The people of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years after their miraculous escape from Egypt at Moses’ hand. They experienced God’s supernatural deliverance through the crossing of the Red Sea and yet were quick to forget. They grumbled and complained about God’s provision of manna, longing for the leeks and onions of Egypt.
This type of irrational amnesia plagues us all. We have seen God at work in the past, and yet we forget Him in the present. Sadly, we fail to trust Him for the future. Songwriter Michael Card captures the challenge of living in the wilderness between promise and fulfillment: “In the wilderness, we wander/ In the wilderness we weep/ In the wasteland of our wanting/ Where the darkness seems so deep.”
Have you lost your sense of direction in the desert? Are you wallowing in your own desires and sorrows? Listen to the words of Scripture which remind us that Jesus passed the wilderness temptation test for us. He trusted God when He was at His weakest. Now He leads us through our current wilderness!