The wilderness is a place of opportunity

We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ often say that this world is a wilderness.  And we believe that through this wilderness we will enter into Heaven, the true Promised Land.  Since there is certain hope in the eternal Heaven, we live in this wilderness-like world, persevering with endurance any difficulties and adversities.  But sometimes we envy some people in this world when we go through very difficult and painful days of our lives, that is to envy their prosperity.  There is time when we look at them with envious eyes in the question of why believers in Jesus should suffer but those non-believers eat well without any suffering.  There are times when we envy them, wondering how we they are successful and live will in this world even though they don’t believe in Jesus but we the believers are suffering .  As a result, we begin to complain in dissatisfaction.  And we imitate the lives of the worldly people who are mixed with us and live our lives like them with hope in this world even though we are just passing by this world.  Although this world is not our home, we live on earth thinking that this world is our home.  We no longer consider this world as wilderness, but as a paradise.

                When we look at Numbers 20:4, we see the Israelites quarreling with Moses because there was no water (vv. 1-3).  They said to Moses, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD!  Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here?” (vv. 3-4)  Furthermore, they complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place?” (v. 5)  How could they complain rather than giving thanks to God for God’s deliverance from Egypt?  To the Israelites, the wilderness was no longer the way to pass through in order to enter in the Promised Land, Canaan.  They regarded “this wilderness” (v. 4) as a “wretched place” (v. 5).  What was the reason?  It was because there was no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates and no water to drink (v. 5).  Since there were none of these things they wanted, the wilderness was the wretched place for the Israelites.  But the question is, ‘Is the wilderness the wretched place, as the Israelites thought”?  Eventually, after hearing the resentment of the Israelites, Moses and Aaron left the assembly and went to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell to their faces (v. 6).  They prayed to God.  Then the glory of Lord appeared to them (v. 6), and God told Moses to assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it might yield its water (v. 8).  But after Moses gathered the assembly before the rock, he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” (v. 10) and struck the rock twice with his rod (v. 11).  As a result, water came forth abundantly and the congregation and their beasts drank (v. 11).  It was called the waters of Meribah because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord (v. 13).  But Moses and Aaron, like the Israelites, sinned against God in this wilderness.  God told Moses and Aaron that “you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel” (v. 12).  In other words, the Moses and Aaron’s sin was unbelief and unsanctification (Park).  As a result, God told Moses and Aaron that they “shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (v. 12).  Thus, in the wilderness, the Israelites and their leaders Moses and Aaron sinned against God.  Was the wilderness the wretched place, as the Israelites thought?

                The wilderness is never the wretched place.  Rather, the wilderness is a good place.  The reason that the wilderness is good place is because we meet our good God and taste His goodness in the wilderness.  In order to experience our good God and taste His goodness, our sins must first be exposed in the wilderness.  The sins of our unbelief and unsanctification should be exposed in the wilderness.  Our contention, resentment, and sinful acts against our church leaders should also be exposed.  Our sins of greed and greed must be exposed as well.  In the midst of that, we should have confession like Prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3: 17-19: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. ….”  We are not to complain about the lack of things in this wilderness.  Rather, we must realize deeply that “I rather have Jesus than silver or gold” (Hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus”).  We must learn to be satisfied with Jesus alone and the secret of being content in any and every situation the wilderness as Apostle Paul did (Phil. 4:11-12).  There is no better place to learn this secret than in the wilderness.  In the midst of that we should have the confession of the hymn “O Thou, in Whose Presence”: (v. 1) “O Thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight, On whom in affliction I call, My comfort by day, and my song in the night, My hope, my salvation, my all!”  (v. 5) “Dear Shepherd!  I hear, and will follow Thy call; I know the sweet wound of Thy voice; Restore and defend me, for Thou art my all, And in Thee I will ever rejoice. “ 

                We must deeply realize that in the wilderness our true hope is only the Lord Jesus.  We must be able to confess in the wilderness that He is our true joy, hope, and life.  Therefore, we must intentionally enter the wilderness.  And we must enter the wilderness ourselves and humbly stay before God's holy presence.  We must fall before Him.  And we must listen to His quite voice.  There is no place like the wilderness to learn that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3).  Therefore, we must be able to enjoy the wilderness life.  In that enjoyment, our souls must be restored and revived.  There we must experience the overflowing river of streams of living water of Jesus, the Rock (Jn. 7:38).  We must be filled with the Holy Spirit in the wilderness.  Therefore, according to the eschatological indwelling Holy Spirit's guidance, we must move by faith toward that high place, the true Promise Land, Heaven.  As the Spirit leads us, we must move toward an eternal Heaven where there is no need and no longer thirst. There we will live there with the Lord forever.

Praying that the Lord, the Potter, molds me in the wilderness,

Pastor James Kim