Posted by PS on June 26, 2001 at 13:15:34:
In Reply to: Re: Way Marks posted by john on June 26, 2001 at 07:30:56:
: Also as a corollary, we often speak of "wilderness experiences" Well, I think that MORE often we have sent ourselves into the desert rather than actually experiencing a time where God hides his face.
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A few thoughts on this subject (almost as if I had thought about it before or something)...
The desert and the wilderness are not always synonymous. We use "desert" to represent a dry, barren, or famished state, and many "Christians" use it to represent separation from God's nourishment, etc. But the biblical examples of wilderness experiences often do not follow this pattern. Just because biblical wilderness experiences happened in the geographical desert, it does not follow that our current concept of spiritual desert is the biblical concept of a wilderness experience.
Let's define the correct context of the "wilderness experience" according to the biblical concepts, and then we can consider the whole issue in a productive way. Perhaps you would agree that we incorrectly refer to many types of situations as wilderness experiences. Here are two examples...
ERROR 1:
Are we confusing Sodom and Babylon (the embracing of sin or error) with the wilderness? Babylon the rich and magnificent (as used in scriptural metaphors) is not the wilderness. In fact, Babylon and Egypt are sometimes used to symbolize the same thing--the riches of iniquity. It is very true that choosing to embrace iniquity will separate us from God (and perhaps that could be construed by some as a sort of spiritual desert state). However, this is altogether different than a wilderness experience.
ERROR 2:
Are we confusing the exile (God's chastening) with the wilderness? When the children of Israel were taken captive by Babylon, Babylon was used of God for discipline of His rebellious people. This does not make Babylon the wilderness; the Israelites were imprisoned by a glorious empire with huge cities. (The spiritual desert idea doesn't even work here, as repentance and revival were happening; the desert would have been back in the land of Israel before the captivity.) It is very true that God chastens his own when they sin. However, this is also altogether different than a wilderness experience.
Now let's really consider the wilderness, considering two of the biblical accounts that we base these concepts on (that we SHOULD base them on)...
SCENARIO 1:
Who led the children of Israel from Egypt into the wilderness?
Why were they going into the wilderness? Did they know?
Were they going somewhere predefined? Was it according to God's plan?
Was the Presence of God in the wilderness?
Did God hide Himself? Did He hide His power?
Did He hide His glory? Or was it here that God revealed his glory to Moses?
We tend to think of the "wilderness experience" as the time AFTER God's judgment (that the Israelites should remain in the desert until the faithless generation passed away). Is this a right concept or not? Didn't the wilderness experience start out differently? Wasn't there a wrong response to the wilderness experience that changed the course of it? Didn't rebellion turn a wilderness blessing into a wilderness judgment?
Now consider a very different kind of biblical wilderness experience, one which we have long used to define the nature of such. (I have probably spoken more of this kind of "wilderness experience" to you all in the past.)
SCENARIO 2:
Did Moses go into the wilderness for 40 years (A) because God wanted to do a work in his life,
or did he go into the wilderness (B) because he killed the Egyptian?
(Correct answer: YES)
Would Moses have killed the Egyptian if God had not revealed to him that by his (Moses') hand God would deliver Israel?
Did God know Moses would react that way?
Was Moses really "set-up"?
Did Moses need to react to God's "set-up" completely out of character to escape the wilderness?
Could Moses have reacted so out of character?
Could God expect him to?
Could Moses have avoided the wilderness at all?
Should he have tried to avoid it?
What would have been the result?
Ironically, what Moses did try to avoid was LEAVING the wilderness 40 years later. This brings up more questions about our concept of how we get OUT of the wilderness...
If we indeed choose to send ourselves to the wilderness (as was suggested as a possibility), then do we come out when we choose to come out; that is, when we find our "victory"? (a familiar teaching)
Or do we come out when we are comfortable in the wilderness, or at least resigned to it?
Or do we come out when we are finally so comfortable (or defeated and demoralized) that we don't want to come out at all?
Do we come out when we have regained our faith in God's presence and plan?
Or do we come out when we have lost it altogether?
Did Moses have to "choose" to leave the wilderness before God brought him out, or was Moses in fact brought out against his wishes, when he would have preferred to just STAY in that place?
Did Moses find the "victory" and learn to trust God's plan before God brought him out, or was he brought out having abandoned God's revelation to him, in unbelief in God's ability to use him?
I'm not asking for answers, of course, just trying to provoke new thought--an ongoing re-evaluation of this concept we do not think about in correct context most of the time. This requires shooting down preconceived ideas first. There are no blanket answers here that we can use to predict God's working, nor methods to avoid the wilderness. (I'm not sure I would want to do either.) But we can think and marvel within the context of what God has done before. Is there really any greater wisdom we can apprehend?
Next consider Elijah...
;-)