Transformation! Isaiah 41:17–20

                          

Evan and Dawn, thank you for choosing this passage from Isaiah for Fraser’s baptism. This passage is filled with images of hope, of transformation, images familiar to a people with a history shaped by wilderness wandering, by persecution and conquest, by exile, but also by a God who continually shows up for his people. Isaiah 40 begins a section of Isaiah that focuses on the restoration of Israel. It begins with a powerful word of hope, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Chapter 41 begins by telling Israel that the Lord has chosen the Persian king Cyrus to end Israel’s exile. The nations respond with fear and create idols while the Lord reassures Israel that they’re his people, the ones he’s chosen as his people. The verses you’ve chosen pick up on the imagery of wilderness and transformation again.

Isaiah, returns to a theme that echoes throughout the prophets, “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.” The poor and needy are referring mainly to the exiles in Babylon. This echoes back to before the exile when the poor and needy had been ignored by the people of Israel, leading to their being in exile, and now they’re experiencing in a figurative way, the same thing. The people are not literally going hungry or thirsty, but their souls are thirsting for a renewed relationship with the Lord again. The image of barrenness points to how life can sometimes feel like being deserted by God; Israel is feeling deserted by God because it’s been a long time now in exile, they’ve gone through a time of refining, and now the Lord answers with a promise, “I will not forsake them.”

Then comes these beautiful images of transformation and renewal; images that point to heart and soul change, to the presence of the Holy Spirit. “I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

Evan and Dawn, you mentioned how this passage is a visual of the Fraser Valley, of rushing rivers and lush valleys and farmland, of orchards and vineyards, a feeling of home for your family, and an image that points ahead to heaven and the renewed earth at Jesus’ return. Water is all about nourishing life; it brings refreshment, it sustains, and it brings hope. When scientists and astronomers look into the galaxy looking for new planets and life, the one thing they look for is the presence of water. The Lord comes to his people and promises to bring transformation; from barrenness and desert and drought to rivers and flourishing, images of beauty and wonder and life. God promises to answer the poor and needy by turning dry deserts into pools of water, flowing rivers, and planting shade trees such as cedars, acacias, and myrtles, so the people will know the Lord has created it. These trees are all water-hungry trees, but provide protection and relief from the sun, a precious gift in the desert or wilderness.

Throughout scripture we find a garden theme, a theme that reflects flourishing and life from Eden to Revelation 22 where we see the river of life flowing from the throne of God and the trees of life growing along the banks of the river. The Promised Land was described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Ezekiel 47 shows a river flowing from the temple down into the Dead Sea, “When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.” For those of you who have been to the Dead Sea, you’ve seen, and likely even experienced the extreme saltiness of the sea and the lack of life. Here Ezekiel uses the barrenness of life in the Dead Sea to show the transforming power of the water of life flowing from the throne of God; even the Dead Sea will become filled with life. These images appear a number of times in the psalms, especially the creation psalms that emphasize God as creator of life, as provider, as restorer and re-newer of his people.

Then in the New Testament, Jesus comes. He’s the water of life. Jesus brings new life, brings flourishing even in the barren places, the desert times, he is with us even in the times we don’t feel his closeness, he promises to never abandon us. Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” echoes God promise, “I will never forsake them.” In Isaiah 43:2, God returns to his promise of presence, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” What powerful words of reassurance to raise our children to live into.

The rivers and pools remind me of the sacrament of baptism, the water of baptism is a symbol of the living water of life, how our sin’s washed away, pointing to our identity in Jesus, and how the Holy Spirit shows us, the poor and needy, that Jesus is the one whose sacrifice washes away our sin and is our shade and protection, the one who cares for his people, who fills us with new life. In a world filled with so much barrenness where many are parched with a thirst for something more than what our world promises, Jesus calls us to turn to him for nourishment, fulfillment, for meaning, for purpose. This passage from Isaiah is an image of the Christian life, of transformation from the hopelessness of slavery to sin, to freedom and new life in Jesus through his sacrifice on the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit. New life is marked by joy, by obedience to Jesus, revealed by how we go through hard times confident in the presence of God. This is an important lesson for our children to learn, that Jesus calls us to turn to him, that he is always with us, that when we obey him, we’ll experience joy. This is why it’s important to raise our children in the hope of Jesus, in the promise of his presence and the promise of new life that can already be experienced in the here and now through the Holy Spirit.

