Have you ever been in a desert? Years ago Jim and I went to Phoenix, Arizona on vacation – in August! It was 115 degrees during the day and no one went out – not even to swim in the hotel pool!
Because we couldn't stand the heat, we left a day early and drove north to the Grand Canyon. On our way out of Phoenix there were signs everywhere to bring water – for yourself and for the radiator of your car. The terrain outside of Phoenix was hot, dry, barren, and deserted. Getting to the cooler and greener mountains of the Grand Canyon area was heaven!
You may never have been in a actual desert, like the Sahara, or Death Valley or Phoenix in August, but you may have been in situations that FELT like a desert.
You may have experienced a spiritual desert in which God seemed far away. Maybe you did all the things you expected would bring you closer, like being in His Word, praying, going to church to be with His people, but He still seemed distant and silent.
You may have experienced an emotional desert through some situation that has depleted you of strength, like the death of a spouse, the moving away of a friend, an estranged relative, a divorce, or being home bound caring for an elderly family member, or weathering coronavirus social distancing with small children. Maybe you can barely get out of bed, and life has lost its joy, and doesn't seem worth living.
You may have experienced a physical desert through chronic pain, disease, the limitations of an aging body, fear that robs you of sleep and gnaws at your stomach.
These figurative deserts can leave us feeling as dry, barren, deserted, lonely, lost, fearful and sorely in need of creature comforts as real deserts. Is there anything to be learned in these desert places of our lives? Is God THERE?
The answer is a resounding YES! Even in the desert places, God is at work in and through you and your circumstances!
Sometimes God is the One who sent us into the desert in the first place - and certainly He's the One who allows us to be there - even if we venture there through some foolish and sinful decision of our own. But He doesn't leave us there alone.
The people of Israel knew what it was like to be in a literal and figurative desert, and it was God Himself who led them there. But not without GOOD purpose.
In this blog and the next 3, we'll consider some of the experiences of Israel during their 40 years of desert wanderings, between the time God delivered them from Egypt, and the time they finally entered the land He had promised them. There are some practical lessons there for us when we find ourselves in a desert time.
Let's begin with the nation of Israel's "back story" so we can find out how they found themselves in a desert in the first place and so we can understand God's bigger purpose for them.
Before Israel was a nation, God began His purpose for them with ONE man:
Abraham -
God chose to reveal Himself to an idol worshiper named Abram (later God would change his name to Abraham and so I'm going to refer to him as such)
God called Abraham to leave all that was familiar (family, country, customs) to go to the land He would show him. Abraham went.
Once Abraham was there, the Lord made some very important and significant promises to him:
These promises were unconditional. In other words, GOD made the promises, not Abraham, and GOD would keep them, whether or not the nation that would come from Abraham obeyed Him.
The following promises are taken from the book of Genesis:
Genesis 12:
I will make of you a great nation (Abraham was 75 at the time and had no children)
All people on earth will be blessed through you (One of Abraham's offspring would be God's promised Redeemer who would bless Jews and Gentiles alike - I believe this person was Jesus)
Genesis 13 and 15:
13:14-15 God told Abraham to look out to the north, south, east and west, as far as he could see, because all that land the Lord would give Abraham and his offspring forever
13:16 I will make
your offspring like the dust of the earth
15:4-5 Count the
stars – so shall your offspring be
15:13 Abraham fell into a deep sleep and the Lord gave him a dream that contained both a prophecy and a promise,
Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own; enslaved and mistreated for 400 years
I will punish the nation they serve and afterward, they will come out with great possessions
ISAAC was Abraham’s son – God confirmed all of these promises to him as well
JACOB was Isaac’s son. God confirmed the same promises he gave to Abraham & Isaac to Jacob as well.
Jacob had 12 sons.
Jacob's son Joseph was born in his father's old age. Born to his beloved wife Rachel, he was his father’s favorite.
His brothers were so jealous of him that they pretended to their father that Joseph had been killed by an animal when actually they had sold him to some traders who were on their way to Egypt and there he was sold as a slave.
God would use what these sons did to their brother Joseph to move His plan of redemption from one man, Abraham, to the family that would come from him, to his son Jacob, and build a nation from him - and He would use the "desert" of slavery to do it!
JOSEPH:
Although Joseph started out as a slave in Egypt, we read at the end of the book of Genesis that God’s favor rested on him. Through an amazing set of circumstances orchestrated by God, Joseph eventually found himself as prime minister of Egypt – second in the line of authority to Pharaoh himself. As such, he was able to store food in Egypt during seven years of plenty so that when the seven years of drought that followed came, Egypt would have sufficient food.
In Canaan, where Jacob and his family lived, food was running out, so Jacob sent this sons to Egypt to buy food. Through a series of circumstances Joseph, without revealing his identity to his brothers, and without being recognized, discovered that his brothers had changed their ways and were sorry for what they had done to him.
