Destiny and Detours – Navigating Through the Wilderness

The ragtag “marching army” of Jacob’s enslaved descendants abandoned the beaten travel route from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent, heading from Etham into uncharted wilderness.

That’s when the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night appeared.  Forty years later, as they crossed the Jordan River into Canaan, it disappeared.

While we don’t require such visible direction, the pillar provides important clues about how God guides His children today.

Interact with God’s Word

Exodus 13:17-22

1. Was the circuitous route the Israelites took to the Promised Land a chance development or was it deliberately directed?
2. What reason for this divinely directed detour is given in verse 17?
3. What other reason is described at length in the next chapter (14:1-4, 19-28)?
4. Why would taking Joseph’s coffin with them (v. 19) reassure the Israelites that they would eventually reach their destination?
5. How did God give the Israelites a tangible sense of His presence (v. 21)?
6. How did the cloud column reveal God’s direction, timing, and protection (see also Numbers 9:15-23; 10:34)?

Spend Time in Prayer:  Ask God to make you content to accept the direction in which He points you and the timing of the pauses and moves He determines for you.

Exodus 13:17-22

17 When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them on the road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea, and the Israelites left Egypt like a marching army. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear that they would take his bones with them when God led them out of Egypt—as he was sure God would.

20 Leaving Succoth, they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 21 The LORD guided them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. That way they could travel whether it was day or night. 22 And the LORD did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from their sight.

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Plan or Presence?

Key Bible Verse:  The paths of the Lord are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them.  But sinners stumble and fall along the way.  – Hosea 14:9

Bonus Reading:  Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

People are constantly inquiring about how they can discover God’s plan for their lives.  Years ago I began first to doubt and then to disbelieve that God has a specific plan for me because it seemed to me that would run contrary to His purpose.  God’s overriding purpose is our maturity, and maturity can’t be reached by plan.

I think we North Americans are very arrogant to assume that all the principles that applied to the great leaders of the Scripture—Moses or Abraham or Joseph or David—apply to us as individuals.  I don’t know why we don’t rather apply to ourselves the principles of the followers among the children of Israel.

I’m sure that God does have an overall plan and those who are specifically involved in it are going to know about it, for He’s going to tell them, even coerce them, as He did Jonah.  But for most of us, His purpose is our maturity.

It has struck me that none of the saints whose writings I’ve read over the years talk about a specific plan that God has for his or her life.  They talk about the presence rather than the plan.  It seems that when you have a guide you don’t need a map.  We often try to substitute a program for His presence.

— Sr.Fred Smith in Texas

My Response: I’ll pray to be more absorbed with the Guide than with His guidance.

Thought to Apply: The center of God’s will is our only safety.

—Betsie Ten Boom (Dutch concentration camp victim)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Malfunction Junction

Key Bible Verse:  The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives.  – Psalm 37:23

Bonus Reading: Psalm 25:1-15

The intersection is a six-way circle of traffic confusion in the center of Missoula.  Every time I approach it, my head pounds and my hands grow clammy.  It is nevertheless the most direct route through the business district.

Approaching Malfunction Junction recently, I saw a puzzle of detour signs.  It looked to me like it had become the mother of all nightmares.  But I was wrong!  The detour led me to discover a route to get around Malfunction Junction in the future.  Although longer by distance, it’s shorter by time.

Sometimes God reroutes us as we travel the roads of life.  But His detours always turn out.

King David, the author of Psalm 25:1-15 had been anointed king as a teen, but it was many years before he actually ascended the throne.  As God flagged David’s life through many detours, He was building the character of one of Israel’s greatest kings.

Like David, the routes to our God-given destinies aren’t direct; they’re a tangle of detours designed to prepare us for our final destinations.

If the zigzags of God confuse you, ask Him to show you what He’s up to.  David often did, and came to see how God was directing his steps.  God will do the same for you.

—Mike Raether in Montana

My Response: I’ll read psalms of David and observe how he blurts out his questions to God.

Thought to Apply:  The basic decision, after all, is to let God be God, to say “yes” to the work of the Lord.

—Luke Timothy Johnson (theologian)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Destination Confirmation

Key Bible Verse:  God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea.  – 1 Corinthians 10:1

Bonus Reading:  Psalm 32:8-11

Sometimes, in the midst of the zigs and the zags, we become discouraged.  If the progress seems slow or we appear to be going in the opposite direction, we even begin to doubt whether there is a point B.  Maybe that’s not God’s goal, we begin to say.  Maybe I wanted it so bad I just psyched myself into it.

