Joy an’ happiness, whatever makes life worth livin’, is in you. No man can go forth to find what he hasn’t got within him.”
–Zane Grey (Wanderer of the Wasteland)
“The LORD came down on top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain.”
–Exodus 19:20 (NLT)
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As you read this you may be recalling some trip you made into the wilderness. Perhaps you are currently going through that wasteland experience. What is it that forced you into the wilderness? There may be many reasons: you were forced there by others or by circumstances, you are running away and found yourself there as a means of escape, it was an accident that brought you into the wilderness and you may have entered in desperation, to die. Yet few would ever recognize that they have been placed there by God. There is something to learn, to gain from this special time. There is the opportunity to come closer to the Lord, to know Him better and in a more intimate way.
The woman Hagar fled to the wilderness to die. She was running from the hateful treatment by Abraham’s wife, Sarah. She was giving herself up to die along with her unborn son when God found her. Isn’t it ironic that the name of Ishmael means “God hears”? He heard the moans of Hagar in that desert wilderness, spoke to her, and brought her comfort.
Sometime later we see that Abraham has thrust Hagar, and her now young boy, into that same wilderness. The wasteland was before her, and surely Abraham knew that he didn’t give them enough food and water to survive, for Abraham was a man of the wilderness. This time Hagar enters the wilderness because she was forced there by another person. Pushed out and probably given up to eventually die out there. A master and a father was the tool used to send them away. Abraham could not, or would not, stand up to Sarah’s jealousy, so he pushed the seeming intruders into the vast wasteland–to die.
However, the boy did not die, nor did his mother. In fact, it seems that the boy adjusted well to the wilderness. He did not try to leave, and eventually he married. Have you ever thought much about Ishmael and Hagar after they left the tents of Abraham? Did they serve God? Did Abraham give them enough of a foundation to find and serve God? They may have, especially since God appeared to Hagar and saved them. How many people are mentioned in the holy writ to have actually seen God? Hagar and Ishmael must have been people special to God and part of His larger plan. It makes a person wonder, what would the world be like if Hagar and Ishmael had stayed in the tents of Abraham? Or if they had died in that wasteland? This is surely a mystery; there must be something in the overall plan of God that is hidden. After walking in the wastelands and seeing the wilderness, what would or should Ishmael have learned? In pondering that, there is one thing for certain; he would learn to survive. The other thing is that he would be able to handle the solitude that was there.
Imagine the thoughts that must flow through the minds of those who find themselves evicted into the wilderness by their father, or other person. What is it that they must learn? Will they find God, or will they be like Ishmael and only learn how to survive, but not depend upon God? Those of you in this situation need to recognize that God is listening for you to cry out to Him. He has allowed you an opportunity to come to a greater knowledge of Him. Don’t get bitter because the place you are–that wilderness, but call out to the Lord, He is waiting. Don’t struggle just to survive, but seek Him.
(taken from Trails in the Wilderness)