As we journey through this world many of us repeat the mistakes that the children of Israel made, as they journeyed through the wilderness for many years longer then God intended. Even though we are surrounded by blessings, we often fail to be thankful and we look around and murmur at all the things we think we’re lacking. A journey that should have taken 11 days turned into 40 years because of their unbelief.
Isaiah 48:21
And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
Is there anything that seems more impossible? That water could gush out of a rock? Yet this is what the Lord did for them and they thirsted not but still they stood with hearts filled with unbelief.
Deuteronomy 2:7
“For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.”
The Lord had blessed them, His eye being constantly on them as they walked through the wilderness. He said all these 40 years thou hast lacked nothing. How much less are we lacking today as God allows endless blessings to fall on both the obedient and disobedient? I fear that these many blessings are not strengthening our faith and our ability to endure under trying times that will test the quality of our faith. I know when my faith has most increased and it surely wasn’t when everything was going well. It increased under tests and trials.
They had a great desire to again return to the land of slavery because during these years in the wilderness the people were constantly reminded that they were under Divine rebuke. God did not lead them into this dilemma. He warned them against it. Their own sinful choices led them into it. Their desire to return to the land of slavery had shown them to be unworthy of freedom.
When Christ frees us and He takes away the enemies power over us we too go out and we rejoice as did the Children of Israel when the Red Sea water’s set them free from their captors. Yet too many of us look back with longing to this life of slavery and we desire to have bits and pieces from our old life. Because we look back and desire this life that should remain in the past, we will never really move forwards.
Instead of climbing higher and higher, daily coming closer to Him, we too will go in circles never getting to our destination. What should take days will take years. They were only 3 days in the wilderness when they start to complain. 3 days they had no water and they began doubting the God who had hours before parted the Red Sea before their very eyes.
Nehemiah 9:21
Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness; They lacked nothing; Their clothes did not wear out And their feet did not swell.
None of them had any jobs and yet they lacked nothing. Not a thing. As they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years they didn’t need money or any stores, God took care of every single need.
Exodus 16:1-21
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Exodus 16:2.
Many of us look back to the Israelites, and marvel at their unbelief and murmuring, feeling that we ourselves would not have been so ungrateful, but when our faith is tested, even by little trials, we manifest no more faith or patience than did ancient Israel.
There were plenty that marched out of the land of bondage. But in the end almost no one made it to their promised land in Canaan. They marched to and fro, were exposed to hunger, thirst and weariness. Right now we are full to the brim with food and water but should this change overnight as it surely will and we would have to depend fully on God for food and drink as did the children of Israel, would we really be any different then they were with their unbelief and ungratefulness?
Psalms 37:3
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
Isaiah 33:16
He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure.
Isaiah 41
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Elijah was so grieved over all that bowed their knee to false worship that he prayed that these people would feel what it means to experience God’s hand no longer pouring out His blessings. He wanted them to see just how little their false gods could do for them. He prayed that God would withhold rain and so it was that there was no rain or dew for 3 1/2 years. James 5:17
As Elijah saw Israel going deeper into idolatry, in anguish of soul Elijah prayed that God would visit them with judgments if need be, that they might be brought to repentance.
He went to king Ahab saying “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” 1 kings 17:1
After this God said, “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 1 kings 17:3
Among the mountains east of Jordan there dwelt a man of faith and prayer. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And, while he came as a reprover of sin, his message offered healing to sin-sick souls.
Elijah didn’t need to worry about food and water for just as God had promised, the ravens came and fed Elijah, as God had commanded them to. Amazingly enough, the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and you can’t read that Elijah was lacking or looking around for more. I think 2 times a day would not be enough for most of us since many of us are used to 4-5 meals a day. This just might be all it would need for us to give up, maybe looking around for our endless delicacies that take a toll on our health. There is no doubt that many of us would start complaining with a plain meal like that, forgetting the hand that supernaturally fed us when we would have otherwise died of hunger and thirst.
After awhile the brook from where Elijah had been drinking water dried up because of there not being any water in the land. But Elijah didn’t need to worry for God sent him to a widow that will provide for him. When he shows up at the gate where God had sent him sure enough there was a widow that was gathering sticks. He calls to her to bring him a little water in a cup and a morsel (mouthful) of bread.
