Life and Love in the Desert

The desert, or wilderness, is very important throughout the Scriptures. In the Old Testament; Moses, the Israelites, David, and Elijah all had wilderness experiences. In the New Testament; John the Baptist preached in the wilderness of Judah, and Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.

The wilderness can be literal or figurative. Joseph’s wilderness of slavery and prison was in a populated area, but a spiritual wilderness for him. Job’s wilderness was the loss of his children and his illness. John was exiled to the island of Patmos.

Many of us have been in our own wilderness, through depression, hardship, imprisonment, losing loved ones, and other difficult circumstances.

The literal wilderness, or desert, is a place where there are no props, no technology, no friends, no or very little vegetation. All deserts, literal and figurative, are places of hardship, trials, and temptations.

There are two ways to get to the wilderness. Rebellion and disobedience. Like the Israelites.
God’s training and preparation. Like Jesus, David, Job, Joseph.

Wilderness: It Can Be A Good Thing!

Regardless of how we get there, it’s a very hard place, but IT’S GOOD FOR US! Hebrews 12:7 encourages us to endure suffering and hardship as discipline, as God teaches us through our circumstances.

As James points out in 1:2-4 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

The wilderness experience is a normal part of the Christian life. It’s a place where God gets our attention. It’s a place where he develops our character and reveals his love for us. It’s a place that can increase our desire for him and our dependence on him, because we have nothing else. It’s a place where he equips us to do his work.

Hosea’s Wilderness

Hosea the prophet lived in a time when Israel, the northern kingdom, had turned away from God. The Lord told him to marry a prostitute as a sign and picture of the unfaithfulness of Israel.

Let’s look at how God dealt with Israel through Hosea’s prophecies.

Among their sins, outlined in chapter 2, was that they didn’t recognize that it was God who gave them blessing after blessing, but they used the blessings of God for Baal, a false god. All of us are guilty of something similar, when we tend to forget about God in the good times, when things seem to be going well for us. But these times are when God often brings about the wilderness experience.

In chapter 2:14, God says this:
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. (literally, “speak to her heart”).

Therefore – it seems like BECAUSE of their unfaithfulness, God will be faithful. He knows we can’t do this on our own. He has a HEART for us. He is jealous for us, wanting us for Himself.

So He takes us to the wilderness, alluring and leading us there, to speak tender words of love to us, to speak to our hearts. Like a man who woos his love, so God gently woos us to return to him.

God then, through Hosea in chapter 2, outlines all of the things He will do for us in that place. He will restore us, give us hope, put a new song in our hearts. Using a bridal paradigm, foreshadowing the “bride of Christ” in the New Testament, he says we will call him not Master, but Husband. He betroths us to him forever, he heals our hearts and speech, and he reveals Himself so that we will know Him.

Our Choices

When you are in the wilderness, expect to receive from him! He wants to use our wilderness experience to change us!

While God works in us during our desert experiences, we still have choices. He doesn’t force us to listen to him and obey him. We have free will. He is alluring us, not forcing us.

David wrote Psalm 63 in the wilderness of Judah. This is a great example for us, as David lives out his experience. The main points:

• Hunger and thirst for God, recognizing our complete and absolute dependence on Him.
• Remember what we have seen and experienced in the past.
• Make a choice to praise and bless his name, to worship. Cling to him, let him carry you.

What God wants: a heart to heart relationship with us. He wants our emotions as well as our minds. Love the Lord your God with all your HEART, all your SOUL, and all your MIGHT!

God’s Feeling For Us

How does God feel about us? In Hosea 11:8 God says, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim?”
(Admah and Zeboiim-cities allied with Sodom and Gomorrah, likely destroyed with them).
My heart churns within Me; My compassion is stirred.

This feels like the term “gut-wrenching”. We have all felt this way at times. A loved one strays from the Lord, or is taken too early from us; a boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband is unfaithful to and leaves; we are under extreme stress or fear.

God is never fearful or stressed, but when His people fall away from Him, His heart churns! That’s the emotion God feels as described here. But he doesn’t write us off or say goodbye, he PURSUES us, has compassion on us, speaks to our hearts, loves us back into his arms if we will listen and give in to his advances.

Jesus in Matthew 23 expresses the same emotions as in Hosea. First, righteous anger at the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. Then compassion, as he laments “how I have longed to gather you under my wings, but you were not willing.”

We need to open our eyes to the depth of love God has for us, his compassion for us, his feelings for us, even in the midst of our sin, maybe even especially in our sin.

Song of Songs 8:5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?

It’s us! By his love, we will come out of the wilderness, out of the desert, resting and relying on Him alone.

Check this video about God’s pursuit of us – Bruxy’s version of the Gospel with chairs