God calls himself “the Holy One of Israel,” this is relationship language. The Lord identifies himself with the people of Israel. This is powerfully reassuring language for Israel to hear. Exile is hard, but to know that God is still their God, that all they’ve done hasn’t changed that, renews their hope, brings strength into their faith, and makes the hope more certain. Our world is marked by chaos, by violence, by the work of Satan’s hand and the evil he creates. But Jesus is with us, he’s bringing in a world of peace, a world where the weapons of war will be destroyed, turned into tools for planting and new life. The Lord points ahead to a time of peace coming earlier in Isaiah 2:4, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” The tools of war will be turned into tools of planting and harvesting, into tools of peace.

Your verses this morning echo forward to the return of Jesus and the overturning of the effects of sin and chaos in our world. John shows us this in Revelation 22:1–5, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

In Revelation 22 we see the curse of Eden overcome by Jesus’ return, we see the presence of God with his people, echoing his walking with Adam and Eve in the garden. Those who will be with God are his children. We, as God’s people, created in his image, will once again do the work we were created to do; serving God by caring for creation in his name, developing the potential in creation, unlocking all that God has placed with this amazing universe.

This makes our lives and what we do important, why we raise our children to know, love and serve God. We’re engaged in God’s work; we carry on the work Jesus has begun and then left to us of inviting the world into a relationship with Jesus. This is why baptism is such a beautiful sacrament, it points us to Jesus’ return, to the restored creation, washed clean of sin and brokenness, reminding us of who we are.

Love the Lord - Deuteronomy 6:4–9

    

What a joy-filled worship service today as we witnessed Kyle commit himself to the Lord, followed by Kyle and Cara bringing their son Jake to receive the sacrament of baptism! They chose this passage from Deuteronomy 6 as a passage to guide them in raising Jake to love the Lord. In the chapters before our passage this morning, Moses reminds Israel of what God has done for them in the past; freeing them from slavery to the Egyptians in order to be the people of his inheritance. Moses reminds them to remember the covenant God made with them at Sinai; this is all about their relationship with God. Moses warns them against idolatry, God’s a jealous God, not willing to share his people with any other gods.

Moses teaches Israel how to know God, he calls the people to ask themselves “Who is God?” In chapter 4, Moses then describes how God created us and chose Israel as his people. He uses the idea of inheritance, family imagery, here. “Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today. Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.”

In chapter 5, Moses reminds the people of the 10 Commandments as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. They were given to shape Israel, and us, into God’s image, into his people so that we can reveal God to the nations around us, the God whom we worship and follow. They were called to keep God’s commands so that it may go well for them, as the commands were given to shape their character, which then shapes in positive ways how they are to live with each other in ways that glorify God and who God is. Loving God and knowing God’s love for us shapes our lives in powerful ways, filling us with confidence as we journey through the ups and downs of life.

“Love the Lord your God;” this is how Jesus summarizes the first half of the 10 Commandments. This is the first and primary commandment given to Israel and to the followers of God and Jesus. This is the central aspect of our faith. Love comes before obedience; love is the reason for obedience. Jesus even tells his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” This love is rooted in who we are, we are to love with everything that we are, heart and soul, and with all our strength, this is what is to shape our hearts, shape our character. This is the depth of love that the world is looking for, this is the whole idea behind the modern desire for “soulmates,” that no one can live up to, except for God. We’re only able to love God this deeply because of his love for us. This is why we’ve been given the Bible. It reveals to us the depth, the width, the height, and the constancy of God’s love for us. We see Jesus’ love for us set as the Biblical standard for love in 1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Moses goes on to say, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.” We’re called to impress God’s commands on our children’s hearts; Moses recognizes that they need to be impressed on our own hearts first. In the Bible, the "heart" represents who you are, your will and your character. Making an impression on, transforming our hearts biblically, takes both God's grace and our participation. It begins by immersing ourselves in Scripture and God’s commandments so that they become a natural part of who we are, shaping our character, thoughts, and life. We can’t impress these things on our children if they aren’t deeply impressed on our own hearts first.

