“The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you and you have not lacked anything.” (Deuteronomy 2:7 NIV)
We are still in the midst of Moses’ wrap-up sermon – standing with our ancient Israelites in the transition between wilderness and Promised Land. Moses was giving a recap, going over all the events that led up to this moment, in the hopes of setting his people up for future success in a foreign land.
One day we’re going to look back and see (with clarity) God’s ongoing involvement in our story. We’re going to recognize His blessing on our productivity. We’ll appreciate His hand of protection. We’ll perceive His provision. We’ll be certain of His unwavering with-ness.
Until then, we keep trodding on in faith. We believe in His promises and follow His lead, full of hope and obedience alike. It’s not all blind succession; some hindsight is immediate. We leave the scene and within weeks or months we start to understand our why. But other times, hindsight doe not gain full clarity until heaven. We may end this life without realizing God’s full purpose in some pages of our story. It’s an uncomfortable tension to live with, but ultimately, it’s God’s prerogative to give or withhold such insight. We remember He is composing a symphony far more complex than our few measures; a piece so elaborate that we cannot read it, let alone author it.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”(Proverbs 16:9 NIV)
If we keep reading Deuteronomy 2 and 3, we’ll see how God continually plotted the Israelite course. They passed through many places and sometimes they were instructed to walk by in peace, other times they are instructed to engage in battle. Sometimes they were told to take hostages, other times they were told to leave no survivors. Sometimes they were encouraged to plunder, other times the loot was all consecrated to the Lord.
The truth is, God has specific instructions for every square foot of our story if we’ll only lean in and listen. There are battles to be won and battles to walk by. There is land to possess and land to leave be. There are spoils to take and sacrifices to make. Discernment of such matters is found in divine conversation alone – we ask and listen and obey. And then we trust that when we get past the final page of our earthly story, it will start to make sense.
Listening is the key to cooperation. Listening to God involves two aspects: making time to hear Him and being obedient when He speaks. May we get good at both parts of divine interaction.
Lord, we realize now that hindsight may be slow to develop, that some of our story may not make sense until we gain a heavenly vantage point. We also see how You have specific instructions for each stretch of land in our story: some places we fight, others we pass by. Help us lean in and listen well. Please issue clear instructions. It’s obvious from the Israelite narrative that You have a complex and perfect plan unfolding. We can trust that truth for our own story. Help us listen and obey even when we don’t understand. We want to follow You all the way across the border of Heaven. Amen.