What comes to mind when you
think of the wilderness? Is it a place
where you find lions, tigers and bears?
Or perhaps it is a dense forest, surrounded by trees. If you live in Arizona, the wilderness may be
the open dessert or in Florida the wilderness is swampy bogs populated by alligators.
In
Hebrew, the word wilderness (midhbar)
represents a desolate region suitable for pasturing sheep and
cattle ( Psalms 65:12 ; Isaiah 42:11 ; Jeremiah 23:10 ; Joel 1:19 ; 2:22 ); The
word itself comes from the Hebrew root ד-ב-ר, dhbar, which means, “to
speak”. Put together, the Hebrew
word for wilderness would mean the place where God speaks to His sheep. In the Bible, the wilderness was often the
place where God spoke to His prophets.
Moses encountered the burning
bush of God’s presence in the Sinai wilderness.
It was here Moses received God’s instructions to deliver the Hebrew
people from their slavery in Egypt.
Moses would ultimately lead the Hebrew people from Egypt into the
wilderness, where at Mount Sinai Moses would spend 40 days and nights,
receiving God’s Law. God would lead
Israel in the wilderness for 40-years before arriving safely to the Promised
Land. The people would hunger for food
and thirst for water like sheep in the wilderness. It would be shepherds grazing their sheep in
the wilderness, who would hear of the Messiahs birth from God’s messengers, a
herald of angels .
It is no surprise God’s
messenger who would proceed the Messiah would come out from the wilderness in
the Spirit of the great prophet Elijah.
God was speaking to the sheep through John the Baptist. John, the cousin of Jesus was obedient to God
and labored to prepare a way for the Messiah, the spotless lamb of God.
Christ’s baptism is one of the
earliest accounts we have of Jesus identifying Himself with His sheep. For Jesus to qualify as our redeemer, it
wasn’t enough for Him to just go to the cross of calvary and suffer death. If this was the case, there was no reason for
Jesus to be born and live as a human. Jesus
had to identify himself with sinful humans and He had to identify with John’s
Baptism.
For there in the wilderness,
God spoke to His son for all to hear.
“And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am
well pleased.” In the wilderness, God
speaks to His sheep.
After God speaks to His son,
the Holy Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness. When God commissions His people to a specific
task, a period of testing usually follows.”
We can trace this early theme of testing in the wilderness all the way
back to Eden. After God instructs Adam
to His role as overseer of creation, God proceeded to place two trees in the
Garden of Eden, both of which were forbidden to Adam and his helper Eve. God provided for his image bearers everything
they needed to survive. They could eat
from any tree in the garden, except these two trees. God’s test of their obedience as we know resulted
in devastating consequences. After
obeying the Serpent rather than God and partaking of the tree of knowledge of
Good and Evil, Adam and Eve suffered the consequences of their sin. They were thrown from their garden paradise into
the wild and dangerous wilderness. They
no longer enjoyed perfect fellowship with God. God in his grace and mercy did
not banish them without first giving them animal hides to clover their sin and
offering a message of hope. Genesis
3:15, God curses the Serpent and Mankind, to the Serpent God says, “I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel”. We know Adam understood this message of hope,
when a bit later in v20 he names his wife, Eve, which “because she was the
mother of all living”.
Adam, the first man, was in a
lush and fruitful garden when he was tempted by Satan. He failed the test,
plunging all of humanity into sin and death (see Romans 5:12). In
contrast, Jesus, the Second Adam, was
tempted in a dry and barren wilderness. The
temptation of Jesus by Satan was no accidental encounter. Satan would have been familiar with the
prophecies about the suffering servant who had to come and die to save God’s
people from their sins. Jesus was in
the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts, who no doubt these beasts were at
Satan’s bidding. So what does Satan tempt Jesus with? Things that would make him comfortable and
powerful at a time of His physical weakness.
Matthew’s account provides us
a picture of Satan’s attempts to keep Jesus from suffering. He begins by tempting his physical
needs. Are you hungry Jesus? Well turn these stones into bread. Well, that didn’t work. How about giving the people a demonstration
of your power and identify right now.
Jump off the temple in Jerusalem and come out of it unharmed. Jesus declined Satan’s offer again,
preferring obedience to God’s Word. Then
Satan offers Jesus a short cut, skipping His journey to the cross entirely, by
exchanging His love for the Father in exchange for worship of Satan. Finally, Jesus had enough and banishes Satan
by using God’s Word against him.
Jesus is able to be among the wild beasts without harmful
consequence, because he had the presence of the Holy Spirit. This idea may seem
small to us but this is what Isaiah prophesied about his coming.
Behold, 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. The 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, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my
praise.” (Isaiah 43:16–21 ESV)
Throughout his wilderness
testing, Jesus is showing himself to be the Beloved Son whom the Father
loves. Jesus succeeds against Satan
because he obeys God’s Word. Jesus hears
the Word of God speaking in the wilderness, because he knows God’s Word, for He
is God’s Word. The Apostle John begins
his gospel this way, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God.” Jesus is the son of God who came to crush the head of the
Serpent.
It’s important to understand
that God does not tempt anyone to sin (James 1:13). But
He does allow us to be tested and evaluated (Hebrews 11:17–19; 2
Corinthians 13:5; James 1:12; Psalm 17:3; 139:23; Malachi 3:3). God
tested our Savior’s character through adversity in the wilderness, and He
applies the same initiative in our lives today.
Through trials and
temptations, we grow in faith and understanding of our mission as servants of
His kingdom (Deuteronomy
13:3; 2
Chronicles 32:31; James 1:3; 1 Peter 1:6–7).
Jesus not only came to earth
to die for us; Jesus also came to live for us.
His death on the cross is meaningless without his perfect
obedience. If you are feeling trapped in
the wilderness and perhaps feel there is no way to escape the wild beasts
tempting you, turn to the Word of God.
Your obedience to God’s Word does glorify Him, but your obedience alone
won’t secure your salvation. Only the
perfect obedience of Christ can do that.
Let the Word of God speak to you in the wilderness of your life.