For more, listen to my podcast “Joy in the Desert,” which includes a moving interview with Jane Burt. Jane knows exactly what it is to walk through the desert, she has been all her life. And she loves and trusts the One who leads her.

I need to explain my title, “Joy in the Desert.” My friend Kathy Smith told me that she didn’t like the title because she thinks the desert is beautiful. A lot of people do, and I don’t mean to knock it. But there’s a reason I’m using it in the podcast title.

I live in a beautiful mountain town in Southern California named Wrightwood. We are in the pine forest of the San Gabriel Mountains right in the middle of the Angeles National Forest. Below us sprawls the high desert of Southern California.

Certainly, the high desert supports life and a lot of it. There is vegetation, water, and flowers in the springtime. The Joshua trees provide food for many animals and insects. In Joshua Tree Park alone, there are 57 species of mammals, 46 species of reptiles, over 250 bird species, toads and frogs, and thriving insect life. The high desert is a place not of death, but of vibrant life.

Similar deserts that support life exist all over the Middle East. Ancient sheep herds foraged perfectly happily in these semi-arid deserts, and nomads roamed the deserts throughout their lifetimes.

However, the Bible often used the desert as an illustration of exile and wandering, of need and the journey. That’s what we are talking about it today, when we walk through the desert of uncertainty, heartache, sorrow, and loss.

But as believers, we are not alone there. God was with the ancient Hebrews as they wandered the desert I exile for 40 years, and He is with us today.

God walks with us through the desert. It’s where we meet Him and, having met Him, know Him.

Don’t Talk to Strangers!

Several old civilizations believed, and some still believe today, that if you meet a stranger in the wilderness, do not acknowledge it. It might be human, but it is just as likely to be a spirit that means you no good, a hostile thing that comes from beyond the borders of our world to attack and consume the unwary traveler.

I know this sounds odd to us in our modern lives, and if I meet a stranger on a local hiking trail I’m more likely to wave and say hello that I am to suspect he’s a wendigo or a ghost.

But the basic idea is sound: the wilderness is a place where pretensions are stripped away, where direction is not always clear, where it is not always easy to find sustenance. In these settings, it is all too easy to rush for the first thing that looks like it might offer some comfort. If you need money, then grab the first opportunity that comes along. If you’re lonely, run full tilt into a relationship – anyone will do. If you blame God for not getting you out of this situation, then go after other gods.

This is the modern equivalent of rushing to greet the stranger in the wilderness, only to find out that it does you no good. Better to ignore the stranger, and follow God. Only He will lead you home.

The Bible Talks a Lot about the Desert

The Bible is full of important desert wilderness experiences.

• Israel wandered for 40 years in the desert. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. The original generation that came out of Egypt – the ones that worshipped the golden calf, who whined about the fleshpots of Egypt, and who were too scared to enter the Promised Land – these were the ones that died in the desert. Their children lived to take the Promised Land, because when this generation was driven back into the desert for 40 years, their children grew up in the wilderness. Their children were strong. The Hebrews became a nomadic war your race, who nevertheless knew where they were going when God gave them permission to go. And when the generations who had as adults denied the promised land died, with the exception of one man whose name was Caleb, the children who were now grow were ready to enter and take the promised land. And so they did.
• Moses spent 40 years in the land of Midian as a married sheepherder. As far as we know, he was perfectly content to do so. It was not until God showed up and spoke to him from a burning bush that he returned to Egypt to rescue his people in the name of the great I Am.
• John the Baptist preached in the desert, the “desert of Judea,” west of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. It took an effort for the population of Jerusalem to come. But come they did, and their hundreds and thousands, to be baptized. And Jesus came, for John the Baptist was to baptize him and mark the beginning of his earthly ministry, and God thundered the name of his son.
• Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Far from being welcoming, the desert for Jesus was a place of great testing and temptation. After 40 days of fasting he was hungry and he was thirsty, and Satan, the fallen angel, came to him. They knew each other from long ago. Jesus existed before the beginning of space and time because He was God. (In fact, He created space and time.) Satan was a created creature, made to be the Morning Star, Lucifer, Archangel of the heavens. Now he had fallen but still ruled this world, and tempted Jesus to rule it under his authority. Lucifer failed.

Guidance, Provision, Salvation

In the biblical model, the desert place of testing, yet it is also a place where God’s guidance is sure and strong, a fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

It is a place where God makes provision for his people. When they cannot find plants to eat or water to drink, there are streams in the desert, and quail, and morning manna.

It is also a place of salvation. When the Hebrews were dying from snakebite, God told Moses to raise the bronze serpent. The people only had to look and they would be healed. So it is with Jesus Christ: you need only look, believe, and confess, and your soul will be healed.

Are you walking in the desert? Perhaps you found an oasis, or you may be right in the middle of desert sands. If this is you, then God has something to teach you. Ask yourself and God these questions:

• When in your life have you wandered in the desert?
• What did you need the most?
  • To know God
  • To be guided by God
  • To be saved by God
  • For God to provide for you
  • All of the above!
• How did you experience God then?
• If you are in the desert now, what do you need from God?

Pray and listen about the place the wilderness holds in your life as a believer. No matter where you are now, if you need guidance, provision, salvation, new hope, or all these things—our God is the God saves.