Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Reflections on the Old Testament

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Back in August of 2019 I decided to do a word study on 'desert'...look up all the references in the Bible and see what I could learn.  Most every Friday since 8/9/19 we've been looking at 'desert' and we have now come to the end of the Old Testament.  I thought, before I jump into the New Testament I'd take a post to reflect on what I have found so far, overall.

I had felt, for quite a while, that I was in a spiritual desert.  I won't go into the reasons why, but, well, it was a very dry season.  Then I had an amazing trip to Israel and was completely undone by the savage beauty of the Judean desert.  I wasn't expecting the desert to be a place of breath taking landscapes.  So I embarked on a trip through the biblical 'desert', so to speak..and at times have also found myself blown away by what I saw there.

Some of the things I've pondered so far...

1) Ways to find oneself in the desert... we can flee to the desert, as Moses did to avoid his murder rap, or as David did to escape Saul; we can be led by God into the desert, as the Israelites were; or God can turn the place where we are into desert around us.  Each of these has a purpose.  Moses wandered around the desert until God called him out of it; David moved around the desert, sometimes just barely ahead of his enemies, until he went into hiding in Ziklag. And it just occurred to me that, with David in Ziklag, or pursuing Amalekites, he was completely free of any accusation that he had brought about the demise of the house of Saul at Gilboa.  It kept him free from even suspicion of plotting for the kingship.  Every time someone has been led into the desert, it was to test/ remove their reliance on themselves and teach them to rely on God.  But the land turning to desert was always a judgment.

2) Coming out of the desert, one is prepared and poised for victory.  Moses over Pharaoh, Joshua and Israel over the Canaanites, David over Goliath.

3) The desert is a place of preparation, even if it seems to last a long time (Caleb).

4) The desert is a place to be restored and renewed in purpose (Elijah)

5) Are we willing to go into the desert in obedience, risking defeat, in order to see God's hand at work? (Jehoshaphat)

6) With his own people, God used droughts, invaders, even exile and desolation as judgment but he always had a promise of restoration and blessing.  But for nations that never followed him...his judgment was absolute. Owls. Wild goats. Jackals.  (from Isaiah)

 7) I need to take a hard look at what appears to be unfruitful.  Am I just in a season of rest before release?  Or am I in preparation for a season of fruitfulness?  Or have I wandered into a dry and barren place because of my own choices...a place that will never be fruitful? (from Joel)

8) While the scripture tells us that God loves all individuals and does not want any of them to perish, nations are a different issue.  God has specifically said that nations would be judged on their treatment of his people, and that the nations who stand against Israel will ultimately face the consequences of that decision...and 'desert' is frequently used in the description of those consequences.  (from Malachi)

I had a hard time narrowing the findings down, but once I filtered on those that referenced desert, specifically...that's my list. 

It was good to go back an re-read all the posts, although it did take a while. There were a lot of posts that dealt more with what was revealed in the desert...or related to the desert...or what happened in the desert...than the desert itself, but that's ok.  There was some deep stuff there.

Dare I ask...because I get so few comments, I  hesitate to ask because that makes the '0 Comments' even more pitiful, but because discussion is good I am asking anyway...has anyone out there gotten a new insight or challenge or whatever from the desert verses in the Old Testament?

Heading into the New Testament next week...

 

 

 

A Blot of Mustard or an Underdone Potato? Or Something Else?

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been a minute since I posted a dream...to be honest, it's been a LONG minute since I had a dream even worth writing down. But this one stuck with me and when I accidentally hit 'New Post' instead of 'Stats' when I dropped by today I thought, 'Ok, I'll do it.'  Make of it what you will...too much news late at night?  A blot of mustard or underdone potato?  Or something worth thinking about?  

I don't know.  But here it is...

I dreamed I was a part of an international police task force tailing a terrorist cell around Europe. At times, we were closing in on them; other times, they nearly cornered us.  Ultimately, we learned that they intended to blow up an ancient church building in a remote village.  

