IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT?

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Have you ever wondered about exactly what we will be doing throughout eternity in the New Heaven and New Earth? Scripture is silent on the details but there is one very reasonable inference that we can draw, based on what God prioritizes while we are still here on Earth. It will be an activity or state of mind that requires utter trust, complete faith in God. This is apparent in His interaction with us today and during Biblical times. Nowhere is this made clearer than in the lives of Moses and the Israelites, as we left them in the wilderness in our last study.

 

Essential to God in imbuing them with trust, was His close proximity to them at all times, while on this decades’ long journey. And, additionally, He was not just close, He was accessible and fully engaged with His People:

 

“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place AS THE LORD COMMANDED.”

(emphasis added)

(Exodus 17:1) NIV

 

 While Moses was in charge as God’s appointed leader, there is no doubt that he was not autonomous in any sense of the word. God was directing his and the Israelites’ every move. What makes this remarkable? Two things: We often think of God as distant, too busy to be bothered with the details of our lives. This view is simply not supported by Scripture. God is highly personal and is interested in every facet of our thoughts, attitudes and actions.

 

Secondly, God’s practice of staying close, is further remarkable in that, historically, it dates back to Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. After their sin in this paradise, God did not just slam the Garden gate and wash His hands of fallen mankind. GOD LEFT PARADISE WITH THEM, in the sense that He was ever present in their lives and in the lives of their descendants right up to our study’s present Israelites’ struggles in the wilderness.

 

Michael writes so beautifully,

 

“God lives in unapproachable light, yet He is approachable with the smallest ray of light.”

 

Amazingly, God is even there for us, and, this week, with Moses and the Israelites, when He is the last choice possible. God is waiting.

 

As Michael says,

 

“God is who you turn to when you have no other choices,”

 

How true! He remains gracious even when we are at the end of our collective ropes.

 

This is where we find the Israelites as their story continues this week:

 

“They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’

Moses replied, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?…’

They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me…”

(Exodus 17:1-4) NIV

 

What were the Israelites saying?

 

“…Is the LORD among us or not?”

(Exodus 17:7) NIV

 

God instructed Moses to strike a rock and then sent water pouring out of it. Once again, He gave them evidence that they could trust His provision. He was revealing Himself to them. As Michael says,

 

“God does not do all that His power allows, not to be seen and heard. When you need something, people show up — God moves things!”

 

In the dailiness of all God does, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture of God. He is rearranging who we are in an important way. He is transforming us from fearful doubters into men and women of unshakeable faith. Yes, we need it now, this very minute, but God sees our eternal futures and how our trust in Him will be paramount.

 

With the Israelites, God saw their daily need that only faith affords, and He also saw 40 years down the wilderness road to a Promised Land and how much faith would be the legal tender of decision as to whether to take it or, on the other hand, to fade at the moment of truth.

 

Michael describes how God worked here, through Moses just striking a rock and providing enough water for two million souls:

 

“It’s like waking up to God. The miraculous paths and all the doors in front of you — these are welcoming doors, there for your faith. There are miracles placed there for you.”

 

In leading the Israelites, God was, through the miracles of manna, meat and water, building the spiritual foundation of each Israelite. What was paper thin needed to become like steel. Why? Because, God knew what lay between them and the Promised Land and it was the wilderness.

 

It was not that the Israelites were just randomly wandering into this difficult life terrain. It was not that Moses had, on his own motion, decided to turn toward the desert. From his growing frustration level with the Israelites, he did not seem so inclined.

 

No, it was much more than all this. Why was there a desert in their immediate future?

 

“While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, THEY LOOKED TOWARD THE DESERT, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.”

(emphasis added)

Exodus 16:10) NIV

 

GOD was leading them there. As Michael said so insightfully, it would be a place of miracles. It would be a place where God would come through for them endless numbers of times. It would be a place where, when someone asked the question, “Is the Lord among us or not?” there would be an answer that was born of great truth but hard circumstance — Yes, He is among us, The God who created the universe is by our sides.

 

And so it is for us today. No matter the season in which we find ourselves, whether an oasis or a desert, He is leading and with a Promised Land destination.

 

 Along the journey, God is preparing us for that arrival with an agenda of ever increasing trust in Him. The beauty, the magnificence of this divine plan is that living with unswerving faith in Him and His provision benefits us now with peace and, in eternity, with whatever spiritual credentials God is uncompromisingly determined that we possess.

 

We began this week’s study with a question about what our eternal lives will be like. God knows the answer and we will know God. Everything else is part of the great adventure of the association with Him and, therefore, a matter of our continuing trust, our blessed reliance on what we cannot yet see. This we know for sure: God promised. It is written.