Faltering Faith in the Desert

Most people give the Israelites a hard time for not trusting God more in the desert, but I totally get it. First, they didn’t even know the God of their fathers. They had been in Egypt living and thriving since the famine when Pharaoh invited Josephs’s family to settle in the land. There the nation of Israel grew and grew and grew. Until everyone who knew and loved Joseph died off, and the new Pharaoh saw the Israelites as a threat, so he enslaved and oppressed them. (Genesis 46- Exodus 1)

I have to wonder if Moses even knew the God of his fathers while growing up in Pharaoh’s home? It is unclear by the scripture, but it’s easy to imagine God must have been very silent over the generations and the Israelites’ faith must have faded away. I can only imagine how the pagan idol worship seeped into the Israelites homes. It’s no wonder they had trouble trusting a God they didn’t really know and would allow them to be enslaved in Egypt. It’s also easier to see how this was all part of God’s plan to fulfill his promise to Abraham to make him a great nation and have his people occupy the promised land.

So when Moses suddenly sees God in the burning bush and leads the people out of Egypt to the desert, how well did they really know God and the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph? Probably not much at all. And still, they had some faith to actually leave on a journey into the unforgiving desert.

So it’s understandable how their faith faltered over and over again. They didn’t even know God, and then when they trusted him things always got worse before it got better. Sure, God provided in the desert, but I’ve walked the desert in Israel, so I can imagine – the exodus through the desert for 40 years – was bleak and endless toil with not much joy, rest, or relief.

I totally get it. I feel that’s the faltering or at least questioning faith I’m living at times. Even though I know God is faithful and has my best interest at heart, it is so hard to trust and wait on Him especially when things keep getting worse and all the “evidence” points to the fact that the future really is bleak. So it’s easy for me to understand why the Israelites would lose faith and take things into their own hands again and again. After all, don’t we do the same things?

It’s easy to understand faltering faith in the deserts of our lives. Sometimes God’s faithfulness and blessings in our lives are shadowed by the ever-constant problems and suffering life throws at us. Sure, we know God is there and will provide, but the pain we feel in the moment masks our faith or at least weakens it for a while. Just like in Exodus and with the Israelites, there is good in our lives if we look and remember. But sometimes it’s hard to rest in it when there’s more desert to cross and you’re already tired and hungry and sick of manna. That’s when it’s so important to renew our faith by reading his promises and remembering the many times he’s come through. Even faltering faith is enough faith to make it through the desert.