A land of drought and of the shadow of death.

The Israelites indeed experienced God's manifest presence in various areas of their lives. No wonder their unbelief grieved God a lot. How could they doubt God after experiencing God in the manner they did? The issue of doubt and unbelief should have never come from them. Child of God, you grieve and irritate God each time you doubt His promises after you must have experienced His faithfulness in time past. What the Psalmist meant in Psalm 23 verse 4 just became clearer to me. When reading this Scripture, we often think that the valley of the shadow of death was imaginary and could be any unpleasant situation but

today I discovered that there is truly a physical valley of the shadow of death which the children of Israel encountered as they passed through it. How did I know? I knew by studying, Jeremiah 2:5-6, 5 "Thus says the Lord: What unrighteousness did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me and [habitually] went after emptiness, falseness, and futility and themselves became fruitless and worthless?
6 Nor did they say, Where is the Lord, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death and deep darkness, through a land that no man passes through and where no man dwells?"

The Israelites witnessed God's mighty hand even in the valley of the shadow of death.

Also Read: Cursed For Doing Good

In this account of Jeremiah, the LORD God by Himself confirmed that He led them through the wildernesses, a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that no one ever passed through and where no one lived but God took them through this same land and they survived. The only people that died were the disobedient ones, not that the land consumed them but the LORD God destroyed them for their unbelief and attitude towards the promises of God to His children.

Wilderness is known to be an unsettled and uncultivated tract of land left in it natural state according to the English Dictionary. Wilderness is a place of drought, barrenness and unfruitfulness but the wilderness that the children of Israel passed through was worst than the usual wilderness for this wilderness had the valley of the shadow of death, they passed through this wilderness with combination of various evil and came out alive and unharmed because God was with them.

Accounts like this, should tell you that God is more than enough and no situation is bigger than our God. Seriously, if you are to literally go through this same wilderness, wouldn't you die of fear in the wilderness? Child of God, whatever wilderness experience you are going through is very very minor. It is not bigger than God so don't make it seem so. Hold on to your heavenly Father, He is Abba Father, trust in Him completely, don't just hope in God, beloved trust in God, have complete faith in God, He will see you through.

If the children of Israel came out of this deadly wilderness alive, you too will make it eventually if you continue to hold on to God.

I encourage you to not give up, you are coming out that wilderness experience. Please don't doubt God, don't doubt His words, don't doubt His promises to you. For He knows the thoughts that He thinks towards you, it is the thought of good and not of evil.

God has a reason for taking you through the wilderness, (See Exodus 13:17) there are experiences He wants you to gather before you get to the promise land.