Worship in the Wildnerness

Having grown up in sub-Sahara Africa, I am well acquainted with the wilderness. In eighth grade my class took a middle school camping trip to the desert. Exhausting heat by day, frigid temps at night, unfamiliar noises, barren landscape, and the feeling of being vulnerable, exposed, and surrounded by uncertainty and unpredictability can make the desert, though brilliant and beautiful, feel overwhelming and the person in it small and powerless. The wilderness is a place characterized by emptiness. For miles and miles, there seems to be no change or hope for change in the scenery. It is desolate, uncultivated, uninhabited, and threatened with possible hostility from unknown forces. This place of exposure and bleakness is exactly where the Lord led His people...on purpose...for 40 years!

I love the book of Deuteronomy. Moses, under divine inspiration, gives us in writing glimpses of God's faithfulness, holiness, mercy, etc., during "the wilderness years" of the Israelites. Deuteronomy chapter 8 has been especially meaningful for me recently. Earlier this year I had memorized verse 3 and a couple of weeks ago I sat down to meditate and reflect on the passage as a whole. So much can be said on this passage, and I will in no way even begin to cover it all, but I wanted to share some of the honest truths I am learning as He leads me through the wilderness.

v2: "You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." 

The Command: to remember the whole way which God has led--this means purposefully setting the mind to call upon specifics of what God has done--every little act of faithfulness, every sweet gift of mercy, each chastisement--and know that it is from Yahweh.

The Purpose: to humble you. To test your heart. Our heart's response is an indicator of our worship. The Lord wanted to know who His people would worship when placed in an empty, unknown, desolate land.

v3: "He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." 

Immediately following the explanation of why, we are given the account of it actually happening. "He humbled you." God did exactly what He said He would do. He "let you be hungry." In other words, He brought you to a place of need and utter dependence upon Him. In the wilderness God led His people to a position where no solution could be found in themselves. In and of themselves, they were helpless and powerless.

The Provision: The Lord's provision is so often unexpected, unknown, and unfamiliar, yet it is always the right solution to a specific need. God satisfied the need of His people by providing manna, a new and unprecedented, yet perfect answer to their need. However, the true provision is not the manna, but "everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." Does man need bread? Yes, but not bread alone. True life, sustenance, satisfaction, strength, and nourishment is found in the LORD and His words. His words brought the answer to the problem: manna. The Israelites found themselves utterly dependent, day after day for forty years, on Yahweh's kindness to speak manna down to them.

How beautifully does this point to the ultimate provision found in the Word, Jesus Christ (John 1:1). Jesus, God's Word in flesh, is also the Bread of Life, who can eternally fulfill man's deepest need and truly satisfy. But first, like with the Israelites, we must be humbled and needy in order to believe that no solution exists other than Jesus Christ, the Word and Bread of Life.

v7-10: "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you."

The Promise: The Lord has promised good. He gave the Israelites hope--a good land. In the barren and unfamiliar, God promises fruitfulness. In the days of dryness He promises brooks and fountains. In the dreariness of the mundane, in the fearfulness of the unpredictable, in the weariness of the lonesomeness, God promises a time and a place of blessed eternal satisfaction, communion, and restored worship. "You shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you."  His faithful promise is to give us our greatest good: to glorify God by being so utterly satisfied in Him that we bless His Name!

v16: "In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end."

Perhaps your wilderness is son-ship discipline, like it was for the Israelites (v5). Perhaps your wilderness is a time of loneliness and uncertainty, a period of spiritual dryness or weariness, or a time of constant fearfulness or threatened security. Perhaps you feel trapped in a desert of disappointments unable to smile at the future. My prayer for you is also my own: that you will learn to worship in the wilderness by remembering God's faithfulness, believing in His daily Provision, the Word and Bread of Life, and looking ahead to the fulfillment of His promises.