My time here is coming to an end...

Wilderness Seasons in the Christian Life

God brought them into waterless places, an encampment with no water. And he doesn't intend to help us here.

Don't be like that in your wilderness. Don't be like that.

I didn't know for years of walking with the Lord that wilderness seasons were a real part of the Christian life. My time here is coming to an end. Very soon, I'm going to be done here. I don't know exactly when, I don't know exactly how this is going to happen, but I'm going to need to be ready with my bags packed because when God says, okay, go, I'm gone.

John Piper gave a keynote recently about the Christian experience of wandering through wilderness. And I'm concerned that not enough of us are ready for that. We're not ready for that experience, right?

What are you going to do when God sends you out into the wilderness? I can tell you that I was not ready. When God sent me into my wilderness period, I had so much to learn and I had been through school, I got a theology degree, I was a pastor, and I still wasn't ready.

As a matter of fact, I'm making this video because I believe that there's teaching in here that you've never heard before, right? So if you're feeling lost and you're wandering right now, this one's definitely for you.

By the way, my name is Nate and this is Wise Disciple where I'm helping you become the effective Christian that Jesus wants you to be. And that absolutely entails understanding what to do when God sends you into the wilderness, amen?

Make sure to like, sub, and share this one around, but only if this blesses you and you think it's gonna bless somebody else, all right? Let's get right into it.

Exodus 17 and Israel's Testing at Rephidim

The way Moses tells this story, failure is foregrounded. The story begins, verse two, and it ends, verse seven, with quarreling with Moses, testing of God, memorialized. It begins with unbelief. They don't trust God.

They harden their hearts against him.

The point that Piper is making here is that this is a story with no good ending. Take a look at the passage with me. This is Exodus chapter 17, verse one. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of seen by stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

So I'm not sure if you're aware of this in your own studies, but the Israelites, they don't just stay in one place in the wilderness for 40 years. They travel through multiple different wildernesses or deserts within this 40-year period.

We often hear of their travels from pastors at the pulpit as being something like wandering, right? This is kind of how it's characterized. But did you know that's not actually the way that the Bible characterizes it?

The Bible does not say that all of the places that the Israelites go is due to wandering. The Bible says God leads the people to the places that they go. God tells them to go and they go. Look again at verse one.

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on. According to the commandment of the Lord. So the Lord is the one telling them go here and then they go there, right? That's not wandering, ladies and gentlemen.

That's God leading them to their next location, but it's for a very specific purpose. Look at this. Verse two, therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you test the Lord? So notice Moses is acknowledging God is the one who brought us here and now you're getting angry and you're arguing with me. Why not trust the God who called you here, right?

Verse three, but the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So, I don't know if the Israelites know this or they're doing this on purpose or not, but they're not grumbling at Moses.

In actuality, they're grumbling against the Lord, right? Moses is God's mouthpiece. So what God says, Moses obeys and communicates to the people. So these people are really grumbling and getting angry at God, not Moses.

Can you see that? Now watch this, verse four. So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me now. And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand, the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink. So we're gonna get to Piper in just a second, but look, there's a couple of things here.

First thing is Mount Horeb means the mountain of God. Horeb, if you remember is where Moses meets God in the burning bush. Horeb is understood to be the same Mount Sinai where God gives his law to the people.

This is where they will also receive the miraculous water in Exodus 17 here. So there's some interesting metaphorical depth to ponder, isn't there? But there's even another fascinating rabbit trail to go down that I really don't have the time to explore, but I'll just tell you real quick.

If you look closer at the language, particularly in the Hebrew, you'll notice that it's describing where God is going to be when Moses strikes the rock. Do you see that? It comes out, so I'm using the ESV, I think it's helpful.

He says, behold, I will stand before you on the rock. Okay, if we're being precise here, God is going to be before Moses in front of him on top of the rock that Moses is going to strike. So if you can picture this in your mind, that means that when Moses strikes the rock, he's also going to strike God.

Again, there's all kinds of metaphorical depth to that. I mean, the obvious one is that God is going to receive the strike that the Israelites technically deserve for their grumbling and complaining. So think about that, this is what I mean, like in terms of what we know about God, right?

And what we know ultimately happens through Jesus on the cross later. I think this is just a wonderful little foreshadowing of things to come. But the point is, God is going to provide this water and it's going to come from his gracious provision, if and only if the people are willing to trust him.