If God is lovingly leading us toward His intended goal, how does He keep us encouraged and affirm the direction He’s taking us?

If point B is of God, He’ll find ways of coming to you and letting you know that’s where He’s taking you.  It may be that while you’re over there in this side cubicle, and nobody knows you work for the company, that somebody who phones in to do business with your company will find you at your desk, and say, “Are you still at that desk?  I would think that by now with the abilities you have you’d be … ”  And out of the blue, of all the positions in the company, he picks point B—and you’ve never breathed a word to anyone.  In your heart you hear God saying, “I am reminding you.”

God will also give you a tangible sense of His presence.  You’ll have a palpable sense of His nearness, His protection, and His guidance.

—Don Sunukjian in Preaching Today

My Response:  What indicator of God’s good intentions for me can I hang on to today?

Thought to Apply: Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.—Winston Churchill (statesman)

Adapted from Preaching Today (Tape 251)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Fast Track?

Key Bible Verse:  God did not lead them on the road that … was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land.  – Exodus 13:17

Bonus Reading:  Exodus 13:17-22

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  True in geometry, but not necessarily for what God is doing in my life.

Say I’ve started work at a certain company, point A, and sense that God’s will is to take me to that corner office on the second floor, point B. I envision being assigned to lead a strategic task-group and coming in under budget and on time.  This brings me to the attention of the decision makers, who start moving me to different positions to gain experience with the whole operation.  When the corner office comes open, I’m the natural choice for it—a nice straight line.

Instead, I get assigned to something peripheral, working in some side cubicle, and nobody knows I work here.  God in His wisdom knows that the shortest distance is a zigzag!

It may be that there’s some person who’d be envious of my rapid promotion and undercut it, and I’d never get to point B.  It could be that I’ll need some skills I don’t yet possess, and God will take me on an alternate path to develop them.  Perhaps some networking connections are key.  Then when I’m ready, He’ll move me back into the straight-line path.

—Don Sunukjian in Preaching Today

My Response:  Can I accept the alternate track God has placed me on without understanding the reason(s) for it?

Thought to Apply: I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans.—George MacDonald (Scottish author)

Adapted from Preaching Today (Tape 251)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Calling Crisis

Key Bible Verse:  We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.  – Proverbs 16:9

Bonus Reading:  Isaiah 42:16

3 a.m., Moscow. I helplessly watched our one-year-old struggle for each breath.  We had no car.  The metro shut down at 1 a.m.  Even if we got a ride, reaching the American Medical Clinic across town would take at least an hour.

“Do something!” I screamed at God.

He did, but in the process He smashed the dream I thought He’d given me.  The short-term answer came quickly.  An American acquaintance with a car drove us to the clinic, where our son received timely oxygen treatments for his asthma.

The long-term answer proved much more difficult.  Over the next few weeks, my wife and I realized that we’d need to return to the States to get our son’s asthma under control.  What I considered a calling and had pursued for 14 years—teaching as a Christian professor at a university overseas—would have to wait.  Perhaps indefinitely.  What was God doing?

Four years later, as I teach some of my first Russian graduate students in the United States, I can begin to see God’s hand.  I also sense His healing hand on our growing young boy, on a struggling marriage that needed renewal, and on my own heart that needed rejuvenation.  I now thank God for His detour.

—Perry Glanzer in Texas

My Response:  What detour in my life can I now thank God for?

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Fog-Bound

Who Said It…Jerome Daley

Jerome Daley pursues the passion of his life—intimacy with God and people—in partnership with his wife, Kellie.  Through oneFleshministries, the Daleys speak, write, and lead worship.

In a culture that says go, go, go, Jerome’s book When God Waits challenges us to wait, wait, wait, looking for God’s hand in unexpected places.  Jerome likes to return—with his three children or alone on writing retreats—to the house his grandfather built in a Blue Ridge Mountain town.

What He Said…Fog-bound

As the fog hung close for two days, cabin fever struck, and I launched out for an eerie yet enticing morning walk.  I could see 20 or 30 feet in front of me, enough visibility to follow the path on its circuit through woods and meadow.

I soon realized I was relying heavily on my sense of hearing to observe what was going on around me: the crows cawing obnoxiously, the wind whistling quietly along the ridges, hammers falling in the distance as work progressed on a new house, an occasional car creeping cautiously through the mist.

