“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.'” (Deuteronomy 5:30 NLT)
God respects our requests. The Israelites had experienced a bit of His awesome physical presence and they were reluctant for more. God honored their wishes. He sent them back to their tents because they weren’t willing to pay the price carte blanche and that was okay. But when others stepped back, Moses stepped forward.
“But you stay here with Me, so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.” (Deuteronomy 5:31 NLT)
A student texted me first thing this morning to share a song entitled “I Surrender.” The lyrics promote a position of complete divine submission – a beautiful fleeting thought but a dangerous prayer for sure. Salvation is free but intimacy demands a high price. Moses conceded his life to God’s purpose: he enjoyed incredibly intimacy with God, yet he had little to no say in his own story.
I page back a ways in my own narrative to find a seventeen year old Anna face first at the altar. She had little to no idea what it meant when she surrender to an unseen God, pledging herself to live sold out for Him. Sometimes I think I’d like to warn her, to let her consider the cost a bit before she pushed all her chips to the center. I suppose, though, we cannot simply stop mid-plot and make a judgement on such a choice. Very rarely does a book feel resolved in the thick pages at the center. No, it only starts to make sense the last few chapters, maybe even the final sentence. Attempting to ascertain the value of a surrendered story mid-life will not yield accurate results either.
The reality is, long ago I cast my lot. I’m committed to follow this journey through. Just as Moses found himself serving God in the middle of the desert, I’m in the dusty stretch between decision and destination, too. This not the time to reassess my choices. This is the time to keep plodding on in obedience toward the Promised Land. It is also the time to relish each and every God encounter I am afforded. These intimate moments are the singular highpoints in these chapters, not the scenery or the diet or the tents. The real joy on this journey is the intimate interaction with the living God.
“Stay on the path that the Lord God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.” (Deuteronomy 5:33 NLT)
It would seem how well we follow God here, in this life, determines how well we’ll live there, in the next life. Mid-journey is not the time to back-peddle our level of surrender and return to our tents. Instead, it might be the most crucial moment to continue to walk in godly conviction. Mid-course may matter the most in our story arc, so we commit to stay on the path no matter how we feel in the moment.
Lord, today we clearly see a choice in the lives of Moses and the Israelites. We can live in expensive, ongoing intimacy with You as Moses did, or we can stay in our tents and try to follow Your instructions from a distance. Please give us courage to keep living in surrender. May we resist the urge to examine the cost and come up short. We don’t want to abandon Your calling mid-story. We want to finish strong. Engage us with Your presence and set our sights on the Promised Land. Amen.