If they are willing to have the eyes to see what God is doing. And I think we're starting to see the whole point of this exercise, the people do not trust God. And so he's keeping them in this wilderness until they learn to trust him.

By the way, between like the wilderness of seen here, so that's what we see right back up here in, I think it's verse one, right? And Horeb, I mean, you're talking something like 25 miles of walking that they have to do, you know?

After they just got done saying, we're so thirsty, we're going to die, right? So here we go again with more travel that doesn't make sense to the people. And then finally verse seven, and he called, Moses called the name of the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel.

And because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Masa means testing, Meribah means quarreling. So there it is, they're arguing, right? That's not a great name, by the way. That's, you know, he might as well have called it Disappointmentville or, you know, Negative Nancy Town.

You know what I mean? This is not, I hope you grab this. This is not a story that ends in victory. This is a story that actually leaves a sour taste in the mouth for anyone who reads it and really wrestles with what it's saying.

So then the question is, well, you know, what's the point of this story? Piper is answering that question.

God brought them into waterless places, an encampment with no water, and he doesn't intend to help us here. That's what they say. And the trumpet blast of this text that echoes through all the rest of the Bible is,.

Don't be like that in your wilderness. Don't be like that.

I mean, listen, Psalm 95, verse seven. Today, if you hear his voice, don't.

The Warnings of Psalm 95, Hebrews 3, and 1 Corinthians 10

I wanna be upfront with you, okay? So I'm just gonna tell you, where I'm headed with this video, particularly where I'm going to end. I didn't know for years, years and years of walking with the Lord, that wilderness seasons were a real part of the Christian life.

As far as I can tell, nobody told me that. You know, I never heard this taught before, which is amazing because I went through school and I got a theology degree. I sat under some great biblical teachers, you know, which I'm not even trying to call them out or indict them.

Maybe they even did mention this and I just wasn't listening, okay? What I'm trying to communicate right now is, I didn't know that this was part of what it meant to be a Christian. It's that you enter into these wilderness periods of your life and it's for good reason.

It's not for nothing. And so, you know, I would read the Old Testament because heck, I mean, that's what you're supposed to do,.

Right?

You're supposed to study the Bible, you know, as a Christian. So I'd read what happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament and I would always, I'd read these stories and I'd say to myself, gee, what a bunch of saps, you know what I mean?

Like, look at them struggling with all the evidence of God's miraculous interventions on more than one occasion. And yet here they are, they're still angry at God, still distrustful of his ways and who he is.

Oh, well, sucks to be them. And then I just kind of set my Bible down and go on with the rest of my life. I mean, I'm just trying to be real with you. That's essentially what I thought until it happened to me.

Until God called me and my family into a wilderness period of our lives, which I suspect, you know, my family and I, we're actually not out of it just yet. And I'll try to give you an update on what's going on with me at the end of the video.

But I'm just so glad to see that Piper is preaching on this because I've come to learn that the wilderness that God calls you to is 100 for your spiritual growth and maturity. If you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Don't harden your hearts as at Meribah on the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test.

And put me to the proof,.

Though they had seen my work.

Don't do that, T-G-C-W. Don't do that.

Or Hebrews chapter three, verse seven,.

As the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. Or first Corinthians chapter 10. They all ate the same food, manna.

They drank the same spiritual drink. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did. Now these things happened to them as an example.

They were written down for our instruction.

Therefore let him who thinks that he stands take heed.

Lest he fall. Don't be like them. World centuries 2022, don't be like them.

In other words, this failure of Israel to trust God in the wilderness reverberates through the whole Bible. And the message is this. When God brings you into a waterless encampment and you see wilderness stretching in every direction and no way out, don't be like that.

Okay, now, well, hopefully there's gonna be more to it than that, right? Hopefully there won't just be a lesson here of what not to do, but also what you should do so that you know how to navigate your own wilderness period.

Whether you're going through it right now or you will in the future, amen. I'll tell you what, if Piper doesn't talk about that, I will, so just stick with me.

Don't question him, trust him, trust him. He brought you into the wilderness.

He can bring you out.

He led you to Rephidim where there is no water, only rock. And he will take his stand on the rock and be your life. Or will he in 2022? For many of us, the greatest obstacle to joy, joyful confidence in our waterless place is not that God can't save us.

