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Join the Journey E On n O i ESS S JOIN THE JOURNEY During their forty years in the desert, Israel was transformed. The Israelites came out of Egypt as emancipated slaves with a vague remembrance of their God and little awareness of their identity. Through a journey of struggle and hardship made possible by the daily experience of God’s ever-present love and provision, they came out of the desert as a people with a faith, a book, and a culture. No wonder the desert became a central theme in the faith life of God’s people. It was not just a place through which they passed; it was how they gained a way of life, an identity; it was part of their very soul. But the journey was not easy. The desert was a place of danger and death (Deuteronomy 8:15) compared to the safety of Egypt. In the desert, God’s people experienced his protection more intensely because the threats were so severe — fr om poisonous snakes and scorpions, from enemies, from hunger and thirst. In that sense, the desert became a place of refuge and guidance where they experi- enced the shelter of God’s protective care (Deuteronomy 2:7; Psalm 68:5 – 10). The desert journey was also difficult because it revealed the true heart of God’s people and their stubborn refusal to surrender com- pletely to their God. It was a place of bitter resistance to God’s leading and a selfish desire to return to the comforts of Egypt. So in the desert we see their bitter complaints about the lack of food and water (Exodus 15:22 – 24; 16:1 – 36; 17:1 – 7; Numbers 11:1 – 35; 20:1 – 13). We see their outright unfaithfulness and rebellion in the making of the golden calf (Exodus 32) and Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16). We see their unwillingness to take on the mission of reclaiming the Promised Land for God (Deuteronomy 1:26 – 36). 13 9780310880622_WalkWithGodInTheDesert_int_DG.indd 13 6/22/15 4:44 PM 14 LESSONS ON WALKING WITH GOD IN THE DESERT In the desert, God disciplined his people because they refused to continue the journey and become his holy people. As a result, the entire generation that had entered the desert died there. Their expe- rience is a paradigm, a warning and a lesson, for every generation that resists God in order to serve its own desires. But there is another side to the desert journey. It was also an awe- filled time when God revealed his presence in fire and cloud, when the thunder of his voice was heard. It was a time when daily mir- acles — water gushing out of rock, bread and meat from heaven — testified to God’s love and protection of his people, his treasured possession. The journey in the wilderness was recalled as one of intimacy and faithfulness, when “as a bride you loved me and fol- lowed me through the desert” (Jeremiah 2:2). It was a wonderful time of intimate solitude with God when he forgave their sins and patiently molded them into the kingdom of priests and holy nation he desired (Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 8:2 – 5, 15 – 18). The intimacy and intensity of Israel’s worship in the desert was unparalleled in their history. It is true that they often rebelled and sinned grievously in the desert, yet they experienced God’s loving provision anyway. They learned that he will chastise sinners but also offers unexpected redemption. Often God showed mercy to them in the desert because of his faithfulness to the covenants he made with their ancestors (Exodus 2:24; Leviticus 26:42; 19:5; 24:1 – 8) and with them. So they came to know him as a covenant God who is always faithful to his promises, even when his pe ople are not. The rich and personal nature of Israel’s relationship with God was on full display in the desert. For generations into the future, when God seemed distant and his people were apathetic or defiant, the faithful returned to the desert. Some returned by remembering their ancestors’ journey, others by going into the wilderness them- selves. Going into the desert was for the purpose of restoring one’s relationship with God — to relive a time when Israel, God’s prized possession, fell in love with him in the desert. May our desert jour- neys — th ose difficult, confusing times of nearly overwhelming pain and hardship, punctuated with God’s protective care and blessing — also lead us to rediscover our God and fall in love with him again. 