Never give up to the desert or to any of its minions! Never cease to fight! You must fight to live–an’ so make that fight equally for your mind an’ your souls!”
–Zane Grey (Wanderer of the Wasteland)
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
–2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
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Beware as you travel in the wilderness of nature’s traps. There may be sinkholes and other hidden obstacles. Watch your step as you could stumble and fall into a pit. Maybe it has already happened to you as it did to Pilgrim when he fell into the Slough of Despond. When one is not paying attention to their steps or when one gives over to the dark days of depression, not caring if you survive, much less go on, is a terrible pit to fall into. Perhaps there have been friends or family who have turned on you–often that is a hard pit to crawl out of, so you just decide to lay there, accepting your situation, and rot. You may have tried, but not, finding yourself in the wilderness, you are in shock. Your shoulders start to droop, your head bows, and you struggle to stand as your knees begin to falter. You have fallen into a deep, dark pit of despair.
The pit where you find yourself might not be real as in the case of Joseph, but it is just as deep as dark as his. Imagine him sitting in the darkness. What were his thoughts? I’m sure they rambled all over the place. Surely the question, “Why” came to his mind. Perhaps, “Will my brothers really kill me?” Imagine the despair and thinking of the hate his brothers had for him. “How could they be so cruel?” might be another question. His mind must certainly have been in a whirl, sitting in that dark pit–a pit of despair.
It would not be Joseph’s only venture in the wilderness. He found himself in other various pits during his life. His wilderness wastelands varied, but they continued throughout his life. Perhaps, even while second in power as vizier of Egypt where he lived in luxury, he may have wondered in the wilderness of thoughts–“Why, why, why?” But he did not live in despair even in the piit. He proclaimed that God meant it for good while others meant it for evil.
The key to Joseph’s survival is threefold: he learned to understand the wilderness, he never forgot to serve the Lord, and he knew that the Lord had a special purpose for his life. He understood that he would have to survive the physical ordeal, the mental anguish, and the spiritual low. Mentally and spiritually he would have to fight. He understood that he must keep his mind active, that he must continue to worship the One that would never leave him alone in the dark pit, or the prison cell, or the despair of the dungeon. He may not understand the “why” of the circumstances, but he never let an experience defeat him. In his situation he continued to serve, not only God, but his fellow man, and I am sure he was in constant prayer.
Take a minute to consider Reuben. Yes, there was a bit of heroism, though not much, when he stopped the brothers from killing Joseph, and he even had thoughts of rescue. We read in Genesis, “And Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him’–that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.” (37:22, NKJV) He was the oldest, why didn’t he stop them and put an end to their vindictiveness? Was he afraid? Had fear thrust him into his own special wilderness? Imagine his thoughts for the next several decades; he surely had those continual, nagging questions: “Why didn’t I stop them?”, “Where is Joseph?”, “Did he die; is he a slave somewhere?” Reuben must have been tortured in his mind. He faced the torment of a wasteland that could have destroyed a lesser man. How did he survive? Was there always the hope hidden somewhere that he might see Joseph again; did he think of the dream Joseph shared with his brothers, or had that hope gone as well? Even though robust, someone who had the look of a man who controlled his problems, he was actually a man with a hollow soul.
Joseph moved from pit to pit, but God was always faithful. Even in the midst of the deepest pit, Joseph always realized that he was never alone. He let God deal with the situations that were beyond himself. When his family, years later, came to Egypt facing a wilderness of famine, he was able to save them. And God, being merciful, allowed Reuben to see his brother that he allowed to be thrown into the pit, and was brought out of his peculiar wilderness and allowed to hope again.
(taken from Trails in the Wilderness)