The Israelites

The Israelites are a very well-known race in the Bible. They were God’s chosen people, they were captured and forced into slavery in the land of Egypt. There they lived lives of hardship and strife, under constant fear, then out of their midst was born a man named Moses. God tasked Moses with leading His people out of Egypt and to the land He had promised them through their forefathers Abraham and Jacob; the Promised Land, Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.

This journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan was meant to take eleven days, but instead it took not twelve days, not  five weeks, but forty years. Why? Because the Israelites did not trust in God’s greatness. They did not and could not persevere through the hardships to get to where God wanted them to be. So instead of walking through the wilderness boldly and bravely to attain their promise, they wandered aimlessly, and faced further hardships and trouble.

What is the Wilderness?

In our own lives there comes a time when God wants to lift us out of Egypt and carry us to Canaan. For us Egypt may be a place or time in our lives of setback, hardship, emotional, spiritual or even physical slavery, whilst Canaan is the prosperous and more victorious place God has prepared for us. But to get there we must first journey through the wilderness.

Now for us the wilderness can manifest itself in various ways. Maybe it means going through a time of having little food and little money, maybe it is being forced to walk to places you used to drive, maybe it means sleeping on the floor or perhaps God has weeding out people you used to think were your friends but are in fact your enemies and leaving you to stand alone. Whatever the situation or trial it is important to note that the common denominator in the wilderness is that it is a place of great discomfort. However, despite this, what you must remember is that we are not meant to be in the wilderness forever. But then, how long we stay there is all determined by our attitude.

Wilderness Ways

As I mentioned before, the Israelites were stuck in the wilderness for forty years instead of the planned eleven days. This prolonged stay in the wilderness was as a result of their attitude, their words, actions and mentality. A result of their ways. Instead of rejoicing at their newfound freedom, praising God for keeping His promise to them and looking with anticipation and joy to their destination, the Israelites turned to grumbling and moaning. Even worse, they even expressed a desire to return to Egypt, the land in which they were slaves!  “And they said to one another, Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”  Numbers 14: 4

What were they thinking? They must have been out of their minds? – these are things we might think or say about them. But the truth is, we aren’t that different from them. If we look carefully at ourselves, we will find that the Israelites reaction quite accurately mirrors our own reaction when God tells us that He is taking us to a land of milk and honey but that first, we’ll need to walk in the desert and eat manna. We too get discouraged and start to believe that perhaps where we were coming from is better than where we are going. We adopt what I will call “wilderness ways”.

In her book “Battlefield of the Mind” Joyce Meyer refers to the Israelites attitude as “wilderness mentality”; a mentality of doubt and unbelief, a mentality encouraged by the fear of discomfort and difficulties. But when I say “wilderness ways” I am looking not only at the Israelites frame of mind but also their actions and behaviour, which were informed by their negative mindset.

Whilst in the wilderness the Israelites actions did not mirror the actions of those who were referred to as God’s chosen people. During their time in the wilderness the Israelites built a golden calf, they rebuked God’s chosen servant and God himself.  They grumbled and complained.  Exodus 32: 1 -5, Numbers 14: 1-4.  They had adopted “wilderness ways” and it is these very same ways that we often adopt too. But we ought to abandon “wilderness ways” as quickly as possible because they are what keep us from our Promised Land.

Wandering

What we must know about wilderness ways is that they are the ones that lead us to wander rather than walk through the wilderness. The negativity and ungodliness of wilderness ways creates a resistance in us towards God. This resistance can also be interpreted as pride, because by complaining and acting contrary to God’s word we are essentially saying that we know best, and that our way is better than what God has in mind. ”Wilderness ways” are ways of pride and it says in 1 Peter 5: 5  that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

So when we adopt these prideful ways what ends up happening is that  God takes time out to humble us, and humbling  means more time in the wilderness, more wandering,  so that we learn to rely on Him and not our own strength to get to our Promised Land. Now how long we stubbornly hold on to these “wilderness ways” determines how long we stay and wander in the wilderness.

But we don’t want to wander in wilderness; we want to walk through it because walking through the wilderness means we will get to our Promised Land faster. But in order to do this we must walk with God. How do we do this, you ask? By doing the exact opposite of what the Israelites did.

Or Walking

In order for us to walk instead of wandering through the wilderness, we need to stop focusing on the desert around us, on the manna we may be eating, on how little money we have or on how uncomfortable we are, and focus on God. One key way of focusing our attention on God is by praising and rejoicing.

The importance of these actions is emphasised several times in the Bible. In Psalms 100: 4 (ESV) David writes “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him: and bless his name,” and in Psalm 34:1 (ESV) he declares “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” In addition in Philippians 4:4 (ESV) Paul emphasises, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice,” (it is vital to note that he says this whilst he was in prison! )

It is very evident that praise is important! But why? Because by praising the Lord we magnify Him above ourselves and above our problems. Praise allows us to fix our hearts and minds wholly on Him and when we do that the “perfect peace” promised in Isaiah 26:3 will come to pass. When that perfect peace comes we will be anxious for nothing and more able to trust God’s promise that His plans for us and thoughts towards us are good – Jeremiah 29: 11. Once we trust that promise, we will not grumble or complain.

Furthermore, because praise magnifies God above ourselves, it humbles us;  it helps us remember how great God is and that He is able to do all things. Once we remember that, we won’t proudly  resist Him  or the path He has sent us down but walk humbly with Him, understanding that He knows best. Thus, He will then not have to take time working on our hard-hearts but lead us speedily to the land flowing with milk and honey.

So now you have it.

When you find yourself in the wilderness – don’t do as the Israelites did. Lift your heart to the Lord and trust His promise, remember the signs and wonders He showed you when you were leaving your Egypt, remember that if He did it then He can do it again. Humble yourself before him and let Him lead, knowing that He has already done the heavy lifting and that all you have to do now is praise, and walk.