What are the saddest words in the Bible? Here is my choice: “It takes eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea by way of the hill country of Edom.” (Deuteronomy 1:2 GNB)If you’ve ever read the story of the Exodus (or watched The Ten Commandments) you will have learned that the people of Israel wandered for 40 years before arriving in the Promised Land.
What the verse from Deuteronomy tells us is that the trip should only have taken eleven days. Selfishness and disobedience led to the Israelites taking a whole generation to make what should have been a trip of a week and a half.
The people wanted comfort, peace, and victory over others. They wanted God their way and either adopted the false Gods of other nations or created their own image of what He should be in order for them to get their own way.
Jesus clearly says we can't expect to have our own way if we want to know and benefit from God's way. All we have must be gladly yielded when Jesus asks for it. “If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 GNB)
It's time to decide if we can be satisfied to never have our own way ever again so that God can revive his church. Is our legacy going to be 40 years of wandering or do we want to enter the Promised Land today?
If God's way is what you really want, you will receive your heart's desire. He is waiting to bless today.
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Robert Scott is a pastor and the author of Advertising Murder, Lost Youth, and Murder Express, titles in the Jack Elton Mystery series, Published by Avalon Books, New York.
Murder Express has been made into a play by the Prairie Dog Central Railway in Winnipeg and will be performed on one of their trains on Sunday, August 16, 2009
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