23 March 2014 - in the desert, not deserted

23 March 2014 - in the desert, not deserted

The LORD brings us out of Egypt and into the desert.  Here we have to depend completely on him.  In Egypt we are surrounded by the power of sin to temporarily satisfy us.  That is why he calls us out.  As he calls us on this pilgrimage we must respond with trust. 

 If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The temptation is to doubt that he will provide for us.  We are so used to hording the treasures of the world that his provisions seem insufficient.  It seems like they will run out and be exhausted.  And yet this world is the promise that never satisfies, no matter how much we get.  What God gives us sometimes seems quantitatively less than what we get from the world.  Can it truly satisfy?

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Even food and drink, necessities in this life, merely point to deeper fulfillment which we are meant to have in God.  The Israelities all drink from the same spiritual rock that accompanies them, and the rock is Christ (cf 1 Cor. 10:4).  Yet they must be weary to not harden there hearts.   They still face the temptation to seek the partial fulfillment they are used to rather than the gift which God intends them to have.

Yet Christ is the rock struck to pour out the Holy Spirit on us all. He is the water that can satisfy, first in this life, but also in eternity.  Christ tells us to ask for this water.  We must not harden our hearts.  This is the only hope which does not disappoint.  His Holy Spirit is the living water "poured out" that doesn't just quench our thirst but reveals "the love of God" to us in the depths of our hearts.

As we come to know this love and this peace we come to trust him more. We are more able to be satiated by that food which "is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work."  Firstly, our thirst for God's love is quenched.  In response we begin to obey him and experience the food which "is to do the will of the one who sent" us.

We must be like the other Samaritans.  It isn't enough to believe because someone else has a testimony, even a great testimony like that of the woman at the well.  We ought to hear Jesus speak to us and not harden our hearts but to believe as well.

“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

Our hope in him does not disappoint.  Even though we are spending time in the desert let us worship this God who guides us so tenderly.  Filled with the love of God in our hearts we are set free to worship him in Spirit and truth.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.