Pilgrimage

The book of Jude is often on the bottom on the list for books preachers choose to preach from. …Just 25 verses that encourage believers to fight for God’s truth. In my devotions for today, verse 5 was poignant.

Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

When God speaks to us, He does so outside of the confines of time. For us, if Uncle Jed says he is going to come visit in a while, we would expect to see Him in a few weeks or a few months at the most. If Uncle Jed doesn’t come within the span of a year, we probably think he was just making small talk…and he is not going to come visit. We often seek to apply the same logic to God. We seek His voice, hear Him speak and then anticipate His word to come to pass in our timing. Not so. God is not bound by our timetables and unfortunately often the relationship between God speaking and our belief arcs downward as time moves forward.

The Nation of Israel was destined to be in the promised land. God’s goal was to move them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the Jordan and right into Jericho. The only bottleneck was when they failed to believe. For them, the distance between their deliverance and eventual unbelief was only a few weeks at most. How often are we forced to remain in the wilderness of discontent because we have lost the hope of promise of God?

The Apostle Peter said that in the last days people would use the excuse that there had been too much time pass between Christ’s prophesied return and the actual fulfillment of God’s plan (2 Peter 3:4). Because of this, they would not believe. As those who follow The Way, we are commanded to see things differently. Our belief is not based upon the timing of God’s fulfillment rather upon the trustworthiness of His Word. May our belief in Him save us from destruction as well as save us for His glory.