But as we are looking, specifically, at verses that reference 'desert', we are not actually going to be considering 22 chapters worth of material here.
The concordance I used listed only about eight verses. So let's jump in and have a look at them.
Three of them are in chapter eight:
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....He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. (Deut.8: 2, 15 - 16)
Wow. Y'know, those two verses sum up so much...God led you...in the desert...to humble you...to know what was in your heart....He led you....He gave you....to humble you...to test you...so that in the end it might go well with you.
If you are going through a desert season now, you can apply that.
Even in the desert, God leads.
Even in the desert, God supplies what is needed.
Even in the desert, God protects his people from its dangers.
Twice we see that God does this to humble his people. Not HUMILIATE... humble. Humble people know that God is the one who leads, supplies and protects. Their time in the desert was supposed to teach them to know their dependency on God. So that...in the end...after the lessons are learned...it will all go well.
But this also raises a bit of a question...does God need to test us to know what is in our hearts? Or does the testing of our hearts show US what is there? Because...obedience when all is well is easy. Obedience in the 'vast and dreadful desert', when God's instructions seem illogical or inconvenient or costly or even silly (remember what happened over the tassels?) is not so natural. Sometimes obedience means squelching our own ideas of what is expedient or necessary. In the desert...we learn to either humbly follow God and keep his commands...or we reject God's counsel for what makes sense to us.
Chapter nine has two desert references:
...never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD. (9:7)
Because of that mass disobedience, Moses repeatedly found himself in the position of interceding for the people, humbly requesting that God not destroy them for their rebellion...
'Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, and their sin. Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, "Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the desert." ' (9:27b-28)
Hundreds of thousands died in the desert, but God did not destroy the nation. The next mention of desert is in chapter 11 --
It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place...But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.' (11:5,7)
No excuse for folks who have seen God move with their own eyes. They will have to tell their children...but they themselves experienced it first hand.
Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. (11:24)
The last appearance of 'desert' in this discourse is a mention of the desert owl in a list of birds not to be eaten in 14:17.
I am going to be pondering the concept of testing in the desert, I think. How well have I handled my own desert testing? To be honest...not as well as I would have liked...I fall, far too easily, into what makes sense or seems expedient, without considering if that's really what I am instructed to do.
Which, of course, calls for repentance.
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