With Us In The Wilderness

The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.

If you were to make a timeline of your life, what would you include? What major events, moves, accomplishments, and life stages would serve as markers on your journey? What trials, losses, heartaches, and crushed dreams would indicate forks in the road? Each of us has a story, layered with unique complications, challenges, and celebrations.

The story of the Israelites’ long, tumultuous journey from Egypt to the land of milk and honey is as layered as a slice of baklava! Moses recorded each step of their expedition, noting their starting place, their campsites, and the major events that unfolded along the way. Numbers 33 is written with a repetitive framework: “And they set out from [location] and camped at [location].” Over and over, Moses painstakingly detailed the names and places the Israelites journeyed through as the next generation prepared to conquer Canaan.

Moses knew how quickly God’s people tended to forget his faithfulness in the past. He knew that in order for them to move forward in faith and conquer the Promised Land, they would need to look back and see all the ways God had been with them in the wilderness.

Moses describes their journey this way: “You have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7). In all their years as nomads, without a place to call home, they had everything they needed. Their shoes did not wear out, and their bellies did not go unfilled. Though God’s provision looked different from their shortsighted desires at times, he provided exactly what they needed.

Life often feels like endless wandering in the wilderness. We set out for one place and end up in another. We desire one thing, and God gives us something else. We want the land of milk and honey without the long journey to get there.

Moses reminded the Israelites, and he reminds us today, that God is with us in the wilderness and to be with God is to be home. Knowing that God sees the path we take, the heartaches we experience, the disappointments we carry, and the adversity we endure, we can set out on the journey before us with confidence.

As you look back on your layered life through eyes of faith, you will see how, even in your wandering, you lacked nothing (see Psalm 23:1). And you will taste how sweet God’s presence and provision have been—even better than the best piece of baklava.

Word before World Our journey in life is rarely linear, but God lovingly guides us along the twists and turns.

Grow in Grace Make a simple timeline of your life. Looking back on the formative events, how can you see God’s hand at work in various moves, transitions, and changes?