The Wilderness Part 1 (Exodus 16-17)

Nobody should want to be in the wilderness. The wilderness is a life-less place. A place where human beings are not meant to be. Which is what makes the Exodus Story a very strange one. Why does God lead the people into the Wilderness??!

The Exodus story is a strange story because the Wilderness is a big part of Israel’s Story. The story starts out like any other good story - A people are in slavery and the stage is set for their liberation. Exodus 1 opens the story with Israel in slavery and under great oppression - they are in need of a Saviour. And a Saviour appears! God hears their cry and remembers His Promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

Since the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden, God’s desire has to been to get humanity back to His Garden, back to the Promised Land. This is exactly what was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and all the children of Israel. God wants His People back in His Garden. The Garden is contrasted to the Wilderness. The Garden is lush. Plenty of water. Teeming with life. Reproductive and flourishing. The Wilderness is bare and barren. Without water, it is lifeless and cannot support life. If the Garden is Blessed; the Wilderness is Cursed. If the Garden is associated with the Presence of God; the Wilderness is a Godforsaken Place. 

Which is exactly the reason why when His people are enslaved in Egypt, God hears their cry and comes down to deliver them out, and promised to bring them to the Garden He promised (Exodus 3:8). And so we expect that right after the crossing of the Red Sea, and the complete salvation from Egypt, we should hear the narrator say “And the Israelites live happily every after in the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.” But no. Exodus 16-17 tracks the story of God leading His people right into the God-forsaken Wilderness!! Why? 

Honestly, I have no idea. But let me make this simple observation - God’s saving work with us, involves us taking a journey with Him. If God’s work to save Israel was to take them out of Egypt, then the story would have ended in Exodus 15 when the people crossed the Red Sea and they worshipped God. But it didn’t. Israel was out of Egypt and out of slavery, but they were not yet ‘saved’. Salvation involved taking a journey with God - a journey that continues into the Godforsaken place of the Wilderness.

Will you and I be willing to follow our Saviour, if He chooses to lead us into the Wilderness?