Wilderness Wanderings

When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.
And He said to them, 

"I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, 

"Take this and share it among yourselves;
for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on 

until the kingdom of God comes."
 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, 

He broke it and gave it to them, saying,
"This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Luke 22:14-20 (NASB)

God has always related to man through covenants.  It's true.  Throughout the history of mankind, any relationship any individual has had with the Creator, has been through a covenant.  For the believer, that covenant is the new covenant Christ purchased when he submitted to the plan of the Father, and allowed himself to be crucified on Golgotha.  

During his last Passover and, indeed, the final meal he would share with his disciples prior to the culmination of his earthly mission, Christ celebrated the end of one covenant while looking forward to a new one.  He paid tribute to the way God had related to his people while, at the same time, promising a sacrifice through which the Father could have not only a deeper but, ultimately, a perfect relationship with those who would become his children.  While this new covenant is spoken of throughout the whole new testament, particularly through the writings of Paul, the old testament prophet Jeremiah outlined it this way:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. 

And I will be their God, 

and they shall be my people.

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, 

and I will remember their sin no more.  Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV)

Although the disciples did not understand it at the time, Christ was saying that his blood was going to be poured out, and that he was going to die.  As a result of that death, man's relationship to God was going to change. Jesus was saying to his disciples that the new covenant predicted by Jeremiah was now being instituted.  Rather than trying to relate to the Father through the keeping of an external set of rules, this new relationship would be characterized by an inner transformation of his children.  It would no longer be a set of rules trying to make their way in, it would be a change on the inside that works its way out. 

That is marvelous, indeed, but it doesn't stop there.  Through this new covenant, God's children would not only know about him, they would know him personally.  The creature would relate to the Creator on an intimate level.  That intimacy is possible because iniquity would be forgiven, and sin no longer remembered.  I don't know about you, but that is certainly good news for me.  And, to top it off,  Yahweh guarantees the success of the new covenant.  He took the initiative to establish the covenant, and in stark contrast to the "thou shalt not," and "thou shalt" of the old covenant are the words, "I will put," "I will write," "I will forgive" of the new covenant.   It's God's work, done in God's people, for God's glory.

So, Christ sits with his disciples remembering God's deliverance of his people from Egypt.  He is remembering their deliverance from bondage and slavery and, in the middle of that remembrance, he makes them a promise.  He promises that there is another day coming.  A day when his followers will dine with him in the Kingdom of God.  For the believer, that is the promised land.  That is glory.  That is the goal and the prize.  That is what we long for above all things.

God does nothing by accident.  There are no coincidences with God.  The parallels between the journey of the people old covenant, and the journey of the people of the new covenant are there because of design, not merely chance.  It is, indeed, difficult not to compare Israel's delivery from slavery and bondage in Egypt to the believer's deliverance from slavery and bondage to sin at salvation.  It is equally as difficult not to compare the land God promised his people under the old covenant with the eternal glory he has promised his people under the new covenant.  But, for both, there was a journey in between.  For the people of Israel that journey was the wilderness.  For the people of Christ that journey is life.  And there are similarities.

For the believer to say that this wilderness wandering we call life becomes a walk in the park once we submit our lives to Christ would, at the least, be misleading.  It is actually closer to delusional or self deceiving or even out right lying.  The realities of wilderness living are continually before us.  There is sickness and disease.  There are wonderful days as well as terrible days.  There are time of marvelous victory, and there are days of devastating defeat. There are times of fantastic enthusiasm scattered among times of utter nothingness.  The list goes on and on.  Times of great vision and times of going through the motions.  Times when we take great strides in our walk, and times when the walk becomes a crawl.  Times of gain, and times of loss.

The good news is, through all of the highs and lows, the covenant still remains in place.  We are heading toward the promised land.  We do have this wilderness journey ahead of us, but glory is just on the other side of the spiritual Jordan.  And our Father does promise to guide, strengthen and preserve us through the journey. While we have not entered the Kingdom of God, he allows us to bring portions of the kingdom to our wilderness trials.  While we have not received all of the grace we will receive in eternity, he gives us enough to sustain us as we travel.  We certainly have not experienced all of the love that awaits us, but we receive enough to encourage us on the journey.  The same is true of peace, joy, wisdom and knowledge as well as any number of the kingdom's treasure.

It has been my experience, that the Father does not give sparingly.  He gives more grace than I need so that I might have some to share with fellow sojourners.  His love is more than is needed so that the overflow might strengthen those who have fallen.  The abundance of joy and peace is meant to encourage those who may have lost their way.  And wisdom and knowledge are given to light the way for those who follow. 

    And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, 

He broke it and gave it to them, saying,
"This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.