Israel In the Wilderness: The Prerequisite

“Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord”. . . Numbers 11:1

The truth is the children of Israel did have hardships in the wilderness after they left Egypt and were on their way to the promise land. In fact, they likely had it worse than any other nation those 40 years they were trudging through the Sinai desert.

You can find multiple accounts of their wanderings in the biblical books Exodus and Numbers. To read the passage in Numbers, click here.

It’s true, that when Isael was in the wilderness, they did experience God’s supernatural guidance and protection and provision. But the wilderness was certainly no land “flowing with milk and honey”. In fact, it wasn’t even an Egypt with its fish and cucumbers and melons and leeks.

A Dry Barren Lifeless Wasteland

It was a dry, barren, lifeless wasteland that could not even sustain life. They had to eat the same thing day after day (manna) and had only water to drink- no milk- no wine. They lived like nomads traveling from place to place. And they had to pick up their tents and belongings at a moment’s notice.

Not only that, but they didn’t even have a country to call home. They had to look to God to supernaturally provide for them and meet their needs. Furthermore, they didn’t have the security and stability of natural resources. Or of physical provision.

Isael In the Wilderness: A Hard Life

This was a hard life. A life that required them to walk by faith and not by sight. It was certainly harder than the kind of life of ease and comfort experienced by other nations. And that’s the point.

This is true for us Christians today as well. I think sometimes people come into Christianity with the notion that life is immediately going to be blessed, abundant and glorious. And I do believe this is what God has in store for us eventually.

But you don’t get to the promise land without trekking through the wilderness. We don’t get promise land blessings until we mature and that requires obedience in the wilderness.

And while we’re being prepared for that life of abundance in the desert, we will not have more than unbelievers and maybe even less. We may even have less than we did when we were unbelievers. That being said, we will have an abundance of peace and joy.

We will be getting to know God and be growing in wisdom and maturity. Our needs will be met, and we will be protected and provided for.

But we will not experience the abundant, overflowing promise land life immediately. We have to go through the wilderness to get there. And from a natural, human perspective, we will not appear to be more blessed than unbelievers.

And from the standpoint of natural resources and physical provision, we may, in fact, be less blessed.

Israel In the Wilderness: No Glory without Suffering

This is important to remember because if we think we’re going to:

Obtain to life without treading the narrow path. . .

Be exalted without first being humbled. . .

Attain glory without suffering. . .

Make it to our promise land without first going through the wilderness. . .

We will be disappointed and disillusioned. We will want to give up and turn back just like the Israelites in the wilderness. And we might even think this Christianity stuff doesn’t work and that God’s word isn’t true.

God certainly does have a glorious promise land awaiting every faith-filled, obedient believer. But we have to be willing to do with less before He’ll bless us with more.

For posts similar to Israel in the Wilderness: The Prerequisite, see Tempted by the Devil or Tested by God? or Fighting the Giants in Canaan Then and Now .

Although many of my posts are intended to motivate Christians to grow up so they can be blessed, that shouldn’t be our main reason for wanting to mature. Ultimately, everything we do as a Christian should be a response to what He’s already done for us.

From Foolish to Wise to Foolish Again

In fact, growing up and becoming wise is only the first step in the Christian experience. Some already come to faith with a measure of this, but many do not. And as we’ve seen, wisdom brings rich rewards. But that’s not the end of the journey.

Once we’ve done the hard work to become wise and are experiencing the benefits, the next step is to give it up for Christ. In other words, to become a fool for Christ. We then have come full circle. We’ve gone from foolish to wise and back to foolish again. To learn more about this click here: What It Means to be a Fool for Christ.

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