That's not our problem. Our problem is, will he, will he?

It's an issue of trust, isn't it? And for a lot of us, this is a huge struggle. It's not that we don't know about what God has done in the past. We've seen it and we recognize it and we yes and amen it, but will he move today for me?

Will he give me water in this waterless place today? That's a, it's still a huge struggle for so many Christians and I struggle with it. No matter what God has done in the past, that right there is a lack of trust in God, ladies and gentlemen.

And if it's a lack of trust, what do you think God is going to do to deal with you in that? Like, what should he do to solve this lack of trust? Think about that.

Every undeserved blessing shown to God's elect in the Old Testament was bought by the blood of Jesus without exception. When Paul made the strange statement, in first Corinthians chapter 10, verse four, about Israel in the wilderness, when he made this strange statement.

Okay, let's real quick, let's go there for reference. This is first Corinthians chapter 10, verse one, for I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food.

Here it is. And all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. As usual, by the way, I'm using my trusty Logos Bible app to read the Bible with you.

I keep talking about this because I fully believe in what Logos is doing and I use it every day in my own personal studies. Right now, Logos is offering a monthly subscription that makes its resources even more affordable than ever.

And these resources are valuable. Okay, so for more on this, I encourage you to check out logos .com forward slash wise disciple. All right, this is the passage that Piper is referencing. Okay, notice Paul's recall in Exodus 17.

Now, let me give you another piece. This is a rabbit trail. I don't wanna go down too far on this, but notice the reference to Horeb, okay? The spiritual rock that they all drank from. Did you catch that?

Like when Paul talks about this, right? The rock, now watch this. For they drank from the spiritual rock and it followed them as they continued to travel through the wilderness. What's interesting about that is, you know, it's like, well, what does that mean, right?

Well, a couple of things. The first thing is, and this is from the Bible. If you pay attention to the story, right? Kind of zoom out and you just read the whole story of the Israelites. Once the Israelites drink from this spiritual rock at Horeb, they don't complain again about thirst for a long time.

Okay, now the question is, why is that? Is it because their thirst is being satisfied in some other way? We're not told, right? But here's something interesting. And it actually, this is another piece, but it doesn't come from the Bible.

This is an extra biblical text. It's the Jewish Midrash, which is not biblical canon. So don't hear what I'm not saying. But Jewish Midrash says that the Israelites actually took the rock that Moses struck from Horeb.

They took it with them. They put it on some kind of a cart and they carried it around with them as they continued to travel in the wilderness. And then every time they got thirsty and needed water, Miriam, who was Moses' sister, would go to this rock and continue to draw water from it.

So it's a, you know, it's a miraculous thing. Now, whether or not that actually happened, who knows? But Paul in this passage, I don't know, like it seems to indicate that something about that Midrash may be true, right?

Anyway, that's the thing that Piper is referencing. So let's go back to Piper.

They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them.

And the rock was Christ.

This is what I think he meant. The undeserved blessing of water from the rock, the undeserved blessing of manna from heaven, the undeserved blessing of deliverance at the Red Sea, the undeserved blessing of guidance by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, the undeserved blessing of Moses' leadership, all of it was owing to the cross of Christ.

Is it not right then to say the rock was Christ, the manna was Christ, the deliverance was Christ, the pillars of fire and cloud were Christ? God's guilty people would enjoy no blessings apart from Christ and what he did 1 ,400 years later.

And so it is for you and me who are in Christ, you who despair of your sinful selves and know God owes you nothing.

So Piper appears to want to highlight something else at the moment, which is also legitimate. I mean, there's nothing wrong with pointing this out. It's in there, it's in the text, but it's God's decision to defer punishment, the punishment that is deserved to another time in the future where that gets placed on the shoulders of Christ, right?

Again, that's totally legitimate to kind of point that out, to flesh that out. But because of God's decision to defer punishment in this way, he continues to provide for his people. And his people are actually taught a valuable lesson that then I think reverberates and echoes theologically to us today.

That's the thread that I don't wanna lose. Whatever that lesson is, let's spend some time talking about that. And I'll do that myself if Piper doesn't get to it. So let's wrap up here.

Trusting God's Provision in the Wilderness

So it is for you. Every undeserved blessing you will ever taste now and forever is owing to the death of Jesus. I suppose if you were to ask me, do you have a favorite verse? I might say Romans 3 .25, but probably I would say a verse that says the same thing with a future orientation, namely Romans 8 .32.