In Genesis, chapter 45 there is a very tearful and touching moment when Joseph finally revealed himself to his very repentant brothers and explained that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good, the saving of Jacob's family.
Jacob’s family is invited by Pharaoh to move to Goshen where they and their flocks prospered until Joseph, and the Pharaoh under which he had served, died.
Another Pharaoh came into power who did not know Joseph and what came to pass was the fulfillment of the prophecy the Lord gave to Abraham back in Genesis 15. Abraham's descendants became slaves in Egypt for the next 430 years. Until God intervened, just as He promised to Abraham.
Under the leadership of Moses, God would deliver what was now a nation of people - called after the new name God had given to Jacob - Israel.
You can read King David’s summary about this period in Israel’s history, in Psalm 105:8-25.
So what are some things we might learn from the desert experiences of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Joseph.
IN THE DESERT WHEN IT’S HARD TO SEE WHAT GOD’S DOING, WE CAN STILL TRUST GOD HIMSELF
Abraham was in a desert of WAITING, celebrating birthday after birthday, and watching the years go by while he waited for the son God promised, the son through whom all those promises would be fulfilled. How did he cope with all those years of waiting?
Over in the New
Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 11, it says of Abraham:
Verse 8 By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went.
Verse 9 By faith, Abraham made his home in the promised land, he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise.
Verse 11 By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age, was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise (that God would make a great nation of him and a Redeemer would come from his descendants). And so from this one man, and he as good as dead (Abraham was 99 when he found out he would finally be a father of God’s promised son!), came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore! (Those descendants would include all those who trace their physical ancestry back to Abraham, as well as those who, like Abraham, believe God - this includes both Jews and Gentiles who embrace Jesus as Messiah).
V. 13 Abraham only saw ONE offspring of promise – Isaac. He never saw his family become a great nation which would bless other nations. The only actual land he would ever own in Canaan was the burial plot in which he buried his wife.
Abraham couldn’t SEE what God was doing, since for years he had no son to inherit these great promises God had made to him. But he BELIEVED God would make good on them because he had learned through those desert years of waiting – that God and His promises were trustworthy. And God counted his believe as righteousness.
You and I may not SEE God’s big picture when we are in a desert of waiting – but we can BELIEVE as Abraham did, that God HAS a big picture in His will for you and He is working it out!
Isaac
Was in a desert of continual disputes with neighbors over wells in the land of promise. However, because he had the promise that God had given his father, and then reaffirmed to him, that the land would be theirs, instead of fighting, he exercised faith in God and kept moving from place to place digging new wells.
Jacob
Experienced a desert of his own making. Because he desired the blessings God gave to Abraham, of which his brother Esau, (the rightful inheritor as firstborn) was indifferent, he deceived Esau to get both his birthright and his father's blessing. His deception and Esau's resulting murderous intent toward him, forced him to separate from his family for years. He had to learn the hard way that God's blessings come to us in God's way.
Joseph
Experienced a desert of rejection by his brothers, the loneliness of slavery, mistreatment by Potiphar's wife, and then prison, before in the plan and purpose of God, the Lord elevated him to the high position in Egypt that would eventually save his people. Joseph's life is the perfect illustration that in the desert, God can be trusted, even when everything seems to be going against you.
We don’t have any record of him doing so, but I wonder if Joseph – like us - ever questioned what the Lord was doing in his life. I wonder if he ever asked why he was where he was – because it was a LONG time – first in slavery & then in prison – before Joseph was elevated to a position of honor.
More to follow in the next 3 blogs! But before that, let's make it personal.
What kind of desert
experience are you facing?
God has lessons for us in the desert times of our lives that can’t be learned when life is going well – when the grass is green, the breezes are sweet, there is just enough rain, you have plenty to eat and drink, and wonderful family and friends beside you.
If you are going through a desert experience today, and had the opportunity to speak to any one of these men from Israel's history, they would all tell you, "Be encouraged, you are NOT alone. God IS with you, and He IS trustworthy, faithful and true".
Don’t waste your desert experience by asking "Why?".
Abraham never saw the nation God said would come from him and he never owned but a small plot of the land promised. Isaac moved from place to place also seeing nothing of the fulfillment of God's promises to his father. Jacob lived to see his beloved son Joseph again, but he was no longer dwelling in the land God promised. Joseph lived for years, probably believing he would never see his family again - never imagining that God had a purpose in his being there - to save his family in a place where they could grow into the nation God saw them to be, the nation from whom Jesus the Messiah would come.
You may not see what the Lord is up to in the desert in which you currently dwell. So, instead of asking, "Why am I here?", ask "What?"
"What is it that you would have me learn while I'm here Lord? Help me walk by faith in your faithfulness until you lead me out."
More to come. . . . .
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