The challenge of trying to learn from the Old Testament is that it can be hard to understand. The experiences and commands can seem antiquated, strange, particular, and hard to relate to. I remember reading it for the first time as a high school student and wondering, “What does this have to do with my life?”
But that’s an interpretational hurdle that can be cleared. All of the Bible is relevant in some way or another. So when I was studying for a sermon series on the 11th chapter of the book of Numbers in the Old Testament I found plenty of relevant themes: e.g. gratitude, the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s help with our burdens, the power of intercessory prayer, etc. A key theme in all of it is trusting in God and in His plan for us. God called the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. For both them and us there’s the temptation to yearn for something other than where God has called you. This can happen any time our patience is tested. For the Israelites it was with their food supply and the lack of variety on the menu. Their sin of yearning for Egypt was really a form of rejecting God (11:20). And Moses, in the meantime, was frustrated with the burden of leading the nation (11:11-15). God responded to both of these needs. This was directly relevant to us at the stage of life we were in last year. Hillary and I took a step forward in faith to make the move to Paradise. We put our house on market. Hillary resigned her job (and with it the health insurance). Moving almost always puts your life into an upheaval – and there’s a lot on the line. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. I can think of three times now where I’ve absorbed an overall pay cut to go where God wanted me to go. And it can take a while for things to develop. Our house in Kansas lingered on market longer than we expected it to. Hillary kept putting out resumes, trying to find the right job. And we went searching for the right home to live in. We just had to persist – being confident that God brought us here for a reason. And eventually things began to take shape. We moved into our new home in Magalia just a little over a year ago. And a couple months later our house in Kansas was officially sold and handed over to its new owner. And Hillary has been working at her job in the library at Chico State University for almost a year now. I’ve learned to hold dear the expression I learned from a pastor several years ago: “Where God guides, He provides.” The challenge is always to trust Him in these transitional stages – to not look back to Egypt, but to look ahead to the Promised Land. This can be difficult because nostalgia can be soothing as well as deceptive. It’s always easy to compare the best of a previous era with the worst of today. That kind of mentality would send people back into the years of the Great Depression and World War II, or (in the case of the Israelites) into episodes of slavery and hard labor in Egypt (11:5-6). But God has put us in the present place and era. And the cross of Jesus is a constant reminder of the redemptive value of suffering. God doesn’t always make things quick, easy, or painless. But then the resurrection gives us an even greater reminder that the Good Lord sees us through to another day. And so we pray each week, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray and we trust.
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Andrew McHenryI am a husband, a Congregational pastor, and a native Kansan currently living in Thermalito, California. In the past I have also been a prison chaplain and a youth pastor. Interests include reading, railroads, prog rock, KU, and the KC Royals. Archives
February 2024
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