Tiptoeing through the Wilderness

It had been a long night. Driving through the night with small children is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because the incessant stops that normally accompany travel with toddlers is minimized because your beautiful little bundles of energy are recharging their batteries for the next day. It's a curse because that means that you, the parents of said bundles of energy, get to spend all of your energy driving through the night so that you have little to no sleep for the next day. The solace we found is that on the other side of that painful night of insomnia were eager grandparents ready to lavish months of pent up hugs and kisses on your bundles of energy while you recharge your own batteries. At least that's what we were hoping. As we turned into the driveway the green lights on our clock blazed 3:08AM. The final hurdle between us and the much needed sleep our weary eyes were craving was the creaky staircase. Carrying 500 pounds of luggage and two snoozing children had to be carried up the squeaky staircase silently so as not to awaken the reinforcements who would rescue us from parental responsibility at 6:30 when our bundles of energy would come bounding out of their rooms ready for another day.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to tiptoe in silence up the creaky staircase with 12 bags and two children in your arms. I can barely make it to the top in landing in relative silence with nothing in my hands much less the loaded contents of our entire vehicle. In Deuteronomy 1 & 2, we read the historic accounts of Moses rehearsing in the ears of the people how God had them tiptoe through the wilderness for 40 years because they didn't have the faith to enter their own home. Here's what I learned from Deuteronomy 1 & 2

Highlight:

'The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you, just as you saw him do for you in Egypt. ' Deuteronomy 1:30

Explain:

Deuteronomy records for us Moses’ recounting of the people’s history. This people, fresh off of 40 years of wandering in the desert have now come again to the banks of their destiny. Moses, the fabled leader of this wandering horde, after his own mistake at Meribah now is giving this group his final instructions. There is a sense of heaviness in his words in these chapters. After all God had started all of this through this man’s leadership, Moses has spoken with the oracles of God to this people for over 40 years now. God had vindicated his leadership against Aaron, against Miriam, against Korah, He had performed the miracles in Egypt (the famed plagues that these children had heard of from their parents) this was the man that descended the mountain aglow with the glory of God. Now in the final stages of his tremendously incredible leadership, He passes down the critical words of wisdom they would need as they enter the destiny God to which God had called them.

He recounts for them in painful detail the momentous lack of faith that their fathers had as they stood on the banks of this very same river 40 years earlier. We are told it is only an eleven day journey from Horeb (Mt. Sinai) but it took them 40 years to get there because God had to basically annihilate an entire generation of people who did not believe what God had promised to do. All the fighting men (likely 600,000 because 3,000 of them were killed with the sword at the base of the mountain because of their idolatry and we know 250 more were killed with Korah, if each of them were married that averages 82 funerals a day. People were literally dropping like flies. This is exactly what God said would happen that their corpses would fall in the wilderness. One year for every day these spies didn’t believe, remember they were in the land for 40 days.

To make matters worse, every place they go through, they are commanded to stay on the road and don’t provoke the people because this was their land that God had given their descendants. The descendants of Esau, the descendants of Lot they were all living comfortably in their land, which is precisely what the children of Israel could have been doing had they trusted God. It’s almost with every nation they pass through,, God is reminding them of what they could have experienced had they trusted God.

There is one silver lining, God provided for them every day and led them every day around in the wilderness until they died as a consequence of their own belief. It says something of the character of God to care for a dying generation because of their unbelief in Him. He could have had every right to annihilate them immediately, but instead He stayed with them, even though they didn’t believe in Him and let the punishment for their sin run its full course. Until another generation arises who will believe in God’s promise. God still planned to accomplish His promise, it would be to a generation who would believe Him. It wasn’t that God’s promises would not be accomplished, it was just that it wouldn’t accomplished through them. They didn’t forfeit Gods promise, only their involvement in that promise.

Apply:

I don’t want to squander the opportunity in my own life to be a part of what God wants to do in the world. I can’t allow my own unbelief to keep me tiptoeing through the wilderness until I die out there in the desert because I don’t believe the promises of God and I allow the fear in my own heart to overrule my faith in God’s word. Faith is always demonstrated by obedience. Joshua’s faith was shown by marching around the city. Naaman’s faith was shown by dipping in the Jordan, The widow’s faith was shown by gathering water pots. Obedience rarely makes logical sense to the heart who doesn’t firmly believe the promises of God in His word. But consider the consequences of leaning to this logic, certain death in the wilderness.

We may experience fear as we enter the destiny God has for us, there may be seasons of doubts, but at the same time the certain consequences of unbelief are much greater than the unperceived and yet unrealized fears that accompany our obedience. We must walk in faith if we don’t want to tiptoe through the desert till our corpses fall in the wilderness, no matter how much we fear the future. Though there is no reason to fear it, the God we serve will fight for us when we walk in obedience! Obedience is the realization and the demonstration of our faith in the God that can provide and protect us as we take possession of the land He has promised us.

Respond:

Jesus help me obey You as proof of my faith in Your promises. Guard me from the fear that may tempt me to return to the wilderness. Help me walk in faith believing that You will fight my battles.