FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO
THE THRONE
Part 145
THE WOMAN IN THE
WILDERNESS
“And the woman fled
into the wilderness, where
she hath a place prepared of God…and to the woman were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into
her place…” (Rev. 12:6,14).
This passage calls to
our mind that it was “when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth”
that he turned to “persecute the woman which brought forth the manchild.” These
words refer to the battle that was fought in heaven, the battle between the
dragon and the overcoming sons of God, a spiritual battle in which Satan is
cast down out of the heavens of the spirit where the manchild dwells, cast
into the “earth” — the soul realm of each of us individually, and the
soulical religious realm of the corporate woman, the church. In
its individual application, the Spirit is catching us up in part — in our
spirit — and that part of us is made to overcome, casting out the serpent. The
serpent then goes after the earthy part of us, our soul, which is the woman
within us, with its mind, will, emotions, and desires, and the soul enters
into a “wilderness experience.” Individually
the “manchild” is the spirit within us which is seated with Christ in the
heavenly places, whereas the “woman” is the soul. Corporately, the
“manchild” is the body of the sons of God which make up the “man,” the
bridegroom company. The “woman”
is the virgin-church, the bride of Christ.
While the woman had
been seen in heaven from a spiritual standpoint, she is now seen on earth,
that is, in her position as the church in the world. Here
our text
begins, and it speaks of the tremendous conflict between the woman-church in
her earthly sojourn, and the great red dragon-spirit.
The dragon now comes
down to earth. He has failed in
every respect thus far! He
failed to prevent the birth of the manchild, and he failed to devour it when
it was born. He also failed in
the war which he fought with the sons of God, and failed to retain any place
in the heavens of the spirit-realm where they are seated upon the throne. And
because of this absolute failure, and because he also realizes that he
cannot continue to fight indefinitely
and that his time henceforth is short, he is filled with raging fury,
spitefulness, and desperation. And
thus he comes down to the earth for the purpose of persecuting the woman who
brought forth the manchild!
The woman continues
to function as the church on earth, though greatly diminished and weakened
by the birth and removal of the manchild. This
is clearly revealed by the vision John saw; for when the manchild is brought
forth, separated from her, and caught up unto God and to His throne, the
beloved seer still beholds her on earth, fleeing into the wilderness, where
she has a place prepared by God for her, and where someone comes to her
assistance and nourishes her for a thousand two hundred and sixty days. The
cause of her flight was not at first disclosed. It
is mentioned in verse six, but then the narrative is interrupted to relate
the “war in heaven,” and the casting down of the dragon-spirit. That
being told, the account returns, in verse thirteen, to the woman, to reveal
what happens to her following the birth and enthronement of the manchild. She
is seen in her earthly walk, and the dragon comes down to that earthly
place, defeated in the heavens of the spirit, to take his vengeance out on
her!
THE DRAGON PURSUES THE WOMAN
“And when the dragon
saw that he was cast unto the earth, he pursued
the woman which brought forth
the manchild” (Rev. 12:13).
The dragon appears to
pause a moment, as though stunned by his fall. Then
assessing his predicament, determining his former position to be incapable
of recovery, he rises and takes off after the woman. The
King James Bible says that he “persecuted the
woman,” but the word should be “pursued.” The
Greek word has more than one shade of meaning, sometimes meaning to
persecute and other times denoting to follow or pursue, which also is a form
of persecution, just as the Pharaoh and his armies pursued the children of
Israel as they fled from Egypt into the wilderness. The
Greek word here translated “persecuted” is rendered as “follow,” “press
toward,” and “ensue,” in the sense of “pursue” in the following verses,
among a number of others: “Go not after them, nor follow them”
(Lk. 17:23). “TheGentiles,
which followed not after
righteousness” (Rom. 9:30). “Israel,
which followed after the
law” (Rom. 9:31). “Let
us therefore follow after the
things which make for peace” (Rom. 14:19). “Follow
after charity, and desire
spiritual gifts” (I Cor. 14:1). “I follow
after, if that I may
apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil.
3:12). “I press toward
the mark for the prize” (Phil3:14). “Let
him seek peace, and ensue it”
(I Pet. 3:11). The woman in this
case fled and the dragon pursued her. But
his pursuing of her was in the “earth” before she
went to her place in the wilderness, for in her prepared place in the
wilderness he could not touch her!
I am persuaded that
the woman is still of great value in the purposes of God, even after she
brings forth the manchild, else why would the dragon pursue her so fiercely
even after her child is born? The
devil is not a deranged fool. He
is certainly a fool, but he is not a mad fool that has no rhyme nor reason
to his actions. Being a
religious spirit, he does not do things that have nothing to do with the
plan and purposes of God. You
may depend on it, if the woman after she has brought forth the manchild was
of no account any more, the devil would not trouble himself about her! He
knows full well that this little woman is destined to become the glorious bride
of Christ. Of her it shall
ultimately be said, “Let us be
glad and rejoice… for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His
wife hath made herself ready” (Rev.
19:7).
Just as Eve was the
wife of the first man Adam,
so is the virgin-church the wife of the last Adam. When
in the distant mists of Eden the
Creator presented Eve to Adam, He gave both Adam
and his wife joint dominion over
all things. “God created man
in His own image…male and female created
He them. And
God blessed them, and
God said unto them, Be
fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue
it; and have
dominion over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen.
