Preached in Markham Baptist Church, January 21, 2007

Psalm 42 is a fantastic Psalm that expresses in its opening verses a hunger for intimacy with God.  That image of a deer in verse one – panting from the extreme heat, its body heaving with every breath, its head hung low from lack of strength and its tongue hanging out desperate for a drink – for some relief from the scorching sun and dehydration.    It longs for one thing and one thing alone – a drink. 

So the psalmist says, That’s what my soul is like.  I long for God, my soul thirsts for God.  

And I sometimes read that and I say, “Really? I’m not sure I feel that way.” 

Or take the opening words of Psalm 84, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”  It is a picture of a person whose whole being screams out for an intimate relationship with God. 

And I sometimes read that and say, “MY hunger for God is nowhere near that!”  Yearning, fainting, heart and flesh crying out – to be in the same place as God, to meet with God, to be intimate with God.

There are times when I say, “Meeting with you God, would be good. But not too early – and not too late – and not too long – and you won’t mind Lord if I’m a bit late will you?  Start without me.” 

Do you ever think that way when reading of the Psalmist’s longing for God? “I don’t really feel that way.”  Or when I announced the topic of our series last week, “Intimacy with God”  did you say to yourself, “huh?”

I don’t know if it’s a feeling that is especially present in those of us who have grown up in Christian homes and a Christian environment.  I mean, God has always been there.  He’s been in the very air we breathe, talked about at the dinner table, demonstrated by our family, worshipped by our friends, from the day we were born.  It is a blessing.  It is the way the family was created to be, with God at the centre. 

But could this blessing also create in those of us who have grown up in a Christian family and Christian environment a sickness.  A sickness that numbs us to our need for God, an illness that lulls us into a complacent state – kind of the like the Israelites after they entered into the promised land got to thinking that they had done it all – built the homes, cultivated the land, won the battles – when all along it was a gift from God. 

Or maybe we get into that complacent state because we think that what we experienced of God yesterday is fine for today.  We have tasted all of God that there is taste.  We know as much about God now we ever will know.  We are as close to God now as we will ever be. 

So, there is no hunger. No yearning, no fainting, no panting, no desiring, no crying out to the living God.  And when we read that Psalmist say, “As a deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God,” we yawn and say, “I really don’t feel that.”

And it’s not really a healthy sign for us.  It could speak of an over-familiarity, a complacency.  Or it could speak of how we have satisfied those spiritual longings with something else.  Perhaps my soul does not thirst for God because I have everything I need.  I have health, lovely wife, 3 great kids, good job, good friends, a dog who greets me at the door every night when I come home.  What do I need God for?

Salvation?  Okay.  So I accept Christ as my Saviour and Lord.  But once I’ve done that, what more do I need from Him?  I am satisfied and have need of nothing. 

But I am convinced that this lack of yearning is not a sign of health, but of sickness.  We discovered last week that we were made to be intimate with God. We humans were made to be in relationship with God, just as we were made to eat and sleep.  This relationship with God is to be a part of us.  And when we don’t have it, worse, when we don’t want it – it is a sign of sickness and it reeks of death itself.   

In Jeremiah 29:13, God promises us that we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart.  Not with half a heart, not complacently, not idly, not distractedly, but when we seek Him with our whole heart.  Our whole being.  

When you pant, faint, cry out for Him – that’s when we will find Him.  And as we read Scripture we discover that those who are intimate with God are the ones who are like the deer panting for streams of water.  There is a hunger for God that cannot be contained.  Here is Jacob wrestling with God himself until daybreak so God says, “Let go of me – its morning,” and Jacob says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  (Gen. 32:26) What audacity.  What passion.  What desire.

Here is Moses. God says to Him, “I will do every thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and you know my name.”

Sounds pretty sweet.  What else could Moses want?  But Moses says in the next verse, “God, there is one thing more, “Show me your glory.” (Exodus 33:17,18)

David had a passion for God – it’s expressed throughout the Psalms. Even in the lowest point of his life he cried out to God saying, “do not take your Holy Spirit from me.”  (Psalm 51:11)

Solomon wrote a love poem of his relationship with God called the Song of Songs and in it he said to God, “Show me your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely .. all night long … I looked for the one my heart loves.” (Song of Songs 2:14-3:1)

And in the New Testament we see it again. The woman who suffered from bleeding for 12 years pressed through the crowd desperate to touch the edge of Jesus’ cloak for healing (Matthew 9:20-21).  Zaccaheus climbing a tree just for a glimpse of Jesus. 

Paul speaks of all the accolades he’s won, all the religious milestones he’s achieved and says, I consider them to be rubbish that I may gain Christ. I want to know Christ, he says.

There is something here that we cannot ignore as we read about these people of God that seems to be lacking in our own Christian experience.  “They are single minded in their pursuit of God.  They were so hungering for Him it seems that nothing can satisfy them.  They are consumed with so great a passion for God.  They are not content with just a little revelation or religion - they want Him.  They want His presence.  They want to draw as near to Him as a human can possibly come.  They are not content to just hear from God through the prophets or their pastor or someone else; they want to hear from God Himself, to see Jesus Himself.  They aren’t content with reading about what God did in the past; they want a fresh experience a fresh word, a new touch, they want the truth to be realized that His mercies are new every morning. 

