Food of Promise
Recently, I have been wrestling with the questions of “What if?”, “What’s next?”, and “When Lord?” It’s not that I am discontent in where I am—I am blessed beyond words to be a part of the community I serve in and to be able to do all that I am doing. Yet still, there’s this urgency in me pulsing forward, beating with heart and passion to dream bigger and reach further than before.
I consider this radiating alarm within my blood flow to be an opportunity to recognize more deeply what God has been doing, what God is doing, and what God will do next. This awareness, and more so, this asking in prayer, is leading me to not only become more open to the future but more mindful of the present. It’s almost as if my daily diet is the promise of the Lord over my life, and He knows exactly what I need to take in, when, how, and why.
A few days ago I was reading the account of the Israelites crossing the Jordan to enter the promised land from Joshua 3-5. I love the beauty of the image of the Israelite people crossing another body of water to finally enter into the inheritance they have been guaranteed. I love the fact that after they cross the Jordan, they pause to build stone pillars (Ebenezer) to demonstrate to the generations coming after that the Lord had been faithful. And I especially love the reality that when they cross the Jordan and camp at Gilgal, they eat of the produce of the land. You can imagine many chomping down on their unleavened bread, thinking, “Finally, the food of promise.” (I like to picture this as In-N-Out, but anyways…)
The following verse made me stop in my tracks, recognizing both the season I am in and the beauty of how our Lord orchestrates the best movements and provision for us. Joshua 5:12 states that “the manna stopped the day they ate this food from the land; there was no longer manna for the Israelites, but that year that ate the produce of Canaan.”
I had never realized until I read this passage again that the Lord had continued to provide manna for the Israelites all the way into the promised land. In other words, Yahweh Irweh, the Lord who provides, provided and sustained the Israelites with hope in the wilderness until their promise was a reality in the land of their inheritance. AND, even though they had not taken full possession of the land, they were allowed and empowered to eat of the produce of the land of promise.
This is so beautiful because this is exactly what our God is all about: providing us with hope, giving us a diet of promise, and producing in us and through us the crop of faithful relationship and trust.
Yet, how quickly does this story change? How rapidly does Joshua turn into a sad narrative leaving the people of Israel in Judges looking for another leader, another king, and ultimately, another god? Even though the Lord had provided them with a steady and faithful diet of hope and a realized promise of inheritance, they turned for what they thought would be better.
How often do we echo this account with the story of our lives? How quickly do we forget that there hasn’t been a day in which the Lord hasn’t provided a meal for us? A meal of hope, a meal of faithfulness, a meal of dreaming and dining with God. A meal that is given for all to recognize, remember, and live from the faithfulness of a Father who has never turned His back on His children.
But the reality of this world, the feelings of our feeble minds and hearts, and the perceptions we commit ourselves to rob us of the sweet and savory portions of God’s goodness for what we have tried to replace with our own goodness. We constantly are thinking about other things. We are consistently asking for more when the Lord has not just provided manna, but quail, and not just quail, but sacrificed meat. We think the dreams of the nations, the aspirations of humanity, and the goals of our society are higher than the ways of the Kingdom, the longings in God’s heart, and the telos in the Kingdom.
Yet, the story of the people of God is one in which God’s faithfulness outweighs our infidelity. It is a narrative in which the Lord’s goal for us is given freely for us to receive and live from every day. The picture of Joshua is one in which the people of God not only come into the land but fight for this land of promise for almost twenty more years—after forty in the wilderness. It is a painting of a people who step into fulfillment after excruciating wait times to get into the place where they could be blessed to be a blessing. It is a mosaic of the Lord piecing together broken people, who struggled and wrestled with questions about the promise, about when, where, and how, and through strategic and sometimes painful guidance, He revealed a glorious illustration of who He really was, is, and will always be.
The story of Joshua ends declaring, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”
For you wrestling in the wilderness, for you on the precipice of the promised land, for you fighting to take hold of the land, I believe the Lord is encouraging us by reminding us that He has provided us with enough food for the journey. He is empowering us to recognize that each day there is a supply of hope until that promise becomes reality. He is embracing you with the freedom of knowing that when we take and eat, when we taste and see that the Lord is good, He is producing in us and through us a faith that comes from His faithfulness that fulfills every promise.
There is good news today whether you feel like you just started this journey, whether you are a seasoned nomad, or whether you feel like you have settled in. This news is about the meal that is provided by the One who is faithful. This news is of what will be produced in those who partake of the promise of God. This news is that our God is faithful, our God is good, and our God will continue to provide you with this diet of hope, until you are ready to taste of the promise He has given you. And the best news of all is that He loves to see you step into that promise not by earning it, but by resting in what He has already earned and given to you.
Beloved, I encourage you, today and always, the Lord is faithful. Everything He has promised has come to pass. Rest in the provision of His promise as He produces in you and through hope so that the nations around may be inspired by this same meal given to all willing to come to the table.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.”
—Isaiah 55:1-3
