Father, guide us on our wilderness journey.
The Wilderness Journey was a fairly major event in Israel's history, but it didn't have to be. Even considering they didn't have cars, and they has quite a bit of livestock to take with them the journey could have taken a few months. Most people today rely on car, bus or other form of transport and people tend not to walk very far, but back then walking was for everyone except the very rich.
They didn't go the direct route because the fortifications used in the war with Assyria would have been in the way, so they went via Mt Sinai to avoid it. As you know the story (the spies were afraid of entering the land, so tried to put the people off by saying that there were giants, so God said they must wander around in the wilderness until the 40 years had passed) we'll jump straight into what we can learn from this.
Simply, they had displeased God and he said they were unworthy to enter the land so they turned back into the wilderness to survive for 40 years. This took them through some very barren land where there was very little water even for a few goats let alone an entire nation. It required them to rely on God. God provided food and water, yet the people where not very thankful and grumbled again and again.
We can learn quite a lot if we apply the same principles to our lives. We are reliant on God to provide our food and water. He does this through the rain he gives and through the crops that grow. Paul takes this a stage further. He says we are in a spiritual wilderness. Here we have to rely on God, through Jesus.
Jesus described himself as the Bread that came down from Heaven (John 6). He also is the well-spring of life. John records Jesus' words outside Samaria; "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4)
To us Jesus is essential for life, just as food and water are. And in the desert there isn't any other choice.
Above, I used the term 'survived'. That's about all you can do in the desert, survive or die. It's hard work. People have to move around because the water and vegetation gets used up if they stay in the same place. There's no chance for a holiday or a rest.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews likens our lives to this travel. Just as they didn't enter their rest, we've yet to enter ours.
There's no questions this week, but it may be worth reading Hebrews chapter 4.