Exodus 15:22-27 NASB 22] Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. [23] When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. [24] So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” [25] Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. [26] And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.” [27] Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 NASB [1] … “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. [2] You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. [3] He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand a that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD …
Those are a lot of verses, but my hope is that you will read those verses, meditate on them, and let God speak unique things in your own heart. I’ve talked about the wilderness a lot because I’ve watched a lot of people, including myself, come under heavy assault, in light of God’s promise about transitioning into a new place of glory. Remember the word the Lord has given us; “The warfare is meant to propel us towards a breakthrough into a new fresh place of victory from which we will never stop advancing, as the enemy suffers a defeat from which he will never recover.”
God’s intention for the Jewish people when they came out of Egypt was to spend 11 days journeying through the wilderness before entering into the land of promise where they would possess all their possessions in God. The land of Canaan represents our life in Christ and all the abundance that is ours in Him. The land of Canaan spiritually is the life that the resurrected Jesus lives through the believer, as a believer abides in Him.
Instead of spending 11 days in the wilderness, the Jewish people spent 40 years. Our sovereign Lord allows us to go through warfare for the purpose of our advancement, but sometimes, because of unbelief, we extend the season of testing beyond God’s original intent. It’s important that you understand that your capacity to by faith possess your possessions in Christ, will greatly be determined by how much you learn to trust Him in the wilderness.
When they came out of the Red Sea the first place God brought them to was Mara, which means bitter. They grumbled and complained about water to drink, and it says that God was testing them. God performed a miracle by turning the bitter water into sweet, and after that they went to a place that was a great oasis with plenty of water and rich fruit. Why did God bring them out of the Red Sea to a place where God had to perform a miracle? Why this place of testing first? Why not let their first stop be the oasis? Very simply, God was trying to teach them to trust Him because God knew that advancing into the place of greater glory will also carry greater battles, and the faith that we manifest in this season will not carry us through once we arrive in the land of Canaan. Greater glory will require a more mature faith.