Sometimes I feel like I have whiplash when I finish reading about the Israelites. One chapter "they did everything that the Lord commanded" and then the next they are raising such a ruckus about their comfort level. "If only we had meat to eat!" is heard throughout the camp. I love God's answer to their problem. "You want it, you got it. So much so that before this is over the sight of quail is going to make you vomit!" Can you blame God for being angry. He has been trying to build their faith and at this point it didn't matter how many miracles the people experienced, he was getting nowhere.
And then comes the eyewitness report of the Promised Land. It was an amazing place where God was leading them. There was an abundance of fruit there. It was all God had promised only one 'small' problem. They had to take possession of it. They would have to move forward with God. "What?! There are giants there!" It would just be a enormous hardship and actually pretty terrifying. For most of the people it was just too much. They just as soon stay where they were and God gave them exactly what they wished for.
We are not much different from these people who made the choice to wander around in a wilderness rather than moving through it to a place where God promised blessing. So often we look at our difficult circumstances and we to are stopped dead in our tracks. Fear and anguish take over and we sometimes even question God's wisdom for bringing us to the place we are at.
In the New Testament, James has a different way to look times when we find ourselves in distress. He says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds". [James 1:2] Joy! How can that be? Not exactly the word most of would choose when we find ourselves in a bad place but here it is in God's Word urging us to take a different view of suffering.
There was a reason behind his argument. It is "because... the testing of your faith produces perseverance." [1:3] When I think of the verse I keep hearing in my ears, "This is a test of the National Emergency Broadcasting System. This is only a test." Just as the National Emergency Broadcasting System is checking if you can hear them in an emergency by testing out the signal God also checks to see if we are listening and following his direction in times of trouble. Time after time the Israelites failed this test. They saw the giant obstacles and dug in their heels rather than hearing and following the 'emergency directions' from God. They did not trust God to do what he said he would do.
We can have a different outcome than the aimless wandering of the Israelites. Listen to God, trust his directions and get moving. Each time we do this, our faith grows a little more until following him exclusively becomes the way we do life. We have a faith that perseveres and James says when this perseverance is allowed to finish its work "[we] can be mature and complete, not lacking anything." [1:4] We don't have to continue in wishy-washy wandering about the wilderness. We can put our faith in God and his direction. When we move out under his guidance, we will find a trustworthy passage directly into the Promise Land. A pretty good outcome I would say.
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