Exploring Biblical Wilderness Events and Stories

WILDERNESS WEEK III

GENESIS 2:5-9 5When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,6and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground 7then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.8And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.9And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

GENESIS 3:22-24 22Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever 23therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.24He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

GENESIS 16:5-9 5And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me! 6But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. 7The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.8And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai. 9The angel of the LORD said to her, Return to your mistress and submit to her.

GENESIS 37:21-24 21But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life. 22And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.24And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

EXODUS 3:1-6 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.2And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.3And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. 4When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here I am. 5Then he said, Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 6And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

EXODUS 16:1-2 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.2And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness...

ISAIAH 43:18-21 18 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

MATTHEW 3:1-3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.

MATTHEW 4:1-2 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

REVELATION 12:1-6 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

REVELATION 22:14-15 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? The wilderness can only be compared to the holy dwelling in the garden, in the temple, in the church, or in the paradise that is to come. The wilderness is anywhere where God and his work are not easily visible. The wilderness becomes the place of testing and trials because the dangers and temptations of the world are present in abundance. Yet, for those who hold firm to faith in God, the wilderness can become the place of great deliverance. Since the wilderness is baren, God s actions are magnified and become undeniable. Thus, the Christian life is like the path of the Israelites and Jesus. We must walk through the wilderness of this world that God may eventually bring us into the promised land.