The World as Wilderness

Why then have you brought the LORD's assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink. -Num. 20:4-5

The exodus from Egypt was a watershed moment in Israel's history. The Hebrews had been enslaved for 430 years under the Egyptians, and who knows how much longer they would have been there had God not intervened. God was definitely up to something—something spectacular. He was taking the Israelites to the promised land. But first, they had to walk through the wilderness.

The wilderness was rough. It was dry. It was barren. Stupid wilderness. Israel despised the manna God gave them, and complained constantly. They tried to replace God with the golden calf. They tried to overthrow Moses and Aaron and go back to Egypt. They missed the figs...and the trees...and the pomegranates! Really?! Why? Why all this resistance? There was only one reason: Walking through the wilderness was hard. Dealing with drought, sleeping on the ground, packing up their tents, living like nomads. They wanted comfort, not hardship. They were so fixated on comfort, they lost sight of what God was doing and how He was with them every step of the way.

If the world is a wilderness, the point is not that the world sucks and life sucks and everything sucks. The point is that we cannot make decisions fixated on comfort. We cannot spend life complaining, overthrowing God, and drooling over pomegranates. We have to remember what God is doing. We have to be content with God's provisions along the way. We have to follow God courageously, in spite of hardship, no matter where He takes us. After all, He will be with us every step of the way.