Finding Life Following the Messiah
Living in the Wilderness
Introduction: I want to introduce you to a “biblical life principle” that is so obvious in scripture that we don’t see it, at least not in a way that it truly changes us. This is something I have known for a long time and so have you. But my study of this has made a dramatic effect on how I live and see life. I want it to have that effect on you as well. If you can grasp it and apply it, you will attain what the Hebrew writer says is the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
The life principle is, “Living in the Wilderness.” Consider:
- In Exodus, the Lord led Israel into the wilderness. God did not take them the “short route” to Canaan, which would have been an easy journey. He took them into the wilderness.
- In Isaiah 49, Jesus is named as God’s “true Israel.” Then, when Jesus appeared, and before he did anything for our salvation, he also went into the wilderness. As Israel was 40 years in the “day of testing and trial,” so Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness without food and in complete dependence on God. Jesus was give us a great sign. We also must go into the wilderness with him.
- Then, both Paul (1 Cor. 10) and the Hebrews’ writer make it quite clear that our life in Christ in this earth is in the wilderness. Thus, if we can learn how to live in the wilderness, we will not only be pleasing to God beyond measure, we will arrive at a purpose he has had for us ever since the original wilderness. Israel failed in that wilderness. We must not fail.
In Hebrews 3:7–4:13, the writer presents an extensive parallel between Israel and Christians today. His purpose is to reorient the thinking of these Hebrew Christians. They are to see themselves just like Israel, and are now experiencing the wilderness period of their journey. In following Jesus, we also are to experience the wilderness in order to enter the Promised Land.
Let’s begin by noting a few things in this text that will set up our study.
- The Wilderness Problem: Hebrews 3:7-19
- Consider that this text exposes the failures of the wilderness generation. They are the same failures and vulnerabilities we have today.
- The opening words, “As the Holy Spirit says…” is significant. It is not past tense as with other writers and the words, “It is written…” The Holy Spirit’s words to the wilderness generation are still present warnings. His words are to be heeded because when God speaks, his words do not die out or lose their force or become relics of the past! These words address us today just as if we were standing at Mt. Sinai and the voice of God was booming in our ears from the cloud!
- And what does the Holy Spirit say first? It is our “heart” that is the problem. That is the key to the text. The text exposes our hearts:
- Our heart implies the way we think and process information. It is another way of referring to our minds. Our minds/hearts are deeply affected by what we allow ourselves to think about, which is also dependent on what we allow into our hearts.
“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:20-23). - Our minds are quickly and easily deceived by what we allow in and what we think about. The only thing that keeps our thinking straight is the words of verses 20-21. The Hebrew writer said, “today, if you hear his voice.” Every day we are to hear his voice and ignore the other voices try to confuse us. Satan goes into the wilderness with us, and he will wreck out life!
- Then the words, “Do not harden your hearts…” We have a choice. We can choose to harden our hearts or choose not to. But here is our problem: we rarely think we are hardening our hearts! We think we are being reasonable; we think we are processing the information we have properly.
- What are we doing when we harden our hearts? We get upset that we told to do something we don’t want to do. It’s uncomfortable, scary, unpredictable, and invades my time and my desires. So we get stubborn. Most of the time, we just aren’t reasoning correctly.
- Our heart implies the way we think and process information. It is another way of referring to our minds. Our minds/hearts are deeply affected by what we allow ourselves to think about, which is also dependent on what we allow into our hearts.
- Let’s check this out with the wilderness generation:
- 3:8 Note the words “rebellion” (Meribah) and “testing” (Massah). These refer to two incidents in the wilderness, both in which Israel complained about a lack of water. They did not trust that the Lord would provide for them. Fix it immediately! When they got uncomfortable, they got unreasonable! (Ex.: young woman proclaiming her generation “deserved” to live comfortably. Ex: Timeshare salesman saying, “you deserve this.”) Keep this in mind as we look at God’s explanation later.
- 3:16-19 transitions to the rebellion of Numbers 14 when they refused to go into the land. We sit here from a lofty perch and cast judgment on these incidents, but we do not put ourselves in their position.
- How well would you handle it if suddenly our water supply disappeared and you knew there was no human on earth who could cure the problem?
- How well would have have handled going into battle with 9 foot tall giants? Up until 11 days ago, you have been a slave all your life and may never have even picked up a sword. Now run in there to battle!
- The point is that we often cave facing challenges in our lives that are far, far less threatening than what those Israelites were facing. Everyone of us need to buck up! God didn’t intend the wilderness to be easy!
- Consider one more warning in the text: an unbelieving heart. How do you read that? Typically we would say, “They didn’t believe in God.” That’s not true! If they didn’t believe in God, they wouldn’t be complaining to God. They knew God existed. They knew he was with them (cloud, fire). They knew he had delivered them in the Exodus. They knew he was taking them to the promised land! They knew all the things we know. “Unbelief” was a deep distrust in God and his promises. Unbelief is obvious when we are frustrated with our present condition and the people around us:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, or it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Phil. 2:12-16).
- Following Christ into the Wilderness: Deuteronomy 8
- First notice that the overwhelming message of this text is what God wants to do for us:
- Verse 1: “…that you may go in and possess the land…”
- Vs. 7-10: “…a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing…and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has give you.”
- The message is: here is what I am doing for you, now here is the path we must take (wilderness) in order to get to the blessing. (If you remember Hebrews 2, you will recognize this parallel – the Jesus, our pioneer and trailblazer is bringing us to glory through suffering.)
