The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Invariably, we from time-to-time wind up in dark places of confusion, sorrow, struggle, hopelessness, and angst. Sometimes it’s our own fault – we made some bad choices. Sometimes we’re the victims of other people’s bad choices. Sometimes, God leads us there to stretch us. Regardless, it hurts. The Bible refers to these times as being in the wilderness.

The wilderness is not a pleasant place. Not in scripture anyway. It is hot, dry, and rocky, inhabited by reptiles and mammals that can hurt or kill you. Not much grows there. You will die in the wilderness without help from outside yourself. The wilderness is de-creation – a biblical motif representing the opposite of a flourishing garden with its springs of living water. 

The biblical story starts with dark watery chaos, then God brings up barren land out of the water. All is chaos, de-creation. Then God plants a garden and puts divine images (people) in it. The biblical story ends in a city – but it’s a garden city – lush, green, fruitful, river of water of life flowing from the throne of God. 

The snake, the serpent, the satan slithers out of the wilderness into Eden. Monsters like leviathan rule the watery deep. Snakes and sea monsters – the forces of evil seek to pull God’s good creation back into de-creation. God brings order out of chaos. The satan brings chaos out of order. God creates. God is all about life, flourishing, beauty, grace, and love. The satan de-creates. The satan is all about death, chaos, division, hatred, fear, and violence.

We put ourselves in the wilderness by making bad choices. Adam and Eve (their names mean “human” and “life” respectively) opt to not trust God. Cain murders his brother. Moses murders an Egyptian and is rejected by his own people. Adam, Eve, Cain, and Moses wind up in the wilderness because of their own sin. 

Sometimes we wind up in the wilderness due to other people’s sins. Abraham and Sarah abuse Hagar; she finds herself dying in the wilderness with her son. (Hagar means “immigrant.”)

Distorted expectations. If we eat the fruit, we’ll be wise. If I kill my brother, God will accept my sacrifice. If I get rid of my husband’s other wife, I’ll feel vindicated. If I kill my adopted brother Egyptian, I will bring justice to my blood brother Israelite.

Sometimes God leads people into the wilderness – the exodus, the Messiah, Messiah’s followers in the book of Acts. There their mettle is tested. Israel failed. Jesus did not. When God leads us into a wilderness, it is always for our benefit. It is always motivated by love. The dark nights of the soul are excruciating, but we emerge from them more closely conformed to Christ, which is another way of saying more living into our true selves. 

Whether the biblical characters wind up in the wilderness because of their own sinfulness, or the sinfulness of others, or because God lead them there, there is always grace in the wilderness.

The promise of a redeemer who will crush the serpent’s head, a mark to protect Cain, a well to save Hagar and Ishmael’s lives, Moses finds a wife and a family in the wilderness. The nation is protected with pillars of cloud to shield the hot sun, pillars of fire to light up and warm the night, water from a rock, and manna from the sky. Angels minister to Jesus. Paul and Silas sing in prison. No matter how we get there, whether it’s our fault or someone else’s, even if God lead us there, there is always grace in the wilderness.

It’s painful in the wilderness. Wildernesses are places of confusion, heartache, psychic pain. We are discomfited and out of sorts. We question everything. We wonder if we’ll survive. But then, God.

I don’t know that God has ever put me in the wilderness. (I doubt I’m that important.) I do know that I’ve put myself there by disobeying and not trusting God. Long seasons of severe depression, crippling anxiety, crises of faith, existential angst, confusion, loss of relationships, estrangement, and rejection resulted. But God near left me. God is faithful when we are unfaithful.

God always provides what we need in the wilderness and eventually takes us safely through the wilderness. Our inevitable destination is a garden.

How you got in the wilderness is not as important as recognizing that God is in the wilderness with you. God will never leave or forsake you. God will never give up on you.