From Wells to Wastelands

“From there they went to Beer (it means ‘Well’, not beer), which is the water well where Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Gather the people, that I may give them water.” Then Israel sang this song, “Arise, well water! Sing to it! Well water that the princes dug, that the leaders of the people dug, with a staff and with their rods.” And from the desert they continued to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the territory of Moab, by the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the surface of the wasteland.”  Num 21

Forty years to follow, literally, like the literal meaning of literally, God around the desert to finally, finally enter into the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.  Forty years of being sojourners in a land not their own to finally enter into their own land and to join God’s work of judging nations and building a kingdom at rest, a kingdom for His glory and honor, a kingdom with God Himself in its midst.  Forty years of being attacked, of deprivation, hunger, thirst, possibly boredom (not much agriculture and masonry to do when one is on the move constantly).  Desert nomads.  Rootless.  Landless.  But not Godless.  God is there, a pillar of cloud during the day, a pillar of fire at night, His voice and His glory emanating from between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, the proof of the promise He had made to them to be their God and lead them like a Father, like a shepherd, with His Staff of Kindness and Rod of Unity, he showers bread upon them every morning, quail some nights.  He opens the rock and gives them fresh water to drink, no trickle this, six hundred thousand people require a lot of water for themselves and their livestock.  When they rebel against Him fire, serpents and the earth itself disciplines them, purifies them, purges them of their sin.  Not because He hates them but because of His faithful promise to them to make them a holy people.  Because he loves them, he chastens them and grows them and prunes them and leads them into the wilderness to be alone with Him.  He is giving them the greatest gift of all, Himself.  His undivided attention and love.  What child has ever asked more from their father?  And what does He ask in return?  That they trust Him and obey Him.  The two are inextricably tied together.  To obey what you do not trust would be foolishness.  To not obey what you do trust is hatred to the point of idiocy.  And it is not blind faith He is asking, it is rational faith!  They saw with their own eyes the proof of who He is and what he is doing from the moment Moses came to them out of this very desert where God tested him for forty years.

Forty days to sojourn with and seek God.  Forty days to give up whatever He calls us to give up.  Whatever is holding us back.  Whatever is grieving Him.  Whatever we have turned to instead of Him and as a result lost who we are, who He is making us to be, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, sons of the Living God through Christ, who will one day walk from this wasteland to the true land of milk and honey that flows from the Rock of our Salvation, the cleft of which we hide in on Good Friday when God purges all that is unholy from the earth and heaven, the Rock which sojourns with us, which was split for us and spilt for us.  And it is our privilege as sons when we thirst to no longer need strike it.  It answers to whomever falls upon it and speaks to it.  Or better yet, sings to it…

Arise,

living water!

Grace to it!

Well water that the Prince of Peace dug, 

that the King of Kings dug,

with His staff and His rod.