“The closer they came to God the more desperate they became.  The more they tasted His goodness, the more their hunger increased.  The more they drank in the one who gives living water the more thirsty they became.”¹

And do you know God loved them for it?  God answered them.  Here’s the truth – if we don’t have an appetite for God He will not fill it.  We could go on forever in the Christian church having an appetite for good preaching, relevant programs, snappy worship – but all the while never meeting God.  It’s not until we have that appetite for God that we meet God.

Hebrews 11:6 promises us, “he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” That is what we discover to be true all through Scripture.  He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

So what are we to do?  We understand that a hunger is needed for intimacy with God.  And we may have to admit that we don’t have it.  What are we to do? 

Let me tell you a bit of good news – God is so gracious toward us.  Do you know what He does to help us establish a hunger in us? He will lead us into the desert.  He will lead us into those places and situations where that hunger for Him can be created.  I don’t know what it looks like - sometimes it is difficulty, sometimes it is persecution, sometimes it is hardship, sometimes it is not being able to hear His voice.     

One of the passages that you were to study this past week in our Bible study together was Exodus 13:17-19. Let’s just turn to that passage for a moment to understand this idea.  This passage occurs after the plagues and after Pharoah has let the Israelites go. 

Now, here is a map showing Egypt on the left and Palestine, the Promised Land on the right.  The shortest route between these two places is along the sea.  It was a common trade route.  It was called the highway by the sea.  It was the “407” of the day. It is the shortest and straightest route to go.

Now you can imagine Moses standing at the head of this massive sea of people.  They have all their worldly goods packed up, even more because the Egyptians have given them gold and silver, whatever the Israelites asked for.  So they are ready to go to the Promised Land and Moses says to everyone, “Follow me, we’re going to the Promised Land. Let’s go this way.”

And someone taps Moses on the shoulder and says, “Uh, Moses the Promised Land is directly that way!”

And Moses says, “I know that, we are going to the Promised Land but first we are going to the desert.”  And so they did - they went straight down into the desert.

Why?  Exodus 13:17 tells us the reason, God said that if they face war they might change their minds and return to Egypt. It is a historical fact that all along that highway by the sea there were Egyptian garrisons. These garrisons were filled with Egyptian soldiers heavily armed, stationed there to patrol the highway and protect Egyptian interests. 

God does not lead them the short route because the Israelites would never have made it past these garrisons.  What did they know about war?  They would turn around and go back to Egypt in defeat and discouragement.  Now to be sure they do face war in the wilderness but its with a much smaller nation the Amalekites -  the Israelites win.  It’s a training ground of sorts.

But there’s more.  God leads the people into the desert for another very important reason. He wanted to teach the people to depend on Him, to look to Him, to trust Him above all for their needs.

Last week I was talking to Ruth Cruickshank out in the hall and we were joking around and Ruth was being her usual saucy self, cheeky – cracking some joke at my expense and so I responded by kicking her cane out from under her.  It was all done in Christian love – I assure you.  And no one was hurt too severely.  But this is what God is doing to the Israelites in leading them into the desert.  He is kicking the cane out from under them.  God is saying – look to me for support, trust me for everything. 

It’s not that God is needy. It is that He desires an intimate relationship with us, and He was teaching the Israelites to look to Him.

God was creating a place, an environment a situation where they had to be dependent on Him and where they would indeed hunger for Him, long for Him.

And this is what God does for you and for me.  If we do not hunger and thirst for Him, it is a sickness which must be healed. And in His graciousness He will bring us into life situations where we do hunger for Him. 

Do you know that in the Old Testament book of Amos God says to Israel - a nation who had turned its back on God – “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me.  I have withheld rain, struck your gardens and vineyards with blight, sent plagues, only so you would return to me!” (Amos 4:6-11)

Listen, if we do not hunger and thirst for God, God will bring us into a desert place where we do hunger and thirst for Him.

I know this line of thinking can be destructive as we begin to credit God with all the evil in the world – a baby dies and God gets the blame.  Let’s understand that Satan is alive and well in this world – and so is sinful humanity.  I think that question, “Why does God allow hunger in this world?” is so bogus. God is not responsible for hunger in this world – sinful humanity is responsible for hunger.  But that’s another sermon! Just understand that Satan and sinful humanity are responsible for much of the evil in this world and God cannot be blamed for it.      

But at the same time, I believe we need to change the way we think about difficult times in our lives. We believe that a blessed life is a life that is free from all stress, all hardship, all persecution, and all difficulty – and to a certain extent that is true - but what if in that peaceful state, what if in our prosperity, what if in our comfortable lives we lose our hunger for God, our dependence upon God – then could we say that this life is not blessed but actually cursed! 

What if we began to realize that it is in the midst of stress and difficulty and trouble that we are made to depend on God and draw close to Him.