1:26-28). My reader will observe
the use of the word “them” in this passage. God
is blessing “them,” and giving “them” JOINTLY THE PLACE OF UNIVERSAL
GOVERNMENT. All the inferior
orders of creation were set under their JOINT DOMINION. Eve
received all her blessings in Adam:
in him, too, she got her dignity and position and power. Universal
dominion was not given to Adam
alone; it was not said, “Let him have
dominion,” but “Letthem have
dominion.” There was no other
creature so near to Adam
as Eve, because no other creature was bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh. What affection Eve had
for Adam! What
nearness she enjoyed! What
intimacy of communion! What full
participation in his thoughts! What
shared responsibility over all things! In
all his dignity, in all his glory, wisdom,
and power, she was entirely ONE. He
did not rule over her,
but with her. He
was Lord of the whole creation, and she was ONE WITH HIM! They
were the king and queen of the universe!
Prefigured by Adam
and Eve in Eden,
this is the perfect man, man in the image of God, male and female, Christ
and His bride, given joint dominion over all things. The
bride of Christ is the New Jerusalem, having the glory of God. The throne of
God and the Lamb is in it and the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is
the light thereof. All that
dwell upon the earth shall walk in its light and enter through its gates.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and
the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. Then
shall the whole earth be filled with the glory and the knowledge of the
Lord! Christ and His bride,
Jesus with all the holy sons of God in union with the glorious bride-city,
shall enlighten all the world with truth, give all men to drink of the water
of the river of life, and deliver the
whole creation from the bondage of corruption. It
is indeed
wonderful!
This glorious destiny
which the woman has explains the dragon’s interest in her. He
has but one purpose and he lives but from one principle. It
is the purpose and principle of opposition against
all that pertains to God. This
principle he never denies. The
dragon was created with this nature to be the adversary, and God is God because
there is an opposite, an
adversary, an opponent, and God will be God to you, dear one, when you have
encountered the adversary in all his works and
overcome him there! And here
we have God’s perfect wisdom
in the formation of the human race and in bringing forth a convenient
opposite, the wrong one, the evil one, THROUGH WHOM HE WOULD BRING BOTH HIS
VAST FAMILY OF SONS AND HIS GLORIOUS BRIDE TO MATURITY AND PERFECTION. “Though
He were a Son, yet learned He
obedience by the things which
He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). “For
it became Him…in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through
sufferings” (Heb.
2:10). “And the Lord said,
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou hast turned
back again, strengthen thy brethren” (Lk. 22:31-32).
If you are of no
account to the coming of God’s kingdom and are in no way related to the
glory of God, the adversary does not trouble his head about you! It
is only when he perceives that you are a called and chosen one of God that
he begins his action against you. That
is his nature! That is his
purpose! Thus
it is with both the sons of God and the woman! The
very fact that the dragon in fury indeed
turns against the woman, to pursue and persecute her, reveals the great fact
that she is still of great importance to the kingdom of God and the
fulfillment of His purposes.
Why is the woman
represented as being on earth and fleeing into the wilderness? It
seems so very strange! Wasn’t
she the glorious sun-clad woman who birthed the mighty manchild? Ah,
yes, but in spite of her child she
is not the manchild! Just as
Mary was not Jesus, so the woman is not the son. Just
as Jesus was resurrected and caught up to heaven, while Mary remained a
woman in mortal flesh, so the manchild is caught up unto God and to His
throne, whereas the woman that bore him finds herself in a great and
terrible wilderness condition. Since
the dragon-spirit cannot get at the sons of God who have overcome him and
cast him out, he now turns on the woman which brought forth the manchild. Let
the fact be imprinted indelibly
upon our minds — once the great dragon is cast out of our heavens he is not
able to persecute the manchild. When
the accuser is cast down, whether out of our heavens or out of our earth, he
can no more do anything TO us in that realm. Not that he does nothing
AGAINST us, but his activity has no effect upon us!
TWO WINGS OF AN EAGLE
“And to the woman
were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might
fly into the wilderness, into her place…” (Rev.
12:14).
Now we are told that
the woman receives the wings of a great eagle and that with them she flies
into the wilderness. The idea is
clear. The dragon is pursuing
her in the earth. But in her
weakened condition after having given birth to the manchild, she cannot
outrun the dragon. If she turns
to do battle with him, she cannot stand in the fray. And
therefore there is but one place of escape, and that is the wilderness. There
the dragon cannot live, for there is nothing for him to feed on. There
is nothing there for the woman to feed on either, but her only hope is to
flee thither. There she is
nourished in a miraculous way, and there she is hid from the face of the
serpent. And at the same time,
she has not the strength to run into the wilderness, but the loving care of
our Father at all times and in every circumstance is revealed in the fact
that the woman was given two
strong wings of a great eagle and was able to soar through
the air, with two great wings outspread, like an eagle hastening to his
wilderness home, lifted up into the strength of God, thus escaping the snare
of the fowler. The serpent
pursues her up to the very edge of the desert, but cannot follow farther. And
therefore in his rage he casts a great stream of water after her, not to
drown her, but to carry her away out of the wilderness, so that he may
approach her. But the earth opens up her mouth and swallows up the stream,
which is in keeping with the idea of the arid desert, where streams often
vanish suddenly into the sand. And
finally, the dragon, seeing that also now his efforts are vain and that all
his attempts to destroy the woman are futile, turns to her other children,
the “remnant of her seed,” in order that at any rate he may destroy them. Thus
is the symbolism.
