Wednesday, June 15, 2011

"Are we there yet?" The eleven day journey that took 40 years

I have read the beginning of Deuteronomy hundreds of times and I still chuckle every time.  I will read from the New Living Translation in Deuteronomy 1:2-3.

"Normally it takes only 11 days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by the way of Mount Seir.  But 40 years after the Israelites left Egypt, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses addressed the people of Israel, telling them everything the Lord had commanded him to say."

11 days.....40 years!!!???  Road construction?  Traffic jam?   Didn't get good directions??? (perhaps the man was driving and he wouldn't stop and ask for directions?!)  Camel trouble?  None of the above?

Well, if you chose "none of the above" then you got the right answer!  So what was the problem?.....it was a heart condition.  Yep, a heart condition will definitely slow us down.  Think about our physical hearts.  I am in the medical profession so I've had a lot of experience with heart conditions.  People who suffer with them get slowed down.  They easily tire and get out of breath, they can't go the distance they were once able to when they had a healthy heart.

It's no different when we have a spiritual heart condition.  A problem with our spiritual heart attack will diminish our effectiveness for the Lord.

That is what happened here in Deuteronomy.  God's purpose was not to just transport a group of people to the promised land....He was looking for an obedience from His children once they arrived.  God won't take us where He wants us if our heart reveals that we have no intention of obeying Him once we get there.

If reminds me of organ transplant surgery.  A person who needs a kidney or a liver or some other organ is screened very carefully.  Why?  Organs are hard to come by.....most of the time somebody lost their life and through that death another person is given another chance at life through an organ transplant. We are looking at the potential candidate's history of compliance with medical care, as it will lend information on the likelihood of compliance with all that is involved in maintaining a transplanted organ.  If the person does not look like they would comply then they are not put on the list at that time.

What good would the promised land be if the Israelites were just as wicked as the nations already living there?

Are we looking for our Heavenly Father to take us to new heights.  We must be faithful and submissive right here where He has us.  He will test our hearts.  However, the test is never to harm us but rather to grow us and strengthen us so that He may transplant us to even higher ground.

Do you know that the first "transplant"  occurred on the cross?!  That's right.  You and I were in need of a heart transplant.  We were dead in our sins.  God have His Son to die so that we might have life!  What a costly gift!  Let's not waste that gift of a heart transplant that we've been given.  Let us be found faithful.

I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord plant my feet on higher ground

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
My prayer my aim is higher ground

Lord lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table land
A higher plane that I have found
Lord plant my feet on higher ground.