Worship in the Wilderness and the Trail of Graves

God delivered the nation of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt to take them into the land that He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He brought them out in order to take them in. Moses was chosen by God to lead the people even though the people resisted him and God almost every step of the way. A year after they left Egypt, the nation of Israel was camped at the southern border of the Promised Land at a place called Kadesh-barnea, ready to receive the long-awaited promise of God.

Moses sent twelve spies into the Promised Land and for forty days they traveled all the way to the northern tip and back. When they returned, they reported that the land was flowing with milk and honey and brought back a huge cluster of grapes and other fruits. But they also said, “However, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large…we saw the descendants of Anak, the Nephilim, there…so we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers to them.” Numbers 13:28 – 33

But Joshua and Caleb gave a minority report. They said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the other ten spies swayed the 600,000 men of Israel with their unbelief and led the congregation to begin making plans to stone Moses and to choose for themselves another leader to take them back to Egypt. Never underestimate the power of fear, unbelief, and disobedience!

God spoke to Moses and pronounced the verdict: The whole adult population of Israel, except for Joshua and Caleb, would die in the wilderness. They would wander in the wilderness one year for each of the forty days, forty years in the wilderness. Their children would be the ones who would take possession of the Promised Land. Those who voted “no” would get their will done rather than experience God’s. When they heard the word, they changed their minds and decided to go against what God had said and tried to organize an army without Moses or God’s directive. They failed miserably.

For the next forty years the nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness of Sinai while Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb dug graves, 600,000 graves. With every death, unbelief grew weaker until it was purged from the nation. They would have been easy to follow because they left behind a trail of graves, each one declaring the truth that the wages of sin is death. With every funeral, Joshua and Caleb must have preached that the flesh will deceive you, defeat you, and fail you. But with God nothing is impossible!

Imagine the graveside service of the final “adult” from that unbelieving generation, when the final shovel of sand was put on the grave. Joshua must have looked at Caleb and shouted “It is finished! Now, let’s go kill some Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites, and take possession of the Promised Land! Which they did!

We, like Israel, are also in a wilderness experience right now. We have the fire and cloud of the Holy Spirit and God’s word to lead us. We have the spiritual bread and water of Life from the Rock of Christ accompanying us. We have the promise of the Father of resurrection before us. And we also are leaving behind us a trail of graves of unbelieving flesh as it dies with every step we take in the Spirit and by the Spirit. And with every grave, faith in Christ grows and pleases the Father more and more.

Your wilderness experience is a worship experience of becoming more and more of a true worshiper as you leave behind you a trail of graves. Today, dig another grave as you walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.