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not with him graciously give us all things? Not just can he, but will he? Everything we need to do his will, everything we need to glorify his name, everything we need to make it to the promised land.

So when he leads you into the waterless encampment of Rephidim, and he will if he hasn't, when he leads you into the waterless encampment of Rephidim and there is no human hope, trust him, trust him. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not with him graciously give us all things?

Everything you need has been purchased by the blood of Jesus. Above all, the best purchase and the best gift, himself. For your enjoyment now in the midst of the wilderness and your enjoyment forever.

I love it. I love it.

Piper doesn't disappoint here. This is the lesson that the Israelites needed to wrestle with. And I'm thoroughly convinced that it's a lesson that we must wrestle with as Christians today. I've told the story before, but I'll tell it again briefly for those who have not heard it.

On September the 1st, 2021, I had a dream. This dream was so real, so bizarre, and so unusual. I can still see it in my mind, like as if I just had it, you know, yesterday. That dream was God calling me away from my church and into a wilderness period for me and my family.

At the time, I didn't understand it. I had no idea what it meant, but I soon realized my time here is coming to an end. Very soon, I'm going to be done here. I don't know exactly when, I don't know exactly how this is going to happen, but I'm gonna need to be ready with my bags packed because when God says, okay, go, I'm gone.

And sure enough, after that dream, less than a year later, I resigned my position as a pastor and my family and I, we've essentially spent the last couple of years feeling like we're floating adrift in a sea with no anchor.

That's how I would describe the way that it feels to be sent into the wilderness by God. Now, you know, there's a point where illustrations break down. I have an anchor, okay? My anchor is God and His word, all right?

And my relationship with Him is stronger than it's ever been, but I'm just, I'm trying to tell you that my family and I we're still wandering in this wilderness, not sure where it will lead or where we'll land, all right?

In the summer of 2022, my family and I, we moved, we left Las Vegas and we moved to the Nashville area where we are now, we've been here ever since. During that time, we've gone to three different churches and you know me, I've tried to get involved at every one of them just to help, okay?

So, and on paper, so this is just an aside, I look strange. Like if you look at me and you look at my CV, you're like, man, what, who, who is this person? I don't know, it's, the Lord has given me an interesting journey, that's all I can say.

Right now, we're at what looks like a good church with a great teacher. And I think some wonderful potential here because the Holy Spirit is at this church, you know? And right now I'm serving, my wife is serving, we're in a life group together, we're doing everything we should be doing as believers in Jesus who desire to fellowship with God and to fellowship with God's people, right?

But there's still just, there's still things that are left up in the air. I feel like right now, we're at the moment where, you know, Joshua has gone over to Canaan to spy and I'm awaiting a good report, you know what I mean?

And that's kinda, I don't know, that's how it feels emotionally. That's where we're at, you know, me and my family. I'm trying to capture it for you. I can tell you with all sincerity, this is what our prayer has been.

We strongly desire friends, 2 a .m. friends that we feel very close to, you know what I mean? Not just acquaintances on a Sunday morning, but real brothers and sisters where we can go deep in relationship and rely on each other and love each other well, you know?

And as the new people or people in a new town, like that's what we're looking for. I desire that 100 for my wife, for my sons, and I desire that for myself. And the Lord is, he just has us waiting on that a little while longer, okay?

Hearing God in the Wilderness Through Scripture

But here's what I can tell you that I've learned about the wilderness. And I don't know, I just, I never knew this until I went into it myself. The reason that you go into the wilderness, the reason that any child of God does is so that you can meet God in a unique way.

There is an interesting etymological connection in the Hebrew between the wilderness and the word of God. Okay, have you ever heard this before? Has anybody ever taught this to you? So this is a very biblical, very ancient Jewish connection here that people would make.

And I think it's a good one to make that between the idea of going into the wilderness in order to hear God speak. Are you tracking me? You go into the wilderness, in other words, you go into this like quiet wasteland where there is no distraction, there is no excuse.

There is nothing pulling your attention away from the singular task of hearing from God. Now, I'm not, you know, defining what hearing from God means, that's a much longer series of videos for another time.

