Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WILDERNESS

Literally, a place not inhabited by human beings. As such, it came to be considered the natural habitation of demons (Matt. 12:43; Luke 8:29). The word does not necessarily imply a bleak, desert area, only one not inhabited by human beings.

By far the majority of biblical references are to the wilderness of Sinai in which the Israelites wandered for 40 years. At least three significant theological ideas became associated with that wilderness: covenant, miraculous provision, and judgment. It was in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai that Israel was given the law and became the covenant people of God. This apparently became idealized as a time of covenant faithfulness (Jer. 2:2). Hosea and Ezekiel predicted that God would lead Israel again into the wilderness to renew the covenant (Hos. 2:14[MT 16]; Ezek. 34:25). Concerning miraculous provision, God is said to have found “Jacob” in a howling waste of a wilderness and to have cared for him (Deut. 32:10; cf. Hos. 9:10). Israel is repeatedly exhorted to remember how God led her in the wilderness (Deut. 8:2; 29:5; cf. Amos 2:10). The provision of manna in the wilderness is referred to in Deut. 8:16 and is implied in Neh. 9:21; Hos. 13:5-6 (cf. Jer. 31:2; Rev. 12:6).

More common than references to God’s covenant or provision in the wilderness are passages referring to God’s judgment. Most frequently mentioned is the death of the original generation that came out of Egypt (except Joshua and Caleb) because of their lack of faith (Num. 14:22-23, 29, 32, 35; Josh. 5:6; Ps. 95:8-11; Ezek. 20:15). Additional references detail God’s judgment in the wilderness during the period of the Hebrew Kingdoms and later. God threatens to make the rivers like a wilderness (Isa. 50:2). Isaiah laments that Zion has become a wilderness (Isa. 64:10). Ezekiel and Jeremiah convey a threat that God will make Israel like a wilderness (Jer. 22:6; Ezek. 6:14), and Jeremiah laments this judgment as already being realized (Jer. 4:26; 12:10). Biblical writers also spoke of God’s judging foreign nations in the wilderness, or predicted that the judgment would be like a wilderness. Edom is predicted to become a desolate wilderness because of violence done to Jacob (Joel 3:19[4:19]). God promises to make Nineveh “dry like a wilderness” (Zeph. 2:13) and to abandon Pharaoh in the wilderness (Ezek. 29:5). Isaiah in particular employs the theme of judgment reversal, of making the wilderness fruitful (Isa. 35:1, 6; 41:18-19; 43:19-20; 51:3).

NT writers refer to wilderness only sparingly. Jesus’ disciples question where they are to get food in the wilderness (Matt. 15:33). Paul mentions being in danger in the wilderness (2 Cor. 11:26). Most prominently, the wilderness is the locus of the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:7; cf. 3:1; Mark 1:4; Luke 7:24).

See Desert.

Joe E. Lunceford

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WILDERNESS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)