I didn't make it passed the first verse of this chapter without getting stopped. Here is an excerpt of what Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh:
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'
Isn't it interesting that the first thing God wanted His people to do was go into the desert to hold a festival for Him? I mean the desert isn't typically known as the best place to hold a festival. It's hot. It's desperately barren. It's the kind of place where people die if they get lost. So why did God want to hold a festival there?
I think it's because there aren't any distractions in the desert. It's quiet. It's empty. It's the kind of place where you can be still enough to actually hear God.
Sometimes, in our own lives, we find ourselves in the same place. We're alone and empty feeling and desperate. We're in the desert. And it's tempting to run. To see the desert as a bad place. As a place to flee from as fast as we can.
But maybe God wants us there for a reason. Maybe we're exactly where we need to be. Maybe God brought us there for a festival.
Friday, August 15, 2008
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13 comments:
It's in the desert that we get really really thirsty...and since Jesus is the Living Water..perhaps it takes being in the desert to really be thirsty for Him...
And after one takes a cold drink of water ..after being without for awhile...its so refreshing...and Christ is like that too...when we move away from Him a bit..and He brings us up close to Him again...it's amazingly refreshing...so if being in the desert leads us to that..then it's not such a bad place....
Great post Jon
Your posts have just been so in tune with what I've needed to hear lately. What a coincidence. ;)
to anon at 9:20 p.m.
good comment.......
Jon? I think you left something out....and anon picked up your slack ;)
Ezekiel 34:25 is a nice compliment to these thoughts. In this passage, God is showing that both the desert and the forest are places that God uses to teach us total dependence upon Him to provide for our every need.
Great timing on this post. I'm on my way to a literal desert part of the country and at first I was a little hesitant to go. Thanks for the reminder of what God can do when we're in a desert place.
Wow. That is awesome.
Everyone needs alone time, but sometimes.. some people have all the time to themselves and they feel depressed and lonely.
God put us there for his own reasons and I think he wants to get through us and keep us to himself for a little while :)
In general,I am an optimist, but this has been a "desert" year for me. I would like to think there is a festival coming up. I really need it.
God wanted the people to go to the desert to hold a festival to him. I think your words about the desert and how it relates to us at various times is dead on.
Another aspect that is important, though, is that God wants us to worship him. His primary purpose of bringing the people out of Egypt is so they could know him and worship him.
So when we are alone in the desert, worshiping God can, even when we aren't sure we can feel him around, can be one of the greatest things we do to spark our relationship with him.
Love your blogs. Thanks for taking the time to share the word and your heart with us. =-)
Yep...
i've had a little 'sand between my toes' lately...and in my shorts, and in my car...
~Is it possible to have both the 'desert sand' & a 'festival' at the same time? (we just got back from the beach) =]
*N-joy u'r wknd Jon!*
(make it to the beach b4 summer's gone)
campman62.wordpress.com
Great post, Jon. Amen!
Thanks, Jon :)
To celebrate in the midst of defeat.
I'm there now (the desert)(could use prayer about that) and should hold a festival.
Thanks for the thought/reminder.
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