“Eagles’ wings” are
first presented to us as the way Israel achieved
freedom from the pursuing armies of Pharaoh — all the way from slavery in Egypt to
security in the land of promise, from death to life, from helplessness to
the heart of God. It was not
fearless fighting and brilliant military maneuvering that delivered Israel from
the hosts of Pharaoh and brought them into the solitude of the wilderness. Actually,
it was not by their own efforts at all! It
was what God did for them — He carried them on “eagles’ wings.” Three
months out of the land of Egypt when Israel had established their camp in
the wilderness of Sinai, Moses went up the mountain into the presence of God
and the Lord said to him, “Ye
have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bore you on eagles’
wings and brought you unto
myself” (Ex. 19:4). Borne by
wings is the apt symbol of God’s gracious deliverance! But
why on eagles’ wings? The eagle
is admired and applauded for its exploits. It
is the jet plane of the bird family! It
soars the highest, goes the fastest, and is superior to all other birds in
this respect. These
features are noted on the pages of the holy scriptures. Concerning
God’s care for Israel He
said, “As an eagle stirreth up
her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh
them, beareth them on her wings: so
the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him” (Deut.
32:11-12). “They that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles” (Isa.
40:31).
Therefore the wings of the eagle are given as the symbol of our God in the
spirit. By the strength of its
great wings it is able to soar to the heights and perform unusual feats. Thus
the eagle is set before us as being a symbol of God’s gracious intervention
in our lives, whereby He gives us eagles’ wings, so that in our hour of
weakness and testing sovereignly the strength of the Spirit is raised up in
us and we are able to “mount up with wings as an eagle!” God,
the indwelling
spirit, is the eagle! And it is
significant to note that the expression “two wings of a great eagle” is not
altogether correct. In the Greek text
it is not “a” great eagle, indefinitely, but “the” great
eagle — signifying in type the species of eagle which has the most powerful
or masterly flight. Surely it is divine
power that is referred to in
these words! It is the power of
the Christ within! Oh, yes, my
brother, my sister, matters not the seeming hopelessness of the situation or
the circumstance — the wings of the
great eagle are right
there within you ready to be unfurled as you wait upon the Lord to renew
your strength! And it is not a
one-time experience, for the phrase “that she might fly” is in the present
tense, the form of the Greek construction indicating that “she may
continuously fly” or “repeatedly fly.” As
my friend Jonathan Mitchell has pointed out, when God births something new
in us, this pattern will always be followed, and we will need to fly into
the wilderness away from the serpent’s face. The
wings are always there — our
refuge and strength, a very present
help in time of trouble! (Ps.
46:1). Aren’t you glad!
Some have suggested
that the two wings of the great eagle are the wings of prayer and praise by
which we soar into the presence of God, into the heavens of the spirit. And
that may well be — but beyond that I see these wings as a dimension of power
released right out of the realm of spirit. It
is a power that lifts us within ourselves above all earthly bondage,
restriction, and limitation, enabling us to move forward into the purposes
of God. It is a divine
transportation that carries us from one place in God to another from the
face of all that would hinder and thwart us!
THE WILDERNESS
“And the woman fled into
the wilderness, where she
hath a place prepared of God…and to the woman were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might flyinto the wilderness, into
her place” (Rev. 12:6,14).
As God delivered
His people from the fury of the Pharaoh in Egypt by
bringing them into the wilderness, so also now He brings His virgin-church
into the wilderness to escape the rage of the dragon-spirit. But
the difference is that in Israel’s
case it was a natural, physical wilderness into which they were led, whereas
in this case the figure is employed to signify something spiritual. The
question follows: what is the meaning of the wilderness into which He
enables our individual
soul and, corporately, the woman-church to fly in order that she might
escape the vengeance of the devil?
It has been said that
the wilderness is here used to depict the want and deprivation which the
people of God must suffer in the world. They
are the despised of the world, they must suffer all kinds of persecutions
and indignities
in the world. And therefore the
world is a real wilderness to them. And,
of course, this is true in itself. But
it is not the meaning of our text. For,
in the first place, the woman is driven into the wilderness after the birth
of the manchild and his exaltation to the throne. And it cannot be said that
being subjected to trials and testings and troubles of all kinds is peculiar
to the woman who brings forth the manchild. A
long list of witnesses in chapter eleven of the book of Hebrews could tell
you of them! The early church likewise, and blessed saints throughout the
ages, have suffered want, deprivation, persecution, and afflictions. In
the second place, it is difficult to see how such troubles could possibly be
a means of hiding from the face of the devil, so that he could not attack. Yet
“escaping from the devil” is evidently the purpose of it all! The
woman received these wings to fly into the wilderness in order to be hid
from the face of the serpent, and so be safe. And,
in the third place, the wilderness is a place prepared
for her by God, where she
does not suffer want or deprivation, for she is supernaturally nourished,
cared for, and protected for
the length of her stay there. Therefore,
this cannot be the meaning of the term “wilderness” in our present passage!
John’s “wilderness” comes from a different strain of biblical imagery, the
typological use of Israel’s
flight from Egypt into
the wilderness; it was a place of safety and liberation; and it is to such a
sanctuary that the woman is taken to
be protected and sustained by
God. I would draw your reverent
attention to the fact that the woman flees into “the wilderness,”
the well-known one, spoken of from the book of Exodus all the way through
the book of Revelation. Herein
she is distinguished from the great whore. The
Great Harlot of chapter seventeen is seen by John in “a wilderness,”
or “a wilderness in spirit,” as
we should most probably connect the words. Our
woman’s flight is into the wilderness,
signifying the spiritual condition into which many of the Lord’s people have
fled to escape the fury of the adversary! This was the place of safety for
Moses, after Pharaoh was angry and designed to slay him. Hither
fled Israel from
the face of the Egyptian
king. To this refuge did Elijah
betake himself from the threats of Jezebel. And
Jesus Himself retreated thither after John the Baptist was slain, and near
to it He dwelt after His life was sought by the priests and rulers at Jerusalem.
