Numbers 20:17-19 (HCSB)
17 Please let us travel through your land. We won’t travel through ⌊any⌋ field or vineyard, or drink ⌊any⌋ well water. We will travel the King’s Highway; we won’t turn to the right or the left until we have traveled through your territory.’”
18 But Edom answered him, “You must not travel through our land, or we will come out and confront you with the sword.”
19 “We will go on the main road,” the Israelites replied to them, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay its price. There will be no problem; only let us travel through on foot.”
The King’s Highway in verse 17 is the main trade route from Damascus to Arabia. It runs north to south, east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.
Life is a journey we all must pass through, there will come seasons of challenging times when passing through trials may tempt us to want to settle wherever we find comfort but alas, like Terah (Abraham’s father) in Genesis 11:31 who settled in Harran instead of passing through to Canaan.
We pass through difficulties and challenges for various reasons, there may be times when what we’re passing through becomes attractive enough for us to want to live there, remaining in what and where we think is a good place, but it is never the greener pasture the Lord promises in Psalm 23:2.
Moses was hoping that they could pass through the land of Edom on their way to Canaan, but the Edomites refused them passage, even with the assurance that they had no intention of settling to live there, the Edomites were ready to do battle to stop the Israelites from living in their land.
Pass through whatever you’re facing right now with the help of the Lord and don’t plan to settle there and live there.
The Lord may allow us to through prolonged seasons of waiting, to get our attention, to change something in us spiritually, mentally, emotionally and psychologically.
Every wilderness season has a lesson but until we surrender to the Lord in obedience and let Him lead and change us, we won’t benefit from that trial and challenging times.
Imagine if the children of Israel chose to live in the way made for them in the red sea rather than pass through it. In Exodus 15:16, it says nobody moved until the Israeli passed by while 1 Corinthians 10:1 confirmed that they all passed under the protection of the cloud, the glory of God, who delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them through the wilderness.
A wilderness season, passing through a situation always brings to the surface all the hidden and ignored rubbish within us, every trait, character, behaviour and attitude that don’t show us in a favourable light or glorify the Father is usually exposed to us or others as we pass through a season.
God has promised to never leave us to our devices, He will be with us in whatever we pass through in Isaiah 43:2 and promises firmly that whatever we pass through will not overflow or overwhelm us, it will not consume us and will protect us as we pass through.
When we pass through the “shadow” as put in Psalm 23:4-whatever we pass is but a shadow, danger, calamity, they are all shadows when we’re anchored on the Lord’s love as Israel did in Psalm 134:14.
As we pass through trials and challenges, the person God wants us to be begins to emerge if we humbly surrender to His will and when we have passed through by His power and direction as Joshua did in Joshua 1:11, clinging to the Lord through everything we experience, then we come out victorious on the other side through God’s amazing grace.
You must pass through to get to the destination, don’t live in the wilderness.
Shalom