9780310880622_WalkWithGodInTheDesert_int_DG.indd 14 6/22/15 4:44 PM Session One: Join the Journey 15 Opening Thoughts (5 minutes) The Very Words of God In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye. Deuteronomy 32:10 Think About it Imagine that you are in a stadium with tens of thousands of pe ople watching a football game for the very first time — except there are no goalposts and you have no idea what the objective is. All you see is lots of running around, pe ople crashing into one another, the ball being thrown first in one direction then another, and the spectators cheering wildly sometimes and seemingly devastated other times. How chaotic would that seem to you? In what sense do our lives look a bit like that, particularly when we are going through a difficult time — what we might call a “desert” experience? In football, when you add the goalposts and know the objective of the game, the chaos on the field starts to make sense. In life, what do you think helps us to begin to make sense out of the confusion and chaos of our difficult times? DVD notes (13 minutes) God f inds Israel i n t he d eser t A place o f d anger a nd p er il 9780310880622_WalkWithGodInTheDesert_int_DG.indd 15 6/22/15 4:44 PM 16 LESSONS ON WALKING WITH GOD IN THE DESERT A place o f r efuge and p ro tection Three l ands — Eg ypt, Pro mised Land, deser t Learning to k now, tr ust, and l ove God i n t he d eser t God joins h is people i n t he d eser t 9780310880622_WalkWithGodInTheDesert_int_DG.indd 16 6/22/15 4:44 PM #3 Egypt Session One: Join the Journey 17 DVD Discussion (10 minutes) MAP NOTE: We matched input from your tear sheet vs. the ÿle you sent, they were di° erent. 1.Also , theThe input exodus has a dot locationexperience for “Abel Shitti hasm” had not labeled a profound which we’ve impact on God’s added pe. ople. It was a turning point in God’s unfolding plan of Please advise. redemption. Through Israel’s desert experiences during the exodus, God molded and shaped a people who would be his partners in restoring shalom (peace, harmony, unity) to his creation. So let’s take a look at the deserts that have been so Path to the Cross: formative in themap_Egypt_and lives of God’s _Sinai people. 83.3% Jericho s Jerusalem n Ashdod i Qumran a Heshbon s Bethlehem t s M editerranean n e Mt.Nebo n u r o e Dead Hebron d Sea Gaza l Dibon M i Sea W B a e e a s d e En Gedi Ancient o u d r Beersheba J u J coastline B r o Arad MOAB L. Sirbonis ok v esW ilistin a Iye Abarim the Ph d e The Way to the Land of i e l- g Sile Ar ish D e s e r t L. Ballah Jebel e o f Z i n Maghara Ismailiya N Kadesh Barnea r The hu EDOM Succoth Way to S Jebel Great Bitter Desert Jebel Karkom Petra Lake y n h an a Yeleq s of Shur ar w i N. P a h r Little Bitter g i A r - H Lake l s e a ’ g . n P i T W K r a e d f h i T t i o o n a l Jebel I t s r a Sin Bisher r e l e it Taba e S inai s Ezion Geber R o Ein Hawwara e u N t e D A Serabit a b Abu Zeneimeh I G el-Khadim a Nuweiba q u A D l f f Desert of Sin o Ain Khadra o I f Feir . an f S W l b u Rephidim ? s u e a M z G N Jebel Serbal . Ras Safsaf Jebel W Enemy fortress Musa Dahab Jebel Katarina Route of Israelites from 040 km. Egypt to Shittim 040 miles Ancient roadways Ancient canals Locate the Sinai Desert, including the Desert of Sin and Desert of Paran. This is the “vast and dreadful” desert of the exodus. It is the most severe desert region with intense daytime heat, chilling nights, and little or no rainfall. Travel across it is difficult due to ridges of steep, rocky mountains. 9780310880622_WalkWithGodInTheDesert_int_DG.indd 17 6/22/15 4:44 PM 18 LESSONS ON WALKING WITH GOD IN THE DESERT The Desert of Paran, which extends into the Negev, is the general area where the Israelites wandered for forty years. Only God’s miraculous provision enabled his people to sur- vive there. This desert’s inhospitable conditions are high- lighted in Deuteronomy 1:19; 8:15 – 16 and Psalm 107:4 – 5.
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