God of the Wilderness

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" Mark 1:2-3

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Mark 1:9

Throughout the Bible, God has always shown up at the most unexpected places. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself at Haran to Jacob and wrestled with him there. When God purposed to free His people from Egypt, He didn’t reveal Himself to Moses in Pharaoh’s palace but rather through a burning bush in the desert.

Likewise, God showed Himself more abundantly through Israel’s wilderness experience than just about any other time in their history. Later, God’s watch-care for Israel in the wilderness, along with His sovereignty in creating the material world, became the prophets’ basis for the trustworthiness of their message.

God also met with Elijah at a wilderness cave and restored the prophet to usefulness. One could continue on for some time recounting all the times God moved in the wilderness.

In the Bible book that bears his name, the Apostle Mark continues this wilderness theme and expands on it by portraying the whole world as a wilderness. Throughout his book, Mark relates the world as a place full of wild men like John the Baptizer, who dressed in a camel’s hair coat and ate locust; rough Galilean fishermen; crazed religious leaders out to kill Jesus; and a whole host of rabble that would be rejected by “polite” company. Mark’s world is full of Satanic forces and wild animals (1.13, 23). Everything in Mark’s world seems to happen with suddenness; he uses the word “immediately” 35 times. God is not content to limit His salvation to a select people along a narrow strip of desert land. He is actively seeking all the people of this desolate, savage world.

Mark throws us right in the middle of this wilderness where we witness John the Baptizer preaching to the people. One gathers from the drama that most of those coming out of Jerusalem to see John came out of curiosity, with expectations of seeing some sort of carnival sideshow/ revival.

Into this swirling mass of drama, Jesus enters the picture. The amazing thing we discover is that Jesus had not been living in Jerusalem but Galilee. This area was considered pagan, as it is the old Samaria. I thank God that Jesus grew up in this area because it makes him more accessible. He knows the struggles of doing manual labor in a carpentry shop, the hardships of barely making it on a laborer’s wages. He grew up in the Galilee province were life wasn’t always “pretty and nice”. He grew up in the wilderness.

Likewise, His family lineage and upbringing hold no barriers that would keep us from Him. He wasn’t a member of the ruling Sanhedrin or counted among the priests or Levitical music ministers at the Temple. I’m thankful for this, because I would feel quite intimidated at the thought of meeting such an important dignitary. I would be afraid that I would say something stupid or show everyone just how uncultured I am. We’re relieved of such pressures when we meet Jesus. And the funny thing is Jesus often had the opposite effect on people: He made the civil and religious leaders that held all the power nervous.

By counting up all these experiences, we see that God displayed His miraculous intervention in the wilderness more frequently than in the Temple. Now I’m not suggesting that we all abandon our church meetings and go find God in the woods. The point here is that God isn’t content to wait until we come to Him for deliverance. He has left his holy habitation of heaven and entered the tabernacle situated in the middle of a dusty wilderness so He can be near us. The Apostle John touches on this when he states Jesus dwelt, literally “tabernacled,” among us –John 1.14. God, not being content to be confined to heaven, a tabernacle, or a temple, left those places to go seek His saints and rescue them in the wilderness, the highway and hedges of this world. God reveals His glory to us by tracking us down during the ordinary events of our lives and rescuing us. He goes out into the desert places to find us and then restores us where we are! What wonderful news this is to those of us who think we’re too far gone or we’re in a place that God would never seek to redeem people!

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Mark 16:8

The oldest manuscripts end Marks Gospel at this verse. By doing so, I believe the original ending poses the main theme of Mark’s gospel to his reader: Who do you say Jesus is? The Apostle’s story now becomes our story. We’ve read all the accounts of what Jesus did and now it’s time for you to make a decision about what you’re going to do with this knowledge. Are you going to stay hidden in the upper room or are you going out into the wilderness of this world and boldly proclaim that Jesus is Lord?

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