Could the place of hardship be the source of life?
A desert seems like an unlikely place to find life. They are barren and lifeless. Okay, I know David Attenborough can find life anywhere. But stick me in a desert and I’m done for. Deserts are not places where life flourishes. The hardship is too great. Most life perishes.
When the Israelites escape from Egypt they are confronted with grim deserts and lots of hardship in Exodus 15 to 17. This hardship made them feel that their lives were under threat. They even accuse Moses and Aaron of plotting their deaths, bringing them to the desert to die (Exodus 16:3). You don’t make accusations like that unless you’re desperate.
And this is how we feel when hardships come our way. They feel like spiritual deserts. The good life found in God is not here. And any spiritual reservoirs we had, evaporate under the harsh conditions. And as for God, it can feel like he has left us in the desert or, even worse, brought us here to die.
But when we dig deeper into the story of the Israelites desert disaster we see that God was giving life. The goal of the hardship was to provide an unquenchable oasis for their souls.
Here is what the Israelites should have understood and what we need to hold onto in the hard times to discover life.
1 – Discovering God is still present
The accusations in the desert are against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites grumble and seethe against Moses and Aaron, for they see these two as the source of their problems. ‘You brought us out into the desert to die!’ Which is deeply surprising. The whole Exodus escape is entirely the Lord’s plan.
So, why do they blame Moses and Aaron? They don't think God is present. So, there was no one else to blame but the dynamic duo.
But the Lord was present. He heard them. But not only that he was going to display his glory in the pillar of cloud. Think about that for a moment. The cloud of light which led them out of Egypt, shielded them from the Egyptian army and showed the Lord’s presence is right there. While they are accusing Moses and Aaron, the shadow of the cloud is probably falling on them. The Lord is not just near. He was there.
So how could the Israelites possibly think that God was not present? It was their hardships. They are going through tough times – bitter water in Marah, no food in the desert of Sin and no water at all in Rephidim. And their conclusion is - God is absent.
In other words, they had become instant deists. They were theists a few short days earlier singing that the Lord is a warrior who fights personally and powerfully for his people. He threw the horse, the chariot and the Egyptian commando into the swirling sea to save his people (Exodus 15).
Now, they are deists. The Lord is far off. The Lord is absent. This is why it must be Moses and Aaron’s fault the Israelites are in the desert. And the change between being a theist and a deist was... hardship. Dryness in the desert and they were instant deists.
But here is the key to life they should have learned. The LORD is always present for his people.* Paul drives this point home in Romans 8 when he canvases all the possible forces in the cosmos, seen and unseen that might affect a believer’s relationship with God and says – none of them can succeed. The LORD is always present in his love to his people in Jesus. It is also at the heart of his call to prayer in Philippians 4. Do not be anxious. The Lord is here. He isn’t far away or absent. He is right here and at work right now.
2 – In hardship we learn to listen and pay attention
The second source of life the Lord was giving to them was training in listening – really listening – to his word.
This paradigm is shown at the first hardship. They turn up at a water spring expecting Evian but it’s undrinkable and unquenching water. God fixes the problem but reveals his plan to train his people in listening to his words.
‘“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”’
In all that comes their Lord is testing them so they might learn to listen. And as they listen and obey their relationship with the LORD ought to deepen and deepen. As they listen, they are learning to trust. Trust in the LORD is life.
The whole Manna event bears this out. If they don’t listen to his commands, they end up with maggots in their fridge and going hungry on the Sabbath. But by listening, it’s French patisseries for breakfast every day and a double serve on the Sabbath.
When hardship comes, we often stop listening to God. Which is a sign that we’re not trusting. This is like deciding to release your seat belt when the road conditions get rough.
But when the road is rough, our Lord is calling us to listen more closely and trust more deeply. This doesn’t mean we haven’t been. There is no hint in Exodus 15 that the Israelites had gone off the rails. No, God wanted a deeper relationship. The pathway to this was deeper listening in hard times.
As Jesus says, man does not live sourdough alone, nor French patisseries, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. In the easy times and the hard times, the source of life is the same – God’s word. Learn to listen. Listen more deeply.
3 – In Hardship God’s testing reveals the truth of our hearts
Unfortunately, as the desert disaster rolls on, it seems many of the Israelites weren’t listening. And God was revealing that to them by the hardship. They were being tested. This testing was good for them. Yep, you read that right. And if you didn’t, get your eyes tested. We need testing. It’s good for us.
Would you take your car to a mechanic who didn’t pass her exam on combustion engines? Absolutely not. Or would you offer your body to a surgeon who didn’t pass her medical exams? Of course not. The testing is good. It’s necessary. It reveals to us what we do know, and do, and what we don’t know, nor do. For our sake and for others’ sake.
