Sustainable Shoes; Longing for a New Pair

The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him.

Deuteronomy 13:4-5

Time stretches and flies simultaneously. Hazy, it seems I have lived this day before, this pattern. Seems like these feet have been walking this same dusty path for days that have run into years, counting steps and turning over miles. Circling.

They wore the same shoes for forty years. A commentary on the quality of God’s provision? Or of their endurance? Of their difficulty in getting it right? Forty years they wore the same shoes. Ate the same food. Slept in tents. Wandered homeless. Moved. Stayed. Moved. Stayed. Lived in the constant presence of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Waited on Moses while Moses waited on God. I have a strong inclination to believe they simultaneously cursed and praised the sustainability of those shoes.

The purpose of those days that strung together season after season of moving and waiting is revealed in Deuteronomy 8:1. God desired for them to live, to increase, and to take possession of what was promised. But why so long? What was being hammered during their time of moving and waiting?

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands (Deuteronomy 8:2).

• I lead you in this continuous circuit to humble you, to bring to your mind fully, that you will not survive, let alone thrive, without Me. Not in this desert land, not in the land that has been promised. Not on your own, not of your own.

• I lead you in this continuous circuit to test you, to know your heart, to reveal to you what is in your own heart. My purpose it to strip you bare of yourself so I can clothe you in robes of righteousness.

Perhaps it is knowledge of our own heart (Jeremiah 17:9-10) that leads us on a path of humility, and opens us to receive the direction He has for us.

Remember how the LORD your God let you hunger and then fed you, teaching you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:3).

• I lead you in this continuous circuit to teach you that I am your provision, wholly, attentive even to your tired feet and your old clothes. Follow My cloud by day and my fire by night and I will provide for your journey.

• I lead you, circling, in order to reveal to you that the hunger of your soul is a hunger for Me.

Perhaps it is only through sole dependence that we know soul dependence.

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you (Deuteronomy 8:5).

• I lead you in this continuous circuit to make you my daughter, my son, to give you confidence in who you are in Me.

Perhaps it is the discipline of God in this spacious place of wandering that reveals the cloud by day and the fire by night as more than a presence, but as a loving Father who never leaves.

Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and revering Him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing (nothing…); a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills (Deuteronomy 8:6-9).

New shoes are coming, new shoes, new clothes, new food, homes that stand permanent in the ground. Water that springs fresh. These things are coming, but first. First, the God of Abraham is set on making these rebellious people His own.

Deuteronomy 8 is one of my favorite (along with many others…) chapters in the Bible. Perhaps because I feel that I have been wandering with Moses in the same shoes for a long time, and this chapter is brimming with anticipation as the reality of this great promise comes closer. It provides insight into the intent of the Father to prepare His people, to prepare me, to prepare you. The text also reminds us that the promise keeper is the Father, it is His faithfulness to His chosen children that brings about the promise and not the other way around. Rebellious children, at best, and reflective of my own heart. The chapter ends with a harsh warning that later comes to pass as His chosen people forget and fail to follow the commands of their God.

I cannot help but wonder, if they had known what would come to pass as they began to break one commandment after another living in their promised land, would they have chosen to stay in the desert? Would they have chosen to stay in the presence of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night? Would they have forgone new shoes, new food and new accommodations? Waiting. Moving. Waiting. Moving. Would they have chosen sole dependence over abundance? Would they have chosen their God over their promised land? Would they have chosen the Father over their blessing?

What did Nehemiah choose? Esther? Elijah? John the Baptist? Peter? Paul? Jesus?

What would you choose? What would you choose for your children?

Then Moses said to Him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

Exodus 33:15