Tough Love

Last Saturday we went out into the Judean Wilderness a few miles outside Jerusalem and watched the sun rise over that barren, chalky horizon. It’s like no place I’ve even been before; utter nothingness as far as the eye can see. It’s so quiet that my ticking watch sounded like a sledgehammer smashing against an iron beam.
This is the wilderness that Jesus wondered after his baptism and before he began his ministry. He spent 40 days in this wilderness, fasting and being tempted by Satan. And as I sat there, I found myself contemplating: What really happened to Jesus during those 40 days? At this point in his life, why did the Spirit lead him out into the wilderness to be tempted?
Sitting there, my mind jumped to a parallel story in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus is God’s picture of salvation, but in the Old Testament, the Israelites exodus from Egypt is God’s picture of salvation. Now, I do not think it to be a coincidence that both of these images of salvation include a period of wondering in the wilderness. After Moses frees the Israelites from the bondage of Egyptian slavery, the Israelites spend 40 years wondering in the desert of Sinai. Only after these 40 years, after an entire generation of people dies and a new generation is born, does God allow the Israelites to enter the promise land and begin ministering to the nations. Likewise, only after wondering in the desert for 40 days does Jesus begin his 3 years of ministry.
What is God’s purpose in ordaining these desert seasons? Especially right after a moment of salvation? Is this the mark of a true follower of Christ?
I think Hebrew 12:6-7 sheds some light on these questions, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”
God takes his children into the wilderness to teach them dependence on God alone. After the moment of salvation/conversion, we are the children of God in Christ. But we still have all this baggage from our old life, which is why we must begin this process of sanctification and growing in holiness. We see this picture in the Israelite exodus with the dying out and birth of generations. The old nature must die, as the children of God are reborn into the new nature.
This will only happen if the Holy Spirit drives us into the wilderness, because the wilderness is the school of God’s holiness. There, the children of God are refined in the fires of the desert in order to cleanse all the impurities of their old selves. Thus, equipping them with a new nature and a holiness fit for service in the kingdom of God.
This wilderness suffering is God’s chief means of sanctifying his children. In fact, Hebrews 12 says, if you are not disciplined by God, then you are illegitimate children. True children of God bear the marks of his scourging. So be joyful, the next time you find yourself in a desert season, for that is the love of your heavenly Father. Feel the comfort of this rod and his staff, and the love of his chastisement, for he is treating you as his children.

Wondering in the wilderness,
Danny