HEAD NORTH

“’You have been going around this mountain long enough! Head north, …”
Deuteronomy 2:3

Have you ever felt as though you have just been going around and around, but never really going anywhere? Surly I am not the only one who has been there. But if you have been there and can sympathize, then perhaps you will enjoy this next part of the scripture. To the people of Isra’el who had come out from under four hundred years of bondage in Egypt, and forty years of wandering in the desert, Adonai finally gave the command they were waiting for. Adonai spoke to them to head north. Their wanderings had gone on long enough; the sentence of punishment for the actions of the spies had finally been paid in full. Now, Adonai had agreed with the people that they had been going around the same mountain for too long.
As I was reading this portion, and this verse specifically, I felt Adonai speaking to me. How many times have I been in the same position, wandering aimlessly around the same mountain? Now while the Isra’elites wandered as punishment for their belief in the negative report of the ten spies, my wanderings have been for a different reason. In both cases, though, the underlining reason is due to sin. Isra’el sinned when they believed man’s word over Adonai’s. I sinned when I stepped out from under Adonai’s command in the attempt to do what I wanted to do as opposed to what He wanted me to do.
Yet to both the people of Isra’el and to myself, Adonai spoke the same message. “’You have been going around this mountain long enough! Head north, …” The time of wandering is done. In truth, if the people had listened to Adonai’s word as said by Joshua and Caleb, as opposed to the other ten spies, the Torah might have a different and quicker ending. The account of their journey would have been forty years less. The same is true in my situation. While I am not forty years old yet, the truth of the matter is I wandered around my own mountain way too long.
So what is the command Adonai gave? It was to head north. When I think of heading north my original thought is looking heavenward. I relate it to focusing on Him. Think of this with me. “’You have been going around this mountain long enough! Look upon me, …” How do we move from focusing on what is right in front of us, consuming us and our attention, to focusing on that which we are supposed to be looking at? The answer is in heading north, or better yet, fixing our head north. Until our gaze is on Him as opposed to anything else, then we will only be going around and around the same mountain.
Our destiny is the Promise Land. The Promise Land, however, cannot be reached if we continue to circle the same mountain. Our fate, though, is that unless we change our view we are destined only to follow what is in front of us. So then, wouldn’t you agree that the time to stop circling the mountain is now? If so, then let us fix our eyes on Adonai and His higher ways. Let us head north.

Deuteronomy 2:2-30
Deuteronomy 2:31 – 3:14
Deuteronomy 3:15-22