FOLLOW THE LEADERaffectionately! Egypt was still very much in their hearts! Concerning this
kind of half-hearted devotion, God says:
- “This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with
their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they
might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with
their heart and turn and I would heal them” (Matt. 13:15). - “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from Me. They worship Me in vain” (Matt. 15:8-9). - “They are a people whose hearts go astray...They shall never
enter My rest” (Ps. 95:10-11).
As Paul said, these kind of people have the “...form of godliness, but
lack its power” (II Tim. 3:5).
In a time of severe testing in the wilderness, Moses learned things about
himself...about his people...about God, which he would never have
learned otherwise. So did the Apostle Paul. Their lives and leadership
were more mature because of it. Every spiritual leader learns the same
thing through their personal time of testing in the wilderness. It is
there that they really begin to find out the true condition of their heart.
Hopefully then they will allow God to begin to do the necessary heart
surgery – or heart transplant, that will result in more health and vitality in
their life and leadership! Otherwise they too might spend forty years – a
lifetime – learning hard lessons about the condition of their hearts! God
exhorts every one of His children: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not
harden your hearts” (Heb. 4:3-7)!
It is the wilderness that tests our hearts – and the hearts of our followers.
It is the wilderness that demonstrates God’s infinite patience with us.
It is in the wilderness that we learn to have patience with other people.
Oswald Sanders wisely pointed out the obvious when he wrote: “Patience
meets its most difficult test in personal relationships.”^5 He goes on to point out
two examples:
Paul lost his patience dealing with John Mark. Hudson Taylor
once confessed: ‘My greatest temptation is to lose my temper over
the slackness and inefficiency so disappointing in those on whom
I depend.’^6