Day 7 – Monday, February 20, 2024
Title: IN THE WILDERNESS

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NKJV)
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Poetry & Poet: 
from “The Wasteland”
by T.S. Eliot

After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that
cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
        If there were water

And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

IN THE WILDERNESS

The wilderness. Now there’s a phrase that captures meaning even before trying to figure out exactly where we’re going. A quick Google search defines “wilderness” as an environment void of human interaction––a place where the earth just grows alone. We coin the phrase “going out into the wild” with the intentionality of materialistically getting away from it all or perhaps roughing it on a camping trip in the backcountry. We tend to think of the wilderness as a place––rivers, valleys, forests, vast deserts––with animals, sure––but without people. The wilderness is a place of aloneness, isolation, and a place where nature runs…literally, wild.

We see the wilderness in Scripture, represented as a dry, barren place where the people who did venture into it were wandering, lost, and seemingly far from refuge, and really, the salvation of finding home. The wilderness is referred to as a desert waste (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 68:7), a dry place (Psalms 78:17; 105:41), an unoccupied place without form (Deuteronomy 32:10: Job 12:24; Genesis 1:2), and we of course know about the wilderness wanderings of Israel (Exodus 16:1-14; Psalms 78:19, 40, 52; 95:8). In today’s verse in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul likens the Corinthian church to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings stemming from their exodus from Egypt.

But the wilderness can mean so much more than the physical place of the overgrown unknown. Revelation refers to the wilderness as a spiritual condition of dryness and emptiness (11:3; 12:6; 14-17:3-6). And really, that seemingly represents the lost and conflicted nature of both the Corinthians and Israelites within the Scriptures. They are lost in the physical wilderness and they are lost in spirit. But here’s the thing––while the physical representation of the wilderness is visually powerful and being literally lost is palpable, the intangible wilderness is a dangerous place indeed.

The intangible wilderness is an isolating place where we are held captive by our thoughts. We see that in the art, which depicts the artist, tortured and searching for inspiration, creativity, meaning, and purpose. Emanating from a single focal point and swirling around as if to represent an entire life lived in a moment of human fate, the stress and turmoil expressed in light and dark captures the conflict, the temptation, and the confusion of one’s own inner reality and the raw angst that we suffer from within. The enemy likes nothing more than to turn the wilderness of the soul into an internal warzone, or worse, a limbo––where, like in the poem for today, we read of confusion, ambiguity, and the longing for peace that seems so far away.

That’s what the Israelites were looking for but could not recognize it. That’s what Paul was imploring the Corinthian church to do differently––to resist temptation, remain faithful in the Lord, and to choose the path out of our inner wilderness that truly does surpass all understanding. After all, doing this provides what we all in a way are trying to find––and really, what is the opposite of the inner wilderness––peace.

PRAYER
Dear Father in heaven, we pray that in the stress and chaos of this world, that we can wrestle and tame the inner wilderness of our souls. That we can remember the fate of Israel and the words of Paul to the Corinthian church and choose the will of our Lord for our lives, which produces the peace and joy of traveling within the plan the Lord has for us.
Amen. 

Anna Sinclair
Assistant Professor of Public Relations
Biola University