Dear Family,
Today is Friday, May 13, 2022, Day 6 of Week 4. This is the 27TH Day in our Count to Pentecost.
As we close this week, we find the ancient Israelites leaving the area of Elim. Their next campsite was near the Red Sea.
Numbers 33:10-11 (10) And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea. (11) And they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.
Exodus 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
Following a brief camping near the Red Sea, the cloud and the pillar of fire led Israel into the wilderness of Sin where God soon tested them again with hunger.
Deuteronomy 8:3(a) And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger
The Holy Bible connects hunger, including hunger from fasting, with being humbled (Psalm 35:13).
Many people are quickly overwhelmed when they fear they will have to do without any food or water.
Their “feelings” of inadequacy make them susceptible to ineffective actions. They may feel extremely scared and vulnerable and act out in negative, dramatic, childish, rash or violent behaviors. That’s what the natural human, who is not committed and submitted to God, will tend to do. That’s what the natural human, without God’s Holy Spirit, will tend to do. And, that’s what many of the ancient Israelites did.
It is at the point when our spirits are “overwhelmed” that God can really find out who we really are, what we are all about, and what we will do when we are severely pressed. And, God needs to know!
Psalm 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path.
God tested the Israelites, and He will test those He is calling and working with now. Yes, we have access to the Holy Spirit. Let us not be naive and assume that because we are privileged to know so much of God’s truth, and have access to His Holy Spirit, that we are immune to being tested!
1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
As God tested and humbled the ancient Israelites to make a covenant for the here-and-now with them, He certainly will test and humble those He is bringing into eternal fellowship with Him. God needs to know who we are, and what we will do. Selah!
Ben Faulkner, Pastor
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