This passage is about modelling our faith, showing our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews how God is present in many ways and every place, showing them that our entire world belongs to God, and that God is part of every aspect of our lives. This is where Moses goes next, “talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates.” This is what we call hands on parenting, shaping their faith by talking about God and his expectations for us as we do the ordinary everyday things of life. It looks like showing how our faith impacts our entire day; whether we’re at home or on the road, from the start of the day until the end of the day, before we go to sleep and when we wake up, while we work in the fields or the kitchen. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, we’re called to teach and show our children what it looks like to be a child of God, what it looks like to follow Jesus.

The biblical scholar Robert Jamieson shows how Moses turns to practices from the Egyptians to help the people remind themselves regularly of God’s call on their lives. Egyptians would wear jewels and ornamental trinkets on their foreheads and arms, decorated with certain words and sentences, as amulets to protect them from danger. Moses replaces this superstitious practice by substituting sentences of the law. Moses calls them to write the commandments on their doorframes and gates, taking a practice from the ancient Egyptians who had doorframes and gates decorated with sentences to bring good luck, and this is still the case, for in Egypt and other Muslim countries still today, the front doors of houses, like in Cairo, for instance, are painted red, white, and green, having sentences from the Koran, as “God is the Creator,” “God is one, and Mohammed is his prophet” written on them, Moses turns this ancient custom to a better use and orders that, instead they should write the words of God, so the people will be regularly reminded of God’s laws. This is something similar to what Christians do today when we wear crosses or place the symbol of a fish on our cars, it shows people that we follow Jesus.

Raising your children to know the love of God, to know the expectations of God for our lives, raising them in the church family, has blessings and benefits that give our children tools to make their way through life in strong healthy ways. A 1999 article in USA Today, Religion's Health Effects Should make Doubting Parishioners Reconsider Leaving, quotes a Harvard study on the value of a faith upbringing. The Harvard study showed that children who were raised in a religious or spiritual environment were better protected from the “big three” dangers of adolescence: depression, drugs, and risky sexual behaviours. They also found that those who attended religious services regularly were subsequently 12% less likely to suffer from high levels of depression, they experienced greater happiness, they had a sense of purpose in life, did more volunteering, and more easily forgave others.

There’s something healthy and wonderful about obeying God’s call to raise our families in a supportive church family. Our children learn so much watching the adults around them live, worship, work, and support each other that creates emotional, spiritual, and even physical health. Living in an extended family environment sharing the same beliefs and values provides a sense of stability and a foundation under them when times of pressure come when they enter that turbulent time of adolescence. Seeing the adults in their community working hard to live righteously, seeking to create a supportive community where people are supported, encouraged and built up, where grace and love are extended to everyone, where it’s safe to ask hard questions and know that you’ll be respected. Seeing adults showing awe and reverence to someone much greater than themselves in Jesus, taking time to reflect and seek understanding, encourages our children and youth to seek Jesus too. It’s easy to see how this kind of a community would be useful to adolescents testing their own boundaries and facing peer pressure.

As we’re called to love God, Jesus calls us to love each other, John 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Kyle and Cara, Bethel Church commits ourselves to helping you raise Jake to know and love God, to help you to help Jake grow in his faith, in Jesus’ love, and to encourage you and continue to build you up in the Lord.

 

 

Spiritual Seasons: Season 4: Refining - Malachi 3:1–5

We’re reflecting this morning on the season of refining. This is often a hard and painful time because it’s about purification, about removing the dirt and impurities from our hearts and souls. The reality is that we’re not even aware of just how much dirt and impurity is there. The image of refining is found in a number of the prophets, while in the New Testament the word used more often is sanctification, being made holy.

Malachi has a strong message regarding the need for refining. Malachi is a harsh prophet, he likely comes after Ezra, a time when Israel was trying to re-establish themselves in Judea after their 70-year exile in Babylon. In Ezra, we discover that there were some serious issues in the spiritual and moral lives of Israel. In Nehemiah 8, Ezra reads the Law to the people and the people weep as they hear the Law, God’s tried and tested word. It’s a time of refining, having their sins held up before them, just as another messenger later on, John the Baptist, comes and holds up the people's sin before them and calls them to repentance in preparation for the coming of Jesus. When we study and reflect on God’s Word, it penetrates our hearts, revealing to us what needs to be refined, renewed.

