So much for shortcuts. God’s people embarked on a trip that should have taken just a few days, but forty years later, Israel was still wandering around the wilderness of Sinai! Why? Because they were disobedient. They incorporated pagan gods into their worship. They made gods of their own invention. They intermarried. They lost their hearts to other things. Each time they sinned, Moses interceded for them and they renewed their covenant with God; but they abandoned their original sense of calling for a kind of lazy syncretism, drifting further and further into disobedience.
Instead of Canaan being their destination, Sinai became their home. They lived between two worlds: They were out of Egypt, but not yet in the Promised Land. An entire generation was lost during those wandering years, and many on the journey probably never knew why they were traveling at all. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson likens their course to our generations today. There was a generation whose relationship with God was vital—perhaps like our parents. Then the next generation was only marginally committed—and the next generation was openly rebellious. The farther we get from a vital relationship with the living God, the more comfortable we become living between two worlds. We don’t feel tension. We feel ease.
Beware of a borrowed or inherited faith in God. The youngest Israelites of the Exodus never knew that Canaan was their destination. God was present in the cloud, the pillar of fire and the manna—but He was not personal. They had unknowingly moved away from His purpose and His plan, until their lives looked very much like the lives of those who never knew Him at all.
MEMORY VERSE
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants (Deuteronomy 30:19).
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE
Luke 5-7; Revelation 4-5