At his request for some bread this widow tells him that she only has a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar. At this point Elijah could have started to question God, as most of humanity surely would have. To question God on why He would send him hungry and thirsty to a widow that was about to bake her last loaf of bread. A widow that was planning on baking and eating her last meal with her son and then after this she thought she would die. As we can see, God tests us while He supplies our needs and often times we give up instead of waiting for Him to move and we miss out on amazing blessings that increase our faith.
The situation was hopeless to eyes that did not plan on looking upwards. But faith was attached to this situation and because of this faith supernatural things took place for this widow, her son and God’s prophet. This widow went to bake bread and her bin of flour never ran out neither did her oil run dry. This story was not recorded just for us to quickly read it over and think well God worked more mightily back then and that was then. The day is coming when we will be as depended on God to feed us as He fed Elijah, when all odds were against him and he was on the run from people that were seeking to end his life. The world will not care if we starve to death or die of thirst but let us never forget the words of David when he said “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25
That God who cared for Elijah, will not pass by one of His self-sacrificing children. He who numbers the hairs of their head, will care for them, and in time of famine they shall be satisfied. While the unrighteous are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous, and supply their wants. To him that “walketh righteously” is the promise. Our food and water will be sure.
But He never promises to preserve our life, should we stand before people in high authority that wish to end our existence. Our life may come to an end when we refuse to be moved or turned away from our duty to walk as he called us to walk but one thing is for certain, in these moment when we breath our last, none of us will feel like we have been forsaken by him. He will be there, feeling the pain to a greater degree then we will experience.
Matthew 10:28
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
We are not to fear them that can only kill the body but fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. They say the more we fear Him, the less we fear man. This is the point that we all need to reach.
Would we be thankful and overwhelmed at the love our God has for us or would we be craving for the endless different foods that we no longer have?? Its clear to see that we have a million more delicacies then they had and for us it would be even harder to not be found guilty of complaining over the way God feeds us. Would we be as foolish as they were when they said “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! Exodus 16:3
They desired to rather have died by the hand of God rather then enduring a situation where food and water wasn’t there at the moment when they thought it should be. Food was more important to them then being free from bondage. Food was their whole life and they couldn’t bear to be separated from it. Still today food means a lot more to people then it should and people are quick to complain and give up as soon as certain food is withheld from them. There is no way that God will supply our problems with gluttony in that time when we will have to depend on Him. When He fed the children of Israel and Elijah, the food that was given them was not an overload of all kinds.
The history of the wilderness life of Israel gives us a picture of how it will go at the close of time. When the doors will be slammed in the faces of those who refuse to bow down to the demands of a system that will stop our buying and selling. When they see us obeying God rather than man. Those will have to be depended on God for every detail that they’ll need. No longer will there be such a thing as using our ability to supply for our needs. On every turn along the way we will have to be depended on this same power that led the Israelites out of Egypt. The most essential thing that we’ll need on that journey will be faith and patience. Without the 2 we will be the same as were those that God led out of Egypt. One day we will get to be led by this same power that led Israel but at this time it will be to heavenly Canaan. May we not be at the very borders of this heavenly Canaan and miss out on entering in because of our unbelief and lack of trusting the Devine power that leads us.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:16.
Proverbs 23:2
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
I think I now have a better understanding on this verse, many people throughout the ages have been found guilty of being lovers of food rather then being lovers of God. Their love for food exceeds their love Love for God. Food has become so dear and near to our hearts that many of us might just as easily and carelessly exchange heavenly things for something as temporary as a pot of beans as did Esau.
When Esau, coming home one day faint and weary from the chase, asked for the food that Jacob was preparing, “Behold, I am at the point to die,” cried the reckless, self-indulgent hunter, “and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” For a dish of food he parted with his birthright. To satisfy the desire of the moment he carelessly traded of the glorious heritage that God Himself had promised. His whole interest was in the present. He was ready to sacrifice the heavenly for the earthly, to exchange it for a moment of indulgence. It was the desire for a piece of fruit that at the very beginning plunged humanity into total hopelessness and our Redeemer had to pay dearly to clean up this mess. Food and drink controls us more then we actually realize, it is something that should make us all pause and question ourselves whether we are guilty of this. There is help for this, He is only a prayer away. If we cant image living life without certain foods and drinks, then surely these things have become a god to us.