In the time of Malachi, they again were no longer honouring the Lord, Malachi 1:6–9, “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong?” It’s not just the people who are no longer honouring God, even the priests aren’t honouring him anymore.

Now God promises to send his messenger, and God expects them to listen and obey. This is a message warning the people of what’s coming, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver....  So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.” When our sins are held up before us so we're unable to deny them any more, we can either refuse to acknowledge them, but when the Holy Spirit works in us, we are led to sorrow for our sin and to repentance. 

They’re waiting for the coming of the Lord, the messenger of the covenant. Malachi gives a message promising painful transformation, but the end result will be a refining that will burn away the impurities out of their hearts. Israel’s on trial and it’s not pretty as the Lord lays out their offences, their sin and impurities, and then begins the process of cleansing and refining. This prophecy is likely pointing to the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus’ coming. John’s message is repentance and obedience. Jesus’ message is “Repent and believe for the kingdom of God is near,” calling for soul and life change. This is the message of Malachi, the message of Scripture.

Refining brings the impurities to the surface where they can be skimmed off. It refers to the melting, testing, and refining of metals. The image of refining is used of God testing men. Metal is heated in pottery vessels in ovens or hearths, and the metal worker uses bellows to make a breeze that creates even greater heat. When God refines us, it can be painful, especially if we're holding tight to the sins and impurities that we really don’t want to let go of.

We all have impurities that need to be skimmed away. It's hard for us to do this ourselves because we often don’t even recognize them. We need the Holy Spirit to do this work in us. Malachi combines the image of refining with the image of laundry soap. Refining and washing are both about removing the dirt or dross from our heart, only Jesus can wash us completely clean, can remove all our sin.

Refining can be painful. It can look like all the things that have been going well suddenly falling apart, times when our strengths and talents fail us and we find ourselves struggling, it can look like our when our closest relationships, when people we have trusted and leaned on turn away or turn against us and we find ourselves wondering what happened, why have these things turned against us, why am I going through these times of struggle, rejection, brokenness. It can look like falling into temptation, like going through a time that tests our Christian character and we end up failing. God brings us through these times because he loves us, John 3:16-17 reminds us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” God sends Jesus to take our sin on himself, to wash our sin away, to go through the refining fire on our behalf. Jesus understands the fire of refining deeper than we ever can, he understands and loves us through and in these times.

For those who are wise, this can be a time of reflecting on who we truly are, what do I really count as valuable in my life, what are my priorities, who is God really to me? Do I truly love God with all my heart, soul, and mind; how do I treat others, am I truly shaped by the fruit of the Spirit or by the fruit of this world? How do I treat others, do I look more like the world than like Jesus? How pure are my thoughts and heart, do I lust but call it something else, am I humble, am I generous, or am I proud and stingy?

Believers facing trials such as economic pressure or hostility for being Christians can interpret them as refining moments allowed to expose sins, deepen dependence on God, and shape our character to Christ. Science confirms that adversity, when met with spiritual purpose, produces resilience and moral growth, what scripture calls sanctification. The Holy Spirit is always at work to draw us back to God by revealing our true selves to bring us to a place of repentance, which allows our hearts to realize the mercy of God and the amazing grace poured out on us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. 

As the devotionals mention, ancient refiners would go through the process of refining until they could see their face in the surface. God refines us until his image becomes clear in us once again. There’s something beautiful in this, it brings us back to creation, reminding us that we’re created in the image of God and we don’t lose that image because of sin, rather it gets muddled because of our sin. Refining points us to Jesus, the second Adam, God in person. Refining brings out our true humanity. This is why Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ,” in 1 Corinthians 11. Refining reveals the image of God in us more clearly so that the world sees us and sees the hand of God at work, they see God reflected in us.

Eugene Peterson wrote a paraphrase of the Bible called The Message to help people more easily understand the gospel message. He gets at what the result of refining looks like in his paraphrase of Romans 12:1–2, “here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

Our refiner is an artist who created this amazingly beautiful universe. The Spirit is working at purifying us, taking our raw material and removing what doesn’t belong so that we become more beautiful as God’s image shines out in all its glory into the world around us. But it takes refining for God’s image to shine out. Job understands this, Job 23:10, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Refining brings out our value, revealing what’s precious inside. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The word “handiwork” can also be translated as “masterpiece,” as in a work of art. You are masterpieces created by the hand of the Artist, the Creator of creation. Isaiah understands this, Isaiah 64:8, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” The Artist of the universe is our Father. Refining’s the beginning of something purer, of deep transformation and renewal.

