Many times in life we deserve to be deserted in the desert.
Our refusal to walk in God’s right sets us on a path of
wandering and waywardness, and we end up doing circles, getting nowhere
fast. Outright obstinance isn’t always to
blame for the sand between our toes; often our carelessness and laziness cause
us to ignore God’s Word and choose the easier and seemingly more exciting way
of the world. On occasion, our fear
finds us shaking our heads at God’s call and His commands, and because we say
no, we can’t go—and so we wander. But even in our rebellious drifting, “because of His great compassion, God does
not abandon us in the desert”(Neh. 9:19).
Repeatedly in Nehemiah’s prayer of confession and commitment,
he acknowledges that God’s mercy and grace are what keep Him from casting His
people away. As Nehemiah praises God for
His power in creation and then masterfully condenses Israel’s history from its
beginning with Abraham to its current state of “great distress,” he admits that
though God miraculously rescued the Jews from slavery in Egypt, revealed
Himself to them on Mt. Sinai through His laws, and promised to give them victory in their new
land, “they became arrogant and stiff-necked,
and did not obey your commands…They refused to listen and failed to remember
the miracles you performed among them”(Neh 9:16-17). This rebellion and lack of belief turned a
two-year journey into a forty-year excursion, yet every day while they wandered
in the wilderness due to their disobedience, God’s “pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the
pillar of fire to shine by night…You did not withhold your manna from their
mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them…they
lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become
swollen”(Neh 9:19-21).
For four decades in the desert, God’s great compassion—His deep
love and care for His people—caused Him to provide for their needs and to guide
them with His presence, though they deserved no such grace at all.
Perhaps you’re in the desert right now and are experiencing
a time of barren wandering. Maybe your
own choices brought you there, or it could be that the sins of others landed
you in this wasteland (remember that lots of kids were born during those forty
years who hadn’t rebelled against God).
However you ended up in desolation, don’t get down. “Because of His great compassion,
God does not abandon us in the desert.”
Though we deserve no such grace at all, God protects and provides. He heals and He helps, and, day or night, He is
always with us.
When you are truly His, you are
never abandoned and you are not alone.
God won’t dump you in desert or
desert you in distress; His great compassion keeps Him close and holds us
close.
“Blessed be your
glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise!” Nehemiah 9:5
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