Deep in my heart, I am madly in love with human beings. We are the most incredibly unique, wildly powerful and intelligent beings, even arguably genius status. Admittedly, we also make some of the most awful decisions and commit the most heinous crimes. How do we find ourselves, even as Christians, struggling so often to find a sustained faith and consistent progress in our journeys?
The Bible is beautifully simplistic and at the same time housing unsearchable depths of God’s wisdom and goodness. If we are open to it, there is much to say about what’s not said in the Bible. We know very little of what Jesus’s life was like for the better part of three decades, however through historical research of that period, piecing together Biblical calendars, Jewish and rabbinical practices, coupled with looking at the life of Jesus through the gospel stories, we can gather much about his life that was not said in the pages of scripture.
What we do know is that as soon as Jesus walked in obedience through baptism, he was led by the spirit of God into the wilderness. Matthew 4:1. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” The humanity of Jesus often eludes us, but truthfully, even if we have simply fasted out of biblical discipline or spiritual enlightenment, most of us struggle to fast for one full day, let alone a 40 day and 40-night stint. Utter depletion was upon Jesus, and then came the tempting by satan, but testing by God. Three questions from the satan himself, and three scripturally accurate rebuttals from Jesus. The result is satan fleeing and spiritual beings ministering to Jesus. Although the Bible doesn’t say it, clearly there had been some equipping in Jesus’s life to not only sustain faithfulness through fasting, but to finish strong.
Regardless, there is much going on behind the scenes of Jesus’s interaction with the satan and it parallels a story in the Old Testament. Most of us know the story of the exile from slavery out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, but often what’s overlooked for us is also what the Israelites overlooked as well in the wilderness. We know that both the Israelites and Jesus had just come out of the water before heading into the wilderness. In the Bible, water often signifies chaos. In the beginning, when the spirit of God was hovering over the waters of the deep, the gives us a description of what life before God interacts with it can look like. Dark, uncontrolled, violent, and unpredictable. Pure chaos. As God brings forth land, we first see the life breathing characteristic of the creator of the cosmos. In the same way, a believers baptism signifies the reaction to an interaction with a life breathing God. They are lowered into the chaotic waters of life for the last time and are risen into a brand-new life.
The hope and promise of a new life are exactly what Israel stepped in to when they stepped out of the Red Sea. The final ascent up the shores on to free land for the first time began the echo of Psalm 136:12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever. Just like baptism, this step into their new life was simply the beginning. It was the beginning of a new way of doing things thus signifying the importance of being trained and equipped to withstand the seemingly impossible giants that stood in the way of the final journey to the promised land.
When Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father, except through me”, he meant it. The blood of Jesus shatters the divide that our sin created, and there’s no other way to atone for our sins, but it’s simply the beginning. We are in desperate need to be trained and equipped to withstand the seemingly impossible giants that may stand in the way of our journey through this life and to the Father.
If we move too quick, we can miss an important element of God’s character displayed in Matthew 4:!
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” The word tempted is the Greek word peirazó. to make proof of, to attempt, test, tempt, however it is used In the negative context.
James 1:2-4. My brothers and sisters] consider it nothing but joy] when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. (NET)
IN this passage, the Greek word for trials is dokimion, meaning- a testing or what is found approved. This testing, or a process or being made complete by the testing of our faith, is very good or Tov.
Both words in this form have significantly similar meanings, however the word tempted in Matthew 4 is in the negative form, or Ra (peirazō) meaning “tempt" by means of luring. This is not a character trait of God. Later in his letter, James 1:13 states When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; Although God will not tempt, he still can use the corrupt schemes of the evil forces as way to test our character. This again is a parallel to God seemingly handing Job over to the sons of God and satan. (sons of God…) for the testing of his character to be found worthy of righteousness and faithfulness to YHWH.
Jesus found himself on this same journey as he stepped from baptism into this wilderness space.