The point is when God calls you into a wilderness, and I'm firmly convinced that if you're not already there now you probably will be at some point in your life, all right? But when God calls you into a wilderness, that's not the time for you to lose your mind, but to listen to God.

When we left Las Vegas, I had to like go back through and look at my journal. So I was journaling, you know, and just trying to keep track of, you know, I mean, not only Bible studies, but my prayers, the questions that I was asking the Lord, God, what are you doing?

It was a recurring question back then, if you can imagine. And you know what I realized? And I only saw this like looking back, you know? But basically I was doing a Bible study. I do a particular kind of one that I teach others to do, and it draws lessons, personal lessons from the scriptures on a regular basis.

I was looking at all of these lessons that I was tracking in my journal back then. And I realized that there were some recurring themes that were being communicated. And these themes then became a message that guided me in my decision-making moving forward.

And now on the other side of all of this, I realize, it's amazing. The only reason that I'm here doing Wise Disciple and talking to you now is because God first decided to call me and my family out into the wilderness so that I would learn to trust him and to hear his voice.

And again, I mean, this is like a much longer conversation to have. I'm not even sure my channel is appropriate to have this, but I'm talking... So when I say hear from God, I'm talking about the voice of God's word in his scriptures.

It turns out that the apostle Paul was absolutely correct. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for a proof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Amen?

That means that God's word is, it's dynamic. It has dynamic application to what you're facing right now in this life. You, what you're going through, and if you let it, God's word will guide you, and it will also comfort you as you navigate the wilderness that he has called you to.

Here's the reality. You're not alone, you know? Even when there's no one around, God is always with you. And he has left, this is the, I mean, this is so wonderful. He has left his word with you to sustain you and to guide you in your wilderness.

Please don't ever neglect hearing from him. Please don't ever neglect opening up the book of God's word and reading it.

Amen?

Please don't ever get to the point where, you know, all you see, you're just gonna rely on your physical eyes, and you're just gonna look around, and everything that you see is just wasteland around you.

And then what happens next? You panic and you complain. Don't do that. Don't let your physical eyes determine what you truly see. Do you understand what I'm saying? Let God's word help you see your circumstances for what they are.

You are exactly where God wants you. Somebody needs to hear that today. And there is so much more reward on the other side of your obedience to God today. But you have to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear him.

My prayer for you has been the same, for all of you. It's been the same this entire time. My prayer is that you would sense God's real presence in your life. That this would not be some kind of abstract concept that we're talking about, the origin of the universe or something like that.

That's not what we're talking about. That's not what I'm talking about when I talk about God, okay? I pray that you would actually sense his real personal presence in your life. Even when your eyes try to tell you otherwise, even when others around you are trying to convince you that you're all alone, you're not alone.

You're not. God is continuing to send his communication to you to tell you, trust me. He's saying, trust me, learn to listen to that. Learn to listen to what he's telling you. Stay close to his word in your wilderness and you will emerge from it exactly who you are supposed to be, I promise you.

You will emerge the way God is shaping you to be for a reason.

Closing Encouragement and Support Information

All right.

Take heart, my friends. I'm praying for you. Please remember me and my family in your prayers. All right, that's enough out of me. Are you in a wilderness period right now? I'm curious. I'd love to lift you up to the Lord.

Let me know how I can pray for you. I know that your brothers and sisters would also love to pray for you. Let's love each other well in the comments, amen. If you wanna learn how to read the Bible the way that I do, the way that I've been describing in this video, pulling the lessons and recognizing those sort of connections, I encourage you to go to my Patreon.

The link is below. Listen, it's not incumbent upon you to jump onto some kind of support tier. Although if you do, I would be very grateful to you as that's how I continue to make videos. But all of this is for free.

I'm currently reading the Bible. I'm sharing my study notes every single day, Monday through Friday. I've been doing it for almost a year. I'm going through the gospel of Matthew right now. And the point is, in my studies, I model what it looks like to understand the lessons that God has for you today based on his unchanging word.

So I strongly encourage you to check that out, okay? Also, if you enjoyed the insights into the Hebrew language, I encourage you to check out Biblingo. It's a Bible languages app that has exercises, games, an active community that will reinforce your learning.

And on top of it, it's just fun. So click the Biblingo link below and use Y as disciple 10 at checkout. Hey, I'm gonna return soon with more videos, but in the meantime, I'll say, bye for now.