This was not a cathedral or even a very large building, but it was old.  There was only one clergyman there to officiate services if anyone came.  We tailed the cell to the church for an evening service.  They were planning to go in and covertly plant explosives, but they had weapons in case the authorities involved them in a shoot out.  They were all wearing purple t-shirts and zip front purple hoodies, and a good number of them...thirty or so...headed into the church before an evening service.  We were in plainclothes, and our team leader sent us in to keep an eye on them. 'Don't worry, ' she said, 'I have a plan.'

Within a few minutes a whole slew of people from my home church began arriving (even in the dream, I wondered how they got there...to this remote village in Europe...from our town in the US, lol).  I tried to warn them not to tip off the people in purple that our leader had sent them, but they seemed unconcerned about that and were excited to attend the service. They were expecting to see God work.  The normally deserted church was full of people, between the people in purple, the folks from church and the handful of special agents.

On one hand, I thought it was brilliant...with so many people there, the terrorists could not plant their explosives without being seen. But on the other, I was worried that they would feel threatened and blow up/ shoot up the place with the people in it.  But as the service started, the poor clergyman was at a loss at having so many people, and the folks from our church took up a worship song and just began singing and praying.  One by one, they all went over and embraced one of the people in purple, praying over them.

The terrorists were completely rattled by this and didn't know how to deal with it.  Most of them slipped out and away but a few of them actually stayed with the church group and returned to the US with them, ending their relationship with the terrorist group.  Then I woke up.

Here's what struck me about the dream...the church was old.  Neglected, nearly abandoned.  The 'terrorists' were, by and large, kids between the ages of 12 - 16, with just a few adults as leaders. They seemed to want to avoid harming people, but they did want to destroy the old church. The folks who came from our church were not pastors or leaders, just regular folks who attend Sunday Services.  Some of them were even rather irregular attenders.  The actions of those regular folks...caring for and praying for the people in purple... routed the threat and even reduced the opposing force...which was mostly comprised of kids who had been radicalized.   I have no idea if the color purple was significant, lol.

I am pondering this one today...

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Wrapping up the Old Testament

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

There are 5 references to 'desert' left in the Old Testament: There are two in Amos, then we have one in Habakkuk, one in Zephaniah and one in Malachi. 

Amos is a sobering book, relating the sin of the people and the coming judgment.

"I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you forty years in the desert to give you the land of the Amorites.  I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men.  Is this not true, people of Israel?" declares the LORD.  "But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy."  Amos 2:10-12

"Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel? You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god which you made for yourselves.  Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD whose name is God Almighty. -- Amos 5:25-27

Both of these passages in Amos refer to the history of the Israelites in the desert...the forty years in which God provided for them  and they worshiped him.  But, he says, they have abandoned him.  It's interesting that he includes Nazirites along with the prophets as 'raised up'...that is, given a purpose to fulfill among the people.  Nazirites were men who took a vow of service to God; during the (generally specified and rarely...but occasionally...life-long) period of the vow, there was a whole list of specific things they were to refrain from doing, touching, or eating...among the specifics were that they were not to cut their hair and they were not to consume any grape-related product.  They were to be set apart for a purpose.  But the Israelites 'made the Nazirites drink wine'...they caused those set-apart ones to behave like the rest of the nation, and they refused to allow the prophets to speak the words God commanded them to speak. THEN...they gave their honor and their worship to people and things other than God Almighty, who brought them through the desert to their own land.

Oh, man, does this ever sound contemporary...or is it just me?

Moving on...

Habakkuk prophesied to the nation of Judah, immediately before the invasion of the Babylonians.  The Babylonians are specifically named in 1:6, then described in the following verses; one of which uses the word 'desert':

"they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand." Hab 1:9

A desert wind drives the sand in front of it...and the Babylonians hauled countless Judeans off to exile in Babylon...and God was going to allow it, owing to the idolatry of his people.

