Deu 2:1-3: Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days. And the LORD spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
As I was mediating on the above scripture, a few things disturbed me about how Israel arrived at a place where they made circular motions without any advancement towards the land promised them.
Please consider this, moving in a Circular motion will expend ones energy and will give a false sense of advancement because there is motion. It will involve repetitive passing of certain landmarks or sites that should have served as a warning that no advancement is being made but these landmarks will be ignored either deliberately or due to the fact that we do not pay close attention.
Israel was in the wilderness, an unpleasant place to spend a long time in, so why would they be satisfied with keeping up a circular motion for many days? If the wilderness was a pleasant place, I think we can understand their desire to stay longer in such a place but who chooses a wilderness to a land flowing with milk and honey?
Their choice to continue making this movement around a landmark concerned me. My concern increased when I saw that the last command that God gave them about their journey was by the way of the Red Sea.
I worry today that many are engaged in this futile exercise. Messages are being recycled, direction was last received long ago but movement still continues. Fleshy energy is being expended and things seem to be happening but no one wants to admit that it seems that we have passed these same landmarks before. We whistle to encourage ourselves and refuse to observe that we are no closer to knowing God with all these intellectual joggling of words that has excited us without transforming us. Month in month out themes are recycled and no one asks the very obvious question, where are we heading to with all these? Instead we whistle along to keep hope alive, ignoring the fact that we have made little advancement.
Order has been established and a strict regime that we have become comfortable with has set in. Our reliance on prayer manuals(good as we think they may be) can wean us of our dependence on the Holy Spirit to help our infirmities in the place of prayer.
Please stop and evaluate your walk with God, are you making any advancement towards your God ordained destiny?
It took the voice of God to give Israel an understanding of what they have been doing and how futile it had been. May He also speak to break us out of the routine that we have come to be comfortable with. Let us seek to hear God and break out of the routine. Our advance in the things of God must be sponsored by the life of the spirit.
Jesus told us that without Him we can do nothing! I do not think that this means that from a human stand point we will do nothing but from Heavens stand point the best we can do without Jesus is Nothing! For instance, Paul said of a man that gives his body to be burned without love, that it profits him nothing. Lets stop and seek His guiding voice for our journey.
