Wandering vs. Word

Wandering vs. Word

“Don’t question in the wandering the word you heard clearly in the quiet.”  Today I had lunch with Malone University Chaplain, Rev. Randall Heckert and in the course of our conversation he said those words as he was sharing a story about a conversation he had with someone last week.  I stopped him mid-sentence and asked him to repeat himself.  Again he said, “Don’t question in the wandering the word you heard clearly in the quiet.” 

Moses heard God clearly in the quiet of the desert as the bush burned without burning.  God said, “Moses, I have heard the groaning’s of my people. I have seen their suffering.  I will set my people free. Now, I am sending you.”  Moses offered his reasons why he was the wrong guy, but God made his calling undeniably clear.  A staff was turned into a snake and back.  His hand was turned white with leprosy and then restored. God was sending him his brother Aaron to be his mouth piece.  Moses could not question what he heard in the quiet because it was so clear.  God was calling him to go to Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go!”

Now, fast forward past ten plagues and the parting of the sea.  God is ready to take the people into the promise land, but the people let fear rule their hearts and they refuse to enter.  So now Moses will wander with them in the desert for 40 years until God can have a generation raised up who will trust him enough to enter the new land.  Imagine 40 years of wandering with those people.  Don’t you think Moses questioned himself…? “Did I really hear God in that bush?  If so, why am I in the dessert and not in the promise land?” 

Do you ever feel like that?  Life does not always go as planned.  Unexpected road blocks appear.  We run into dead ends.  People make decisions that we have no control over that detour the journey. We feel like we are wandering in the dessert for the forty years when we were certain God had painted a picture of a land flowing with milk and honey. What happened?  Did we hear God incorrectly?  Did we do something wrong?  For those of you who are wrestling with such questions right now, I invite you to receive with me this word from Rev. Heckert who learned it from the life of Moses, “Don’t question in the wandering the word you heard clearly in the quiet.”