One very popular novel has this short poem before its title page:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

 

”The Second Coming “was a poem written by W.B. Yeats in 1919, to depict the broken and chaotic state of Europe, at the end of the WW1 that was largely brought about by the sheer anarchy, mindless nationalism and total lack of discipline that characterized the conduct of international affairs in Europe at that time, before 1914. The origin, causes and consequences of that terrible war should be an eternal lesson for all humanity, that progress and development can never occur in any nation or a community of nations in the absence of order, discipline, purpose, direction and a determination to do what is right at all times and in all situations to all people. As this is true for nations, so is it true for individuals. The two world wars of the 20th Century became a terrible learning curve for the world. The lessons learned from those wars have preserved world peace over seventy years.

 

When the nation of Israel left Egypt to go into the Promised Land, this is what Moses recorded about their order and progress:   

“On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire. This was the regular pattern:  at night the cloud that covered the tabernacle had the appearance of fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp. In this way, they travelled and camped at the Lord’s command wherever he told them to go. Then they remained in their camp as long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. If the cloud remained over the tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites stayed and performed their duty to the Lord. Sometimes the cloud would stay over the tabernacle for only a few days, so the people would stay for only a few days, as the Lord commanded. Then, at the Lord’s command, they would break camp and move on. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days, a month, or a year, the people of Israel stayed in camp and did not move on. But as soon as it lifted, they broke camp and moved on. So they camped or travelled at the Lord’s command, and they did whatever the Lord told them through Moses.”¹

 

It is necessary to put in proper perspective, what the Lord determined to do in the project of delivering Israel from captivity in Egypt and settling the nation in the land of Canaan. The first is the physical task. It’s been estimated that the number of people that moved out was between 2.6 to 6 million persons, two-thirds of whom were women and children. That journey eventually took forty years. They were not following a macadamised expressway from Egypt into Canaan – no - but a tract-less path through an extremely dry, inhospitable, forsaken, dangerous and snake-infested desert approach. If the people took any prepared food and water as they left, all that ran out within days. How were they going to keep alive without food and water in that environment? Where will they get food in the desert for that number of people without farming and raising crops? As it turned out they had to ‘manage’ with some “angel food” and “rock-borne water” every day for forty years. Can you imagine the volume of food and water that number and their livestock consumed everyday? Jehovah had it all figured out.

 

How were they going to cross the Red Sea, with the devil himself at their heels in the cul de sac, where they found themselves on the bank of the Red Sea. Moses had no clue, but, Jehovah had it all figured out.

 

How would they move from point to point safely and not be lost or encounter serious injuries in the barren and rocky wasteland? Moses did indeed ask his brother-in-law to become the eyes and guide of Israel through the wilderness (despite God’s promise)but he refused.² Jehovah had it all figured out.

 

What a wonderful and excellent Planner and Manager of impossible situations we worship! Everything was carefully put in place and His scheme was flawlessly executed and He delivered Israel into the place He prepared for them.

 

The spiritual task of teaching Israel to have faith in God resulted in their trying the patience of God ten times.  For this they were seriously punished on several occasions by God, for their obstinate unbelief and rebellion. All the wilderness experience was meant to teach Israel only one lesson and brethren, this is what really matters. Obedience.

Hear Jehovah: 

“Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.”³

 

Now, this is what all the walk of faith is all about. We are all on a journey, a spiritual journey, not a physical one, but nevertheless as real. The correlation of Israel’s physical odyssey in the desert and our individual spiritual journey is very exact. The journey of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land is the clear picture the Lord painted beforehand of the spiritual journey of every single soul from the cradle until our strength ebbs, the end comes and we quit the stage.

 

As an entire nation was born into slavery in Egypt, so every man is born into this world a captive and slave of the kingdom of darkness. You may have been raised in the house of the king, but you came in as a slave.

 

As Israel was tormented with hard labour, so were all souls tormented with the fear of death, sickness, poverty and ignorance, until the Lord took action.

 

As Israel was helpless and hapless, so were we all men powerless and hopeless against Satan.

 

As the Lord sent Israel an emancipator in Moses, so He also sent us a Deliverer in Jesus.

 

As the blood of an innocent goat marked the door to prevent the death of Israel’s firstborn sons, so the blood of Jesus now seals us from eternal death.

 

As Israel escaped through the Red Sea by an act of God, so we all must pass through the flood of the stream drawn from Emmanuel’s veins to be rid of Satan’s power forever.

 

As God designed the walk of Israel through the wilderness to be a walk of faith and trust, so must every follower of Christ trust and obey the Master to successfully navigate the uncharted territory we call the world, until we arrive in heaven. Jeremiah says: 

“I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.” In some other words he says: “Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps”.⁴

 

None of us is wise enough to plot his own course successfully through this life and fulfill the purpose without his help. The real object of life therefore, is to trust in the Lord with all of one’s heart and never to lean on one’s own understanding, to acknowledge Him in all our ways, that he may direct our path.

 

Israel found this a tough lesson to learn in the wilderness and engaged in murmuring against God and in stiff-necked rebellion once and again on that journey, with disastrous consequences.

