Jesus went into the wilderness to pray10/31/2022 ![]() ![]() Yet the desert was also a place to experience God. There was real risk of death by thirst, hunger or predatory animals. Like the pre-creation waters of Genesis 1:2, desert was a place of chaos and danger in their imaginations. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land.” (Genesis 2:4-5 CEV). Remember the barren land that served as the ground of creation in Genesis 2: “When the LORD God made the heavens and the earth, no grass or plants were growing anywhere. Wilderness in this context is a desert, rather than the forests we might imagine today, and had particular connotations for the ancient Israelites. God liberated the Israelites from slavery, leading them out of Egypt and into a barren wilderness. Moses did so, and the water became fit to drink” (Exodus 15:22-25 CEV). The people complained and said, “Moses, what are we going to drink?” Moses asked the LORD for help, and the LORD told him to throw a piece of wood into the water. They did find water at Marah, but it was bitter, which is how that place got its name. ![]() “After the Israelites left the Red Sea, Moses led them through the Shur Desert for three days, before finding water. These themes emerge again in Jesus’ journey into the wilderness, tying his identity to that of his Hebrew ancestors. Through the experiences of the Israelites in exile, we learn that while the Biblical wilderness is a place of danger, temptation and chaos, it is also a place for solitude, nourishment, and revelation from God. The wilderness of the Bible is a liminal space-an in-between place where ordinary life is suspended, identity shifts, and new possibilities emerge. Jesus performed much of his ministry in urban settings, yet many of his most transformative moments occurred in outdoor settings-bodies of water, mountaintops, and wilderness. ![]()
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