“…they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?” (Psalm 78:19b)
In my last post, I discussed the dismay that sometimes comes on the heels of what one considers a blessing from the Lord, when difficult circumstances appear to accompany or follow such blessings.
Today, I speak of the progression of the despair engendered by difficulties. This may lead to disillusionment, which in turn may result in the loss of confidence in God, and in His providential care.
Psalm 78:19-20 records that the disillusionment of the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness was so complete, that they questioned God’s ability to meet their needs. It was not that they failed to acknowledge some of His works; it was that they could not believe in His total care: that He had it all under control.
In their disregard of what God had already done for them and in their lack of restraint, they said: “True, he struck the rock and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?” (Psalm 78:20).
Does this make you cringe even though it sounds like something you have said before?
It is not an oversimplification to assert that problems and difficulties in the life of a believer, often produce watered-down expectations in the power and the will of God to fulfil His promises, and a wariness (even if not up to the level of distrust) of placing total reliance on the promises of God. In the circumstances in which one encounters difficulty upon difficulty, and trouble piled on trouble, it is sometimes difficult to believe in God’s total care, in His ability to meet one’s every need. It is an attitude we easily recognize and excuse, but it was not one God regarded as simply an aberration, for Psalm 78:21 records anger as God’s reaction to the Israelites’ skepticism.
According to Scripture, God was angry with the Israelites not because they doubted if He could provide bread and meat, but that they lacked a focus on God, who had delivered them from Egypt with great signs and wonders, “…for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance” (Psalm 78:22).
That was the heart of the matter.
Their attitude was a result of their focus on their unfulfilled needs rather than on God. Their words betrayed their attitude to God and all He had done for them up till that time. Indeed, it was manifest that the significance of the miracles of the plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea passage, and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, as evidence of their identity as people God had redeemed unto Himself, was lost on them, as they pursued their immediate physical needs.
It was an attitude of heart which was focused on gifts and not the Giver; it made them doubt His ability to provide for them, whenever any new need surfaced.
The pernicious nature of their attitude showed in its progression, for unchecked, they eventually made light of the act of deliverance, and persisted in that attitude as each situation arose – whether it was hunger, thirst, or fear of harm, until they all but returned physically to Egypt, the land from which they had been taken by a great show of might, and power, and love.
Daniel 3 sets out the antithesis of this attitude in the story of the three Hebrew boys who were thrown into the fire.
We romanticize their defiant stance before King Nebuchadnezzar: in disregard of their lives and wellbeing: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Yet, the question is, when we are faced with a situation in which God does not give us what we expect or desire of Him, is our response or reaction closer to the Israelites in the desert, or that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
It seems to me that it must be a trained response, a matter of a determination to maintain confidence and devotion to God, even in the face of our despair.
In Genesis 26, Isaac the father of Jacob, who had every reason to doubt God’s promise, providence, and watchful care, responded in a manner worthy of our instruction and emulation.
God had told him to stay in the land of the Philistines during a time of famine. After he had sowed and reaped a hundred percent in that impossible time, Isaac was well on his way to declaring that God could do anything, and could meet any need, because of the abundance of blessing. But that was before he began to encounter opposition to his very presence in that land of his blessing. Three times, the Philistines stopped the wells he needed to survive in that dry land: a well dug by Abraham his father, and two wells his own servants dug for water, Esek and Sitnah.
It is clear from the events that unfolded, that while Isaac encountered one obstacle after another which appeared to obstruct what God had promised, they did nothing to distract him from his certainty of the fulfilment of God’s promise: to keep him in the land and to prosper him in it. Confident in the word of promise, he tried once more and dug a well which produced no contention from his neighbours. That became the focal point of his blessing: Rehoboth, the reality of God making room for him in the land.
The Israelite’s question: “Can he also spread a table for us in the wilderness”, was more than an expression of unbelief and doubt. It spoke of distrust, and intended or not, denigrated all that God had done for them up till that time, which included the great act of deliverance from a life of servitude in Egypt.
While I cringe at the unfaithfulness and ingratitude of the people of Israel, I find myself sometimes thinking and behaving as they did: in the times when my focus shifts from Him – His power, majesty, faithfulness and kindness – to my desires, in the midst of my arid circumstances.
I have been reflecting on the question for some days now. I had no peace until I determined to focus on the Giver of the blessing and answered the question in an affirming statement: “Yes, He can also spread a table in the wilderness.”
I am regaining calm in my heart, and the confidence that He can and will do what He has promised, but first, the focus must be: Him.
