This post is one of the entries from Jody’s upcoming book, “Come Follow Me,” a year-long devotional based on her popular video podcast of the same name, to be released in the fall of 2016 by Two Worlds Press.
“Thy way O God is holy; What God is great like our God? Thou art the God who workest wonders; Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples. Thou hast by Thy power redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.”
~ Psalm 77:13-15
The wilderness was a time of testing and trial for Israel. Born into slavery in Egypt, they were unaccustomed to the ways of the Lord. The Father needed to reorient His people to Himself.
The stories of Israel’s forty year sojourn have numerous lessons for us today. “For I don’t want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us; that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved…” (I Corinthians 10:1-6)
Hidden within the story of deliverance from Egypt, and the journey to the Promised Land, is our own redemption story. There is a saying that goes: The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. When we read them, it is similar to the way we put a large puzzle together…continually looking for places that match. The wilderness story is when God begins to retrain His people to ‘be led.’
Question: How has the Lord taught you to trust Him in the midst of a trial?