Tables in the Wilderness
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"Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" Psalm 78:19
To be sure — He can! The question is a most distrustful and cruel one! Our indignation burns against the rebellious people who could thus discredit the power of their gracious God, though He had done such great things for them. He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them water, as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. He had delivered them from galling bonds of slavery, and had fed them with bread from Heaven; yet they doubted His ability to supply them with the food their heart desired, and "they spoke against God "in thus questioning His love and care.
As we read their history, and wonder at their hardness of heart, we say, "How could they be so blind, so ungrateful, so perversely unbelieving?" But, the next moment, we bow our heads in shame, and our own hearts condemn us as we remember how often we have committed the very same sin. We, too, have "limited the Holy One of Israel," and grieved the Spirit of our gracious God — by our persistent unbelief; for, many a time have we thought, even if we have not said it, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" when His loving, bounteous hand has been preparing and spreading it before us!
Have you not found it so? Have you not sometimes been shamed, by receiving the very blessings which you doubted the Lord's power to give? Has He not often proved Himself "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you have asked or thought," even while your faithless heart has doubted Him?
Dear readers, I would gladly take you into the wilderness with me this morning, and bid you look back upon some of the "tables" which, in past days, the Lord has furnished for you there.
Do you not remember that desert experience of sore affliction, when you were laid very low, when heart and flesh failed, and you were brought into the dust of death? Did not the Lord then come and strengthen you upon "the bed of languishing," and tenderly furnish your sick-room table with the rich cordials of His love, and the life-giving elixir of His healing power? And, after that display of His mercy — can you not recollect how quickly the fever left you, and what joy it was to rise and minister unto Him?
Or — have you forgotten that dread hour of spiritual darkness, a "waste howling wilderness" of terror, when your soul was assailed by some horrible temptation, and Satan beset you so furiously that, for a moment, you almost despaired of deliverance? Was not that very moment the time of the Lord's gracious relief and succour? Did He not appear on your behalf, and lead you forth from the conflict, to find the table of His love spread as for a banquet for your sake, and the leaves of the Tree of Life ready plucked for the healing of your wounds?
Can you not recall those other seasons of distress, when some sad bereavement, or some great crisis of your life had brought you into a Sahara of desolation and grief? Almost broken in heart, your soul fainted within you, and you "wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way," believing yourself to be cut off from the land of the living. But you cried unto God — and how blessedly did He answer you! He turned the dry ground into water-springs, the sandy desert into a rich pasturage of grace and mercy, and there He prepared "a table before you," and the desert yielded royal dainties!
Ah! these tables in the wilderness! They are standing rebukes to our lack of faith — and constant memorials of God's faithfulness and love! Yes, but times without number it is true of us, as of those cities we read of in the Gospels, where "He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." God does not work wonders for us — if we mistrust Him; His miracles of grace and power, are wrought on behalf of those whose faith is strong enough to claim the performance of His Word. How very few of us, who call ourselves Christians, ever live up to our high privileges, as "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ"! Did we but realize our true position as sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty — there would be nothing impossible to us.
A recent writer on this subject says: "If there is a discrepancy between our life and the fulfillment and enjoyment of all God's promises — the fault is ours. If our experience is not what God wants it to be — it is because of our unbelief in the love of God, in the power of God, and in the reality of His promises."
Is not this the reason why so many of God's own children are living at such a miserably low level of spiritual existence? It is a positive fact that they do not believe what God has said. They are as distrustful as if He had never given them the blessed assurance, "I am the Lord, I do not change;" as poor though He had never made the promise, "Whatever you shall ask in My name — that will I do;" and as unhappy and full of worry as if His own lips had not spoken those other sweet words, "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me."
Beloved, when you think of the wilderness through which you have already been brought, never forget the tables and their furnishings which were there prepared for you. This will help you to trust God for the future — while you praise Him for the past!
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