Even after we’ve gone through a time of refining, it’s not uncommon for impurities to creep back into the purified metal again, so that the refining process is ongoing. We’re sinners and Satan’s always working to draw our hearts away from God; sin keeps catching our hearts. Even the wise go through times of refining: Daniel 11:35, “Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.” Just as Ezra brought the Law to people to draw them back to God, so we keep turning to Scripture to be reminded who God is and showing who he is calling us to be. The refiner’s fire in Malachi shows God’s holy, deliberate, and redeeming judgment; announces purification centered in Jesus, fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming, and to be completed at his return. For the faithful it promises cleansing and acceptance; for the unrepentant, consuming wrath.

A time of refining is a time to grow in our trust in God, a time of repentance and rededication to Jesus. The goal of refining is, as God calls us, to be “holy as I am holy.” Refining transforms us, and that’s the miracle.

 

 

Spiritual Seasons - Season 3 Wilderness - Deuteronomy 8:1–5

      

Israel is near the bank of the Jordan River, getting ready to enter the promised land. Moses is reminding Israel of how God freed them from slavery to the Egyptians, led them to encounter him at Mount Sinai where he gave them laws to shape them into a people who will represent him to the nations so that the nations will know who God is, shaping them into a people who will learn to trust him and follow his commandments and receive his blessings. God’s laws impact every area of Israel’s life; all rooted in the 10 Commandments. Obedience is only the beginning of God’s expectations for his people, at the root of the laws is a desire for his people to be in a relationship with him, for his people to love him. The same holds true for us today.

Israel has just spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness because they failed to trust God the first time they were at the border to the Promised Land, even after spending a year at Mount Sinai where God had made a new covenant with them. This was a time of shaping their identity, changing their identity from being slaves into being God's people showing the nations who God is. The wilderness became part of Israel’s history, but it also shaped their relationship with God; it shaped their faith and souls.

Israel’s history is filled with wilderness times. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, David spent about 15 years in the wilderness in and out of the wilderness as he fled from King Saul, Elijah flees into the wilderness and finds healing and hope, John the Baptist chose to live in the wilderness and survive on what the wilderness provided, and Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days to prepare for his time of ministry and our redemption. When we speak of being in a wilderness season, we usually think of those times in our lives when we felt dry, worn-out, and even afraid, when God seemed silent and far away.

Yet perhaps the wilderness season is not a time to fear, but a time to purposefully go into? The wilderness can be a time of testing where God shows us what we’re really relying on, leaning on, and turning to for our identity and sense of worth; where he calls us to rely on him, to look to him for who we are, reminding us that we are his. The wilderness teaches us to lean on God, trusting in him to provide what we need over what we want.

This morning I’d like to help us see the wilderness as a place of safety instead of a place to fear, a place to take time to get away from the noise and pressure of life, a place to notice the wonder and beauty of God, to reconnect with God. For Israel, the 40 years in the wilderness was a place of testing and a time of humility, self-learning, and obedience but it was also a time when they experienced God’s providence in terms of food, water, health, and even clothing.

In the 40 years there were times of fighting and struggle, but it was also a time away from the temptations of the nations around them, when they saw the pillars of fire and smoke and were daily reminded of God’s presence. It was a time when they built the tabernacle and were given the feasts and rituals to give them a life rhythm focused on God. It was a time when God shaped their identity away from being slaves into being his people; a time when they were reminded over and over again that God’s committed to them and never gives up on them. The time in the wilderness was a blessing in disguise.

King David spent a long time in the wilderness. The wilderness for David was a place of safety from the persecution and death threats from King Saul. David, a young man at the time, was hated and hunted, forced to choose between hating the man hunting him, or choosing to pray for him as God’s choice for the kingdom. David chooses prayer, choosing the path of holiness, of being shaped by prayer and the Holy Spirit into the man who wrote so many of the psalms and learned a deep trust in God. David had to depend on God for the basics of life, for protection of his life. David learned in the wilderness that God is his refuge, his strength. David has to run for his life, leaving the comfort and pleasures of the palace and family, and yet finds a life rooted in God, “God is my refuge,” is David’s confession, the foundation of his life.