The next passage is in Zephaniah.  Chapter 2 is a list of judgments against the peoples who have opposed/ oppressed Israel; verses 13 and 14 mention the desert; I'm going to include verse 15:

He wills stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert.  Flocks and herds will lie down there, creatures of every kind.  The desert owl and the screech owl will roost on her columns.  Their calls will echo through the windows, rubble will be in the doorways, the beams of cedar will be exposed. This is the carefree city that lived in safety.  She said to herself, "I am, and there is none besides me."  What a ruin she has become, a lair for wild beasts!  Zeph. 2:13-15.

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the nation that carried off the northern kingdom of Israel/Samaria to exile from which they never truly returned...the Ten Lost Tribes.  Even she, in all the military power she had, was brought to ruin...because she thought she was self-sustaining.  Nope.

The final 'desert' verse in the Old Testament is in Malachi, and is a difficult passage, to say the least.

"I have loved you," says the LORD.  But you ask, "How have you loved us?"  "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says.  "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."  -- Malachi 1:2-3

I have seen several different explanations for this passage; Jacob, of course, was the younger twin who actually received the inheritance...the blessing...due to the older brother.  Esau's version of the story is that Jacob tricked him or stole it, but if you go back and read it you'll see that Esau despised it and gave it away to satisfy his physical appetite, only to regret his choice later (Gen. 25:29-34).  There was no trickery or subterfuge involved in Esau's surrendering of his birthright...which included the blessing from his father.  Esau himself was part of a plot to sneak it back from Jacob, but Jacob out tricked him there.  But even then, that wasn't to steal something from Esau...it was to collect what Esau had already given up.  God did bless Esau, because he was Isaac's son, but the descendants of Esau later not only failed to give aid to their cousins Israel/ Judah, but even rejoiced over them when they were attacked and looted the refugees and handed them over to their attackers (Ob. 2:10-14).  A nation without covenant, they were rejected and obliterated.  I think the point here is that  Jacob (Israel/Judah) was preserved and restored to their lands after exile....Esau  (Edom) has passed from the knowledge of men, and the lands that were theirs are now owned by other people who cannot trace their ancestry. Jacob/Israel was favored by God; Esau/Edom was not.  While the scripture tells us that God loves all individuals and does not want any of them to perish, nations are a different issue.  God has specifically said that nations would be judged on their treatment of his people, and that the nations who stand against Israel will ultimately face the consequences of that decision...and 'desert' is frequently used in the description of those consequences. 

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Joel

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I had planned to cover references mentioning 'desert' in both Joel and Amos today, as they each have only two, but as I worked through Joel I realized that the message from those two verses needs a week of its own to ponder.  I may have messed up my plan for the next couple of weeks, but Joel needs a selah at the end so I couldn't go on...

Joel has no historical reference point, other than a plague of locusts; the 8th or 9th century BC is about as close as the notes place it.  But it is quoted more than 20 times in the New Testament.  There are two references to desert:

"Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.  Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming.  It is close at hand -- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.  Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes.  Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste -- nothing escapes them." -Joel 2:1-3

"But Egypt will be desolate, Edom a desert waste, because of violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood." -- Joel 3:19

There's a whole big gap between those verses in which judgment against and restoration of Judah is detailed, along with declarations of judgment against other nations.  The phrase 'desert waste' is used to describe the state after the judgment falls for both Judah and the nations of Egypt and Edom; an emphatic phrase.  Not just hot and dry...completely barren and unproductive.

