Postcards from the Edge | A Letter to Stuck People | Revelation 3:1-6 | Week 6

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The words from God to this nation were "keep going."  But they were words that were built on a story.  They weren't just said in a vacuum.  See, this nation of roughly 2,000 people found themselves in a valley, and they heard those words from God, but BEFORE that, they'd seen the hand of God.  It was God who'd led them out of 400 years of slavery into freedom, but he led them to this place where they were on this peninsula.  Water surrounding them on three sides.  Miraculously, the Red Sea parted and they walked through on dry ground.  But he didn't stop there.  Every morning when they woke up, there was a little bit of bread they called manna that was lying on the ground, just enough to get them through the day, and the next day it was there again.  Sometimes, quail came in, so they got a little meat in their diet, but not regularly.  They had just enough.  They were in the wilderness and walking through the desert and they had no water and God told Moses to hit a rock with a stick, and the rock turned into a well and water just started flowing from it.  They'd seen unbelievable things:  their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes stayed good, they saw God's gracious hand of provision all along the way.  He said to them, "Keep going.  Keep going.  You're out of slavery, you're in the desert, but I'm leading you to the Promised Land.  Don't stop here."  

They were sent to spy out this land.  A land that they found was flowing with milk and honey.  They brought back grapes for people to taste.  Evidently they were amazing grapes!  They said, "Yeah, there's milk and honey.  It's unbelievable!  It's wonderful!"  God said, "Keep going."  But they said, "There's also giants in the land."  I don't think you understand, God, or maybe you do, but we're sort of like grasshoppers and they're sort of BIG and if you really wanted us to keep going, you should have made us a little bit stronger.  So they stopped.  A people created for the Promised Land found wandering in the desert for 40 years.  Because God wouldn't force them to take that step.  He gave them every resource they needed; it was right in front of them and they said, "No, thank you."  People created for the vast horizon, for the expansive landscape, for the milk and honey of the Promised Land, SETTLED for the desert...."