What is Abide? | Listen to this Episode 

This week’s Abide episode comes from the passage in the Our Daily Bread devotional from Monday the 26th of August, which is Deuteronomy 2:1-7.

The Israelites found themselves back on the path of obedience after a second act of rebellion in a desert place — otherwise known as the wilderness. This is where God would intervene and help guide them out.

If we look back earlier in Deuteronomy 1:26-46, this is when the Israelites rebelled against God the first time. They’ve now been given a second chance in chapter 2 to obey His instruction for their lives.

Let’s read from the start of chapter 2, verses 1-3:

Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir. Then the Lord said to me, “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.

After a time of roaming about in the wilderness, God tells the Israelites to turn north. They’ve been wandering around far too long, and enough was enough.

Now, verses 4 to 6:

Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’”

God asks them to pass through a land where their relatives were living, instructing them not to provoke violence. More than that, the Israelites are told to pay their relatives in silver for their food and water. They’re instructed to offer peace, not war — even though they are most likely feeling agitated and frustrated.

Let’s read on in verse 7:

The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.

God reminds the Israelites that He is with them. He has been here all along, watching over them in their journey through the wilderness and wants to give them a second chance. In their wandering and disobedience, they have lacked nothing because they had God. They just needed to turn to Him and listen.

In various times of our lives we may find ourselves asking, “God, where are you?” We may have previously felt we were on the right track, doing the right thing. Maybe we thought we had it all figured out…. Then all of a sudden, we look around and find ourselves lost, in the wilderness, crying out to God.

Often we may feel we know what’s best for us. We take matters into our own hands but at the end of the day feel depleted, realising we followed our own path, not His.

Or maybe, you’re in a season of waiting, feeling uncertain about what comes next. I understand what it’s like to long for answers to come; to get out of this “wilderness” feeling and have solutions presented to me. But it is in this season where our faith grows strongest.

Can I encourage you today to pinpoint your “wilderness” and bring it before God? Perhaps He has already directed you in what you should do, but you find yourself heading in the opposite direction.

Whatever your wilderness is, remember that through it all, we lack nothing for He is with us, comforting and directing us. And sometimes, His direction is simply to wait.

In the waiting and in the desert places, He does not leave us, even when it feels like He has. We can cling to His Word, trusting that in His timing, He’ll reveal the way out. And, in the meantime, we can draw closer to Him.