Funny, I thought, how much we rely on our vision when we can see, but then how automatically we listen more intently when we can’t see.

Fog, huh?  Not unlike this season of waiting.  I can see far enough ahead to keep walking but not enough to know what lies ahead or on either side.  I can’t envision much of what lies beyond two or three months ahead.  So I must listen more intentionally to all the sounds that may convey God’s voice.

Adapted from When God Waits (WaterBrook, 2005)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

God’s Purpose Made Personal – Go with Which Flow?

Icebergs are classified by size and shape.  Sizes can range from small bergy bits to large bergs with lengths of tens of kilometers.  While Arctic icebergs do not reach the size of their Antarctic cousins, they can still present a formidable hazard.

Who Said It…Skip Heitzig

After troubled years as a young musician involved in the drug culture, Skip received Christ while watching a Billy Graham TV crusade.

After studying about his new faith, he began a home Bible study in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that grew into the 12,000-strong Calvary of Albuquerque!

After 23 years there, Skip last year moved to Ocean Hills Church in San Juan Capistrano, California.  Skip has visited world trouble spots with friend Franklin Graham.

What He Said…Go with Which Flow?

In the icy waters off the coast of Greenland are innumerable icebergs of varying size.  Even casual observation reveals that the small ice floes move in one direction while the massive ones flow in another.

The reason is simple.  Surface winds drive the little bergs while deep ocean currents move the larger ice masses along their routes.

Likewise, people carried by an awareness of God’s will for their lives are pulled by a deeper current than the surface winds of trends or societal pressures.

In what direction are you traveling?  What’s the purpose of your life?

If you’re like most people, you long to know that your life counts for something, that you have a purpose for being on earth. Everyone whom God calls has a purpose.  There’s a part of His program on earth that only you can fulfill.

One of life’s greatest pursuits is to discover what that purpose is and to live within its flow, even though you may feel as if you’re going against the cultural flow.

Adapted from Jesus Up Close (Tyndale, 2001)

Prayer for the Week:  I want my life to count for you, Lord. Help me to discover and follow your best purpose for my life.

Destiny and Detours – Navigating Through the Wilderness

The ragtag “marching army” of Jacob’s enslaved descendants abandoned the beaten travel route from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent, heading from Etham into uncharted wilderness.

That’s when the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night appeared.  Forty years later, as they crossed the Jordan River into Canaan, it disappeared.

While we don’t require such visible direction, the pillar provides important clues about how God guides His children today.

Interact with God’s Word

Exodus 13:17-22

1. Was the circuitous route the Israelites took to the Promised Land a chance development or was it deliberately directed?
2. What reason for this divinely directed detour is given in verse 17?
3. What other reason is described at length in the next chapter (14:1-4, 19-28)?
4. Why would taking Joseph’s coffin with them (v. 19) reassure the Israelites that they would eventually reach their destination?
5. How did God give the Israelites a tangible sense of His presence (v. 21)?
6. How did the cloud column reveal God’s direction, timing, and protection (see also Numbers 9:15-23; 10:34)?

Spend Time in Prayer:  Ask God to make you content to accept the direction in which He points you and the timing of the pauses and moves He determines for you.

Exodus 13:17-22

17 When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them on the road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea, and the Israelites left Egypt like a marching army. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear that they would take his bones with them when God led them out of Egypt—as he was sure God would.

20 Leaving Succoth, they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 21 The LORD guided them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. That way they could travel whether it was day or night. 22 And the LORD did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from their sight.

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Plan or Presence?

Key Bible Verse:  The paths of the Lord are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them.  But sinners stumble and fall along the way.  – Hosea 14:9

Bonus Reading:  Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

People are constantly inquiring about how they can discover God’s plan for their lives.  Years ago I began first to doubt and then to disbelieve that God has a specific plan for me because it seemed to me that would run contrary to His purpose.  God’s overriding purpose is our maturity, and maturity can’t be reached by plan.

I think we North Americans are very arrogant to assume that all the principles that applied to the great leaders of the Scripture—Moses or Abraham or Joseph or David—apply to us as individuals.  I don’t know why we don’t rather apply to ourselves the principles of the followers among the children of Israel.

I’m sure that God does have an overall plan and those who are specifically involved in it are going to know about it, for He’s going to tell them, even coerce them, as He did Jonah.  But for most of us, His purpose is our maturity.

