EXODUS (Part 4): THE WILDERNESS

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." (Isaiah 35:1).

God wonderfully delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh and his army, and from the bondage that they had known in Egypt. When Israel reached the far side of the Red Sea, they sang out God's praises saying, "I will sing unto the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." (Exodus 15:1).  Rather than being ushered right into the Promised Land, however, Israel found themselves in a barren wilderness where they wandered for 40 more years. God had a very particular purpose in mind when He drew His children into the wilderness, just as He has a purpose for the wilderness in our lives.

There are many examples in the Bible of how God used the wilderness to hone and purify His chosen. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness of Midian before he was ready to return to Egypt and demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites from bondage. (Acts 7:30).  David was forced to flee into the wilderness of Ziph to escape the wrath of Saul. (1 Samuel 23:14).  John the Baptist lived and preached his message of repentance in the wilderness. (Matthew 3:1) Paul, after meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus, retired for some time to Arabia before starting his ministry in earnest. (Galatians 1:17).  Even Jesus, our Lord, was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness after His baptism. (Mark 1:12).

The wilderness is the crucible in which God perfects our faith. It is a place that does not naturally support life. It is a dry, barren place - a place of seeming death, but also a place that is void of distractions. Once we have turned our backs on Egypt (the world), it is the place where God leads us to bring us into maturity. One is completely focused on one's survival in the wilderness. This is the place where we learn to become dependent on God for our very life. Unless we believe in His protection and provision, we will perish here. God told Israel, "And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).  This is the real purpose of the wilderness: that we might learn to walk by faith, and not by sight; and that we place our trust in God's Word above everything else.

God does not expect us each to enter a real desert to achieve our training, but the wilderness that we find ourselves in is just as stark nonetheless. We can find ourselves feeling very isolated and alone at times; but we are being refined by the Master Refiner Himself, and we will discover that He will never leave us or forsake us.

It only took three days in the desert for Israel to encounter the first trial of their faith. They ran out of water and could find none that was drinkable. God, of course, came to their rescue, and turned the bitter waters of Marah into sweet water that they could drink. This was to be just the first of many trials that Israel would encounter in the wilderness. Unfortunately, their experience there proved them to be an unthankful, unholy, and stiff-necked people. As a result, only a few of those who left Egypt were allowed to enter the Promised Land. All of the old men died without entering in, but the young men (their children) were able to pass over Jordan into Canaan. This, then, is an analogy. Unless we die to our old man (the carnal nature that is enticed by sin and worldliness), our new man (the spiritual nature that we receive when we are born again) cannot enter into the Land of Promise. Scripture tells us to, "...put off...the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and...put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:22-24).

God is purifying a people for Himself. This Christianity is a process of being transformed into the image of the Son of God. It doesn't matter how many scriptures I know, how much money I give to charities, or how much time I spend in church. It doesn't matter how holy I appear on the outside to others. What matters to God is if I am allowing the Holy Spirit to change my life. What is important to the Father is if I am learning to exercise faith in this vast ocean of grace that He has provided for me so that I can become holy as He is holy. The key is, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19).  I am only limited by how much of God's promises I am willing to believe.

God spoke through His prophet Ezekial and said, "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekial 20:35-38).  So, it is clear that God has a purpose and a plan for our lives; and that plan includes the wilderness. We will face things in our lives that will try our faith in order to see what is in our hearts. God wants to know if we are serious about serving Him, or not.

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that we have been "accepted in the Beloved." How essential it is for our spiritual well-being to rest secure in the fact that we are accepted in Christ. Our acceptance before God has nothing to do with our works. It is all about what Christ has already done; and so, it is our faith in His ability to transform us that is our victory, not our feeble efforts to be good, or to be different people. This acceptance that we find in Christ is not the ultimate work that God wants to accomplish in the wilderness, though. It goes beyond that. In the Song of Solomon 8:5 it says, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved?" This is the work of the wilderness: when Jesus has truly become our Beloved, and we have learned to lean on Him. This is hard for all of us. We humans are much more comfortable when we are self-reliant and can "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps." Leaning on anyone, let alone One Whom we cannot see, is difficult. We cannot save ourselves, however. Christianity isn't about being forgiven for our sins, and then saying, "I got it from here, Lord." Jesus said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3) Children are totally dependent on their parents, and secure in their love for them. It is easy for them to trust, and to follow. This is how we must become. God will not have the rebellious, the obstinate, or the self-willed in His kingdom. That is why we spend time in the wilderness. "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee." (Deuteronomy 8:5).

Our wilderness experience can be a very long process. Many of us have deep-seated insecurities, wounds, bitter memories, and hurtful experiences that may take time to heal. We may have been hurt and disappointed by ones whom we should have been able to trust in our lives, and this makes it more difficult for us to trust our heavenly Father. God is very capable of wooing us, and healing us, though. Jesus has born our grief, and carried our sorrows. You can roll all of your burdens upon Him. Don't get discouraged if you fall down while learning to walk - we all do - but get back up, and trust God's love and mercy for you. We have had many years to learn self-reliance, don't fret if you don't learn total dependence overnight. This is a life-long process, but it does get easier. When we quit resisting the Spirit, and start yielding to Him, it will go much smoother. Trust Him, Beloved, you can lean on Him.