![]() As Chris Wright perceptively remarks, “There is always more than one way of looking at history. 2:14) began after over a year of wilderness wanderings. This period of 40 years judgment (38 years according to Deut. But this came after their disbelief of the spies’ report on Canaan (Numbers 13). Passages like Numbers 14:32-34 speak of God’s judgment on Israel, stating that they would suffer and die for their sins in the wilderness. Now the thinking of Capps and others is not without some foundation in this regard. Some lessons can only be learnt in trouble.” Through those bleak wilderness years, he had been like a compassionate father who occasionally has to discipline his children for their own good. They had learned lessons there which prosperity could never have taught them. God had “been good to them in the barren desert. Indeed, Raymond Brown puts a very positive spin on this period. Thus this is discipline in the positive sense of education.” Eugene Merrill suggests that in the light of the verbs ‘humble’ and ‘test’, “it may be best to see the desert itinerary as a learning experience rather than a punishing one. Here the concepts of God’s leading and the educational function of the wanderings are stressed. Take for example Deuteronomy 8:2 which reads, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” But the point remains: God did indeed lead them into the wilderness. Sure, it is true that Israel did snub God’s good provision and blessing, and tested God, for which Yahweh grew angry (Deut. Indeed, as Dale Allison notes, “despite the tradition of disobedience and murmuring in the desert and the fact that there is no nomadic or desert ideal in the OT, the time in the wilderness was sometimes described in glowing terms (e.g., Is 63:11-14).”Īll this does not sound like a curse to me. 13:5) of giving his spirit to instruct them (Neh. The relevant texts speak of God leading Israel through the desert (Ex. ![]() There are a number of biblical passages on this episode, and they seem to give a rather different slant to the story. Their ‘wilderness experience’ was not God’s blessing – it was a curse!” It was not the will of God that they be in the wilderness all those years. In his book, Why Tragedy Happens to Christians, he says: “We have heard many sermons about how God led the children of Israel in the wilderness: and most of these sermons seem to convey that the ‘wilderness experience’ was to perfect them or make them stronger. ![]() They basically claim that all “negative” experiences, such as sickness, suffering or poverty, are of the devil, and have no place in the believer’s life.Ĭonsider the comments of just one representative figure here, Charles Capps. I refer to the word of faith teachers, or the positive confessionists. ![]() One group at least seems to argue against any such consolation. How do the Old and New Testaments view this experience? Does it contain positive elements? Can Christians in fact gain any comfort from it? Given that much of Christendom has spoken of the value of our “wilderness experiences”, it is worth looking at this event a bit more closely. We are all familiar (or should be) with the time of Israel in the wilderness.
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