Wilderness 3 – whole life learning
This was a bold response from Moses. God had affirmed his intention that the Israelites were to live in the promised land - despite the disastrous golden calf episode. But there was a major caveat. Because of the Israelites' rebellion God would no longer go into the land with them. For if he did so, this stiff-necked people would be consumed by his presence.
But Moses was not prepared to enjoy the abundance of Canaan without the God who gave it meaning. He knew that without the presence of the living God of Israel they could not be what they were intended to be - a distinctive people, a living witness to the one true God, for the rest of the world. Moses was gripped by his understanding of God's purposes - and so he interceded for the people of Israel.
But distinctiveness had to be learnt and the wilderness was God's training ground. As Moses had come to understand, it would be living in God's way that would enable Israel to demonstrate God's presence with them and his favour on them. But to do that they had to learn to live every part of their lives in dynamic relationship with their saving God - to understand the comprehensive scope of God's interest in them. God had given them a set of commandments that were to shape their values, their society and their relationships. It was through the challenges of daily life his people were to come to realise that their food and drink, their work and rest, their justice system and their battles - all were important to him.
God's training methods were practical and participatory. They were sometimes painful, and often very messy. But it was whole life learning, whole life embracing. Doesn't this remain our challenge today - to learn to conduct all our human activities in ways that find favour with the Lord our God? How might this week's challenges be used by God to help us learn to do so?
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