Another River!!

This really spoke to me. I heard someone mention this as part of a talk and it lept out and exploded in my thinking. The idea that Jesus went to the river where He experienced an open heaven and then into the wilderness where He was tempted and tested. The bit that really lept out at me was the line, "In the river, God's character is revealed, in the wilderness, our character is revealed!"

I automatically make connections, so I connect Jesus' experience with Israel leaving Egypt. They went through a river and into a wilderness. They experienced God revealing Himself to them. Then, in the wilderness their character was revealed. These were the same people who had cried out for deliverance. But, once delivered where was their faith!

It the garden of Edan, God had been fully revealed to Adam and Eve, the like of which we do not experience. Then one day God wasn't there, and they were tempted and tested. Then God turned up. It is interesting that although we are not told God wasn't there, we are pointedly told when He arrived, making the point that He hadn't been there!

Likewise when Samuel told Saul to wait for Him before making a sacrifice and Samuel was delayed. Saul made the sacrifice himself. In the absence of God's "revealer", Saul was tempted and tested.

One job I had was to work in what was called, "Environmental Conditioning." It was also called environmental test. The two names kind of have to go together. To test something is to see whether it works under certain conditions. It can pass or fail the test. But there is another meaning of the word test, and that is to harden through certain processes.

We would receive an electrical unit and first of all place it on a large vibrating table and vibrate it very hard and fast for about ten minutes. We then placed it in huge chamber that cycled between -35c to plus 65c. We then placed the unit into water and looked for air bubbles!

All of this was sometimes done while running a test program within the units and sometimes we tested them afterward. The idea was two fold. One was to make sure it could stand up to the conditions of working around the would. Say, placed in a rough terrain vehicle and then taken through deserts and frozen places. The other was the conditioning aspect. We were not only seeing whether they worked, but also toughening them up so that they would withstand the conditions they need to work in.

In other words, when we talk about "wilderness" being a place of temptation and testing. We shouldn't think of it in the bleak terms of pass and fail! The Israelites can give us a picture of "failing the test." But God judged them as a whole. By the time "Israel" emerged from the wilderness it was a wholly faithful and powerful force to be reckoned with. There were still elements within that had not been dealt with and need to be. If Israel is a picture to us then we need to see it as one nation and not individuals. Jacob was given the name Israel! As one person each of us can see ourselves dealt with in the ways the nation of Israel was dealt with. Not that we will be illuminated if we fail, but that the parts in us that fail will be illuminated.

We are tested as if by fired yet not burned up. Our character is revealed, both the good and the bad. The good is made even more firm and the bad is exposed and placed before the Lord. When you refine Gold you have to heat it up. The dross rises to the surface and is then removed by the refiner.

Let's talk about money! Why, because Jesus used it as an example a lot to reveal our connection to worldly things. If we are to handle the kingdom's riches then we first have to be tested in the least. If a person, a goodly Christian, has a good income and pays a tithe and considers any spare there to be saved or squandered, then he has missed the point. If God is our provider today then He is our provider tomorrow. That which is given to us is for His glory, not our indulgence. Can such a person be trusted with the true riches of the kingdom?

God wants us to be people of faith. People who are truly connected to Him and His will. The process by which He develops this relationship is through revealing His character to us as if by an open heaven and then by placing us in a place of barrenness where we are tested and tempted.

You can be in a very blessed place and still feel empty. This is what struck me. This is how I have felt for ages. In a place of tests and temptations, where God seems almost absent. Nothing that used to work is working. But the thing to notice is that the wilderness is for a season. It is funny that the guy giving the talk said about charismatics, how when they are in a wilderness time, they can't tell each other! They often want to pretend that everything is fine, which will only make the sense of isolation worse! But if they tell, then what abundant and over bearing ministry will they receive?!!

We can enjoy the river, and know that the wilderness is for our good and only for a season! I say it is for our good because we ask for it! We forget that we stand in church and sing with gusto, "Purify my Heart" "Make me new" "Your will be done in my life!" (Or words to that effect!) but as soon as God starts to work on us we are like the Israelites protesting and sulking! We hear sermons that talk about christian character and say, "Yes Lord!" then when the heat is applied we say, "No Lord!"

One of the most important things to do in the wilderness is to keep remembering God's previous goodness, the river, and to keep looking forward to the promises of God, the promised land. Even Jesus was said to have endured the trials of the cross looking forward to the glory to come.

The time when it was right for the Israelites to come out of the wilderness was set by God as 40 years. It was so that the generation that left Egypt would die in the wilderness and not go into the promised land. In other words, they when Israel had put off the old nature and taken on the new nature, that was when it was time!