ZONDERVAN
Walking with God in the Desert Discovery Guide
Copyright © 2010 by Ray Vander Laan
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ISBN 978-0-310-88062-2
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Contents
Introduction / 7
Session One
Join the Journey / 13
Session Two
It’s Hot Here and There’s No Way Out / 55
Session Three
Help Is Here / 101
Session Four
When Your Heart Cries Out / 143
Session Five
They Were Not Wandering / 189
Session Six
Ears to Hear / 233
Session Seven
There’s Hope in the Desert / 279
Notes / 319
Acknowledgments / 321
Bibliography / 325
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Session On e
Join the Journey
During their forty years in the desert, Israel was transformed. The
Israelites came out of Egypt as emancipated slaves with a vague
remembrance of their God and little awareness of their identity.
Through a journey of struggle and hardship made possible by the
daily experience of God’s ever-present love and provision, they came
out of the desert as a ­people with a faith, a book, and a culture. No
wonder the desert became a central theme in the faith life of God’s
­people. It was not just a place through which they passed; it was how
they gained a way of life, an identity; it was part of their very soul.
But the journey was not easy. The desert was a place of danger and
death (Deuteronomy 8:15) compared to the safety of Egypt. In the
desert, God’s ­people experienced his protection more intensely
because the threats were so severe — ​from poisonous snakes and
scorpions, from enemies, from hunger and thirst. In that sense, the
desert became a place of refuge and guidance where they experi­
enced the shelter of God’s protective care (Deuteronomy 2:7; Psalm
68:5 – 10).
The desert journey was also difficult because it revealed the true
heart of God’s ­people and their stubborn refusal to surrender com­
pletely to their God. It was a place of bitter resistance to God’s
leading and a selfish desire to return to the comforts of Egypt. So
in the desert we see their bitter complaints about the lack of food
and water (Exodus 15:22 – 24; 16:1 – 36; 17:1 – 7; Numbers 11:1 – 35;
20:1 – 13). We see their outright unfaithfulness and rebellion in
the making of the golden calf (Exodus 32) and Korah’s rebellion
(Numbers 16). We see their unwillingness to take on the mission of
reclaiming the Promised Land for God (Deuteronomy 1:26 – 36).
13
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14
Le ssons on Walk ing wi t h God in t he De ser t
In the desert, God disciplined his ­people because they refused to
continue the journey and become his holy ­people. As a result, the
entire generation that had entered the desert died there. Their expe­
rience is a paradigm, a warning and a lesson, for every generation
that resists God in order to serve its own desires.
But there is another side to the desert journey. It was also an awefilled time when God revealed his presence in fire and cloud, when
the thunder of his voice was heard. It was a time when daily mir­
acles — ​water gushing out of rock, bread and meat from heaven — ​
testified to God’s love and protection of his ­people, his treasured
possession. The journey in the wilderness was recalled as one of
intimacy and faithfulness, when “as a bride you loved me and fol­
lowed me through the desert” (Jeremiah 2:2). It was a wonderful
time of intimate solitude with God when he forgave their sins and
patiently molded them into the kingdom of priests and holy nation
he desired (Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 8:2 – 5, 15 – 18).
The intimacy and intensity of Israel’s worship in the desert was
unparalleled in their history. It is true that they often rebelled and
sinned grievously in the desert, yet they experienced God’s loving
provision anyway. They learned that he will chastise sinners but also
offers unexpected redemption. Often God showed mercy to them
in the desert because of his faithfulness to the covenants he made
with their ancestors (Exodus 2:24; Leviticus 26:42; 19:5; 24:1 – 8)
and with them. So they came to know him as a covenant God who is
always faithful to his promises, even when his p
­ eople are not.
The rich and personal nature of Israel’s relationship with God was
on full display in the desert. For generations into the future, when
God seemed distant and his ­people were apathetic or defiant, the
faithful returned to the desert. Some returned by remembering
their ancestors’ journey, others by going into the wilderness them­
selves. Going into the desert was for the purpose of restoring one’s
relationship with God — ​to relive a time when Israel, God’s prized
possession, fell in love with him in the desert. May our desert jour­
neys — ​those difficult, confusing times of nearly overwhelming pain
and hardship, punctuated with God’s protective care and blessing — ​
also lead us to rediscover our God and fall in love with him again.
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Session One: Join the Journey
15
Opening Thoughts (5 minutes)
The Very Words of God
In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye.
Deuteronomy 32:10
Think About It
Imagine that you are in a stadium with tens of thousands of p
­ eople
watching a football game for the very first time — ​except there are
no goalposts and you have no idea what the objective is. All you see
is lots of running around, p
­ eople crashing into one another, the ball
being thrown first in one direction then another, and the spectators
cheering wildly sometimes and seemingly devastated other times.
How chaotic would that seem to you?
In what sense do our lives look a bit like that, particularly when we
are going through a difficult time — ​what we might call a “desert”
experience?
In football, when you add the goalposts and know the objective of
the game, the chaos on the field starts to make sense. In life, what
do you think helps us to begin to make sense out of the confusion
and chaos of our difficult times?
DVD N otes (13 minutes)
God f inds Isr ael i n t h e d eser t
A p lace o f d anger a nd p er il
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16
Le ssons on Walk ing wi t h God in t he De ser t
A p lace o f r efuge a nd p ro tection
Th r ee l ands — ​Egypt, Pro m ised Lan d, d eser t
Lear n ing to k now, tr ust, and l ove God i n t h e d eser t
God j oin s h is ­p eople i n t h e d eser t
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