Be prepared!

Be prepared is the motto of the scouting organisation. It’s also the advice that Tim Gough gave to our amazing Redefiners last night in preparation for our trip to Soul Survivor next week.

Yay! On Wednesday 27th July we head down to Stafford for a fantastic God-adventure!

Anyway, in order to help the young people going to Soul Survivor to ‘Be Prepared!’, Tim created a great guide to all the dos and don’t of camping at Soul Survivor, including a pack-list, camping tips, a daily timetable and other important pieces of information.

Getting ready for going on a camping trip got me thinking about the children of Israel in the desert following their exodus from Egypt. They had to camp as they crossed the desert. In the book of Exodus it states that “ In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.” Exodus 40:36-38
They had to ‘be prepared‘ to pack up their camp and move whenever God moved.  They had to be attentive to God’s presence and direction and follow Him wherever He lead them in the wilderness.

They had to be prepared at all times.

There was also a sense in which there was no permanence to their travels in the desert.  There was no settling down and putting down roots until they entered the promised land.  They were nomads, looking for a land that God had prepared for them.

In encouraging the church in Corinth to flee immoral living, the Apostle Paul writes “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11.  He had specifically mentioned some of the failings and sins of the children on Israel as they wandered in the desert. However in looking at the journey they took I see an image of our lives as believers, as we follow Jesus.

Like the Israelites, we flee from ‘Egypt’ (the world) and are saved from the power of death by the Lamb’s blood (Jesus’ death on the cross), we cross the Red Sea, symbolising baptism, and then we follow the cloudy pillar by day and the fiery pillar by night (God’s presence), until we cross the Jordan (representing death) and enter the promised land.

Like the Israelites, we are to ‘be prepared‘ to follow God’s direction and leading.

Like the Israelites we are to be aware that we are living in temporary accommodation and journeying to the home that God has prepared for us. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Hebrews 11:13 & “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires,which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:10-12 both convey the idea of followers of Jesus being foreigners and strangers on planet earth, looking forward to the land that God has promised us.

In the lifetime that God has given us on planet earth, are we building houses and putting down roots, or are we pitching a tent, being prepared to follow God’s direction, knowing this is not our home, but looking towards something greater that He has in store for us?