- Next, notice that God purposely put them through trials and testing in the wilderness. He purposely let them hunger and fed them with manna. God wasn’t being negligent or forgetful when they lacked water or when there wasn’t meat to eat. God did not lack a GPS when he didn’t take them the shortest route to Canaan and instead took them through a hot, terrifying wilderness with snakes and scorpions. God was being purposeful because it was needed to prepare them for life in the Promised Land. See verses 15-16: “…to do you good in the end.”
- First purpose: “to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.” This is like the testing of Job. Are we going to serve God in spite of hardship? Is it truly love we have for God? Or, are we looking to serve God as long as he gives us what we want?
- Second purpose: “that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” The key words here are “live, lives.” God gives life through himself. Jesus said,
“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” - True living is not found in the material, in the fulfilling of our physical desires. You will notice that God is not talking about immorality or sins of the flesh that are common around us. He is talking about trusting him to bring life to us.
- What is the primary symptom of a lack of trust? Paul said,
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish… (Phil. 2:14). Exactly what Israel did for 40 years.
- Third purpose: (5): “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.”
- To be prepared for the greater, eternal riches and a place in glory with the Lord, we must learn to be like our Father, to love what our Father loves, to have a mind for his Kingdom and his cause. As the text says, we are like children who need to grow up. This is done through the discipline of trials and having everything we want when we want it.
- Did you notice how obedience is tied to God’s discipline? –– verses 1, 6, 11, 20. Obedience is obviously connected to discipline because to truly obey constantly involves overriding my inner desires in favor of what God tells me to do. Again, this is where we are trusting him! [which is the reason disobedience is called “unbelief.”]
- First notice that the overwhelming message of this text is what God wants to do for us:
- Applying the Lesson
- Considering this, what is often our tendency when the pressures from trials come crashing down on us from all sides. We often handle one trial, but it is when arrows are being shot at us from all sides that we crumble. This was exactly the nature of Job’s trial, and we are to learn from it! It is not just his possessions, it is his children. It is not just his children, it is his wife. And it is not just all three of those, it is his health – and then the grand conclusion that God must not care, and for some reason God has departed from him – utter confusion!
- The answer for many is to just back away from God and/or our responsibilities to God. This reasoning is completely puzzling because it is identical to Israel. Every time they didn’t get what they wanted when they wanted it, the answer was to go back to Egypt, turn to an idol or an immoral pleasure. Their picture of what God ought to be was a “genie in a bottle.” “When I need something, you are supposed to respond…now!”
- Contrast Jesus’ trial in the wilderness. What does Jesus do that Israel does not do? After 40 days of hunger, he will not turn the stones to bread! Why? He trusts God to give to him in God’s time. And what did God do? The moment Jesus won the battle with Satan, “angels came and ministered to him.”
- Grumbling about our circumstances, our church, our living conditions, our lack of prosperity is an utter lack of trust in God. Do we not believe that he is a good Father? Draw closer, not further away. That’s the purpose of the wilderness!
- Maybe we say, “Well I just don’t understand why God is doing this to me; it just doesn’t make sense! Things that are happening are not fair. I can’t believe God would make me suffer like this…” and on and on we go. What have we done? We don’t believe his promises. We don’t believe he is a just and fair God. We don’t believe in his love for us. Is that really what we believe? When we do this, we are certainly illustrating it.
- Another tendency is to give up on the people around us. Trials often come from interpersonal relationships. We struggle with “reading” each other. We “hear” things that are not the whole story and we assume the worst. Then the more we assume, the more we mull it around in our minds and begin to create a monster. But the monster we created is far from real!
- Israel did this when the 10 spies returned with a bad report. “Oh yeah, it’s a beautiful land with milk and honey, but you should see the giants! We will get crushed!” They had imagined this far beyond reality. God had just destroyed the most power country in the world and delivered them – something never heard of before or since. And what was Joshua and Caleb’s simple answer? God is with us! ‘Enough said!’ Trust! In the most difficult times!
- We are a family, and a family always has prickly times. How about your personal family? Everything has always gone smoothly, right? That’s a fantasy land. Of course it doesn’t. So, what does a family do in those prickly times? They ask questions. They talk it out. They make sure their assumptions weren’t something they created in their own minds. They apologize and forgive one another. But in God’s family, one thing they are not allowed to do is run away. To give up on each other is disobedience!
- 1 Corinthians 1:10-11 “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.”
What is Paul’s accusation? You are acting like carnal children (3:1-2). Work it out. Grow up (16:13, “stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” - Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.”
- Of course, none of us have ever hurt someone else’s feelings. None of us have never said something that was misunderstood negatively by someone else. We have never casually said something off the cuff that could easily be misconstrued!
- The point the preacher is making is that though there are times to go to a brother and talk some things out, there is also a time to simply let it go, knowing that everyone, including ourselves make errors, and those errors and slips in how we speak are not intended as a lack of love; it is just a slip.
- 1 John 5:16-17 tells us how to handle this: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.”
What’s the answer to prickly situations, especially those things that we are all guilty of at one time or another in our lives? We give grace and we pray for one another. We are at different ages both physically and spiritually and in our knowledge of God’s word. To not give grace is to be judgmental, and that is a sin.
Conclusion: The only biblical answer to all trials is to draw closer to the Lord. It is God who brought us into the wilderness. God knows what is best, and if we are going to get to the Promised Land, we are going to stay in the wilderness and learn from the discipline of the Lord. We are not going to give up on each other and we are not going to run back to Egypt. To do so is to lose our reward, and that’s what happened to the wilderness generation!
Berry Kercheville
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