So Paul tells us about a thorn in his flesh in his second letter to the Corinthians. We don’t know what this thorn is, but it is something that bothers Paul to such a degree that he pleads with God to remove it.  Three times he asks.  And God says no.  Why?  Because that thorn acts like a desert place - it makes you depend on Me, Paul, and you experience My grace and My power is made perfect in weakness.  You draw close to me because of that thorn. 

So Paul’s whole view is changed. What he once saw as a situation sent from Satan to torment him is now transformed by the power of God to draw him into an intimate relationship with God.

I wonder if we can start to see some of the difficulties we face that way?  Now I’m not suggesting we give thanks for difficulties, but let’s use them as a means to look to God, to draw close to God, to depend on His strength for He is so much stronger than the difficulties we face. 

And perhaps we need to change  the way we pray.  You know, we pray, “Lord heal me, give me peace, give me success, give me 3 nice kids, a lovely wife and a house with a white picket fence.”  We need to pray, “Lord, take me into the desert of difficulty where I Can learn to hunger for You, yearn for You, long for You.”

Again, you may say, that sounds dangerous.  Well, I would respond, let’s do it with an understanding of who God is.  In Exodus 13, when God led His people into the wilderness, he gave them two great provisions – and these are provisions He gives to us too. 

At verse 19 we read, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.’ ”

This is the first provision God gives to us when He leads us into the wilderness. What is He saying here?  He is saying that God is a God who keeps His promises.  You can imagine a child walking with the Israelites and looking at the coffin and saying to his dad, “Dad, why are we carrying that coffin?  We have all this stuff to carry, do we have to carry this coffin too?”

“Oh yes, son, that is the coffin of Joseph and God promised him that He would come to our aid and He has done it – our God keeps His promises.” 

Then the second provision is His presence – verses 20-22: “After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.  By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night.  Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”

This is the second provision God gives to us in that wilderness place – He promises us His presence.  I was listening to a sermon the other day, I don’t know who said it, but the preacher was talking about the line in Psalm 23: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”  In the presence of my enemies I am sitting down and having a roast beef dinner with God!  In the desert God promises His presence.    

Listen, the purpose of difficult times is not to punish us but to strengthen us – to strip away the sinful and the frivolous, to fortify our hearts and to teach us that we can depend on God.

This is what God did for the Israelites.  They needed someone to guide them. God gave them a pillar of cloud.  They needed water, God gave them water. They needed bread and meat - God gave them bread from heaven and quail for meat.

The question is, will we allow the Spirit of God to lead us to His favourite place – the desert and there allow Him to kick the cane of self-dependence and complacency out from under us. He did that for the Israelites – I believe they ended up staying there 38 years longer than God intended because of their disbelief.  (see Deuteronomy 9:23)

One last word – if by His grace God leads you into the desert place, while you are there I pray that we, you would have the presence of mind to seek God and God alone.   The Israelites had this problem.  They were continually grumbling – we don’t have water, we don’t have food, we don’t have protection from our enemies.  They wanted God and …. 

Sometimes we pray, “O God, come and bring healing.”  Or, “God, come and help us reach this town.”  Or “God, grant us your presence and bring us your peace.”   

This kind of praying keeps us from discovering God fully – for sometimes it betrays a secret agenda – that we really don’t want God as much as the peace, as much as the healing, or the power for evangelism.   No, no, no.  It’s not God and … – it’s God alone.  God was trying to teach the Israelites that He was all they needed.  And that’s what He wants us to learn.  If you have Him, all the other things will be added unto you.  Don’t worry about the other things – hunger for a relationship with God alone.  Let Him alone be your desire, let Him alone be the one you yearn for. 

Again – Hebrews 11:6 – “He rewards those who honestly seek Him.” What is the reward? It is God Himself! 

When the Israelites reached the Promised Land, each tribe got a portion of the land – the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Zebulun, the tribe of Gad, all the tribes get a portion of land, except the tribe of Levi, the priests – do you know what God says to them?  He says to them, “I will be your inheritance.”

And with those words God made the tribe of Levi “richer than all the other Israelites,  richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world.  The man or woman who has God as his treasure has all things in one.”²

It’s not "God and …" - it’s God alone. 

Will we pray Lord keep us in the desert until we hunger for God alone?  Let the desert situations of life strip you of all desire for all other things.

I know we haven’t even started to look at the tabernacle yet.  But it’s no use us studying how God enables, unites and welcomes us into the Holy of Holies - His very presence - if we don’t want to go in.

Are we willing to allow God to lead us into the desert places of life, and not to try to run away,  but willing to  look to God to create in us a hunger a passion a thirst for God alone?  Because then when we get to the tabernacle, well, nothing will be able to keep us from going straight for the Holy of Holies where God dwells, because as a deer pants for streams of water, so your soul thirsts for God.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - January 2007

ENDNOTES:

1. Dennis Ignatius, Fire Begets Fire (Vancouver: Vision Publications Ltd., 2006) 56, 6.

2. A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1948), 20.

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