Shmuel Suran, Israel
“But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors.”
Deuteronomy 6:23
Moses spoke these words to all Israel in the fortieth year of the wilderness journey. I’ve often pondered God’s dealings with Israel during her wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, as the wilderness journey is a vital part of every believer’s life and experience. It took Israel forty years to accomplish an eleven-day journey (Deuteronomy 1:2)! They were an unbelieving and disobedient generation, found wanting in God’s sight.
The wilderness journey is the school of the Holy Spirit in which they were taught by God Himself. Israel was His covenanted people, a generation that had been humbled and disciplined by Him. And although they had spent some of that time aimlessly wandering and seemingly out of the purposes of God, they had been forged by their circumstances into a spiritual nation, a spiritual army made ready by God’s grace for the conquering of the Promised Land. God had led His people through the wilderness for a particular purpose: “to humble and test [them] in order to know what was in [their] heart, whether or not [they] would keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 8:2).
Moses discerned the ways and purposes of God in dealing with and guiding His people. Yet for the most part, the majority could only see the difficulties of their circumstances. On every occasion that they were tested, their reaction was determined by their own self-interests. Not once in their spiritual journey did they recognize that their circumstances were God-ordained to teach them to look to Him and to trust Him and His loving ways as their God and Father.
At the beginning of my own spiritual wilderness journey forty years ago, I really didn’t know or understand that God was educating and training us for His eternal purposes. We must all go through our own wilderness journeys, learning the ways of God. We must learn how to take up our cross daily, submissively, and patiently.
One of the most important lessons that I learned was how to follow the path that the Lord chose for me, even when it contradicted my own will and desires. God has the right to choose for us anything that He pleases to do. And by submitting to His ways, you will learn things that you would otherwise have never known. And if you are willing to obey God and follow the path of His choice, you will be able to hear and recognize His voice more clearly in the future. And when you hear it, by God’s grace you will obey it, even if it seems like He is calling you to paths that seem impossible in the natural.
Something happens to you in the spiritual wilderness journey: it leaves a mark on you for the rest of your life. Perhaps no one notices the difference outwardly. Nevertheless, a deep inner change takes place in your life. And as you remember those years, you can only thank the Lord for leading you on the wilderness journey.