Part FIVE of a seven part series on a word study of "Midbar"
Midbar: a desert, wasteland, barren wilderness, desolate land that supports very little life. Also used to described an open country suitable for grazing and as a mouth/instrument of speech.
*God is patient with His people in the wilderness.
I am one of those people who likes to hike for a view - the trails with the most beautiful views at the top or at the end. I partially blame the time I lived in the Winona, MN/La Crosse, WI area, where most hikes led to the top of the bluff with incredible views. There's just something about a view at the end of a hike. I like to think of this as a metaphor for our life here on earth. We live every moment here with the intention that this is not the final destination. Eternity is our destination. Yet, we sometimes get off track as we begin to see the things on the way - whether they lead us completely off the trail, slow us down, or pulling us to the side of the trail only for a moment, our flesh tends to lose focus of the end destination. I am thankful for a God who is patient with us despite our tendency to lose sight of the endpoint.
Israel was God’s chosen nation and people group. Israel was the nation who God made His promises to, and He told them many times of the endpoint that they would reach. In Exodus specifically, Israel was told that they would be brought to the promised land. They had an end point, and that was a promise given to them by God that, no matter what, He was going to bring them to a new land. Despite these promises, Israel was a very impatient nation, and this impatience was brought out most clearly when they were within the wilderness for 40 years. They knew of the endpoint but somewhere along the line, the things which were immediately in front of them began to look bigger than their God. In stark contrast to the nation of Israel, God is the only one who can display patience perfectly and shows us time and time again through His word that He is patient with His people as they are in the wilderness.
God's patience is displayed over and over again in the bible, as He continues to love and pursue His people despite their lack of trust and faith in Him. In Exodus 14, as Pharaoh is pursuing the people of Israel and begins to advance on them, the people begin to cry out to God. Instead of trusting the promise of God that they would be brought to the promised land and trusting Moses, who was appointed by God to lead them, they begin to turn on Moses. They lose sight of the promises that God made them. They look back to their time in Egypt and lose hope, saying “For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12)
Ouch.
It is so easy to look to blame someone or something as we are navigating within a wilderness season. Earlier on within Exodus, God clearly says that He wants His people out of Egypt, to travel to the promised land, and Moses was the guy who was going to lead them there. Yet, they reach a point where they are caught between the enemy pursuing them and the vastness of the Red Sea, and they are doubting the plan. They forget how big their God truly is. They forget the promise that lies ahead of them and instead look back to the past that they so hated and desire that instead. Thank goodness for Moses, who remembers the promise.
Exodus 14:13-14 - And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
The rest is history - God moves in remarkable ways that can be attributed to HIM alone. All it took was the faith of one man (Moses) to call upon the Lord God, and God responded in a HUGE way. Even though the people don’t deserve it and have not earned it, God continues to offer them mercy, envelop them in everlasting love, and continue His faithfulness to His people within the wilderness, even though His people are not always faithful to Him (Jeremiah 31:2-3). Thankfully, the God of the bible is the same God who works in our lives today. We can be sure that, during our wilderness seasons, God will be patient with use, continuing to be faithful in everlasting love and offering us mercy, if we would only open our eyes and ears so we can see and hear Him.
God is so good and I do not doubt that. At the same time, I do become impatient with Him in the moments where I am struggling to see fruit or purpose within a season. There will be times in this life where we walk the path God lays out for us, but then we feel as if we have reached a dead end. We are not called to grumble and complain, as the Israelites did here, but we are to follow Moses’ example and call upon the Lord during these times and His purpose will prevail. All God asks for is a little bit of faith and trust in His timing.
However, there are times when God does use the wilderness as a place of judgement. This is seen in Exodus with the people of Israel, when they continue to deliberately turn away from God and put their faith and trust in other things (Numbers 14:32-33, Numbers 14:35, Numbers 32:13, Ezekiel 6:11-14, Ezekiel 20:35-36). This is different from when the people of Israel have doubt. God meets them where they are at in their place of doubt, but God is not patient (and rightfully so) when the people of Israel turn against Him within the wilderness. Numbers 32:15 tells us, “For if you turn away from following Him, He will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all His people.” God is so patient with us in doubt, but we need to make sure that we don’t stay there. When we don’t understand where He is going or what He is doing, we must not turn away from Him, but instead lean into His promises and trust that He has a plan for us. He is faithful, we just need to trust, and He will provide.
Our good God is present and pursuing us within the wilderness. He provides for our every single need so we lack nothing, and He is abundant in patience as we continue to navigate through the wilderness seasons.
***
Scripture References:
Exodus 14:11-14
They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
Jeremiah 31:2-3
Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Numbers 14:32-35
But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
Numbers 32:13-15
And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”
Ezekiel 6:11-14
Thus says the Lord God: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 20:35-36
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God.
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