated with cobwebs. And Miss Havisham never recovered because she couldn’t keep from looking back. She resigned herself to living in a past so painfully filled with memories that she couldn’t change.
She never recognised that the Spirit of God was leading her on and there are many people just like that rooted in the past by past traumas. Sometimes we just park where we shouldn’t and don’t move on even though God has called us on that too is dangerous.
For 43 years Zinaida Bragantsova had been telling people there was a World War II bomb buried under her bed.
The story began in 1941 when the Germans advanced toward the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk. One night at the very start of the war, she was sitting by the window and sewing on her machine. Suddenly a noise was heard and a whistling close by. She got up and in the following moment was struck by a blast of wind. When she came to, the sewing machine was gone and there was a hole in the floor as well as in the ceiling.
Zinaida couldn't get any officials to check out her story, so she just moved her bed over the hole and lived with it;for the next 40 years. Finally, the woman's problem was uncovered. As phone cable was being laid in the area, demolition experts were called in to probe for buried explosives. "Where's your bomb, grandma?" asked the smiling army lieutenant sent to talk to Mrs. Bragantsova. "No doubt, under your bed?"
"Under my bed," Mrs. Bragantsova answered dryly.
And sure enough, there they found a 500-pound bomb. After evacuating 2,000 people from surrounding buildings, the bomb squad detonated the bomb. According to the report, "The grandmother, freed of her bomb, will soon receive a new apartment."
Many people live like that grandmother, with a bomb under the bed ;a terrible secret, a great hurt, a seething anger that lays there for years while everyone goes on about their business. No one is safe until it's removed.
Lee Eclov, Lake Forest, Illinois; from Associated Press (November 1984)
Don’t live in that place let the Spirit of God move you on.
Such a [erson who moved by the Spirit was Robert Moffat missionary to South Africa in the early 19th century.
I wonder if you can see the principles of Psalm 78 in this story:-
Robert Moffat reached Cape Town, South Africa, January 13, 1817. After eight months devoted to language study he set out for the interior. On the way he stopped one night in the comfortable home of a Dutch or Boer farmer.
His new friends were alarmed to learn that he planned to go to the kraal of Africaner, the most feared and hated man in all South Africa. "I understand," said Robert, "that Africaner has come in contact with some missionaries and is not as ferocious as he used to be." But his host would not believe a word of it.
"Africaner will set you up as a mark for his men to shoot at!" declared the farmer.
"He will strip off your skin to make a drum to dance to and use your skull for a drinking cup!" warned his wife.
"If you were an old man, it would not be so bad," bewailed the old grandmother, wiping the tears from her eyes: "but I cannot bear to see such a young man going to be a prey to that monster!"
After nearly losing his life in the desert, Robert finally entered the kraal of Africaner, the outlaw chief, January 26, 1818. After looking the young missionary over and talking to him a few minutes, the chief seemed pleased and said to some women, "Build the missionary a house." Here he lived in African simplicity, his food consisting principally of milk and dried meat.
Morning and evening Moffat held a preaching service and during the day opened a school, which soon numbered over a hundred children. It was not long before the chief himself began to attend the services regularly. He also applied himself with zeal to the task of learning to read with proficiency. He would read his Testament hours at a time and often sat half the night on a rock near the missionary's hut, asking questions and discussing the great themes of God's love, Christ's atonement, and the wonders of heaven.
One day as they were talking, Africaner said, "Why were you staring at me just now?" "Knowing how gentle you are now," answered Robert, "I was trying to imagine how it could be true that you ever carried fire and sword and death through the country." For an answer the once bloodthirsty chief wept like a child.
Every day there were fresh evidences of the reality of Africaner's conversion. Where formerly he robbed the weak, he now ministered to their needs. He who once exulted in war, was now a peacemaker. Often he would stand between tribes on the verge of fighting and say, "Of all the wars I fought and all the cattle I took, what have I now but shame and remorse?"
One day Moffat made the astounding proposal that Africaner accompany him on a journey to Cape Town. At first the chief declined, fearing that the government would put him to death for crimes he had committed in the Colony. But Moffat reassured him by saying, "I want you to go as a living testimony of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus. When people see how changed you are, they will rejoice and praise God. At any rate, I shall see to it that they do not harm you."
Putting his life in the young missionary's hands, Africaner agreed to go. After several weeks' travel by cart, they came to a Dutch home where Moffat had been entertained fifteen months earlier. "Who are you?" inquired the farmer. "I am Moffat. Have you forgotten me?" "Moffat!" stammered the man, shrinking back. "It is your ghost! Everybody says you were killed by Africaner. One man told me he had seen your bones."
After convincing the man that he was no ghost, Moffat related the facts concerning Africaner's conversion and concluded, "He is a real Christian now." "That would be the eighth wonder of the world," replied the Dutch farmer. "If what you say is true, I have just one wish and that is to see him before I die. Although he killed my uncle, I would like to see him and talk with him."
"You shall have your wish sooner than you think," answered Moffatt. "The man standing over there is Africaner." The farmer drew back and stared at him. Then lifting up his eyes he said reverently, "Oh, God, what a miracle of Thy power!"
Moffat went into the widerness and bore fruit – You too can bear fruit from the wilderness experiences of your life.
1.Next time you are in a difficult wilderness situation – remember him who bought you here and trust him.
Secondly – When you are in a wilderness situation – get ready to hear and recognise these words that God will speak into your life when you get most comfortable.
3. In the wilderness – Let the Spirit lead you and break camp when he calls you.
God wants to lead you on by His spirit.
