Are You out of the wilderness?

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Have you been wondering if you are out of the wilderness season? Have you been experiencing the same things you did while you were going through the refining process? Do you feel confused and just want to understand the seasons you are in? We define the promised land as a place where someone expects to find immeasurable happiness (Oxford Language). With this definition, it’s easy to assume that you will not experience warfare in the promised land. After all, how would a place of immeasurable happiness have pain? Maybe you assumed that once you get there, there everything will be good and dandy. Shocker! This is not the case.

When you are in the wilderness, you rely on God to meet your daily need. When you are out of the wilderness, God gives you strategies to meet your needs.
When in the wilderness, God fights your battles for you. When you are out of the wilderness God requires active participation from you to gain victory.

In Joshua 1, God tells Joshua to tell the Israelites that in 3 days, they would cross Jericho and possess the land. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. What God intentionally left out was that they would cross a river and march around Jericho for 7 days before the walls could come down and then cross over. The Israelites had to conquer the land before they could possess it. The promised land- Canaan required participation from the Israelites.

And to help us understand the context a little better let’s look at the scripture in detail.

After the death of Moses, the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant: “Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours.

All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way, I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead these people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it

. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.” Then Joshua gave orders to the people’s leaders: “Go through the camp and give this order to the people: ‘Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess.’”

Then Joshua addressed the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He said, “Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you: God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan, the country Moses gave you; but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them until God, your God, gives your brothers a place of rest just as he has done for you. They also will take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving them. Then you will be free to return to your possession, given to you by Moses the servant of God, across the Jordan to the east.”
Joshua 1:1‭-‬15 MSG

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WILDERNESS VS THE PROMISED LAND ( CANAAN)

WILDERNESS

Trust God to meet your daily needs
Passive participation on your end
Temporary i.e. transition
Come as you are

CANAAN

Till to eat
Active participation
More permanent.
Requires one to undergo transformation

Now let us look at each of them in depth

When you are in the wilderness, you rely on God to meet your daily need. When you are out of the wilderness, God gives you strategies to meet your needs.

In the wilderness, God was the one who provided manna for the Israelites. Their task was only to collect it and ensure that they had enough for the day. If they tried to take more and store it up, it would rot. (except for Sabbath day). In Canaan, there was no manna. In fact, once the Israelites had encamped at Gilgal, the manna stopped. They had to look for food themselves. When you are in the wilderness, you usually rely on God to meet your needs because you are living in a realm of lack. It is in this season that God uses to teach you to rely fully on Him. God uses this season to get rid of every idol in your life.

The moment-to-moment trust in God is what makes it a wilderness. This is because regardless of how much you try, you always fall short in that area. Once you get to your promised land, you experience plenty of everything and now you are spoilt for choice. When you find yourself having an abundance of what you lacked before, then you are out of the wilderness. The promised land represents a place of abundance.

The Israelites had food around. They did not need to wonder where the food would come from because they could see it. In fact, they could access it whenever they needed it. That was a clear sign they were now in their promised land. Can you relate? Do you have access to things that you did not have access to before?

When in the wilderness, God fights your battles for you. When you are out of the wilderness God requires active participation from you to gain victory.

The Israelites, while in the wilderness, watched God fight their battles. God only used Moses to part the red sea. He had to only lift the rod and stretch out his hands.

²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²²and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

²³The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵He jammed^[b] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

²⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

²⁹But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

That was not the case in Joshua 2. As they got to the promised land there, the priests were the ones to carry the ark of the covenant and the Israelites had to consecrate themselves.

⁵Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” ⁶Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

¹⁴So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. ¹⁵Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

In Exodus Chapter 14, God is the one who drowned the Egyptians. All the Israelites had to do was to be still and know that He is God. The book of Joshua, Chapter 8 paints a different picture. Here, the Israelites had to fight for their land against AI. Is God fighting your battles, or is He giving you strategies to overcome your battles?

What I’m getting at is once you get to the promised land, you will have to fight for your land. The enemy does not want you to possess your promise, and so he is going to do everything in his power to discourage you from getting it. That’s why in the new testament the Bible reminds us that the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.

The Israelites lived in tents in the wilderness. They did not have permanent structures, because they knew it was a transition place. In Canaan, though, they lived in houses and even had the land divided according to the 12 tribes of Israel. They even built an altar for worship.

The Israelites did not need to change who they were to stay in the wilderness. In fact, the reason they stayed longer there was because they stayed the same. In Canaan, they had to undergo circumcision and also a change of character. That is why God extended the period in the wilderness because they were rebellious and had no faith. The only time God released them to get to the promised land was once they turned to Him fully and obeyed Him. And they also had to get to a level spiritually that warranted them the green light to step into their promised land. Even Moses did not see the promised land because of disobedience.

Key points to note:

The Wilderness

The fundamental lesson God teaches us in the wilderness is Faith and total reliance on Him. If you are in this stage, just take it a day at a time. God sees you and He will take care of and provide for you. He will even fight your battles, just like He did the Israelites. While you are in the wilderness, He is your sustainer.

The wilderness is a training ground, and it is just a chapter in your book called Life. Do not make it a permanent place and do not get comfortable there. Learn what you need there so that you can move on to your promised land. God did not create you so that you can live in the wilderness. He has a plan for your life. Jeremiah 29:11.

Canaan

In Canaan, get your hands dirty and wage war before you can possess the land. Use the skills that you learned in the wilderness to get your land. Don’t just sit there, do something!

Make a home when you get to Canaan. Keep advancing yourself to the ground. Grow. Personal development is key. Change the habits that get you stuck, change your thinking, and be an agent of light in the sphere God puts you in. Attend seminars that help you grow. Read books that add value to your life. Keep growing. Make the promised land better than you found it. That’s the aim.

Never forget that it is God who put you there. Always seek to grow in your relationship with Him. Just as you held Him close in the wilderness, do the same in the promised land.

Are You out of the wilderness?