The Devotional Journey: Bible Tour Stop 6—The Wilderness Years
To recap where we are in the Bible tour, here is what we have seen in the Bible so far since the beginning.
We first read that Yahweh created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to have a personal relationship with Him. However, we saw that with the free will that God gave them, they chose to rebel against Him and instead, put their trust in the words of Satan.
From then on, every person was born separated from God. While some of Adam and Eve’s descendants chose to trust in Yahweh, most rebelled and continued to make God their enemy. Their wickedness became so bad, it exceeded the limits of God’s tolerance. So Yahweh sent a global Flood judgment. Only believing Noah and his family survived the flood. Everyone else who did not believe God, refused to enter the ark to be saved and so they died in the global floodwaters.
After the Flood, unfortunately, most of Noah’s descendants also chose to rebel against God. This would lead them to be eternally separated from God forever in the lake of fire. This was not good news for mankind.
So Yahweh started a different programme. He wanted to give all mankind an opportunity to know real history and truth and put their trust in Him to send a rescuer. But since mankind as a whole had already rejected Him, He chose to work through one man, Abram (later renamed Abraham).
Abraham trusted in Yahweh. And so God’s plan was that Abraham and his family would record His words and share it with the world. We saw how God kept Abraham’s family safe and grew them into a large nation while they were living in Egypt.
After living in Egypt for many years, the nation was enslaved by the leader of Egypt, the Pharaoh. While in great suffering, they called out to Yahweh for help. God sent Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Through many miracles, the people saw how powerful Yahweh is.
Yahweh led them into the desert and at Mount Sinai, He established the nation of Israel as His people. He gave them their law, teaching them how they were to relate to Him, as well as how they were to relate to each other. His plan was for the nation of Israel to live by His good and righteous standards and in this way, be a model to the other nations around them of how it was to have a relationship with Yahweh, the Creator-God of the universe.
Earlier on, God had made Abraham three promises.
He would give Abraham land.
He would give Abraham many descendants.
Through Abraham and his family, God would bless the whole world.
In the next set of 14 readings, we will see what happens as Yahweh continues to prepare the nation to take possession of the promised land that He had given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.
We will see Yahweh prepare Israel’s military and appoint the tribe of Levi to be the one to support the priests in their duties at the Tabernacle.
When the Israelites reach the southern border of the Promised Land, they send in twelve scouts to explore the land. But alas, ten of the scouts give a bad report and the people refuse to enter the land as Yahweh had instructed. This rebellion against God is punished. Yahweh tells the people they will be wandering in the wilderness for 40 years until the rebellious generation dies.
This doesn’t make them repent and they rebel again, this time against God’s choice of leaders. Yahweh disciplines them once more.
Then as the first generation dies off and the 40 years come to an end, the children, now grown, proceed towards the Promised Land. Yahweh leads Israel to successful battles against enemy nations. One nation, Moab, fearful of military action, decides to take spiritual action instead. The king of Moab hires a wicked prophet named Balaam to curse Israel.