How appropriate that this week's Torah Portion is entitled "In the Wilderness - or Bamidbar in Hebrew.
Torah: Numbers 1:1–4:20
Haftarah: Hosea 2:1–22
Gospel: John 1–2
I feel like I have been in the wilderness for months, maybe even years now. In First Fruits of Zion's (FFOZ.org) "e-Drash" email this week, the writer explains that, "The absolute deprivation caused by wilderness requires people to rely utterly on God. In the wilderness God provides for His people."
On one hand, I definitely see his provision in my life - I have a wonderful family, a nice home, and we rarely ever go hungry.
On the other hand, I feel like I should be closer to Him. I feel like He is letting me go dry for some reason, and in times like these, I become my biggest enemy. Instead of digging into His Word, searching desperately for the Living Water, I tend to find myself dragging my feet, complaining about how dry my mouth is. It is perplexing. In the physical world, I drink because I get thirsty – if not for the dreaded feeling of thirst, I would dehydrate. In the spiritual world however, if I get thirsty, for some inexplicable reason, I intentionally avoid the spring of relief. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom 7:24
I must remember that I am saved by God's grace; by the enormous price that Yeshua paid for me on the cross, and if He loved me enough to go through all of that in order to save me, I am encouraged to believe that He will sustain me while I am Bamidbar.
On one hand, I definitely see his provision in my life - I have a wonderful family, a nice home, and we rarely ever go hungry.
On the other hand, I feel like I should be closer to Him. I feel like He is letting me go dry for some reason, and in times like these, I become my biggest enemy. Instead of digging into His Word, searching desperately for the Living Water, I tend to find myself dragging my feet, complaining about how dry my mouth is. It is perplexing. In the physical world, I drink because I get thirsty – if not for the dreaded feeling of thirst, I would dehydrate. In the spiritual world however, if I get thirsty, for some inexplicable reason, I intentionally avoid the spring of relief. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom 7:24
I must remember that I am saved by God's grace; by the enormous price that Yeshua paid for me on the cross, and if He loved me enough to go through all of that in order to save me, I am encouraged to believe that He will sustain me while I am Bamidbar.
I pray that He will bless me with an insatiable thirst for His Word - but more than that, I pray that when He does, I will have the wisdom to act on the “thirst”.
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