The Wilderness
When the Wilderness is a Better Route
Exodus 13:17 and 18a
There are four theological constructs that force us to define them as we examine this text. There are four theological constructs, four theological terms, four theological events in history that say to us “you have to define my place in the text before you interpret the text.” Otherwise Pas. Copeland as we have been studying at WHW in our classes we’ll end up with isogesis rather than of exegesis. In other words, what I think instead of what flows from the text without my own imagination but with the unction of the Holy Spirit.
There are four theological terms here that say, “You have got to say a word about me.” 1) There is OPPRESSION, 2) LIBERATION, 3) the WILDERNESS, and 4) the PROMISED LAND. You can’t interpret this text until you have a working definition of these four terms. Now we know oppression is anything that hinders us from becoming everything that God has created us to be in life. That’s OPPRESSION. We all agree with that, when we have the weights and the sins of the world bearing down on our shoulders. We all agree that that’s oppression. All of us know what it’s like to have that weight pulling you down and some us here this morning know how that OPPRESSION can manifest itself in a private way. You are weighted down but nobody knows it but you. All of us know what OPPRESSION is.
And then all of us know LIBERATION. LIBERATION is when God identifies with the oppressed making the oppressed condition God’s own condition. In other words, God says look! I am not going to take you out of the fiery furnace, I am going to make the fiery furnace My condition and get in the fiery furnace with you! I may not stop you from having surgery but I am going to surgery with you. I may not stop you from having chemo but I am going to chemo with you. Got OPPRESSION and got LIBERATION.
All of us know what the PROMISED LAND is, to have the blessings of God - that’s the PROMISED LAND but the thing that we can’t agree on is the WILDERNESS.
In the words of “Crossfire” - there are those on the left with one opinion and there are those on the right with another opinion. There are those on the left with the opinion (it’s not necessarily right or wrong it’s just their opinion) that the wilderness is a chaotic, sinful state of existence. They work out of this paradigm because you see they only have two shots in mind. On one end of the spectrum they have oppression and on the other end they have the promise land. They haven’t yet discovered what to do with what is in between so they call everything that is in between the “WILDERNESS” - which must be evil since it has not gotten me to the promise land. What are you talking Bro. Browder? Let me help you to understand…
You see they know about the God of prosperity but they don’t know about the God of robbing Peter to pay Paul. They know about the God of good health but they don’t know about the God that allows this body to get sick sometimes. They know about the God that will heal us but they don’t know about the God that says, “If this house or this earthly tabernacle were dissolved I got another building not made with hands, eternal in the sky!” They the wilderness as chaotic and sinful living so if something is wrong in your life, evidently it must be your fault. If you got AIDS, it must be your fault. If your teenage daughter is pregnant, they think, “it must be your fault!” They know the God of beauty but not the God of the Bible.
And then there are those on the right. They see the wilderness not as evil but really as mess. But they have a different concept of God. Their concept of God is the kind of God who takes a mess and makes a miracle. Their concept of God is the kind of god who will take scars and make stars. Their concept of God is the kind of god that will take pimps and make preachers, prostitutes and make missionary sisters. Their concept of God is the God who stepped out into darkness and said “look, ain’t nothing wrong with darkness, I just need to put darkness in the right place! They have room in their religion for their faith to be stretched, so whether they got money in the bank or not they are still saying “hallelujah!” (I may get happy here after a while) Whether you like them or not they are still saying “hallelujah!” They tell the devil, “go ahead and hit me but what you don’t is I’m like one of those air-filled dummies from Romper Room - I got bounce back power and the harder you hit me, the harder I’m coming back.” So if you don’t want to make me a great preacher you’d better leave me alone!
In between these two extremes we meet our text. We meet our text in between these two extremes. God providing LIBERATION and the PROMISE LAND but through the way of the WILDERNESS. Then it becomes more problematic because God says when they left the latter part of verse 18 “they were ready for battle.” But in the next verse He says if they run up against the Philistines, they will turn back. That leads me to say this: just because you can win some battles, it doesn’t automatically mean that you can win all battles. And so God say that in order to prepare you for any battle, I am going to send you through the WILDERNESS.
God says, “if I don’t send you through” (and you all are making me stretch this thing out) “if I don’t send you through the WILDERNESS first, when you get to the promise land you will erupt in volcano style. If I don’t send you through the WILDERNESS first, when you get your doctorate you won’t speak to folks. If I don’t send you through the WILDERNESS first, when you get your money you’ll think you’re more than other folks. If I don’t send you through the WILDERNESS first, you’ll speak with folks you like but not the ones you don’t like. So to get you down on level ground, I’m gonna send you through. Pack your bags, get your ticket but you ain’t flying first class life.
You know, and I have to testify, I want to live a promise land life. I want to preach at promise land churches, I want to preach promise land sermons, I want to have a promise land marriage, I want to raise promise land children, I want to have promise land friends, but God says “if you wanna have promise land churches and preach promise land sermons and have promise land children and friends I have to send you through the wilderness.” We ain’t here by accident, we ain’t here by mistake but is God…!