Well did Ray Prinzing
write, “Do remember, these things are given in a figurative sense, it does
not mean that every Christian is
transported to some desert place, nor hidden in a retreat, but this is a new
and different dealing of God, deeper than the church has known before. ‘The
Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble
thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart’ (Deut.
8:2). When this testing and
purification are complete, He will ‘present it to Himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing’ (Eph.
5:27). How we have longed for,
prayed for this to be a reality, and, thank God, He knows just the time and
process to bring it to pass.”
In the literal and
natural sense of the word the wilderness, or desert, is a place in the
world, but not of the
world. It
may be right in the midst of the world, yet it is absolutely separated from
the life of the world. I have
been in stark deserts in Israel and Egypt,
and elsewhere, where not a blade of grass grows, and no man lives. There are
no houses, no cities, no oasis, no movement of any kind except for the
howling winds and blowing sands. It
is a place in the midst of the world, yet separated from the world. If
one is in the wilderness, he is separated from the life of the world. This
bespeaks a people as described by our Lord who are “in the world, but not of
the world.” A people separate in
every respect from the life, nature, and ways of the world. They
have nothing in common with the world’s spirit and institutions or with the
religious activities and systems of man. These
exist, indeed,
in the world. They are
neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and friends of those who daily function in
the world-system, but they exist and function as a separate community from
the world. They live right in
the midst of the world, work on the same jobs, shop in the same stores,
drive on the same streets, attend the same schools, yet they are spiritually
separated from that life, and live their lives from the principles of the
kingdom of God and the spirit of Christ.
This virgin-church is a separate institution in the world. She
has her own King. She does not
recognize any other lordship. No
institution of man has any power over her. She
has her own laws, and they are the laws of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus. She does not mingle with
the politics of the world. She
has no armies. She
does not fight with the sword. She
does not live by the world’s standards and values. She
does not think like the world thinks, or act as the world acts. She lives in
separation, in another world, in
the very midst of the world! Even
as the children of Israel in
the desert lived in separation from the world-power in Egypt and
other nations round about, and even as they received their own laws from
their own King in the wilderness, so also the woman-church is in the
wilderness with regard to the world and its power and its life. She
fights her own battles, which are spiritual battles, and does her own work,
which is spiritual work. She lives her own lifestyle, which is a heavenly
lifestyle, and walks her own walk in the kingdom of heaven. She
is separate from the life of the world. She
has received a God-prepared place in the wilderness! Oh,
the wonder of it!
Although
the wilderness is specifically the place of separation and safety from the
world and its ways, as well as from the Babylon church
system of man, and her ways, this is not to say that there is no specific
and special dealing of God in the wilderness. Every
order God leads His people into is uniquely designed to contribute to their
growth, development, and perfection in Christ! Again
I will quote from the words of brother Ray Prinzing, for he expressed it so
well when he wrote, “Oftentimes our processings are as
a LED THROUGH THE WILDERNESS type of walking, yet with the assurance that He
is doing the LEADING, and that because of His day by day guidance we need
not stumble. The outward aspect
of the wilderness is like unto a desert with its howling winds and barren
existence…no smooth pathway, but a going on in faith step by step, receiving
that daily supply of manna divinely provided, and drinking of that Rock
which follows us even unto the ends of the earth. Then
with joy we sing, ‘My Lord
knows the way through the wilderness, and all I have to do is follow. —
Strength for today is mine all the way, and all that I need for tomorrow . .
.’ He leads, why need we
fear? Furthermore,
it is written, ‘perfect love
casteth out all fear,’ and we
know that HE IS PERFECT LOVE, therefore the more He dwells within us by His
Spirit, the more we are KEPT IN PEACE.
“Darkness may obscure
our vision, but we do not stumble, and though many things seem as obstacles
in our way, placed there for our OVERCOMING, still we shall not falter. Why? Because
He leads, and ‘He will not
suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber’ (Ps.
121:3). We ask for bread,
He does not give us a stone. We
ask for fish, He does not give us a serpent. No
one needs to fear about stumbling in this wilderness when they have put
their trust in Him to guide, He leads THROUGH the wilderness! It
is essential
that we go through these processings, for they work in us much of His
purpose, and we would not seek to escape His dealings, but we can go through
without worry, fear, or inner turmoil. ‘Unto
Him that is able to keep you from falling (Greek,
from stumbling), and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy’ (Jude
24)” —
end quote.
Over past months
and years a number of anointed voices have come in printed form across my
desk which also bear eloquent testimony to this significant truth, and I
will quote the words of a few of them for the edification of those who read
these lines. A
precious brother, Charles Haun, wrote: “‘And
the children of Israel
took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai: and the cloud rested in the
wilderness of Paran…and the people pitched in the
wilderness of Paran’ (Ex.
10:12; 12:16). It is beautiful. It
is a wonderful place, this spiritual wilderness called Paran! The
wilderness of Paran
is ‘glory’ or ‘beauty,’ according to the meaning of the Hebrew word. To
see the wilderness in such gratifying terms, one must first become aware of
God’s intentions in bringing a person into the wilderness. Once
a believer comes to this awareness, he can then begin to understand why and
how glory and beauty are in the Wilderness of Paran.
“The wilderness is
God’s workshop. He
has designed it for us. He
brings us to it, ‘even every
one who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory’ (Isa.
43:7). We are brought there to
see His glory, to relate to it, to learn from it, and most importantly, to
be conformed to His image. We
would prefer that God does all His work on us in green grass and beside
still waters. Although these and
other lovely and pleasant places are part of our spiritual experience,
certain types of work are not accomplished in us, except in the wilderness. The
wilderness is a part of our development. It
is necessary for our growth. It
is God’s method of opening our
vision to Himself and to His provisions for us. It
is that which the Lord uses to bring spiritual enrichment into our lives. It
is a method that God uses to develop our faith and trust in Him. The
wilderness is an essential
part of the Christian life, whether we like it or not!
