God gives us four reasons He took the Israelites through the wilderness and He takes us for the same reasons. The wilderness is a place of trials and temptations. The military calls it boot camp and it’s their way of finding the best way for the job to get done.
These reasons are found in Deuteronomy 8:2,
“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, the He might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments, or not.”
The word humble means showing a low estimate of one’s own importance, meek, submissive, bring down or debase. There is nothing that can humble you like a tough trial. It humble us to say, “I can’t fix it but I will call the One who can.
The second reason we go through the wilderness is to prove ourselves. Prove means to demonstrate truth, evidence, genuineness, and validity.
God proves us in the wilderness. Every vehicle has to be tested to prove it will do what it is designed to do. We, too must be tested to prove that we will serve the Lord like we were created to do. The wilderness is a proving ground.
The third reason is to know what’s in our heart. A test or trial will let us know what’s in our heart. The Bible tells us out of the heart the mouth speaks. In other words when we go through a trial or test the words that come out of our mouths will tell us what’s in our heart. It was in Peter’s heart to deny Jesus 3 times. It was what was in his heart that’s why he denied Jesus when He was questioned and put on trial.
The fourth reason is to see if we will keep His commandments or not. It is easy to say that we will keep His commandments when there are no tests or trials, but it’s what we will do during tests and trials that counts.
One of His commandments is to give thanks during tests and trials. Another is to pay tithes, are we cheerful givers or angry about it. Do we pay when we are in tough places or low on funds. It’s so easy to take from our tithing when we are in a tough spot financially.
The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years for these reasons. I find it interesting that the number 40 speaks of tests and trials. Jesus fasted 40 days and then was tested by Satan (Matthew 4:2).Jesus remained on earth 40 days after His resurrection (Acts 1:3).
From Pity to Praise 