Sunday, January 13, 2008

Bear Grylls and Surviving the Desert

by Brian Bassett

Mmm Zebra!!

Bear Grylls is one of my favorite shows on TV. Sure my wife loves Rachel Ray, the rest of the Food Network fare and the usual set of organization or home makeover shows , but give me a good hour of Bear Grylls eating rotting Zebra meat, and I am good to go.

If you are unfamiliar, during his show, Bear gets dropped into extremely inhospitable places and is tasked with finding his way back to civilization. Along the way, he consumes whatever he can to keep his energy at high levels and help him get out alive (though there have been dispersions cast,, I still love it).

Reading back through Lev 11 this morning, it occurred to me that there is quite a long list of what God ruled inedible to His people. See here for the full list in this chapter.

This made me think about Bear though. While Bear will eat spiders whole, or find lizards and will consume them raw, God's plan for his people was special. He didn't want them to rely on scavenging on whatever they could find in the desert, but to rely on Him ultimately as their nourishment and provider. The Hebrews even had a name for Him in this regard ... Jehovah Jireh, a name that came from when Abraham's ram was provided for him to sacrifice at the top of the mountain.

Man does not live on bread alone -- I guess it depends on how you would define "living" -- but if I was in the desert, would I be faithful to God and His provision, or my own resources?

So it is with our whole lives, from questions of basic survival to the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and everything in between. We should seek God's will and know that he will provide.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Did that name for God really originate with Moses' trip to the woods to sacrifice Isaac?

Anonymous said...

Moses took a trip to sacrifice Isaac?? Wow that IS amazing!

Unknown said...

VEEERY funny. You know what I mean. I'm TIRED, alright? Couldn't have just corrected it to Abraham and gone on your way, could you?