A Call to the Wilderlands

Will Nielsen

January 22nd, 2006

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. (Mark 6:30-32, ESV)

Introduction

Have you thought about the way God might use the dry and disillusioned times in your life? Would you be surprised to know that those “wilderness” times in the lives of God’s people are often when He reveals most clearly His glory and power to us.

Abraham

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went… (Genesis 12:1-4, ESV)

Here, Abraham is called out of his homeland and into the unknown. God calls him out of certainty and into mystery. Between the Land of Promise and Abraham’s homeland spanned the land of God’s Providence where Abraham would grow in faith and love to YHWH, the Lord. God calls us into the wilderlands to sharpen our sight, for the familiar serves but to blunt our spiritual sense. Indeed, it is in the wilderlands that we may see that joy is in the journey with the one who calls.

Israel In Exile

14 And the word of the Lord came to me: 15 ““Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.’ 16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. ’(Ezekiel 11:14-16 ESV)

In Ezekiel 8, we see God’s Spirit leaving the Temple at Jerusalem. The people had proven unfaithful and defiled God’s name which they bore as His people. Consequently, the Babylonians had sacked Jerusalem and all of Judah carrying off many Israelites to Babylon. Those who were allowed to remain in Jerusalem, feeling that the point of the Promised Land was the soil of Palestine, mocked their captive kinsmen, “Go far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.” However, we find that God’s response is quite the contrary. He has left the glory of the Temple to be with His people in the wilderlands - to be “a sanctuary to them.”

Jesus Identifies with His People in the Wilderlands

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins….9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, ““You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Mark 1:4,9-11 ESV)

Here Jesus comes from Home town to the wilderlands where John was baptizing. God in His fullest Triune expression is identifying with His people. He binds Himself to those who are wandering in the Wilderness of Sin that they would find refuge in Christ the Incarnate Temple of the Father’s fullest presence. Jesus had come down from the glory of the Heavenly Temple to dwell with His People forever.

Where is God in the midst of pain and dismay? Why he is not far at all. For whether we are at home or abroad, as it were, we may know that in whatever circumstance, He would draw nearer still to His people.

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