American Wilderness
In 1964, in a nearly unanimous vote, the United States Congress enacted legislation to protect American wilderness.[1] The Wilderness Act was put into place to secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness. The United States was the first country in the world to define and designate wilderness areas through law. Through it more than 105 million acres of wilderness have been preserved so that people can hike it, hunt in it, take pictures in it, stargaze in it. Wilderness also provides clean water and air and places to see wildlife in a natural setting. It seems that we need and love wilderness.
A couple of years ago I spoke at a church leader’s retreat in Maine. One of those who attended lived “off the grid” in the wilderness. He and his wife had a small mobile home. They used a gas generator to power it. They had no cell phones. They had no TV. It was parked in a remote spot accessible only by rugged four wheel drive vehicles. He worked with a small church in a nearby town.
To supplement his income he ran a unique business. People would pay to spend two weeks with him each summer in the wilderness of the northeast. No tents. No sleeping bags. Just the boots and clothes they wore in on the hike. And he would teach them how to survive for two weeks in the wilderness. The crazy thing is that each summer he found enough people to keep the business afloat. People wanted that time in the wilderness.
Jack London was born in California.[2] He grew up in poverty, studying by himself to gain entrance to UC Berkeley, but then unable to afford the university, he worked a wide variety of blue collar and odd jobs. When the gold rush hit in the Klondike, he travelled north and endured the brutal conditions of the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness. These experiences gave rise to many of his famous books, including Call of the Wild. He once said of his time in the Klondike…
It was in the Klondike that I found myself. There, nobody talks. Everybody thinks. You get your perspective. I got mine. Jack London
There’s something about wilderness. Something about being in the remote place, the place cut off from civilization that shapes us, forms us, reforms us.
Biblical Wilderness
Wilderness plays an important role in Scripture as well. The words “wilderness” or “desert” are important in both the Old and New Testaments:
| “Wilderness”/ “Desert” in the Bible[3] |
| Land that is sparsely inhabited or unfit for permanent settlement. |
| It may be desert, mountains, forest, or marsh. |
| In the Ancient Near East the wilderness was dry, desolate, and mostly rock and sand. |
| The wilderness is not completely barren but provides seasonal pasture for flocks, depending on the rains. |
Individuals and groups had formative experiences in the wilderness. Here are a few of them:
| Selected Wilderness Experiences in the Bible |
| Twice Hagar fled to the wilderness where God saw her and cared for her (Gen. 16:7; 21:14) |
| Moses was a shepherd in the wilderness near Horeb where God called to him out of the burning bush (Exod. 3:1) |
| The wilderness between Egypt and Canaan is where the Israelites wandered for forty years (e.g., Ps. 78:52–54; Amos 2:10; Acts 7:36; 13:18; Heb. 3:17). In spite of dangers, the wilderness was a place of God’s presence: the Israelites were to sacrifice to God in the wilderness (Exod. 3:18; 5:1), the mountain of God was in the wilderness (4:27; 18:5), and there God remained with them forty years (Deut. 1:31; 2:7; 8:2–5). |
| David received valuable training both in trusting the Lord and in battle skills while he kept sheep in the wilderness (1 Sam. 17:28, 34–37) |
| John the Baptist made his home and prepared the way of the Lord in the wilderness (Luke 1:80; cf. Matt. 3:1) |
| Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days (cf. Lk 4:1, 2; Mk 1:13). It was there he withdrew to pray (Luke 5:16). |
The wilderness was a place of divine encounter. A place of divine provision. A place of spiritual formation.
David’s Wilderness
And it plays a critical role in the early life of David. From 1 Sam. 23 through 1 Sam. 26, the word “wilderness” is used 15 times to describe the space where David is living his life. David, fleeing Saul, winds up in the wilderness. The wilderness has become his home.
The word for wilderness here is the Hebrew word midbar. It can simply mean “that which is desolate and deserted” or “that which is beyond.”[4] It’s that place which is beyond civilization. That spot beyond the noise. That location beyond the busyness and the normal pace of life.
