Welcome the Wilderness Paraugs

Welcome the Wilderness 

In Exodus 14–16, we see the very people of God wrestling with the reality that the same God who performed wonders and set them free also led them into the desert without food or water. 

Most of us feel like we are in one giant wilderness right now, and we’re all asking God the same questions: When will this end? Why is this happening? Where are you? 

The Israelites were definitely asking those questions.

The difference between us and the Israelites? We get to step back and learn from their wanderings.

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the

road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter.

For God said, “If they face war, they might

change their minds and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17–18)

This is what we know to be true about their wilderness: 

1. God led them there, but he didn’t leave them there. 
2. It’s in the desert that God shows himself to his people (Moses and the Ten Commandments).
3. God ALWAYS uses the wilderness to bring us back to him.

And because we are known and loved by the same God of the Israelites, we get to know these truths about the wilderness we are standing in right now.