The Israelites were a people who knew a little bit about the wilderness – -mentally, spiritually and physically. About dry, arid, uninhabited, uninhabitable, empty, desolate places – they lived it. We often think of their wilderness journey beginning upon their release, but their wilderness journey actually started nearly 430 years before their release. Captivity was the start of their wilderness journey although some would argue they lived a wilderness life starting in the Garden.
We know where this particular wilderness began. The famine in which Joseph metered out the food and seed which eventually saw all of Egypt enslaved to Pharaoh, resulted in the Israelites prospering, flourishing, and growing in number.
Then a new king came to the throne who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He told his people, “These Israelites are becoming a threat to us because there are so many of them…” So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves and put brutal slave drivers over them hoping to wear them down under heavy burdens.” Exodus 1:8-9, 11
Then the tables turned. The Israelites became the enslaved. Eventually God led the Israelites along a route through a wilderness toward the Red Sea.
Physically, they were enslaved to Egypt. They lived in Goshen but under the rule of Pharaoh, a ruthless, brutal, God-denying, god-worshiping “king.” The Israelites were enslaved to Pharaoh and all Egypt under wilderness conditions.
The Egyptians literally lived their lives on the backs of the Israelites. The Israelites were emotionally and mentally defeated. They were crushed, helpless, and their lives depended on their submission to the Egyptians. Living in a constant state of fear and emptiness, the Israelites were living in mental wilderness conditions.
As with any enslaver the goal is to assimilate the enslaved, to break the will and the spirit of the captives. Egypt had many gods and the Israelites were often forced to endorse or even embrace those idols. Furthermore, we know that they were prohibited from fully worshipping the One True God by offering sacrifices. Unable to wholly worship their God alone, the Israelites were living in spiritual wilderness conditions.
This is what the Israelites’ wilderness looked like. What does your wilderness look like? Are you living on the edge of the wilderness?
Are you physically enslaved? Maybe in an un-Godly relationship, a job, a building, a house, finances, children, an ailment, or some other “thing”? Are you living in wilderness conditions?
Are you mentally enslaved? Maybe it’s a mindset, an attitude, an addiction to drugs, alcohol, porn, food, spending, or toxic people? Are you living in wilderness conditions?
Are you spiritually enslaved? Maybe you are embracing idols, far from God, not fully committed, lacking total submission, rejecting the call to offer a living sacrifice? Are you living in wilderness conditions?
Just like the Israelites, our wilderness journey began long before our own enslavement. The wilderness journey of man began about 6,000 years ago in the Garden. When Eve “took some of the fruit and ate it; she also gave some of it to her husband and he ate it” our enslavement to sin began and our journey to the edge of wilderness started. Enslavement to anything (physical, mental, spiritual), anything that holds us captive creates a wilderness in our lives.
But, again, just like the Israelites, we have been released from captivity and its wilderness consequences. But, again, just like the Israelites, we must choose whether or not we will leave Egypt when called out. Not merely being called out of the wilderness, but when we’re called into Christ.
Freedom is only possible through the power of Christ. The One who can break every chain of bondage and transforms us from glory to glory through the process of wilderness experiences.
To God Be The Glory!
