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...