The story of the children of Israel in the wilderness is a lot more important to Christians than we realize. The Apostle Paul reminded the Church of his day that this story was for their understanding and warning (1Cor 10). He seemed to think it was very important, yet in spite of week after week of teaching, few Believers in the church today could give a basic explanation of the story or its meaning.
Obviously, this is an important story with many lessons to be learned from God’s people attempting to live in God’s promises; however, the big-picture idea of the story is also rich in wisdom and understanding of how God interacts with His people.
The Children of Israel were challenged by God to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land but they did not know the location. For them the objective was to arrive at the destination; however, it would appear that God’s objective was not really the destination but rather the journey, else He would have told them where He was taking them. He kept that hidden from them in order for them to focus on the day-to-day journey of following Him and learning what they needed to learn along the way. It was what they learned that would make them able to overcome the challenges of the journey and acquire the promise of a better land.
In practical terms, how we deal with the challenges of everyday living will determine our destination. Either we learn to overcome, or we ‘become overcome’. Nothing we could do for God He couldn’t do for himself. He collaborates with us not because He needs us, but because it is His objective to teach us the spiritual skills and laws of His Kingdom. The journey has sorrows and pain much like the journey of non-believers but He turns them into passion, compassion, and empathy.
What we become through our journey is the big-picture objective of God for our ministry, purpose, and meaning. He is love and only His love flowing through us will change the world, but first it must change us.
Tomorrow, when you are facing a challenge, the view from 10,000 feet is: How do I overcome and win this battle and learn from it something that will help me grow and become a positive change-maker in the Earth?
© Copyright 2014-15, Paul K. Weigel – All rights reserved.