 

To create a lasting impression on Israel that He was a real person and not an influence or a figment of Moses’ fertile imagination, He decided to pronounce his laws to Israel personally on a particular day. He came down on Mt. Sinai with sore and terrible earthshaking tokens and at last pronounced the Ten Commandments with His own voice, to the hearing of the whole nation. The very first commandment of God forbade Israel from having another god apart from Jehovah. The children of Israel were so terrified of the voice of God speaking to them, they ran from the mountain and pleaded with Moses to ask God to stop talking. They requested Him to speak to Moses instead and they promised to obey whatever Moses told them. So God summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, to receive the commandments in writing. The ink did not dry on the tablets of stone on which God wrote with His own hand, before the Israelites were dancing naked before a molten calf they had made to worship in Horeb. Three thousand of their number died in God’s chastening plague.

 

On the verge of entering the promised land, ten spies returned and painted a picture of the giants they saw in the land of Canaan, that completely discounted the power of the Giant of all Giants in their midst. The Rock of Ages said:

 “…don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them. So in my anger I took an oath: They will never enter into my place of rest.“⁵

 

Six hundred thousand men, aged above twenty years perished in the wilderness and never entered the Promised Land. On another occasion, they murmured again and, to correct them, Jehovah sent fiery serpents among them, which killed many. Both Israel and the church, nay the world at large, ought to know, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God and to never take Him for granted. Even Moses, the man who spoke with God face to face, was disciplined by God. God did not permit him to enter the Promised Land because of anger and disobedience. Jehovah is no respecter of persons.

 

Now, we get to the centre of this discourse. Israel eventually arrived in the Promised Land and by major military victories God granted her, she took control of the land of Canaan. However, as soon as Joshua their leader died, another generation arose which did not know God and in Israel, every man began to do what was right in his own eyes. The falcon could no longer hear the falconer. This is what the Bible says about the land of Israel in the days of Deborah:

“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, and in the days of Jael, people avoided the main roads, and travellers stayed on winding pathways. There were few people left in the villages of Israel- until Deborah arose as mother for Israel. When Israel chose new gods, war erupted at the city gates. Yet not a shield or spear could be seen among forty thousand warriors in Israel”.⁶

 

Basically, forget Jehovah and your enemies will take control of your inheritance. No discipline, no peace. No order, then anarchy. No righteousness, no progress. Twelve times in the days of the judges Israel would abandon Jehovah and open themselves to severe chastening, by God using their enemies to humiliate and oppress them. The Lord remained faithful to the constantly backsliding Israel, because of Abraham his friend and the eternal purpose he had to bring the Saviour into the world through that nation. Twice now, God has allowed Israel to be carried away as captives, first to Babylon and the second time was the worldwide dispersal of AD 70, for the murder of the King of kings. Israel paid a costly price in blood for 20 centuries.

 

In the same manner, God is interested in your destiny. God had a definite plan for you even before you were born. He has orchestrated every event of your life thus far, to bring you into a deep relationship with Himself so He may fulfill the purpose of your existence. Do not make the mistake of giving priority of place to any other person, purpose or possessions in your life. It will be the gravest error. He will teach you, reprove and correct you for your own good. Jehovah knows the thoughts He entertains toward you - thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you your expected end, to give you a future and hope, just like an earthly parent.

 

No sane parent plans evil for his children. Neither does God. However, like men, children of God have a tendency to wander and stray from him. The woman choir leader of Israel in the wilderness proved a racist. She became leprous for seven days. A man who God said was after his own heart, a man who was called an angel on three different occasions by three different people took another man’s wife and killed him. A child of God did that! God as a result allowed a sword into his family to teach him a perpetual lesson. You don’t trifle with God. Uzziah was a successful king but his success entered his head. He went into the temple of God to burn incense, which he had no business doing. God chastised him with leprosy the rest of his days, just like Miriam.

 

Once and again, God sent His prophets to rebuke or correct kings or even allowed their enemies defeat them in battle, to humble and discipline them. The aim was to help achieve purpose.

 

In the New Testament, Jesus severely rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their obstinate hypocrisy. He desperately wanted to save Israel by all means, but they would not let Him. The early church was chastised in the matter of Ananias and Sapphira so that the work of the Holy Spirit be not rubbished. Paul sharply rebuked Peter, his senior in ministry, for dissembling behaviour at Antioch. Paul himself was buffeted by an agent of Satan, to keep him humble, because of the very many revelations he received.

 

Discipline, therefore, is the proof of God’s love for his children, as Paul made clear when he said: “After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child. As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.”⁷

 

Certainly, it is not every adverse situation in your life that is an act of discipline from God. However, when your Father is correcting you, you will know it because the cause of it will be clearly pointed out to you by the Holy Spirit. Wisdom therefore, is not to resist Him at all, but adjust and realign your life. He can only act in your best interest, so that when the roll is called up yonder, you will not be missing there. Baba wants to see you in heaven. Do you want to see him?

 

¹Num. 9:15-23, ²Num. 10:29-31, ³Deut. 8:1-5, ⁴Jer. 10:23, ⁵Ps. 95:8-11, ⁶Judges 5:6-8.⁷Heb. 12:4-8

 

By:Isaac Okpanachi