Still in the Wilderness

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." ~ Isaiah 43:19

    I started preaching a series of sermons back in June 2020, when worship in the building resumed, that compared our exodus from lock-down with Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. The ordeal felt much like slavery and oppression, with strange limitations masked as liberties. Fear and frustration and the obvious consequences characterized those days. Fear kept people at home, while frustration led to distrust and angst. We all thought the lock-down would end the threat and then everything would go back to normal. Hopelessness of another kind confronted us. We felt nothing would ever be the same again, and no one knows anything for sure. 

    The sermon series extended about six weeks, but the wilderness journeys we discussed are much longer by years. Israel wandered for 40 years, and we now know the COVID journey will not end soon. The sermons seemed to enlighten and encourage, but the effects of the pandemic last longer than our memories. Therefore, it seems appropriate to revisit the subject, hoping to enlighten and encourage once again.

    Some say that it took three days for Israel to get out of Egypt, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel. It is true for us today too. It does not take long to realize God’s love and accept God’s grace, but it takes years to give up control and let God be your Lord. God is so adamant that His people would have new life under His rule that God assured destruction for those who return to Egypt. “Woe to those who run to Egypt for help, trusting their mighty cavalry and chariots instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel and consulting him. In his wisdom, he will send great evil on his people and will not change his mind. He will rise against them for the evil they have done and crush their allies too.” (Isaiah 31:1-2)

    The second anniversary of the pandemic’s beginning is still a few months away, but we have already seen so much change that it seems longer. Like the Israelites, we have witnessed rebellion and destruction. God wiped entire clans out, leaving only a few remnant faithful. Graves and other monuments marked the long journey in the wilderness in tribute to the relentless march of time. Survivors have nothing to count on except change - unless they focus on the almighty glory of God. It is hard to accept, but the fallen, the judged, and the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses are all known to God and will serve as part of God’s unerring plans. 

    The people still had to fight the true enemy of new life in the Promise of God, even as they left Egypt behind - the enemy’s name is “comfort.” Their leaders quickly realized that, as much as they hated being enslaved, the people could at least count on an ugly comfort. Their days comprised predictable routines, familiar surroundings, food and shelter, and a predictable oppressor. When they entered the wilderness, the challenge of obeying and loving their new Master, and depending upon Him for all their needs, emerged. The people learned that faith requires discomfort; that embracing the wilderness requires courage to engage one’s fears.

    It’s hard to believe, but most of the people who left Egypt in those days would not make it to the Promised Land because they never realized that their need for comfort was far more oppressive than their Egyptian masters. The current wilderness wandering of our Christian family presents us with the same challenges and maybe even the same outcomes. Who will surrender to God’s authority and follow the cloud and pillar? Who will fight the enemy called comfort and courageously let go of those who will not? Who will embrace unpredictable change and adapt as needed, no matter how weary, like the Israelites who followed the LORD to the Promise?