It has struck me that none of the saints whose writings I’ve read over the years talk about a specific plan that God has for his or her life.  They talk about the presence rather than the plan.  It seems that when you have a guide you don’t need a map.  We often try to substitute a program for His presence.

— Sr.Fred Smith in Texas

My Response: I’ll pray to be more absorbed with the Guide than with His guidance.

Thought to Apply: The center of God’s will is our only safety.

—Betsie Ten Boom (Dutch concentration camp victim)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Malfunction Junction

Key Bible Verse:  The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives.  – Psalm 37:23

Bonus Reading: Psalm 25:1-15

The intersection is a six-way circle of traffic confusion in the center of Missoula.  Every time I approach it, my head pounds and my hands grow clammy.  It is nevertheless the most direct route through the business district.

Approaching Malfunction Junction recently, I saw a puzzle of detour signs.  It looked to me like it had become the mother of all nightmares.  But I was wrong!  The detour led me to discover a route to get around Malfunction Junction in the future.  Although longer by distance, it’s shorter by time.

Sometimes God reroutes us as we travel the roads of life.  But His detours always turn out.

King David, the author of Psalm 25:1-15 had been anointed king as a teen, but it was many years before he actually ascended the throne.  As God flagged David’s life through many detours, He was building the character of one of Israel’s greatest kings.

Like David, the routes to our God-given destinies aren’t direct; they’re a tangle of detours designed to prepare us for our final destinations.

If the zigzags of God confuse you, ask Him to show you what He’s up to.  David often did, and came to see how God was directing his steps.  God will do the same for you.

—Mike Raether in Montana

My Response: I’ll read psalms of David and observe how he blurts out his questions to God.

Thought to Apply:  The basic decision, after all, is to let God be God, to say “yes” to the work of the Lord.

—Luke Timothy Johnson (theologian)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Destination Confirmation

Key Bible Verse:  God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea.  – 1 Corinthians 10:1

Bonus Reading:  Psalm 32:8-11

Sometimes, in the midst of the zigs and the zags, we become discouraged.  If the progress seems slow or we appear to be going in the opposite direction, we even begin to doubt whether there is a point B.  Maybe that’s not God’s goal, we begin to say.  Maybe I wanted it so bad I just psyched myself into it.

If God is lovingly leading us toward His intended goal, how does He keep us encouraged and affirm the direction He’s taking us?

If point B is of God, He’ll find ways of coming to you and letting you know that’s where He’s taking you.  It may be that while you’re over there in this side cubicle, and nobody knows you work for the company, that somebody who phones in to do business with your company will find you at your desk, and say, “Are you still at that desk?  I would think that by now with the abilities you have you’d be … ”  And out of the blue, of all the positions in the company, he picks point B—and you’ve never breathed a word to anyone.  In your heart you hear God saying, “I am reminding you.”

God will also give you a tangible sense of His presence.  You’ll have a palpable sense of His nearness, His protection, and His guidance.

—Don Sunukjian in Preaching Today

My Response:  What indicator of God’s good intentions for me can I hang on to today?

Thought to Apply: Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.—Winston Churchill (statesman)

Adapted from Preaching Today (Tape 251)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Fast Track?

Key Bible Verse:  God did not lead them on the road that … was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land.  – Exodus 13:17

Bonus Reading:  Exodus 13:17-22

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  True in geometry, but not necessarily for what God is doing in my life.

Say I’ve started work at a certain company, point A, and sense that God’s will is to take me to that corner office on the second floor, point B. I envision being assigned to lead a strategic task-group and coming in under budget and on time.  This brings me to the attention of the decision makers, who start moving me to different positions to gain experience with the whole operation.  When the corner office comes open, I’m the natural choice for it—a nice straight line.

Instead, I get assigned to something peripheral, working in some side cubicle, and nobody knows I work here.  God in His wisdom knows that the shortest distance is a zigzag!

It may be that there’s some person who’d be envious of my rapid promotion and undercut it, and I’d never get to point B.  It could be that I’ll need some skills I don’t yet possess, and God will take me on an alternate path to develop them.  Perhaps some networking connections are key.  Then when I’m ready, He’ll move me back into the straight-line path.

—Don Sunukjian in Preaching Today

My Response:  Can I accept the alternate track God has placed me on without understanding the reason(s) for it?

