Leave Unbelief in the Wilderness
“With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:17-19 WEB)
The children of Israel were numbered in millions when they left Egypt, but in the wilderness those who murmured and complained against God despite His miraculous provisions for all their needs died there.
With every new test in the wilderness, more unbelieving people died, like impurities melting off precious metal in a furnace.
God’s presence never left them. He was in the center of their camp as a pillar of cloud by day (to relieve the heat) and a pillar of fire by night (to warm them from the cold and provide light in the darkness).
When it was time for them to cross over into the Promised Land, all of the unbelieving generations of them had died and only the new generation along with Joshua and Caleb were allowed to cross the Jordan.
“Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that you said should be captured or killed, them I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.” (Numbers 14:28-33 WEB)
The wilderness is a place where you wander around until your unbelief and propensity to complain dies.
If you think about it, the wilderness was a safer place for the children of Israel than the Promised Land of Canaan.
There was only one giant they had to fight in the wilderness (Og, the King of Bashan), but Canaan was filled with giants and all sorts of scheming, powerful enemies.
“They told him, and said, “We came to the land where you sent us. Surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along the side of the Jordan.” Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!” But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”” (Numbers 13:27-33 WEB)
Canaan was a richer inheritance but also far more dangerous and the children of Israel had to rely on God more than before.
If God had allowed the unbelieving generations of the children of Israel into the Promised Land, the whole nation of them would have been wiped out—the ones with faith would have been discouraged by the ones constantly complaining and spreading fear.
If you’re wandering in the wilderness now, God is allowing this season to burn away the unbelief inside you, so that you can conquer the enemies and take possession of a greater inheritance in the next season.
If God allows you into the new land before you’re ready, the enemies would be too overwhelming for you if you haven’t learned to trust God for your battles.
A breakthrough too soon will be the cause of your breakdown.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 WEB)
A new realm of promotion is ahead of you. Don’t rush to enter because your Abba Father knows exactly when you’ll be ready to step in.
At the right time, the Holy Spirit will miraculously open the way for you through the Jordan River and the demonic enemies encroaching on your inheritance will be trembling in their boots!
“She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.” (Joshua 2:9-11 WEB)
Your sojourn in the wilderness will come to an end. Meanwhile trust God that He’s doing all that’s necessary to prepare you for the abundant blessings ahead!
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