When God tests us, it is because he cares about us. If we don’t trust Jesus; if we’re still trusting ourselves – God wants us to know about it so that we can turn to Jesus. And if we do have a clear trust in Jesus, God’s goal is to grow our trust and our holiness. “God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.” (Hebrews 12:10-11)
In fact, testing is so important, the Apostle Paul challenges the Corinthians that they and we must test ourselves.
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2Cor. 13:5 )
Without testing we won’t discover if we’re trusting in something other than the Lord. A source of life is to realise that God’s testing is good for us. It’s done in love. We need it.
4 – A refined trust in God is of infinite value
Not only do we need testing to see if we have true faith. But we need testing so we have a refined faith.
The apostle Peter, a man who knew firsthand the cost of his forgiveness, writes that a Christians’ faith in God only exists because of Jesus’ precious blood shed for us. (1 Peter 1:19-20) Do the maths on that – the purchase price for a Christian’s new life in Jesus was infinite. It was the cost of the one chosen in eternity before the creation of the world. Now, that is pretty expensive.
And yet God is making it more precious. We all know refined gold is more precious than unrefined good. The same goes for your trust in God. A refined faith, in God’s incredible economy, is even more precious because it brings more glory to Jesus. And this refined faith is achieved by God’s testing.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7) ESV
The value of a Christian’s faith in God is one most of us don’t understand. For we don’t truly understand the infinite value of the person of Jesus. But God our Father does. And so he brings hardship, testing and trials. Sometimes all in the same week. So that our precious faith will be even more precious.
True life is knowing that hardship comes so that true faith will be proven to be true. All for Jesus’ glory and praise. This is infinite in value.
Finally, we need to circle back to the start.
5. Hardship will be good for you if you remember your salvation
The reason the Israelites were instant deists and the source of their grumbling was not just that they dismissed the Lord’s very presence but also because they had forgotten their salvation. Chapter 16 starts with a calendar marker and we discover the events in Exodus 16 take place just 1 and a half months after the Passover event. This means the crushing of the Egyptian army was a mere two to three weeks earlier.
Now the Israelites are in the desert. And things are hard. The water isn’t good. The food isn’t up to scratch like the meat pots of Egypt. Things are grim. It can feel like that when the next paycheck is in doubt or a huge, unexpected expense blows a hole in your budget. Or your child is in hospital.
But the thing the Israelites ought to hold onto is their salvation. Not a future salvation from the hard times they were in. But the one they already had. The Lord had rescued them from Egypt with the plagues, providing the Passover lamb and then destroying the Egyptian army that was intent on enslaving them again. This was their salvation. God had redeemed them. He bought them out to be his people. Would he really truly just let them just die in the desert? Of course not. It does not make any sense.
The Israelites forgot their salvation. Somehow. I know, it seems impossible, but it is clear that it didn’t fill their hearts and minds. This is why it has no bearing on their view of their desert trials. Forgetting their salvation was the equivalent of deliberately upending their water bottles at the start of their trek through the desert. They poured out life-giving truth.
Dear Christian, remember your salvation. We must bring the same logic to bear for ourselves. God, the Father, displayed his astounding love for us by sending his Son, Jesus, to save us from judgement and hell. This is our salvation - if we’ve trusted Jesus. We are redeemed. This truth is an oasis for our souls.
Given this truth, would our heavenly Father let anything befall us that would now mean harm for us? Or break our relationship with him. The answer again must be, of course not.
The Cross is our oasis in hardship and trials. Life is found there. We need to look more deeply at the Cross. We need to drink more deeply from its water. It is the evidence of God’s love for us that is as hard as wood and as sharp as nails.
And, if you’re not a Christian the place to understand your suffering and difficulty is the cross of Jesus.
Conclusion: Here is what the Lord is doing in the midst of hardship.
Life can be found in the hard places. If you have the right perspective. If you know where to look and what to look for. If you know where the water is found.
In hardship:
We are discovering God is still present.
We learn to listen and pay attention
God’s testing reveals the truth of our hearts
God is refining a Christian’s trust in him so it is of even more value.
God’s testing is good for us when we remember our salvation in Jesus.
Never forget the Lord is near you. He is with you. He wants you to keep listening closely to him or start. Testing does not mean that your Lord hates you, but the opposite. For his children, testing is part of his profound love. It grows godliness and a deep precious trust in Jesus that is of infinite value. The hardships and trials that draw you to the cross of Jesus are a blessing. Your heavenly Father is giving you unquenchable life.
*The Israelites did learn this when the LORD rebuked them for their grumbling against Moses and Aaron. He was present. He’d heard the grumbling!
Related