Receiving a Word in the Wilderness
One of the gifts of a wilderness experience is that it can cause us to slow down and recognize when the Lord may be speaking to us. The word wilderness or desert in Hebrew is the word Midbar. It comes from the root word in Hebrew Davar which means ‘word’ or ‘to speak’. There’s a connection between these two words because it is often in the wilderness when we receive our instructions from the Lord.
As I write this I’m reminded of Moses who fled from Egypt after killing an Egyptian and spent forty years in the wilderness caring for sheep. While he was near the slopes of Mount Horeb he spotted a burning bush. (Exodus 3)
It was not unusual for a bush to be burning in the wilderness due to the high intensity of heat. What made this occurrence different was that the bush didn’t burn up. So Moses turned aside to see why this bush didn’t burn up and he suddenly heard the voice of the Lord in the midst of the bush. What happened afterward changed the trajectory of his life and gave him a divine mission. God called him to go back to Egypt where he lived during the first forty years of his life and rescue God’s people that were being oppressed in slavery.
After ushering the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness, again he met with God on Mount Horeb (which is referred to as Mount Sinai in this passage), and the Lord gave Moses his instructions for all of the people on how they ought to live as they enter into covenant with God. Horeb interestingly means ‘wasteland’ or ‘desert’ so Moses speaks with God in the middle of a wasteland.
Much later in the scriptures, we read in 1 Kings 19 that Elijah ran into the Wilderness to flee the wrath of the wicked queen Jezebel after he killed the false prophets of Baal. After he spent a day in misery he made a forty-day journey to Mount Horeb. Why do you think he journeyed to Mount Horeb?
He expected God would speak to him there just as he had spoken to his servant Moses.
He spent the night in a cave and the Lord came to him in a whisper and instructed him to anoint Jehu as king over Israel and Elisha as a prophet to bring justice to Israel. He also corrected Elijah’s belief that he was the only prophet who had not bowed to Baal.
Moses and Elijah weren’t the only ones who received a word in the wilderness. Hagar fled into the wilderness after Sarai mistreated her. The Angel of the Lord met with her beside a spring of water and gave her instructions to return to Abram and Sarai along with a promise from God to make her descendants more numerous than can be counted.
John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul all spent time in the desert prior to their ministries. I have no doubt that they each received directive words from God in their wilderness of preparation.
To recognize the Lord’s voice in our wilderness we have to slow down, press in, and pay attention. Often in the dryness and uncertainty of the wilderness, we spend more time in solitude seeking after the Lord, studying his word, and listening for his voice. The wilderness, if we let it, postures us to receive a word from God and prepares us for the instruction he’s waiting to give us. We have to come to a place where we are no longer trying to get out of the wilderness prematurely but we recognize the gift that God is giving us in it. Sometimes God will speak to us in something as out of the ordinary as a burning bush or he might speak to us in a whisper. His message to us doesn’t always come the way we expect.
How has God spoken to you in the wilderness? If you haven’t received a word in the wilderness yet how can you posture your heart to be open to the living God speaking to you in this season?