Thought to Apply: I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans.—George MacDonald (Scottish author)

Adapted from Preaching Today (Tape 251)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Calling Crisis

Key Bible Verse:  We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.  – Proverbs 16:9

Bonus Reading:  Isaiah 42:16

3 a.m., Moscow. I helplessly watched our one-year-old struggle for each breath.  We had no car.  The metro shut down at 1 a.m.  Even if we got a ride, reaching the American Medical Clinic across town would take at least an hour.

“Do something!” I screamed at God.

He did, but in the process He smashed the dream I thought He’d given me.  The short-term answer came quickly.  An American acquaintance with a car drove us to the clinic, where our son received timely oxygen treatments for his asthma.

The long-term answer proved much more difficult.  Over the next few weeks, my wife and I realized that we’d need to return to the States to get our son’s asthma under control.  What I considered a calling and had pursued for 14 years—teaching as a Christian professor at a university overseas—would have to wait.  Perhaps indefinitely.  What was God doing?

Four years later, as I teach some of my first Russian graduate students in the United States, I can begin to see God’s hand.  I also sense His healing hand on our growing young boy, on a struggling marriage that needed renewal, and on my own heart that needed rejuvenation.  I now thank God for His detour.

—Perry Glanzer in Texas

My Response:  What detour in my life can I now thank God for?

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process You are using to shape my character.

Destiny and Detours – Fog-Bound

Who Said It…Jerome Daley

Jerome Daley pursues the passion of his life—intimacy with God and people—in partnership with his wife, Kellie.  Through oneFleshministries, the Daleys speak, write, and lead worship.

In a culture that says go, go, go, Jerome’s book When God Waits challenges us to wait, wait, wait, looking for God’s hand in unexpected places.  Jerome likes to return—with his three children or alone on writing retreats—to the house his grandfather built in a Blue Ridge Mountain town.

What He Said…Fog-bound

As the fog hung close for two days, cabin fever struck, and I launched out for an eerie yet enticing morning walk.  I could see 20 or 30 feet in front of me, enough visibility to follow the path on its circuit through woods and meadow.

I soon realized I was relying heavily on my sense of hearing to observe what was going on around me: the crows cawing obnoxiously, the wind whistling quietly along the ridges, hammers falling in the distance as work progressed on a new house, an occasional car creeping cautiously through the mist.

Funny, I thought, how much we rely on our vision when we can see, but then how automatically we listen more intently when we can’t see.

Fog, huh?  Not unlike this season of waiting.  I can see far enough ahead to keep walking but not enough to know what lies ahead or on either side.  I can’t envision much of what lies beyond two or three months ahead.  So I must listen more intentionally to all the sounds that may convey God’s voice.

Adapted from When God Waits (WaterBrook, 2005)

Prayer for the Week:  Lord, decrease my preoccupation with my destination and increase my concern for the process  You are using to shape my character.

God’s Purpose Made Personal – Go with Which Flow?

Icebergs are classified by size and shape.  Sizes can range from small bergy bits to large bergs with lengths of tens of kilometers.  While Arctic icebergs do not reach the size of their Antarctic cousins, they can still present a formidable hazard.

Who Said It…Skip Heitzig

After troubled years as a young musician involved in the drug culture, Skip received Christ while watching a Billy Graham TV crusade.

After studying about his new faith, he began a home Bible study in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that grew into the 12,000-strong Calvary of Albuquerque!

After 23 years there, Skip last year moved to Ocean Hills Church in San Juan Capistrano, California.  Skip has visited world trouble spots with friend Franklin Graham.

What He Said…Go with Which Flow?

In the icy waters off the coast of Greenland are innumerable icebergs of varying size.  Even casual observation reveals that the small ice floes move in one direction while the massive ones flow in another.

The reason is simple.  Surface winds drive the little bergs while deep ocean currents move the larger ice masses along their routes.

Likewise, people carried by an awareness of God’s will for their lives are pulled by a deeper current than the surface winds of trends or societal pressures.

In what direction are you traveling?  What’s the purpose of your life?

If you’re like most people, you long to know that your life counts for something, that you have a purpose for being on earth. Everyone whom God calls has a purpose.  There’s a part of His program on earth that only you can fulfill.

One of life’s greatest pursuits is to discover what that purpose is and to live within its flow, even though you may feel as if you’re going against the cultural flow.

Adapted from Jesus Up Close (Tyndale, 2001)

Prayer for the Week:  I want my life to count for you, Lord. Help me to discover and follow your best purpose for my life.