“When I entered Bible School as
a first-year student, the Lord was like a bright light to me. His
presence was so near and intense that I could neither eat nor sleep on a
regular schedule. I loved the
light. But after several weeks
of this, it all lifted, and I found myself in total darkness, and dryness. I
was in the wilderness. I was
impressed. I
was terrified. I learned
darkness and dryness. More
importantly, I learned many things which can be learned only in such
circumstances. I learned that
God is faithful to me, even in dryness. I
learned that He could be my light, even in darkness. But
the greatest event spanning those two years in the wilderness was the
treasure I gleaned for myself. I
came out with a complete trust in God. So
complete that it defies description. So
complete that I would expect no one to believe its extent. This
treasure of perfect trust was worth the two years of darkness and dryness.
“The wilderness was
the place of opportunity. Here,
from the Wilderness of Paran, the children of Israel could
have moved into greater opportunities. The
possibility of taking the Promised Land was theirs! God
Himself actually initiated the conquest of Canaan at
this time from this place, as seen in Numbers 13:3. ‘And
Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran:
all those men were the heads of the children of Israel.’ (These
men were the spies sent to spy out the land in preparation for its
conquest). The wilderness may
not be seen by some people as being a launching pad into an orbit of
spiritual reality and living. But
the wilderness is that, and more! It
is a place of opportunity. The
children of Israel were
brought into the Wilderness of Paran for the specific and express purpose of
going farther, to possess the Promised Land! There
are two areas of blessing as related to the wilderness. One
area is the blessings that are within the wilderness. The
other area is the opportunity for blessings based upon the wilderness
itself. The Promised Land was
the opportunity for blessings based upon how the children of Israel responded
to God in the wilderness.
“God’s direction can
be seen and somewhat understood as the Israelites
first approach the Wilderness of Paran (Num. 10:12). ‘And
the children of Israel
took their journeys out of the
wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.’ This
was not their choice, rather it was God’s choice; it was God’s direction for
them. The Israelites
simply followed the cloud, stopping where it stopped, moving when the cloud
moved. Here, the cloud stopped
in the Wilderness of Paran. The
first lesson to be learned is to follow
the cloud. The believer must
learn to follow what he knows to be the direction of God. Don‘t
be afraid of the wilderness! Times
in the wilderness will become the only occasions when God imparts certain
divine meanings and rich revelations to us. The
wilderness will be the place of our greatest progressions in God. There
are certain things which God can bring to us only in the wilderness, as we
properly relate to His glory in the wilderness.
“The second lesson to
be learned is that we are not
to complain and question God as we follow. ‘Why
did the cloud stop here? Doesn’t
God know that there is no water here?’ ‘Why
does God lead us into the wilderness? To
kill us because there are no graves in Egypt?’ The
children of Israel followed
the cloud to green grass. The
name of the place was Hazeroth. The
stem of this Hebrew word means ‘green,’ ‘grass,’ ‘leeks,’ ‘enclosure.’ This
Hazeroth must have been a luscious place! The International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia refers to it as ‘the
best pastures.’ This would have
been most pleasing to those camping there! When
we go camping, we don’t like to camp in the desert, or in a wilderness. We
like to camp in an oasis; we like to camp where
there is much green grass and a stream with fish. How
long are we allowed to camp in the green grass beside the still waters? Not
very long. We must follow
the cloud. It soon moves from
Hazeroth, as recorded in Numbers 12:16. ‘And
afterward, the people removed from Hazeroth and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.’ The
green grass of Hazeroth is desired by all, but it does not fully and totally
meet man’s spiritual needs. The
leadership directly under Moses failed in the green grass, for it was there
that ‘the anger of the Lord
was kindled against them (Aaron and
Miriam); and He departed…’ (Num.
12:9).
“What is seen, or not
seen, in the wilderness depends upon our point of view. Our
point of view is the direction in which we habitually look. ‘And
it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children
of Israel,
that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord
appeared in the cloud’ (Ex.
16:10). The gaze of the Israelites
had just been on the meat which they did not have, but desired to have. Only
when they looked toward the wilderness did they see the glory of God! The
glory of God was not in the meat which they desired. The
reason why many believers, upon many different occasions, miss seeing the
glory of God is that they are looking toward that which they desire. They
are looking toward Canaan Land,
when they should be looking toward the wilderness. If
the glory of God is appearing in the wilderness, and we want to look
longingly and constantly at the Promised Land, we may see the Promised Land,
but we will not see the glory of God. When
the glory of God has come to the wilderness, it is time to give the
wilderness our attention.
“Although many are
brought to the wilderness to see the glory of God, not all see it. The
direction of our vision at any particular time in our life will determine
what we will see. It will also
determine what we are not seeing of that which God wants to show us. We
will miss seeing His goodness if we constantly gaze at unfulfilled desires
and long for the comforts of the flesh. Let
us lay aside our fleshly desires and follow our Maker without complaining
and without questioning. As we
accomplish these things we will see more clearly the intentions and purposes
that God has for us” — end
quote.
Another brother,
Bruce Caisse, has shared the following. “‘Now
in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar…Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto
John the son of Zacharias in
the wilderness’ (Lk.