Let’s listen to three texts from this season in David’s life:
14 And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. 15 David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. 16 And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. 17 And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.” 18 And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. (1 Sam. 23:14-18 ESV)
Notice how the wilderness is a place where David experiences God’s care and compassion. God keeps Saul away from him. And God sends Jonathan to him, to encourage him.
Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. 25 And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. 26 Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, 27 a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” 28 So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. 29 And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi. (1 Sam. 23:24-29 ESV)
Once again, the wilderness becomes a place of divine provision. God enables David to escape Saul. They call that place in the wilderness Rock of Escape because of the way God enables them to escape Saul.
24 When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats’ Rocks. 3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4 And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.” 7 So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. (1 Sam. 24:1-7 ESV)
Here the wilderness becomes a place of formation. God puts Saul into David’s hand and then gives him the chance to harm or kill Saul. But David does not harm Saul. In the wilderness David learns humility and patience. David recognizes that Saul is still God’s anointed, literally God’s “messiah.” David learns a new degree of reverence in the wilderness.
Eugene Peterson puts it this way:[5]
The wilderness taught David to see beauty everywhere. The wilderness was David’s school in the preciousness of life; through wilderness-testing David learned to see God in places and things he would never have thought to look previously. The wilderness immersed David in beauties so profound that a cheap revenge was unthinkable…The wilderness exposed David to the presence of God in the most barren piece of rock so that no thing, and certainly no man, could ever be treated with scorn or contempt. The holiness of wilderness had entered David’s soul, and now he saw holiness everywhere, even in Saul. [Eugene Peterson Leap Over a Wall]
In the wilderness David learned holiness, reverence, and how to see God in all things, even in his enemy Saul.
The book of Psalms tell us that David wrote a psalm during this season in the wilderness. It is Psalm 57. The title of this Psalm says that it was written when David fled from Saul, in the cave.
Listen to what David learned, what David experienced of God in the wilderness:
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth! (Ps. 57:1-11 ESV)
Look at all David experienced in the wilderness! Yes, he experienced suffering–people who were like lions. But he also experienced the steadfast love of God! He experienced a love that went all the way to the heavens, a faithfulness that stretched to the clouds. He found in God a refuge. In the wilderness, David learned how to take refuge in God.
We Need Wilderness
A tenth of global wilderness has disappeared in a little over 20 years. If we don’t act soon the rest will go, too, scientists are warning.[6] A study by James Watson and fellow researchers at the University of Queensland, published in Current Biology recently drew attention to the fact that much of the world’s wilderness is disappearing. The study is a reminder of our need for physical wilderness.
David’s story is a reminder of our need for spiritual wilderness. Wilderness, that space beyond the busyness, that place beyond the normal routine of our lives, that spot where we are able to truly be alone with God and experience God’s steadfast love and faithfulness is critical.
We need to protect spiritual wilderness. We may not need to spend days out in the desert or the rugged outback. But we need what wilderness represents. We need that space beyond schedules and noise and tasks. We need to give God room to move around in our hearts and heads.
That may look like taking a long walk at Shelby Farms. It may look like a long time of prayer and reflection in a room with the door shut and the phone off. It may look like a weekend away at a retreat center or a monastery. It may look like kayaking down the Wolf River or biking down the Greenline. We need wilderness, we need what it represents. Because these are the places where God’s people have encountered him in fresh ways. Where they’ve been reoriented.
This week, find what wilderness looks like to you. Find the kind of wilderness that fits into this season of your life. And spend some time there. God does some of his best work in the wilderness.
[1] https://wilderness.nps.gov/wilderness.cfm
[2] https://mctuggle.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/jack-london.jpg
[3] Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 1056). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
[4] Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). In Harper’s Bible dictionary (1st ed., p. 1133). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
[5] Eugene Peterson, Leap Over a Wall, 77-78.
[6] http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/09/world/wilderness-loss/index.html
