Two Kinds Of Wildernesses

The wilderness is a place that captures the imagination and stirs the soul. Native Americans, for example, will journey into the wilderness on a vision quest; thrill seekers will flock to the mountains and remote places in search of adventure; those who are overworked will retreat there for peace and solitude; and Christians will even go camping in the wilderness for the purpose of fasting and praying unto God.

The wilderness seems to beckon to people. Jack London authored a book entitled The Call of the Wild, and songwriter John Denver once asked, “Does the call of the wild ever sing through the midst of your dreams?” In the Bible, King David declared, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness” (Ps 55:6-7).

There’s an intrinsic romanticism concerning the wilderness. In the physical, it represents peace and finding oneself. In the spiritual, however, it can represent confusion and becoming lost to oneself, and realizing a deafening silence from God. Whenever the Lord allows His children to enter a spiritual wilderness, there’s nothing romantic about it! The wilderness is a place one hopes to flee!

There was once a distinguished painter who was conducting a class for aspiring artists. He was speaking on the subject of artistic composition. He emphasized that it was wrong, for example, to portray a wooded area, a forest or a wilderness, without painting into it a path out of the trees. When a true artist draws or paints any kind of picture, such as a landscape, he always gives the picture an “out.” Otherwise the tangle of trees and the trackless spaces depress and dismay the onlooker.(1)

The same thing can happen in your spiritual life whenever you feel as though you’re in a wilderness. If life ever appears as a tangled mass of branches or a dark forest with no way out, then you can become down and discouraged, and even distant in your relationship with the Lord.

Somewhere along your spiritual journey you might enter a spell in life where you will feel as though you’re in a vast wilderness with no way out. In our message tonight, I’m going to discuss two possible reasons why you might enter a wilderness period, and show you how to make it through to the other side; as we view both the “sin-driven wilderness” and “Spirit-driven wilderness.”

A Sin-Driven Wilderness (Numbers 14:26-35)

Sometimes when you have a wilderness experience in your life, it’s the result of sin. This is called a “sin-driven wilderness” – one where you are driven into the wilderness because of “your own” sin. This is what happened to the Israelites. The Bible says in Numbers 14:26-37:

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.”

“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in’.”

“‘But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection’.”

“‘I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die’” (Numbers 14:26-35).

The Lord said, “The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness” (Nm 14:29). The sin mentioned in these verses that resulted in being driven into the wilderness was “complaining against God.” Complaining was just one manifestation of hearts that were full of sin and lacking faith in God’s deliverance. Since we’ve studied this passage before, this is a bit of a review; however, a review is necessary to get to the heart of the message.

In Numbers thirteen, we read where the Lord sent twelve spies from the tribes of Israel on a reconnaissance mission into Canaan to check out its bounty. When they returned, they reported how it was a land flowing with milk and honey just as the Lord had promised; however, they also brought back a negative report of how the land was occupied with giants whom they could not overcome. This is when they began to become fearful and complain.