3:1-2). Annas and Caiaphas
should have received, in the temple, the word of the Lord. However,
the Lord bypassed them and spoke, in the wilderness, to John. The
Lord, unable to find a channel that could hear His voice, used the
wilderness to prepare a voice through whom He could announce the first
appearing of the Messiah. Why
did the Lord choose the wilderness? We
often think of the wilderness as a place where people go through a time of
difficulty. It is usually
thought of as being a place where the ‘presence’ of the Lord cannot be felt,
or where the ‘rain’ of the Holy Spirit does not fall. It
is considered to be a place of dryness and barrenness, both naturally and
spiritually.
“Yet, from time to
time the Lord brings us into a wilderness experience. The
wilderness should not be thought of as a barren place. It
becomes a wonderful place when we begin to understand all that the Lord can
accomplish within us during this time. What
is the wilderness? It can be
defined in one word: Separation. Here,
the Lord is able to deal with us concerning all of the ambitions and drives
that are within us. In the
barrenness of the wilderness, He is able to take initiative in our lives and
separate us unto Himself. When
we view the wilderness as a place of separation unto the Lord, we will see
that it has great value and purpose. Consider
the children of Israel as
they were led out of Egypt,
through the Red
Sea, and into the wilderness. There
were different levels of separation in this journey. The
most obvious one is the Red
Sea. God opened the
way through the Sea. As they
reached the other side, the waters closed up upon the Egyptians. There
were no more bricks to be made! Now,
they were to abide under the cloud of glory by day and the pillar of fire by
night!
“However, they began
to murmur. This was to have been
a time of preparation, being made ready to possess the land that was before
them. The pulls of Egypt
had been left behind and they were closed in with the Lord Himself. This
is the purpose of the wilderness. Israel failed,
however, to understand this. ‘Therefore,
behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and
speak comfortably unto her. And
I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of
Achor for
a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and
as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt’ (Hosea
2:14-15). The Lord is portraying Himself as a husband whose wife has been
unfaithful. She has been
distracted by the pull of things that steal her affections from Jehovah. Yet,
the Lord seeks to restore her and separate her unto Himself. ‘And
I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to
them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went
after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord’ (Hosea
2:13). This is expressive of the
experience many of us go through, even after we know the Lord. We
are pulled in other directions. The
Lord’s cure for this is expressed in verse fourteen, ‘Therefore,
behold, I will allure her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto
her.’ The word ‘comfortably’
means ‘heart.’ The Lord is
saying, ‘I will speak my heart to her.’ He
removed the distractions by taking her away from Egypt,
which speaks of the pulls of the world. The
purpose of the Lord in the wilderness is to separate us from ‘things’ and
cause us to know Him and His voice personally and intimately. The
preparation of John the Baptist in the wilderness is a type of what the Lord
is seeking to do within us during this present time of transition.
“The Song of Solomon
speaks prophetically of the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of His
beloved bride, the church. The
question is asked, ‘Who is
this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?’ (S.
of S. 8:5). This ‘leaning’
speaks of a dependence and trust that had been developed during a wilderness
experience. Again, we see the
purpose of the wilderness. It
provides an atmosphere in which we have no choice except to get close to
Him. Here, He is able to begin
sharing His heart with us! If we
are leaning upon Him, we can get no closer. John
the beloved leaned and laid his head on the breast
of Jesus. Here,
he heard His heartbeat. Jesus
could whisper to John because of this intimacy that had developed.
“Why is it that the word of the Lord came to John, and not to Annas and
Caiaphas? It was because John
the Baptist gave himself to a period of separation. He
heard the voice of the Lord alluring him into the wilderness and responded
to this time of separation. He
left all that he might be alone with God. John
began to hear the heartbeat of God as the Lord began to speak His heart to
him. ‘I will allure her and
speak my heart unto her.’ We
do not know how long this took, or all that was required of John. But,
he was willing to give himself to the Lord. Why
did not the priesthood hear from the Lord? A
verse in Jeremiah gives us some understanding of this. ‘For
my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of
living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold
no water.’
“The spiritual
leaders of that day were drinking from broken cisterns. Somewhere,
they forsook the Lord and broke communion with Him. The
rain had fallen at one time upon the house of Israel and
they were still drinking from that cistern which only spoke of a former
day. They were not ready to hear
a present wordconcerning
the appearing of the Lamb of God. We
cannot rest in a past visitation, or word from the Lord! There
must be that continual listening for a present word from the Lord. There
must be a present receiving from the Fountain of Living Waters! Only
then will we be qualified to minister the word of the Lord. When
the Lord begins to rain His blessing upon us, we hold up our cup until it is
filled. If we remain satisfied
with this, then five years later we will still be saying, ‘I received this
cup of water from the Lord, would you like a drink?’ Five
year old water does not taste at all good! However,
if we cultivate a link with the Fountain of Living Water, we will have water
that will be fresh each day.
“John was allured
into the wilderness, where God spoke His heart to him. What
was the result of this processing that took place in the wilderness? ‘And
this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
ask him, Who art thou? And he
confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And
they asked him, What then? Art
thou Elias? And he saith, I am
not. Art thou that prophet? And
he answered, No. Then
said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that
sent us. What sayest thou of
thyself? He said, I
am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Esaias’ (Jn.
1:19-23). John could have said
that he came in ‘the spirit of Elijah.’ Jesus
said of him that he was Elijah that should come. However,
in hearing the heart cry of the Lord, John found that his identity had been
consumed. He
lost himself in the burden of
the Lord. Psalm 69 tells us, ‘For
the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.’ While
John was alone in the wilderness, the spark that quickened his heart
concerning the burden of God’s heart grew and grew until it consumed him and
he became simply the ‘voice of one.’ John
said, ‘I heard Him alluring me into the wilderness and I went. The
Lord birthed within my heart the cry of His heart and it consumed everything
that was within me. I have
become the expression of the voice that you have not heard for hundreds of
years. He was still crying and I
went out and listened.’
