Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild, a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen, delighted once again this week to be your host and your guide, as together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves But not by ourselves. Gang, here we are. It's week ten.

Moses and the Israelites have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory last week as they turn their backs on the promised land. So, hello wilderness. Because a house divided itself cannot stand and God won't stand for it either. That's the conversation this week. So hello and welcome into this chronological journey where we watch the story of the Bible unfold like the epic movie that it is.

So subscribe here on your favorite podcast platform and why not go ahead and share it with a friend too. And I want to say a special welcome to our Word and the Wild Plus community members. Their support of this non profit endeavor makes space for all of us here on this Bible reading adventure.

They're enjoying access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question, along with things like our weekly live stream Q& A. Bonus content like articles, full interaction with me and the whole community, occasional meetups if you're local and even some live stream teaching gatherings with yours truly.

So if any of that sounds like your kind of place to be You're going to want to check out the show notes for how to become a member yourself, or go over and check out all the details at word and the wild. com. Well, with that it's time, my friend, let's get wrestling with the why behind the wilderness. To set you up for success as we dive into the story this week.

The wilderness, the wild, no man's land, inhospitable, uninhabitable, neglected, and abandoned , I mean, with such a hostile environment. As the backdrop for this week's episode, it it's very easy. For a couple of things to happen to us. First one, and this was me . I just want to toss my Bible across the room and just yell seriously people, I mean, for real.

We just spent all this time watching God install a new identity into this nation of people that had been beaten down by generations of enslavement. We watched the tabernacle get built with so much detail and so many laws and rules and regulations, and it felt like we're just turning a corner. We're just about to get to the part of the story where the good guys win.

And then they decide they'd like more desert time. I mean, come on people. What are you doing? You're killing me, right? Okay, that's one thing that can happen. Second thing that can happen. It's okay. First one. Hey if that happens, this is the time Go ahead. Take a second. If you're in your car roll down the window.

Just just yell Just do something to get you got to get rid of that frustration All right. Now second thing that can happen and that is It's to just oversimplify this whole wilderness episode into just being about God sending the Israelites out into a big sandy corner for a long time out where it's just God punishing them.

And there's something to that, but there is so much more to it than that, that we don't want to miss as we walk through the wilderness this week. At the end of the day, here's how we got to where we are right now. I mean, the Israelites. They were not impressed with God's plan to lead them into the land of Canaan now, don't get me wrong I mean they saw the land itself and it was impressive abundant crops and resources just the kind of paradise that an agrarian society was looking for but But the work to claim it, the apparent obstacles in their path, overshadowed any of that optimism.

And even worse, overshadowed their trust in God's promise to give them that land. See, that was God's promise, right? I mean, just before Moses sent the scouts into Canaan, here's what the Lord said to Moses. He said, Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. That's Numbers 13 verses 1 and 2.

It couldn't be more clear. I am giving the land to the Israelites, okay? But then just 40 days later, 10 out of the 12 scouts, they come back and say that the inhabitants of this land of Canaan, the natives are just too much to handle. Here's their quote. They say, we can't go up against them. They are stronger than we are.

And then they go ahead and make sure every Israelite knows all about their exaggerated prediction of doom. Here's another quote from them. They say, the land we traveled through and explored, it'll devour. Anyone who goes to live there. That's a vivid language from, uh, that's numbers 13, 31 through 33. I mean, they're painting a picture.

Those 10 scouts, they, they saw potential threats, but then they inflated them to a size that eclipsed both reality itself and their trust in God's promise. I mean, this is not a surprise to God or to, uh, the scouts or the people themselves. God had already discussed what would happen when they faced death.

enemies in their quest to go into the promised land and live there. Check this out. This comes from a couple weeks ago. Remember Leviticus 26. It was near the end of the book of Leviticus. Listen to what God had already told them. He says, If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will give you peace in the land and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear.

I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land. In fact, God goes on to say, you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. Five of you will chase a hundred, a hundred of you will chase ten thousand. All your enemies will fall beneath your sword. That's Leviticus 26, 3, 6, through 8.

Didn't matter if they were going to be outnumbered. God was going to take care of them and be with them and give them a land. And to allow them to live there without fear. God has not broken a single one of those promises so far. It was the people who broke faith in the relationship with Him. They're the ones who go back on their part.

Of the deal. And man, when your perspective gets off like that, when, when you see threats out there and you grab them and you pull them in close to your face, and you look at them in a way that they seem bigger and more powerful than the creator God himself, man, you are in trouble. , or in this case you are in the wilderness, right?

And, and we're gonna see this week, okay? That when the Israelites trust in God's character and God's promise is abandoned, their loyalty to Him and each other is just pushed beyond the breaking point. It frays. It snaps. And God's command to love Him and love each other gets broken time and again. And so The wilderness.

