Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
There was "good news" and "bad news" as the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land. The bad news was they'd have to fight and conquer many enemies. (Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- ). The good news was that the Lord would give them the victory and would bless them. They had to depend on the power of an invisible God to protect them.
Their preparation was forty years in the desert. Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
They had experienced God's protection and provision for an entire generation in the midst of a place where no people would choose to live so that they would believe He would be their strength in the land where everyone wanted to live. If you are going through dry times, difficult times, desert times...even if they have lasted for a while, the Lord may be preparing you in the same way. Under it all, He loves us just as He loved the Israelites: Deuteronomy 7: 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
If you're in the desert, love the Lord and learn to lean on Him.
blessings,
Rob Smith
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