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Abandoned By God?

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In the movie, ‘Faith Like a Potato,’ a farmer with anger management issues becomes a follower of Christ in South Africa. Surrendering His life to Jesus leads him to become a follower of His Word, and this leads him to take a bold, step of faith. Needing to bring in money for his family, he decides to plant a crop of potatoes. Being that his farm is in South Africa, the land is very dry. Most would think it was dead and no life could come from it. With no rain, he begins to question his decision to plant. So after a while of waiting, he and his farm hand decide to take a chance and dig, but first they pray. As he begins to dig, what is revealed is astonishing. The seed yields crops twice the size of what is expected. How is that? He was looking for signs of rain, signs of growth above ground. All the while there was water running underneath the ground.

When we begin seeking Jesus through prayer and fasting at first it feels dry, arid and lonely. Then you begin to wonder if He has passed you by – rejected, and abandoned you. But just under the surface a River is flowing watering the seeds of your faith as you cry out to catch fire with the Presence of God. What seems to be paradoxical, and a contradiction, actually makes perfect sense in the realm of the supernatural, Kingdom of God. How can water start a fire? How can life, come from something that appears to be dry, and dead? How can God be near when He feels so far away?

Following Israel’s idolatrous practices at the golden calf Moses receives some distressing news. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way. (Exodus 33:3) Could you imagine being Moses? You have abandoned your way of life, and seen God do amazing miracles through you, and for His people. And just as it seems you are nearing the finishing line – God says He’s leaving you. You can hear his anxiety as you read some of the discussions he had with God: Moses said to the Lord, See, You say to me, Bring up this people, but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in My sight. (Exodus 33:12)

And Moses said to the Lord, If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here! For by what shall it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight? Is it not in Your going with us so that we are distinguished, I and Your people, from all the other people upon the face of the earth? (Exodus 33:15-16)

And he said, If now I have found favor and loving-kindness in Your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray You, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance. (Exodus 34:9)

Moses was sweating bullets knowing that if God abandoned them the watching world would begin to mock God, and His people. But God was working in that dry patch of wilderness. Something was happening beneath the surface that couldn’t be detected by the natural eye. In Exodus 33:14 it appears as if God is contradicting Himself, or at least appearing to change His mind, when He replies: And the Lord said, My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. But notice that God didn’t say He would go with them. He said His Presence…would go with them. In fact God states in Exodus 33:2 that an Angel would go before them: I will send an Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite. What’s odd is that this Angel represents God and His Presence. He speaks for God in the first Person as you see in other Biblical references to this Angel. The Amplified Classic Translation has the following footnote for Gen. 16:7: “The Angel of the Lord” or “of God” or “of His presence” is readily identified with the Lord God (Gen. 16:11, 13; 22:11, 12; 31:11, 13; Exod. 3:1-6 and other passages). But it is obvious that the “Angel of the Lord” is a distinct person in Himself from God the Father (Gen. 24:7; Exod. 23:20; Zech. 1:12, 13 and other passages). Nor does the “Angel of the Lord” appear again after Christ came in human form. He must of necessity be One of the “three-in-one” Godhead. The “Angel of the Lord” is the visible Lord God of the Old Testament, as Jesus Christ is of the New Testament. Thus His deity is clearly portrayed in the Old Testament. The Cambridge Bible observes, “There is a fascinating forecast of the coming Messiah, breaking through the dimness with amazing consistency, at intervals from Genesis to Malachi. Abraham, Moses, the slave girl Hagar, the impoverished farmer Gideon, even the humble parents of Samson, had seen and talked with Him centuries before the herald angels proclaimed His birth in Bethlehem.”

What appeared as God’s abandoning His servant Moses, and His people, was actually a blessing in disguise. Pre-incarnate Jesus was going to be with them, and go before them, to prepare the way. In your walk with the Lord, there are times when it will appear as if God has passed you by, or even abandoned you. Don’t you believe it. Rise up in faith, pressing into the God of the unseen as if He is seen – trusting that He hasn’t gone anywhere. He is simply adjusting your focus and perspective to receive greater revelations of Who He really is. Don’t give up, and don’t give in – Immanuel, is near. The God Who called you to pray, fast and seek Him is the God that is planning a surprise party, and a bumper crop of His Glory and Presence.

I Seek God!

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Chuck Colson in his book, Kingdoms In Conflict, wrote: Have you not heard of the madman who lit a lamp in the bright morning and went to the marketplace crying ceaselessly, “I seek God! I seek God!” There were many among those standing there who didn’t believe in God so he made them laugh. “Is God lost?” one of them said. “Has he gone astray like a child?” said another. “Or is he hiding? Has he gone on board ship and emigrated?” So they laughed and shouted to one another. The man sprang into their midst and looked daggers at them. “Where is God?” he cried. “I will tell you. We have killed him–you and I We are all his killers! But how have we done this? How could we swallow up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the horizon? What will we do as the earth is set loose from its sun?” (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889). Nietzsche’s point was not that God does not exist, but that God has become irrelevant. Men and women may assert that God exists or that He does not, but it makes little difference either way. God is dead not because He doesn’t exist, but because we live, play, procreate, govern, and die as though He doesn’t.

But this was not the case with Moses. Although, Israel had survived the judgment of God, for “playing” before the idol of a golden calf, Moses wasted no time in setting up his own tent. Exodus 33:6-7 And the Israelites left off all their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. Now Moses used to take [his own] tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting [of God with His own people]. And everyone who sought the Lord went out to [that temporary] tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

2 Things you can observe from this passage is that Israel got rid of their ornaments. In the Hebrew this literally means their “trappings.” Trappings are defined as the outward signs, features, or objects associated with a particular situation, role, or thing. Typically, most who seek and search after God begin and end at this place. Focusing on the negative, they seek to entice God to love them through their sacrifice and quickly wither away in their pursuit. Through their sacrifices they seek to earn the approval of God. Often with this focus we become the object of our pursuit and center of our worship. But Moses knew not to be satisfied with their outward expressions of regret, and repentance. Instead, he raised up an altar where those who were hungry to know God could seek Him to find and experience Him. The Hebrew word for seek or search in verse 7 means: to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer); by implication, to strive after:—ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make) request, require, seek (for). It’s a peculiar word in that it implies its primary power appears to be that of touching, and feeling. We serve a God who desires us to reach out for Him to find Him. The amazing and awesome thing is that he doesn’t stop there but provides the ways and the means for us to experience the realization of our planned destination. As Nietzsche asked, Where is God? Many of us can say we are taking off the trappings that stand in the way in order to reach through the darkness to touch and be touched by God. Are you taking the time to touch Him or do you live, play, procreate, govern, and die as though He doesn’t?

During this time of praying and fasting are you seeking to touch God and be touched by Him?