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.
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