It [the wilderness] was no place for a fellow who didn’t have a lot of sand in his craw and a boundless store of hope in his heart.”
–Ernest Haycox (A Rider of the High Mesa)
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
–Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)
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Progress marches on, so they say. Sometimes it is for the good, but often it is greed, selfishness, and vanity that pushes it forward. I am often reminded of the verse in Romans, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (8:22, NIV). There is a new house coming in where we live. Now I don’t begrudge folks wanting to live out here where we are, but I hate to see the forest being torn down. What was it John Denver sang? “More people, more scars upon the land.” Sigh. Progress??
With that being said, my mind goes back to the pristine forests of yesteryear. The wilderness. If you have found yourself in a wilderness, no matter what type, stop and look around. Take a moment and see. What is there? Is it fearful or oppressive? If you are truly in the creation of God’s making know and realize that you are standing in the Great Cathedral of His voice. Standing there, gazing around, remember, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24, NKJV). Perhaps that is one of the things to learn why you are in this particular experience–learn to worship God for Who He is, not what He does, or where you might think He resides.
Yet even knowing that this is God’s place, the terribleness may be seen. There is a vastness in its solitude; traveling through it can cause fear to deepen and even overwhelm you. Gaze into the immense canyons and gorges, stare into the heat waves as they float above the desert floor, behold the awesome wonder of the majestic peaks as they push through the clouds, and even take time to look out over the vast, seemingly endless plains. The dreadful, majestic power of nature looms over you as you traverse through it. And still–God is transcendent over His creation.
The wilderness may suggest danger, it may also beckon you to come to it. Moses requested of Pharaoh that the Israelites be allowed to enter so they could offer sacrifices to God. There is more truth here than what is seemingly on the surface. Cannot one worship God anywhere? Isn’t it more comfortable in a nice building? The issue is that the wilderness demands attentiveness, focus, and sacrifice. It demands diligence and solitariness, endurance and fulfillment. To enter the wasteland of the wilderness may be to die to self so that you may live unto God. Maybe that is the allusion that Paul leaves in Romans 12:1-2, to become, now, a living sacrifice.
I have pondered many times why the Israelites had to go to the wilderness to meet with God and offer sacrifices to Him there. Could they have not done this in the safety of Egypt? Maybe it was because they could not properly meet with God in that location. Possibly the atmosphere “of the world” would be a great hindrance to them; that part of worship required them to come apart and be separate. In Scripture, Egypt often represents “sin” or “the world”; it was a place of bondage and oppression. Is there part of the world involved when you try to worship?
One more thought this morning–their leader was a man of the wilderness. Moses knew life there. He knew what it was to meet God in the wasteland, the desert, and the rocky crags of the mountains. Could it possibly be that to really come to know God a person must face the same perils as the wanderers of the wilderness? Perhaps God has now placed you in the wilderness to understand what worship truly entails.”