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Watered in the Wilderness
“He opened a rock and water flowed out;
They traveled through dry places like a river.”
(Psalm 105:41)
Here we once again have a reminder of God’s provision, not just with manna, but also with water. Most likely this is a reference to the waters of Rephidim (Exodus 17:6), but some also suggest Kadesh (Numbers 20:11). This, of course, also points us toward Christ’s eternal redemption of His people, for the rock was symbolic of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
What is interesting is the contrast that is established here between the wilderness wanderings of Israel and the fulfillment in the Promised Land and the wilderness wanderings of the church as we anticipate the fulfillment in the greater promised land…the new heavens and earth. While God certainly provides for our needs while on earth, provision in abundance is not something we should expect in the here and now (hence the error of the prosperity preachers). In the church age, we pray for our daily bread. In the land to come, Isaiah speaks in this manner:
“The Lord of Hosts will make for every people
On this mountain
A feast of fat and a feast of wine dregs
Fat full of marrow and refined wine dregs.”
(Isaiah 25:6)
The richness of God is to come for God’s elect from every tribe and nation. For now, we still travel through the wilderness with our daily provision from God. We await a better kingdom to come.
Provision
“They asked and he brought quail;
He satisfied them with bread from Heaven.”
(Psalm 105:40)
“Asked” is perhaps the polite way of putting it. The people whined and complained. Yet, how often God humors us in our whining and complaining. It is not that food was unnecessary to the people of Israel during their wilderness wanderings. Indeed, it was essential. Yet, God knows our feeble frames; he made us and knows what we need (Matthew 6:8), he provides for the creatures of the earth (Matthew 6:26), will he also not provide for you? Indeed, He will.
So, why do we fret our days away, worrying about things over which we have little or no control? Why to we lay awake at night fretting about the day to come? Why do our prayers so often sound like complaints rather than “Draw me close to you, Lord”? The simple answer is that we often doubt what we cannot see. So, like Israel complaining about not having meat and wondering what the stuff God provided on the ground happened to be, מן (man — translates as “manna”) means “What is it?,” and then complained because they had too much of it, so we do much the same. Yet, we should follow Jesus’ model, asking for our daily provision and learning to be satisfied with it.
Perhaps think about it from a different perspective. The Bible describes us as servants and slaves of God. A good master provides for his servants and a bad master leaves them alone to fend for themselves. God is a good master, so why do we feel entitled to complain about His provision? I believe that if most Christians looked over their lives, they would see God’s hand at work bringing provision and sustaining them through trial. Perhaps, if we remember this, it will help us avoid all the whining and complaining that often comes from our mouths in prayer.
For My Body and My Soul
“Throw down your burden on Yahweh; he will provide for you and he will never permit that righteousness be swayed.”
(Psalm 55:23 {verse 22 in English Bibles})
Not only does the catechism promise that God governs all things and that he even uses evil events for the good of our salvation and sanctification as believers, but the language also reminds us that God is the great provider who will give to us all things that we need. Yet, when we think about God providing the things we need, often the first and primary thing of which we think has to do with our physical needs — He provides a place to protect us from the weather, food for the belly, and clothes for the back. And while all of these things are important to us, they are not the most important thing — more necessarily, God provides for the needs of my soul as well.
He provides this ultimately through Christ, who did for me, body and soul, what I could never have done for myself. Christ opened the gate into heaven that I might come in. He nurtures and nourishes my soul through his Word and instructs it through his Word and Discipline. And ultimately, he conforms me into the image of his Son that the Imago Dei that has been warped and twisted within me due to sin, can be straightened and prepared for glory. And indeed, this spiritual care is my greatest need. I can survive for a season on the morsels and tidbits of food that I can scavenge, but I cannot survive for a moment without the care that God provides to my soul. Woe to the one who is apart from God; how wretched is their state of spiritual death.
So, as the Psalmist reminds us, cast your cares on Yahweh, recognizing that these cares are not just those things that plague you in the physical world — nor are they primarily those things that plague you in the physical world — but those cares for the state of your soul as well. Lay your cares upon Him and he will carry you through even the darkest days this life brings.
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