Seven Lessons We Can Learn From the Israelites and Their Journey Through the WildernessSample

Dependence

The Israelites were entirely dependent upon God throughout their whole journey in the wilderness. He provided food for them, water when they needed it, their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out, and He was a covering for them by day as a cloud and as fire by night. They could do absolutely nothing for themselves on this journey. Their task was to trust, be obedient and follow Moses, the leader God had put in charge of them. 

Dependence can be a hard lesson to learn, especially when we are used to getting things done ourselves. We all go through a wilderness season at some point in our lives. The wilderness is a place we learn dependence on a deeper level. For many of us, there can be different wilderness seasons throughout our lives. Whether your wilderness is illness, unemployment or maybe waiting a long time for a certain dream to come to pass and it hasn’t, we are all tested in these seasons of life. Even Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before He began His ministry. The most important thing is what we come out of these seasons with. 

Do we come out knowing God and that we can trust and depend on Him, or are we bitter because things did not go our way? We always have a choice, just like the Israelites did. They often chose to grumble and complain and missed out on some of the blessings that God had for them. God called them a stiff-necked people! Living in dependence is worth learning. When we learn to be interdependent with God, we can do things that we could never do on our own. It often takes coming to the end of ourselves to find this out though. However, God is always waiting and wanting us to see how much “for us” He really is, even in difficult situations. He always has a way through, just like He made a way for Israel to miraculously cross the Red Sea. 

In which areas of your life could you be more dependent upon God? Have you seen Him bring you through something that seemed impossible as you trusted in and leaned upon Him? 

Prayer: God, thank You that you didn’t make me figure it all out on my own. I am so thankful that You made me for a beautiful interdependent relationship with You! Help me to remember that You want to partner with me so that we can do impossible things. I am so thankful that You work out even the most difficult situations in my life for my good.