“The Lord desires to
bring each one of us to the place where we will be able to hear this cry. We
can be content with, or so busy with the program within the temple, that we
do not hear His alluring call into the wilderness. Annas
and Caiaphas knew the written word of God, but did not hear the voice of the
Lord. John the Baptist probably
did not know the written word of God as well as they, but he allowed the
Lord to separate him unto Himself so he would be able to hear the very
heartbeat of God. The Lord is
calling out a people who are willing to be separated unto Him! The
wilderness is not a physical place; rather it is an attitude of heart. ‘He
was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his
generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the
living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken’ (Isa.
53:8). There is a challenge
here. Are you willing to be one
who is ‘cut off’’ from the land of the
living — separated unto Him in the wilderness that you might become one to
declare His generation? The Lord
is looking for a company of ‘John the Baptists.’ He
is not looking for ability, rather He is looking for availability. Each
one of us can be a part of this corporate body that is being prepared to
express the Word of the Lord in our day!” —
end quote.
Another has penned
these challenging words. “The
story of the Hebrews’ journey out of Egyptian
bondage is a wonderful illustration of spiritual development. The Bible
tells us that Moses spent forty years exiled in the desert, tending sheep,
before leading the children of Israel out
of slavery. That might not
appear to be the best training for a great leader! Yet
during those years, he was growing spiritually. As
his understanding of God developed, he overcame personal doubts about his
ability to follow divine direction. Eventually,
he led the children of Israel out
of Egyptian
bondage. Yet they, too, spent
forty years in the wilderness before making it to the Promised Land! It
wouldn’t have required that long to travel the few hundred miles between Egypt and Palestine. But
in reading the Bible one gets the impression that the real
journey involved spiritual
progress, not physical
distance. What
a mental distance between thinking and living as slaves, and thinking and
living as the Spirit-led people of God! In
the wilderness the children of Israel were
learning the difference. It
wasn’t at once that they understood God’s Voice — or saw what it meant to
obey Him. Ignorance, immaturity,
and fear held the people back. They
made mistakes, took ‘detours,’ and had to retrace some steps. Still,
they recovered and kept going.
“Although their route
wasn’t as direct as it might have been, spiritual progress was going
on. Their experiences were
teaching them what it means to have only one God, to trust Him, and to have
their lives corrected and governed by Him. They
were learning lessons they needed to learn! Did
it take forty years? It seems
that spiritual maturing,
not time, was the issue. And
that’s of particular interest to us when — individually
or collectively — we’re going through a ‘wilderness’ time. In
the midst of the pressures, strippings, and purgings, have we ever wondered, ‘How
long is this going to take? Is
there a faster way?’ When we go
back through the accounts of the Bible, we see that spiritual progress
doesn’t allow for skipping steps we need to take or avoiding the spiritual
lessons we need to learn. There is a
right path and a way for us to stay safe in it, going in the right
direction” — end quote.
Steve Wilbur
adds these insights. “THE
WILDERNESS — Did you shudder
when this title caught your eye? Was
the surface of your consciousness ruffled by this disturbing question: ‘Will
God take me into the wilderness?’ The
wilderness! A word calculated to
inspire fearsome awe without further
qualifiers. Yet Moses qualifies
it with the terms ‘great’ and ‘terrible’ (Deut. 1:19). The
word occurs over three hundred times in scripture. Under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, let us explore something of the meaning
of the wilderness.
“First,
it is unfriendly. It is
selective, working to favor some things, yet militating against others. God’s
man finds that in the desert some things die while other personal qualities
are accentuated. The wilderness
is unfriendly to the carnal, the personal, the worldly, but constructive to
the development of those eternal qualities the Lord is seeking. The
desert is the place of specially adapted life. The
Lord desires to cultivate what man disdains or neglects to cultivate — the spiritual
life. This calls for a
hearing ear. It means you delve
so deeply into the wilderness that you hear no other voice speaking, but the
voice of the Lord. This was so
with Moses, who finally turned aside at the burning bush.
“We next notice that
the wilderness is dry. There is
no evident blessing or revival. In
Numbers chapter twenty, the children of Israel demonstrated
against Moses and Aaron. Verses
three through five tell us they reproached Moses and accused him of bringing
the Lord’s congregation into the wilderness to die of thirst. They describe
their environment as evil, saying, ‘It
is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is
there any water to drink.’
“We learn also that
the wilderness is uninhabited. God
deals with His people both corporately and individually
in the wilderness experience. The
Bible abounds with examples of a single person being brought face to face
with God. Consider His dealings
with Enoch (Gen. 5:22). ‘Enoch
walked with God’ (alone). Abraham’s
separated walk involved numerous encounters with his God. Consider
Joseph’s specifically tailored trials; Elijah’s crying out in the
wilderness, ‘I, even I only,
am left’ (I Kings 19:10). Jeremiah’s
agonizing, ‘I sat alone
because of Thy hand’ (Jer.
15:17). ‘And Jacob was left
alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the
breaking of the day’ (Gen.
32:24). And finally, Matthew
14:23 declares of Jesus, ‘He
was alone there.’ The
wilderness is a place where very special things happen! The people of God
tumbled helter-skelter out of Egypt,
but the wilderness brought them into divine order. They
became an organized army that marched
in ranks into Canaan. Psalm
103:7 tells us that God made His ways known
to Moses. His ways are ordered
ways.
