E-mail
Print
RSS
G-bookmarks
Live
Technorati“In this wilderness they shall be consumed.”
Numbers 14: 35
Amplified Bible
EXPLORATION
“Wandering In a Wilderness”
“Most people’s wilderness is inside them, not outside.”
Harry Williams
Has there been a time in my life when I felt as though I was wandering in a wilderness?
What is a wilderness in my life?
The Desert
“They call you barren
Who, unseeing, gaze upon you.
Yet! Time’s most secret thoughts,
The jewels of the ages
Are buried in your breast
As in your loneliness you lie
Beneath the everlasting heights.”
Madeline Mason-Manheim
INSPIRATION
“Cherish your wilderness.”
Maxine Kumin
Several weeks ago, I watched a program about Death Valley, the lowest, driest, and hottest place in the United States. Temperatures in this desert wilderness can be as high as 130º during the summer months. The narrator of the program noted that those brave enough to come to the valley to hike or explore must adhere to strict rules if they plan on surviving in elements so harsh. He mentioned that several people had died after losing their way and running out of water and food, wandering around in a wilderness, as the narrator pointed out, which is dangerous indeed.
So far, in our study in the book of Numbers, we have found out that negativity, grumbling and rebellion have dire consequences. As we learned, after a group of Israelite spies scouted out the Promised Land and only two of them came back with anything good to say about the land “flowing with milk and honey,” God decided to grant the people their wish. A wish He had heard them repeat over and over again, that they “die in the wilderness.” So, God told all His children that, “the number of the days in which you spied out the land of Canaan, even forty days, for each day a year shall you bear and suffer for your iniquities, even for forty years” (Numbers 14: 34, Amplified). This is exactly how long they lived in the wilderness – 40 years!
Just imagine for a minute that you were one of the women in this crowd of over a million men, women and children. You had been filled with excitement because soon the desolate journey from Egypt to Canaan would be over. What a relief!
However, right on the border, just before crossing the Jordan River, you were informed you and your family were headed back to the desert. Not for a day or for a year – but instead, for 40 years. Talk about disappointment. Ernest Reeves describes disappointment this way: “Rivers without water, clouds without moisture, roses without fragrance, honey without sweetness, homes without love, life without hope.” I’ll add one more thing to his list, “Egypt without Canaan.”
Left in a desert to wander. Left in a desert to suffer. Left in a desert to die. The wilderness had won! The wilderness had swallowed hope and replaced it with despair.
And I ask you, has the wilderness, whatever that wilderness is in your life, torn your hope to shreds leaving you desolate and lost in the desert today?
So many of you, I know, are in a desperate wilderness in your lives. I know because I read every one of your e-mails. I hear the pain. I feel the sorrow. And I can tell there’s a lot of desperation in the desert right now. The wilderness is winning in many lives which are filled with fear, hopelessness, and desperation. Continue »
