And at GodвЂ™s appointed time, He delivered His people with mighty hand and great miracles from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 1вЂ“12). He is in the midst of your wilderness.God had promised Abraham that his descendants would return to Canaan вЂњin the fourth generationвЂќ (Genesis 15:16). No matter how isolated you may feel today, God wants to come into your midbar вЂ“ desert, be near you, and medaber вЂ“ speak to you. Jesus chose the wilderness, because he knew that, while being alone and tempted, there was strength and authority to be gained by being alone with His Father. Thanks to Scripture we know for a fact that in the desert is where the presence of God is most prevalent. Or like Elijah, we are simply burnt out.ДЄlthough in hardship we want to avoid the discomfort of the desert, it is an invitation to an encounter. Maybe like Moses, we feel overwhelmed with our responsibilities. Like Abraham, we are not sure where to go or what to do. Maybe like David we canвЂ™t seem to escape our problems. We all face things in our lives that feel like the wilderness. He wrote dozens of poems and songs, pouring out his heart. But it was in that wilderness, where he experienced closeness and intimacy with the Lord. He was hiding in caves and you could say he was in a very low place in his life. Young David was running through the desert when he was trying to flee from King Saul. It was in the desert where Jesus was baptized, and God announced to the whole world that He loved His Son!

It was their quality time, when He was not being pulled in every direction by those, who needed His help. Jesus with His disciples often chose the wilderness for rest and to teach His friends. The negative approach to the wilderness is challenged even in the Gospels. But what if we asked God when is the right time to move on? Is He trying to tell us something? The wilderness makes us feel isolated, so we do what we can to escape it. We donвЂ™t like when life is hard, and barren, and dry. Even as followers of Jesus, we try to avoid the desert. In our Western cultures, we are very used to our comforts. God wanted to speak with them, and what better place for an important meeting than the one where there are no distractions. Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Elijah вЂ“ none of them were in the wilderness by accident. He went there on purpose, because He wanted to hear from God. Jesus didnвЂ™t wander into the desert by accident. Jesus came to the midbar вЂ“ the desert, so that God could medaber вЂ“ speak to him! He was in the desert so that God could speak with him. The wilderness of the Judean hills is where the Holy Spirit sent Jesus before the start of his public ministry. Coincidentally, this is also how you spell another Hebrew word, MEDABER вЂ“ to speak. Because there are no vowels in Hebrew, the letters that spell it out are M-D-B-R. The Hebrew word for the desert is MIDBAR. Many seemingly different words can actually be connected in Hebrew, because they have a common root вЂ“ three core letters.

We can sometimes lose the complex meaning of a word, if we only look at its translation. The Hebrew language, which a big portion of the Bible was written in, carries so much depth. In the wilderness God was present, and in the desert, He made Himself known. He became known as the Voice Calling in the Wilderness.Д®ach of these stories is filled with miracles. It was in the desert when God spoke to John the Baptist, who spent most of his life in these rough conditions. God brought the Israelites into the wilderness, because He wanted to speak to them at Mount Sinai. God spoke to Abraham while he was in the wilderness. If you are in the middle of a desert season, youвЂ™re actually not alone. God had used the desert and the wilderness to speak with His people. Our heart and mind feel burnt out, everything seems lifeless and even taking a single step seems to require an extreme amount of effort.ДЄnd yet, the desert is not presented as a hopeless place in the Bible. When our life hits the вЂњ desertвЂќ, it is very hard to recoup. We avoid the uncomfortable in life, because we think have very legitimate reasons for doing so. And not just any journey вЂ“ He took them into the wilderness for 40 years.ДЄnd as they wandered through the desert, God revealed Himself to them more than ever before. When God freed His people from slavery in Egypt, He didnвЂ™t bring them straight into the Promised Land. Bible Teachings on Israel Israel in the Wilderness with God

Lord into the wilderness