“From there they went to Beer, which is the well where the LORD said to Moses, ‘Gather the people together, and I will give them water.'” (Num 21:16)
As a result of their disobedience, the Children of Israel spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. We don’t have very many specifics about these 40 years, but as I read the above text the other day, which, incidentally, I found in the midst of a passage that talks about Israel moving from one place to another about…say…eight or nine times, it drew my attention. This one place, called “Beer” was not a new place for Israel. It was, in fact, a place where God had previously provided them with a miracle, a miracle of water.
As we read through the history of these 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, we see that the people complained many times about the lack of water (Ex 15:22, 17:1; Num 5:9, 20:2, 21:5, 33:14, to name a few), and each time God provided them with water in a miraculous way. I find it interesting that God then brings them back to one of the spots where they had experienced this water miracle.
What can we learn from this verse?
When you are given a bad medical diagnosis, or when you lose a job, or when there are problems with family and loved ones, it seems very much like you have arrived in a dry, dessert place with absolutely no hope on the horizon! God is trying to teach us an important lesson through this brief verse about Israel revisiting a spot where He had miraculously provided them with water: During the times when there doesn’t seem to be much hope, we need to go back and revisit the times in our lives when God has miraculously provided for us!
We all have a few of those times stored away in our memories. In fact, if we look back over other rough times in our lives, we see that every time we’ve needed His strength, He’s come through for us. Spending time contemplating these past miracles will strengthen our faith and help us to look to Him instead of to our negative circumstances, and when we do this, we open the door for more and more miracles of God.
Feeling down? Discouraged? Angry? Feeling like you can’t keep on keeping on? Revisit the well! Spend some time today meditating on the times when God has been there for you. You’ll be amazed at how much stronger you will feel!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.