Complaints in the Desert

This is a manuscript of a sermon I preached for seminary. What I learned here has always stuck with me. I came across it today because I was thinking about the lessons we learn in the desert. The ways in which God uses the dry times, the times of waiting, the times of Advent, to teach us. Without the desert the Israelites would not have been ready for the promised land. It was those years of wandering in the desert that taught them how to trust in God. As Christians I think we move to quickly into the hope of Jesus. We don't learn the lesson of the dry time: that our present circumstances are not an indication of favor or abandonment by God. It is not God who changes, only our willingness to follow Him.