Dangerous and Divine
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region” Psalm 107:4
Dangerous and Divine
Desert Region – For most of us, the idea of wilderness recalls pictures of the Arizona desert or the Sahara or the Northern Territories. We think of wilderness as a place where men cannot live. But what we really mean is that men cannot live in these places the way that we would like to live. This reveals something important about the wilderness, so important that the Biblical wilderness is an essential part of God’s message. The wilderness is the place where men encounter God and, at the same time, it is a place inhabited by demons. It is the place of God’s revelation of the Law and it is the place of great temptation. It is the place of His call and the place of our rejection. In one facet of wilderness theology, it is a place where every one of us lives, right now.
In this verse, the word translated “wilderness” is not the same as the word for “desert region”. The difference may be important. “Wilderness” is midbar but “desert region” is yeshimon. Midbar describes particular places but yeshimon has the nuance of devastation and desolation, sometimes associated with the destruction caused by God’s punishment. Being in deserted places does not always mean desolation and devastation. But in this verse, David captures the full range. Israel was not wandering simply because they lacked a good map. They were wandering because they were experiencing God’s devastation.
You and I often follow the same trek across the empty places of life. It is not the lack of companionship or communication that causes us to agonize in our wilderness. The terror comes from the desolation and devastation that we experience in that place. Faces to the ground, tears without comfort, we begin to see the futility of our lives in our efforts to survive the wilderness. When God withdraws, demons certainly abound.
Men today do everything possible to avoid these places. We fill our lives with the clutter of the city, the pace of exhaustion, the demands of the demons of work and money and time. We avoid silence and solitude, those fearful glimpses at our frail existence. We would rather leave the television on. But God has a purpose for yeshimon. Personal desolation violates our mythical self-sufficiency. The truth is that we are alone, completely alone, without God. Community is not the fabrication of human communication skills. It is the gift of grace. Without Him, the wilderness is terrifyingly true. Terrifying and Truthful.
Let go of your false protection. You will find the wasteland is but one step away. And there you will discover who you really are – and who keeps you. As frightening as it is, this is the first step toward freedom.
