A Wilderness Not of Your Own Choosing - Deut 8

Introduction

Deuteronomy is addressed to the children of the generation who forsook the Lord in Numbers. You’ll remember that God had delivered them out of Egypt miraculously, provided for them in the wilderness miraculously, and taken them to the edge of the Promised Land, only to have their spies come back and say that the people of Canaan were too big for them to overcome. After all that He had done, they didn’t trust God. And so, they came under the judgement of God, and God sent them into the wilderness where every, single one of them would die. They had said so boldly on the edge of the Promised Land that they had to protect their children from what God had set before them, but it was to be their children, and not them, that He would allow to experience the blessing of seeing his promise fulfilled.

And so, Deuteronomy finds the children of the unfaithful generation living in a wilderness that was not of their own choosing. God had intended for them to be raised in the Promised Land, but here they were languishing in the wilderness in their 40’s and 50’s. Many of you are likely living in a wilderness that was not of your own choosing. Your husband cheated on you and left. Your parents divorced, and your dad didn’t seem to care about you. You were abused by someone you loved. You’re still unmarried, or you’re still not pregnant. You’ve lost your health, or the Lord has taken the person that you love the very most. But, here you are living in a wilderness not of your own choosing.

God’s Word

What are we supposed to do with these wilderness experiences in our lives? This is what brings us back to the Big Story. Remember what this series is all about. It’s about realizing that all of the Bible is about one main character, Jesus, and one main storyline, the Gospel. And, it’s this realization that gives context to our experiences in the wilderness like these children of Israel, especially when it’s not the result of our own sin. The gospel teaches us two things: 1) Because of sin, this world is cursed and filled with brokenness. Sometimes, we’ll suffer because of the sins of others. Other times, we’ll suffer because of the effects of sin, the introduction of death and suffering, in a way that is mysterious and disconnected from other causes. 2) But, God is in the process of redeeming this world and his children so that we can realize that our darkest night in the wilderness is a painful, purposeful pathway to abundant joy. Our pain isn’t pointless. It’s used right now, and it’s being overcome forever. This is the reminder that God gives to them in verse one when it says in verse two, “the LORD your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness”. He’s leading you down this painful, purposeful path to abundant joy in his promises.

Over the next two weeks, we’re going to look at Deuteronomy 8 to see how God uses bad times and good times in the lives of his children (headline). This week, we’re going to focus on the trials, the hard times, and next week we’re going to focus on success and prosperity.

Big Idea: “Trials” in the wilderness prepare us for “joy” in the Promised Land.

God wasn’t trying to ruin the lives of his people. He was preparing them.

God uses the wilderness to confirm the truthfulness and goodness of his promises to his children.

Three ways that God uses the wilderness to set up his children for joy:

The wilderness “tests” your heart.

v. 2b “testing you to know was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”

God used the wilderness to reveal the hearts of Israel

Trials squeeze our hearts to see what comes out.

Trials don’t make; they reveal.

ILL: COVID reveals a lot about the nature of our faith — church expected to decline by 30%

We prefer to blame like Adam — my parents/my neglect/my bad position — people face same circumstances with different responses (not making) — reveals what’s already there

Proverb 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Heat and Heart drawing - credit Tripp/Jones - sun is the heat of the desert — same heat falls on two different hearts — two different fruits (fruit/thorns)

The fruit reveals the root.

Thorns: anger/bitterness/withdrawal/self-pity/impatience/cursing God

Fruit: forgiveness/perseverance/kindness/peace/confidence in God

APP: What are the trials of your life revealing about your heart?

The wilderness “teaches” you priorities.

v. 3 “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

He ‘let (them) hunger’. How does that rest with you? He let them suffer.

The painful path was purposeful.

They learned what they really needed.

They learned upon whom they really depended.

The education of the wilderness is much more valuable than the wants of the moment.

Life isn’t about bread.

To live for bread alone is a betrayal of both God’s glory and your own dignity. It’s to live as though Gods gift is the purpose of living and not God himself. It’s to live as though you are only a body without a soul, as though you are an animal and not an image bearer.

You need more than bread because you are more than a body. You need more than bread because there is a Giver you need to know behind the bread.

How other nations related to their gods (through nature and provisions) God isn’t nature, and we aren’t animals.

Our society dehumanizes and calls it progress.

religion - naturalism

god - ourselves

purpose - live for my body (live for bread)

realization - “I feel like I’m dying.”

Living for your body a 25 year old marathoner can feel like they’re rotting away unto death.

Living for Christ an 85 year old with cancer can feel like they’re coming more and more alive.

APP: What do you live for when you’re hungry/suffering?

Bread and the body?

God and the soul?

The wilderness “trains” your faith.

v. 5 “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.”

Discipline toward parents.

Training (like an athlete) for the children

Training where to place your faith/where to put your confidence.

Where not to place your faith: Yourself.

You control nothing

Their parents decided they could take of their kids. Then, they decided they could take the Promised Land. But, they had no control.

v. 2 “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you...”

Trials teach you just how out of control you really are.

Where to place your faith: covenant God who loves you.

God controls the smallest details.

v. 4 “Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.”

God had not just taken them into the wilderness; He had sustained them there in ways they had not even imagined.

John Piper: “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”

ILL: My health —> My despair —> God’s call to counseling/my desire to not waste more time

APP: Who do you really trust?

Do you find more comfort trying to make things better for yourself or in trusting the sovereign hand of God?

Landing

God is trustworthy — even in the middle of wilderness that’s not of your own choosing.

v. 7-10 - the gift of a land as lavish and abundant as Eden — even though sinners.

A wilderness not of their own choosing lead to a Promised Land not of their own deserving — a gift.

Every step had been a purposeful path toward joy.