“The wilderness is
also the place where the power of simple instruments is revealed. In
Exodus 4:2 the Lord asks Moses, ‘What is that in thine hand?’ And
Moses replies, ‘A rod.’ The
unique power of Moses would forever after be associated with a common
shepherd’s staff. When Samson
was assaulted by the Philistines, the Word says, ‘they shouted against
him.’ But Samson found a jawbone
of an ass, and with it, he slew a thousand men. This
instrument, found often enough in the wilderness, was at the same time both
common and powerful. What a
contrast between God’s ways and man’s ways! Man’s
method of salvation is by costly and complicated machinery — salvation by
mechanics. God’s means of
salvation is by vital energy — salvation by dynamics. Here
the simplest of instruments suffice.
“Finally, the
wilderness is the place of drastic reduction. To
reduce is to convert to simpler form. For
example, Acts 7:22 describes Moses before he was forty years of age, as
being, ‘learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians,
and mighty in words and in
deeds.’ Forty years
later, we find him at eighty years of age confessing, ‘O
my Lord, I am not eloquent…but
I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue’ (Ex.
4:10). It is to this man Moses,
so reduced that he asked sincerely, ‘Who
am I?’ (Ex. 3:11), that the
mighty ‘I AM’ reveals Himself. Moses’
excess baggage — cultural, intellectual, social — had been dropped during
his forty-year journey through the wilderness! How
far will God reduce us? We could
conjecture that when Moses approached the burning bush that day, he had his
garment, his rod, and his shoes. Not
much. Yet one third of even that
had to be set aside before he could draw near to God! ‘Put
off thy shoes.’ The prophet
Amos graphically depicts God’s people reduced to
bare necessities. Nothing is
left but two legs and a piece of an ear — just enough to HEAR A WORD AND
WALK IN IT! (Amos 3:12).
“If our guided tour
through the wilderness has had its proper effect, a transformation of
consciousness should have taken place. Although
at first we had instinctively recoiled from it, as though it were ominously
threatening to our sense of self-preservation, we will now really embrace
the wilderness as a great friend and servant. We
will have the inner sense that only when the Lord Jesus gets what He wants
from our lives will life finally stabilize. Thus
we know that those who emerge from God’s wilderness are indeed
the thoroughly processed members of which the unblemished Body is composed. Their
coming into view provoked
the astonished exclamation, ‘Who
is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved’ (S.
of S. 8:5) —
end quote.
In closing I would
share these confirmatory words from the pen of David Minor. “Many
men have been sent to the desert. This
is a place that every one of us would like to avoid if we could. We
find it unpleasant when God cuts across our path and says, ‘I want you to go
to the desert.’ Every life that
God uses has this desert experience! The
desert experience is an absolute necessity in the lives of God’s people. He
does not choose to perfect His vessels in the city, but rather in the desert
place. You can tell when a
person is in the desert because you hear him say, ‘I feel so dry. I
don’t feel any life. I don’t
understand what is happening to me.’
“We are so interested
in ministry and in multitudes! We
want to be going. God is saying
to you, ‘Son (or Daughter), I want you to come aside. I
want to draw you away from the crowd. I
want to separate you. I want to
get you out here alone under the stars in a solitary place where I can talk
to you. I want to give you a
message. I want to burn a word
into your soul. I want to get down
into your innermost being. I
want to do a work in your heart..’ The
solitary place is a place we don’t want to be! We
cry, ‘But I don’t like the solitary place. I
like people around me. I like
people to know what I’m going through. I
like people to sympathize with me. I
like people to understand me. I
like companionship.’ But God
says, ‘I’m bringing you to the desert place because
I want to meet you there.’
“I want to talk about
this desert. Thank God there are
streams of water. Thank God
there are mountains. But in the
life of every man and woman of God there is an appointment with destiny. Everyone
who comes forth with a burning message, every prophet that comes before the
face of a nation, is a person that God has led to a solitary place; it’s a
desert place — a lonely place — a place of midnight darkness — a place where
there is no moisture, and where God speaks and deals and shapes and fashions
and forms. Then God sends that
man or woman from that desert with life-giving water. If
you’re coming to God’s people with signs, wonders, and miracles, and you’re
going to carry a rod that brings deliverance,
you must meet a burning bush in God’s desert place. Don’t
think that someone is going to call you out of a congregation, lay hands on
you, and impart a ministry to you that is going to bring men and women out
of the prison-houses. Don’t
think that you’re going to attend
Bible School and
somebody will hand you a diploma that will qualify you to deliver
creation. If you’re going to
bring people out of the bondage of Egypt,
you’re going to meet God at the backside of the desert! God
will take away the pleasures. He
will take away the comforts. He
will take away the things that you’ve trusted in and He will drive you from
men to a solitary place where it’s you and God. There
you will meet Him on the backside of the desert of human experience. Every
prophet has his desert.
“Then you can say,
‘God, I understand now why everything is as it is. I
understand now why You’ve let these things happen and You didn’t send any
rain into the desert place of loneliness, heartache, despair, rejection,
privation and misunderstanding. It
was You that brought me there! I
didn’t understand at first.’ I
questioned, ‘Why? What does God
have against me? What have I
done? Where
have I failed God? Why hasn’t
God opened the door? Why am I in
this situation?’ You’re there because God is preparing a man or woman to
take the message of His everlasting love and unfailing grace to humanity. He’s
going to sustain you. You’re
going to embrace this desert experience. You’re
going to thank God for it! The
sweetest hour you’re ever going to know is where God comes down in that
desert place and a burning bush appears in that lonely, solitary place. When
you’re homesick and weary, then suddenly the angel of God comes and you cry,
‘Bethel! It’s
Bethel, the house of God! I
thank God for this lonely, windswept mountain.’ Then
God will lead you out of the desert place to touch men and women with the
power of mighty supernatural deliverance!” —
end quote.