Tempting God in the Desert

Articles

Larry Walker
02/16/16 - Temptation

Do WE Tempt God in the Desert?

Traveling through the desolate, dry, rocky, dusty desert in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, it is not hard to understand why Israel complained. Though some beautiful and interesting sites are there, traveling through it can be very trying and dangerous, and on foot it could quickly be deadly. Water is so rare, vegetation is skimpy, and the heat will just blast you in a very short time. And this goes on for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Well might the Israelites, traveling through what seems like “God-forsaken” desert, look back to the Nile delta, to the land of Goshen, and wish for the melons and vegetables and WATER of that good land. Never mind that they were slaves there – at least they had enough to eat, and were not on the brink of dying of heat and hunger and thirst.

And the faith of Moses! He could easily have enjoyed the VIP life in Egypt. To lead this great multitude out across the desert, simply based on the promise of God and in humble obedience to His will – what a burden it must have been to him, what pressure he must have felt, having responsibility for the safety of all those people in circumstances of danger and death. But he “saw” by faith the end that God had in mind for them, and he pointed them toward their real salvation and their real savior.

Paul tells us that they all drank of a spiritual rock in the wilderness, “and that Rock was Christ” (I Cor. 10:4). They were being led for a spiritual purpose, and their hope, their stability, their life was the eternal Christ!

What are lessons for us?

We must steel ourselves against the temptation to long for the “good old days” where we had no responsibility or Christian duty. Often we are tempted to complain about the difficulty of the current circumstances, or to turn back to the old way of walking. Never mind that we were slaves to sin – we just want “the easy route”.
We must not tempt Christ as they did [I Cor 10:9]. That is, we must not put Him to the test by taking the attitude, “What will He do if I just turn back a little bit? Will He let me get away with it?” “Can I ‘get by’ with a little complaining and selfishness?” “Maybe I could have what I want here and now, and still God will accept me.”
We must keep our hearts set on our spiritual relationship to our Rock, no matter how tough our way in this world might be! We have to feed the hope of our heavenly home, but we should also see the beauty and joy of walking hand in hand with our Savior, sharing in his suffering for the will of God.
We must help our brothers and sisters see the same Rock we see. Think how Moses’ preparation for 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian prepared him to lead God’s people through the desert. So we must use our trials and tribulations as preparation to help those whose faith would flag.

“Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,” Heb 3:8

Larry Walker

May 2010