The prophet Elijah flees into the wilderness for safety. His story’s a little strange because it comes after a huge demonstration of God’s power over Baal and 450 of Baal’s prophets. Elijah challenges them to a God battle. They set up an alter on Mount Caramel and the challenge is that the God who lights the sacrifice by fire is the true God. The prophets call on the name of Baal for hours, but there’s no response. Elijah mocks them and Baal; no matter what the prophets do or how hard they call out to Baal, there’s no answer. Then Elijah prepares to ask God to reveal himself as God by pouring 12 large jars of water over everything to soak it. He then offers a simple prayer to God and the “fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice. The people confess that God is God and Elijah commands that the prophets of Baal be killed.

But Elijah now fears for his life because the prophets of Baal were also Queen Jezebel’s men, and she’s furious and vows to kill Elijah. 1 Kings 19:3–5, “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” Elijh has slipped into depression, a darkness of the soul, into hopelessness. Elijah then travels 40 days and nights until he reaches Mount Horeb. It’s here that God comes to him in a gentle whisper and reassures him, giving him commands to anoint the next kings of Israel, Judah, and his replacement in Elisha. In the wilderness, Elijah finds hope and a way forward, he encounters the powerful and gentle God who provides and guides. In a dangerous and often cruel world, the wilderness becomes a place of safety, of healing, of guidance, and strength moving forward with God’s presence.

John the Baptist makes the wilderness his home, he chooses simplicity as he prepares the way for Jesus’ arrival. It’s in the wilderness that he does his ministry, Matthew 3:1–6, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” For John, the wilderness is a place to be shaped and used by God. It’s a safe quiet place where he can focus on God and God’s call on his life to prepare the way for Jesus. The wilderness is a place of safety from the politics and power struggles among the religious and civil leaders. The people go into the wilderness to hear God, to repent and be baptized, to recommit themselves to God again. The wilderness becomes a place of repentance and renewal.

Jesus goes into the wilderness right after his baptism and just before he enters his public ministry. He spends 40 days in the wilderness, echoing Israel’s 40 years and Elijah’s 40 days in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place, where he prepares himself for the journey ahead, for the cross that lies ahead. Jesus does this in the quiet and peace of the wilderness.

The wilderness is not something that just happens; the wilderness is a place for spiritual formation, about quiet opportunities to reflect and listen to God. The wilderness can be a time of slowing down, of noticing what's around you and affecting you, of what’s shaping you without you even being aware of it. It can be a time of learning to live with less, trusting in God to provide, losing a lot of things that distract us from God and who we really are.

We live in a noisy world; a million voices are clamouring for our attention, telling us who we should be, what we should wear, eat, how we should act, what we should buy, who we should listen to, normally the person telling you this of course. The wilderness is a place where you can enter into silence, where the weight and pressure of life disappear. For some people, the thought of silence can be scary, yet silence can be a gift you give yourself. The Desert Fathers in the early church would go into the desert so they could focus completely on God. They knew the importance of getting away from the noise and busyness of the world in order to listen to the Holy Spirit. During my vacation in August, I took a day and went by Nordegg to get away from the noise of everyday life. It was only one day, but even that can be good for the soul when you use it to simply to listen to the moving of God, to reflect on what God has been doing, and listening for the now and tomorrow.

The wilderness can be a place to deepen our faith, to meet God; it’s not always desert times, the wilderness can be mountain times, wide open prairie tundra times; places where there’s great beauty and we can marvel at who God is. Even the Judean wilderness held beauty when you slowed down enough to see it. Your time in the wilderness can be a time of wandering: Tolkien writes, "Not all who wander are lost." Wandering can be a time of rediscovering yourself and your connection to creation, rediscovering your connection to Jesus. Wilderness times can come from God, but it’s also good to deliberately enter into wilderness times on your own to meet God, to quiet your mind and heart, to repent and be honest with God and hear the words, “You are forgiven, you are mine,” and allow the Spirit to challenge us, encourage us, or heal us, and help us prepare the world for Jesus’ coming. The wilderness: a place of testing, of growing in humility, a place to learn dependence on God and simply be with him.