shamed: the Wilderness of Wandering
‘For here is the way God so loved the world—He gave His only unique Son as a gift.’ (John 3:16a, TPT)
April 4th, 2022
FOOL-ish, i.e. lacking judgement or sense; ill-considered; unwise; preposterous; thoughtless; reckless; absurd; idiotic.
1 Corinthians 1:18: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.’ (NKJV)
They drew out an eleven-day excursion into a forty-year forfeit. Have you ever missed your turn? Driven past a turn-off you were supposed to take and realized it way down the road when what you expected never arrives? Realized there was a shortcut you could have chosen that would have saved you hours, miles? Or perhaps you took that shortcut and it ended up costing you far more. Shortcuts sometimes in life aren’t always what they are cracked up to be. The Israelites maybe were the first to discover this, and because of their mistake, it cost them forty years and forfeited a daily diet of flowing milk and honey. Not only that, but they fool-ishly missed the point, the point the Lord had wanted them to exclusively hear.
As their Jehovah Jireh, God drew His people out of Egypt and sent them in search of their Promised Land, a land filled with provision—and just what it promised—promise. He sent them to scope it out so they could accept and claim it for their good and for His glory. But in fool-ishness, their eyes grew in disbelief and their hearts in fear as they gazed upon a fortified land and a healthy people, seeing themselves but grasshoppers and unable to receive His promise. The penalty of their fool-ishness and their unwillingness to receive God’s promise and take Him at His Word would take forty years of wandering. An entire unbelieving generation would die off and they would never set one foot in the land God had promised them due to their mistrust and nonsense, rejection and reluctance toward obedience. Numbers 14:34, ‘”According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection.’”
I, like the Israelites, wandered for forty-ish fool-ish years. I refused to relinquish my own ideals and plans. I resisted stepping into the promise of all God purposed for me. I envisioned giants in my way, and in my shame and guilt, could not fathom that God’s Word was true for me and that He would want something so protected and reinforced for me, chief sinner. I am so very thankful His patience and grace outran my persistence and petulance, so that I could taste of His daily provision and rest in His promise. My disobedience would ultimately cost years of searching and possibilities He intended for me that I missed due to my nomadic ways; opportunities wasted, relationships wagered, because wandering is expensive.
Are you wandering? If so, get a roadmap of your Father’s purpose for you, and follow it stealthily. If you are anything like me (and the Israelites), you may be surprised and overjoyed where you eventually end up when you choose to follow Him above all else, no matter where His route leads.
