Although God delivered His people (Israel) out of their slavery in Egypt, He didn’t just take the people straight into the promised land. God knew that they weren’t ready, so they journeyed. In that journey, God prepared them for how they were suppose to live. Although God was with the Israelites the whole way, they still questioned Him. They kept forgetting what He brought them out of. After a while, they kept forgetting every miracle He was doing to provide for them. There was even times when they cried out to Him in anger saying they would rather be back in slavery in Egypt because the journey through the wilderness was too hard.
Isn’t this what we go through in our journey with God? We cry out to Him for deliverance from whatever is afflicting us and has us in bondage, but then there is a process to get us ready to fully receive God’s blessing on the other side. If He gives us our “promise land” right away, would we see it as a blessing or will we turn it into a curse? I pray to the Lord for a bigger and better house, but I can’t even manage the tiny home I have today. What would I do with a mansion? It will be too much for me to handle on my own and I can’t afford to pay for help. Yet, I pray for a bigger and better house because I am “over” all the problems of this broken down house, but did I forget that there was a time that I was sleeping in someone’s garage with my two little kids? Did God not deliver me from that? If I was living in the garage again, will I appreciate the blessing of the “run-down” house I have today? I can be the Israelites in the wilderness sometimes, but He promised me my blessing and I have to go through the process in order to be ready for it.