As I was pondering that, I thought 'judgment isn't the only thing that will result in barrenness'; I thought of the farmers who were instructed to let their fields lie fallow for a year to rest the soil, or of winter, the season where nothing is producing...but then I realized that no, I was wrong.  Those are not non-productive circumstances...they are differently productive circumstances.  The fallow field is not barren or unproductive...it is uncultivated.  Anything that grew wild was allowed to grow and produce, and the Israelites could eat anything that grew wild. They just had to give up control of it.  And the winter season may not produce fruit or greenery, but roots are growing and preparation is made for productivity.  Rest - preparation- releasing control are all seasons we go through that do, ultimately, produce a harvest if we don't give up.  But desert waste is utterly fruitless; a judgment place, with no productivity, and needs repentance to shift.  There is no harvest in the desert waste.  

We need discernment to know the difference.  The first two situations need trust...the other needs repenting.

I need to take a hard look at what appears to be unfruitful.  Am I just in a season of rest and release?  Or am I in preparation for a season of fruitfulness?  Or have I wandered into a dry and barren place because of my own choices...a place that will never be fruitful? 

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Hosea

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So, in our look at the word 'desert' through the Bible we have arrived at the Minor Prophets...which are called the 'Minor Prophets' not because they are not significant but because they are, by and large, very short.  We have  twelve books left in the Old Testament, and, as it happens, twelve verses/ passages that refer to 'desert'.  Not all the books have a desert reference, of course, and nearly half of them are in the book of Hosea...so that's where we will be today.

Hosea is an interesting story; his life is a prophetic illustration of God's relationship to his people.  If you've never read it, have a look through.  

But we're here to see what Hosea says about the desert, so...here are the five references, with immediate context as needed:

"Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.  Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.  Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst."  - Hos 2:2 - 3

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her; there I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.  In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master'." - Hos. 2:14-16

"When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.  But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved."  - Hos. 9:10

"I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat.  When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me." - Hos. 13:5 - 6

"I will have no compassion, even though he thrives among his brothers.  An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up.  His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.  The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God.  They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open."   -- Hos. 13:14b-16

It is worth noting that, according to Mr. Scofield's notes included in my NIV study Bible, Hosea prophesied during the years leading up to and following the Assyrian defeat of the northern kingdom of Israel (referred to as Samaria).  

 Israel, of course, is allegorically 'your mother'; this is both a reference to God's dealings with Israel and Hosea's dealings with his adulterous wife, Gomer.  We see the whole of the relationship...from marriage to adultery to separation and unfaithfulness to redemption and restoration in the first four chapters. God's dealings with Israel, however, were to play out over centuries...

So,  with that  in mind, the desert verses have a bit of context.  If Israel didn't repent, God would strip her of all he had provided, leaving her with nothing; dry, parched.  But with nothing, he could take her to the desert...where their relationship was originally forged...and remind her of who she was and where she came from and restore the relationship.

And we tell the story again, with a different allegory.  Israel was full of potential; but they deserted God to serve idols and their potential failed.  Satisfied and complacent, they forgot what God did for them, because they did not perceive their need for him.  So, God would dry up their crops and their sustenance, then allow savage conquerors to overtake them (all detailed in Deuteronomy as the results of forgetting God and their covenant with him).

I really would have preferred not to quote that whole passage at the end, but I felt like the whole judgment needed to be included.  It is horrific; the slaughter of babies and mamas is not only horrible because of the innocent suffering but also because...that was the next generation of the nation.  It was a common, deliberate action of invading armies, to cut off the hope and the future of the people they defeated. All God did was remove his protection of the people; the power-hungry Assyrians did the rest.  God wasn't declaring what he would do in verse 16...he was just describing what would happen when the invaders, whom he was no longer preventing, attacked.

When I was in the middle of working on this post, our internet went down; it was a temp problem with the modem and is now corrected, but it took a while to run it down so I've had a rather interrupted thought process. One phrase has been kind of echoing in my spirit through all of it..."The people...must bear their guilt, because they rebelled against their God."  God is ever willing to forgive, but people in rebellion against him are not in a position to be forgiven. Repentance is the key to forgiveness, and repentance means changing.  People in rebellion will bear their guilt right into the consequences.