Pastor Dirk spoke about layovers this Sunday – I’ve been
through my share of unfortunate airport hang-ups, but I discovered the low
point of layovers during a four hour wait in Detroit with two post-bedtime (but
not sleeping) toddlers. Layovers are no-one’s favorite part of a journey.
In Numbers 11:4-15, we find the Israelites in a layover.
They were stuck in the desert, waiting. They were God’s chosen people, on their
way out of slavery and headed to the Promised Land; but in Numbers 11, they are
parked in the wilderness for a season. A forty-year season.
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| Photo Credit: Flickr user Mike Boening Photography |
The Israelites began to grumble and complain, because
they didn’t have the things they thought they deserved or wanted or felt they
needed. In the desert, God sustained them with manna; the people wanted
something more. (Meat; they were grumbling because everyone needs a chicken
nugget to go with their bread from heaven.) The people weren’t complaining
because of unmet needs – they were complaining because they were looking for
something more, something different. They longed for their old way of
life – slavery! – romanticizing how good they had it back in Egypt. Their
complaining and desire to just get out of the wilderness revealed hearts that
were not looking to trust God, or to see what He might have for them right
there in the layover.
Every day, without fail, God was meeting their needs,
sustaining them. They didn’t ever wake up wondering what they would eat to
survive – God provided manna every day.
In the Numbers 11 story, the Israelites were too focused
on their desires and their grumbling to be aware of the goodness of God in the
wilderness. Does this happen to us as well?
In my own life, when God has invited me into a layover,
it’s so easy to wallow in the sadness, emptiness, and loneliness of all that
is missing. Whether I complain with my loud mouth, or just inside my head, it’s
easy to get lost in what I think I’m missing.
When we moved to South Carolina, I felt like I was in the
wilderness. We lived in the middle of nowhere, family life was complicated by a
miscarriage, and even at our fantastic church we were extras - unneeded youth
volunteers. I spent some months confused, complaining (sometimes to God
(useful!), sometimes to Caleb (not useful…)), looking for ways out. But God had
unexpected treasures for me in that wilderness – a time of rest and
restoration, a time for new steps of faith and different avenues of service and
obedience, a time to learn about love from a thriving Christ-centered
community.
I almost missed out on all of those beautiful – different
- things because I wasn’t looking for what God was doing; I was looking for what I wanted, the things I was used to.
In Hosea, God speaks to the idea of waiting in the
layovers:
“Therefore, I am now going to allure her [Israel]; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14
Through Hosea, God was telling the nation of Israel about
their rebellion, and comparing His plan to win them back to the time they had
spent wandering before entering the Promised Land. I’m astounded by this
passage; the wilderness isn’t an accident or a problem!
The layover – the wilderness – isn’t a scheduling mistake
by God; He plans the layover because He has something there for us.
In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of everything before
they head into the Promised Land at the end of their forty-year desert layover;
he warns them about the abundance that is coming:
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you – a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, and olive groves you did not plant – then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)
Moses
is reminding the Israelites that when they come out on the other side of this
long layover, they will have all the things they were crying out for – all of
that and more! And yet, in that abundance, they will be prone to forget God. The
wilderness was the place where they were most aware of God and His goodness;
receiving everything they thought they wanted would tempt them to forget Him.
In the daily needs of the wilderness, they learned of God’s
goodness. They learned that God was the only source for all of their needs. As
He was faithful day after day, He invited them to trust Him.
We sometimes miss the good and gracious gifts of God when
we are stuck with our eyes and hearts on our own waylaid plans during life’s
layovers, unable to see the goodness of God as He cares for us. If instead we
remember God’s faithfulness to us – that He has been good in the past, and we
can trust Him to be good to us again – we will be in a position to let God
allure us and speak to us in the wilderness.
[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, especially humility and patience.]
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