And listen, you may not like me for it but the ministry is not a popularity contest, I have already lost that. But black people I want you to know that we are in the WILDERNESS, but don’t give up just yet be patient with yourself because God is not through with you yet. When God gets through with me, I shall…
Wait a minute, wait a minute… Let me take a little more time and if the Holy Ghost will allow, I will abbreviate. And I have decided that I am going to put all my stock in the Holy Ghost because pain will teach you that. I need to spend a little time telling you that the wilderness ain’t all-bad. That the wilderness will provide something for the saints of God that no other place will provide.
So what then does the wilderness provide for the saints of God that nothing else can provide? 1) The Wilderness will provide the opportunity for GROWTH. When the book of Genesis ends, the children of Israel are in a place of pretty good living, they got it going on. They mistreated their brother Joseph, and coming out of their famine, and closing out of the book of Genesis and coming into the book of Exodus and because of Joseph and Pharaoh they are provided with some of the best living down in Goshen they are provided a good living during a time of famine.
When nobody else had food, they had food. When nobody else h ad homes, they had homes. When everybody else was at war they had peace. I wish I had some help right there. They had all of the comforts provided for them. But then there’s a strange statement that occurs in the Exodus 1:8; “…there arose a king that knew not Joseph.” And they find themselves in a little trouble but then God sends Moses to liberate them.
But check it out… They went from success to poverty to liberation. But all three stages were because of someone else, they hadn’t done anything for them selves. (Oh y’all don’t feel me) They were living off of somebody else’s blessings. And God said, “If I don’t teach you first of all to grow up, when you get to the promise land you will still think that people are going to come and provide your every need. So in order to make you grow up, I am going to send you through the wilderness.” Because if no other place will make you grow up, the wilderness.
It is the wilderness that gives preacher the power to preach. It is the wilderness that makes musicians transform the notes on the paper to heart-felt melodies. It is the wilderness that will teach us to lean and depend on God. It is the wilderness that will cause us to grow up. (I wish I had some help right here). In Matthew God says that "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased", but then He chases Him into the wilderness because the wilderness will make you grow up. After coming through the wilderness, you are battle-ready."
But let me move on; the wilderness in an opportunity for growth. I have a friend that is going through some hardships and I told him not to go through those hardships for nothing. Your understanding ought to be a little clearer, your prayer life ought to be stronger, and your relationship with God ought to be tighter. When you go through the wilderness, you ought to grow up!
The wilderness offers the opportunity for growth but there is something else in the text. The wilderness offers the opportunity for grace. Not just growth but grace. Because if you plan to grow mistakes will be made. But grace is the medicine for those mistakes. I agree with the songwriter this morning that wrote, "He looked beyond my faults, and saw my needs." It was grace!!
You see we owe the children of Israel a great big apology because their lives were not as peppered with grace as ours. You see the God of the Old Testament is a God of immediate judgement. God drew a line in the sand and if you crossed it you were dead meat. God didn't play. So we have a little more grace. That's why it doesn't matter how well-off you are, you didn't get because f your knowledge, you didn't get there because of your position. It wasn't your family name, it wasn't where you went to school, it wasn't your reputation, but it was GRACE!! And if it had not been for grace on your side... I don't mean last year, I don't mean last month, I mean this morning... GRACE!!
One more time; the wilderness is an opportunity for growth, the wilderness is an opportunity, and finally the wilderness is an opportunity for God. You see God does some of His best work in the wilderness. In the wilderness God parts Red Seas. In the wilderness God writes the Decalogue with God's own finger. In the wilderness God lifts up a brazen serpent and says that if you will just look up you'll be healed. In the wilderness God does some of His best work!
But not only that, God does some re-organization and some restructuring in the wilderness because everybody that went into the wilderness, didn't come out of the wilderness. And so God says "I need to get you into the wilderness because I have to have an all-day cleaning session. I need to do some cleaning in the wilderness because when I get folks in the wilderness and they get an attitude, I get an attitude right back and you had better get right!
Let me say this as I get ready to take my seat... I have tried to tell you that there is one way to the Promise Land and that is by going through the wilderness. And I need to testify because the last few months of my life has been a wilderness experience. Don't act holy on me, some of you all can identify with me. I am moving through the wilderness and I asked God what I need to tell you all. He said to tell that that I am preparing you for great works. Tell them that I am getting you ready to take on more leadership. Tell them that I have been working on you all night long and all day long. Tell them just in case they're in a wilderness that the promise land ain't far away. Tell them that it won't be long, not too many more tears to shed; weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. Tell them not too many more days of being defeated because no weapon formed against Me shall prosper. Tell them not too many more days in need because my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.
So long and fair well, but before I go to my seat, I think that I need to tell you - I thank God for the wilderness! I thank God for my wilderness. And every now and then I say "beings of heaven as I go through this wilderness below, guide my feet in peaceful ways, turn my midnights into days, when in darkness I would grope faith always sees a star of hope, and soon from all life, grief, and danger I shall be home.