And while it's easy to see the wilderness as punishment for failure, and there's a little bit of that in there, but it's really more about preparation for future. God's preparing them to focus their identity on who He is and who they are. To focus on their identity as God's people and the destination that God has planned for them.

See, God's people got to the border of the Promised Land, but their divided loyalties left them unprepared to enter. And so, back into the wilderness they go. The wilderness serves a purpose. It puts every person in the Israelite camp to the test. And every person with motives other than maintaining their relationship with God and their neighbor and Becoming a nation of people who represent God and the good life with him right there at the crossroads of the world That is the land of Canaan every one of those people.

Well in today's terms, we would say they get canceled It's straight Um, deleted with all kinds of various, uh, methods, shall we say. And it does seem harsh and intense to our eyes. And it's hard to watch. It's hard for me to watch this unfold at times, but, but God knows something critical, uh, that, that the, that the Israelites themselves could not see, God knows that a house divided against itself.

Cannot stand, and God cannot stand for that.

Now as we look ahead to what's next on the trail, we're tagging along with the Israelites, and we would be doing ourselves a disservice to just simply leave the story with them because there's something very practical. in the story for you, too, and for me, if I'm honest. Track with me here for a minute.

See, God had a destination in mind for the Israelites, right? It's, it's Canaan. It's the promised land. God has a destination in mind for you as well. It's not necessarily a geographical place on the map, although your journey with God may include that, but, but God's destination for you is something else.

It's something that takes you forward. In your own growth, moves you forward in your own story, while at the same time, takes you back to the earliest moments of our story. The story we're reading together and exploring together. It takes you back to the Garden of Eden. Let me explain what I mean. But first, more about that destination.

What is God's destination for you? Where is God taking you in your life? You, personally? Well, if we flash forward in the story Uh, we get to the book of Romans in the New Testament written by a man named Paul. And there in that book, which we'll get to eventually, but for now, we're going to just take a peek and we're going to find the answer to that question, where is God taking me?

Here it goes. It says, Romans. Romans. and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son. That's Romans 8. 28, 29. The wilderness was a place of preparation for the Israelites.

It was uncomfortable. It was tense. It was adversarial. A hostile environment. But God used that harsh environment to highlight and delete the divided loyalties of his people to prepare them for their future. So you and me, we, we all walk through a harsh environment. This life is not easy. It's uncomfortable, tension filled.

It's hostile. But what Paul told us there is that God causes all of that to work together for the good of those who love him. All of that in alignment with God's purpose for them. And what's that purpose? Well, it's there in the next verse. There's another translation of that Romans 8 29 section there that says this.

Our purpose, God's purpose for us, is, as it says, to be conformed to the image of his Son. Like the Israelites, we are divided as people. There's a part of us that wants to step right into the work of adopting a mindset like Jesus. That sounds great! Then there's another part of us that wants to just scream at God and stomp back to Egypt.

There's a part of us that wants God to improve our conditions, to bring us more comfort, to give us control, let us call our own shots, right? And so God takes all of that And he walks us through a path of preparation where the cutting and abrasive environment works together to shape us and sand us into the image of Jesus.

The wilderness is a workshop where I am becoming a person who loves and lives. With the mindset of Jesus mixed loyalties Divide us so the wilderness shapes us shapes us for God's best future for us That's a future where you and I look like Jesus because here's the thing if you look like Jesus, then you look like God and If you look like God, you're carrying God's image You're representing him inside of his beloved world among the people he's created and he cares so much about.

And when you're doing that, you are reclaiming the role you were created to fulfill. You're simply returning back. To the purpose that the Creator God had in mind when he created Adam and Eve and You. Created in God's image to represent him inside his Beloved world. That is God's future. That is God's promised land.

His Destination for you and for me too.

All right, just like that once again, we're all set set for this week's walk into the wilderness. I hope you enjoy it. Word and the wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. It's all about getting together, understanding God's word, reading it for yourself, but not by yourself. All you Word and the Wild plus community members.

I'll be seeing you in the wild. That's our private online community space. Everybody else. Hey, don't be a stranger subscribe to this podcast. They follow Word and the Wild on Facebook. We get into some interaction there, too Word and the Wild is a line house community. It's part of the Line House Community Network.

That's a non profit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible because friendship and God's Word change lives and change cities. Word and the Wild, presented by the LumaVoz Podcast Network. Thanks to you guys. You're the best.

My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide. Delighted to be with you this time and look forward to next time. Until then I'll be looking for you out there on the trail in the word and the wild. Have a great rest of your week.