As we step out of the sea and on the shores of uncertainty, our option is to choose to embrace the goodness this equipping period can bring or harness ourselves back into the slavery of own old lives.
Could it be that the Israelites were facing a trial in this new season of life as way to be trained up and equipped by the loving hands of a caring Father in order to withstand the battles journeying in to the promised land? He had brought them this far through profound means of escape, to consider God stopping at this point would have been heinous, or so we say. Tempting is from satan by means of an attempt to lure while testing is from God by means of producing endurance. James goes on to say And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. (NET).
Coming out of a 400 plus year stay in Egypt, this nation of people needed to be taught how to do things the way of God’s kingdom. It was for their good, and God’s glory. Had the Levitical law been lived out according to its intention, this nation of people would have had such profound impact, other nations would have not helped but take notice and be drawn in to such a beautiful culture.
A contronym is when one word can have two different meanings. Although today we don’t use the word kingdom in our everyday language, we often operate under the ruling of many kingdoms. Our nation is often viewed as a kingdom, if not the strongest kingdom of all kingdoms in the eyes of many. We tend to create our own mini kingdoms either by our nationalities, our blood lines, or even our homesteads. The time we spend investing in these areas can certainly look like worship or idolatry, but what trips us up is our tendency to build vertically.
God has a kingdom which cannot be shaken regardless of our efforts to rebel against it or the attempts of the dark evil forces to lure us away from him.
The way God’s kingdom operates is contrary to the ways of the world. God’s kingdom is horizontal, signifying the gift and purpose of diversity amongst all the people. No one person is better or higher in stature, but all created equal although incredibly different. There is but one king amongst a sea of brethren. God’s kingdom is built solely on the foundation of love that never ceases to bring forth life. To this day, our universe is constantly expanding. New stars are being born and galaxies discovered. If we can see through the mess of our daily lives, we can also see new life being formed each day around us. God never stops producing and expanding. This is what you and I were made to do. This is our purpose as the church. We were created by THE life source, the author and perfecter of life, the well that never runs dry. God is also aware of the effect that the kingdoms of this world can have on our nephesh. Although we don’t use the word nephesh in our daily language, contextually here it is important. Although Hebraically nephesh is defined as our soul, we often think of our soul as a separate part of the entire whole of who we are. Our nephesh is every part of who we are down to the deepest part of our composition. Our nephesh is all encompassing and when we bow down to kingdoms of this world, or in the case of the Israelites who had been under to rule of a tyrannical system for over 400 years, it takes reconstruction upon one’s nephesh to learn once again or for the first time the SOP or standard operating practices of God’s kingdom.
The wilderness can often produce the greatest bounty of fruit within our lives.
As the kingdom of the world tells us to gather from around us to store up treasures in our barns, Jesus continues to teach and to guide us to the truth that true life can only be generated from the inside out. He uses examples of that of a mustard seed. He gave them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the wild birds] come and nest in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-33
The wilderness is what’s considered a liminal space. Liminal is translated as threshold as in the threshold of a doorway. It’s a space that is not quite outside yet not fully inside either. It’s a transition point. It’s the place where we know we are not where we used to be, but we are not yet where we are intended to go. Our tendency is to view these times in life in a negative context, however, in God’s kingdom, what can only be produced through testings in the wilderness has the potential to produce the highest dividend in our lives, yet we see it through a negative lens and put our best foot forward to get out of the spaces and seasons of life as quickly as possible. Many of us are praying for breakthrough in areas of our lives, but at the same time we are not willing to allow God to teach us what the breakthrough may look like and how to get there. These liminal spaces will force us quickly to realize how much control we still desire of our own lives and see clearly the personal kingdom we’ve created.
We know there’s much about Jesus’s life that we are unaware of, but what we do know is that directly out of baptism he was led by the spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. At the end of this wilderness season, immediately angels came to minister to him. Matthew 4:11. This opens up the door of the goodness of God’s kingdom displayed through the life of Jesus. In fact John said this
“ Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Yet, God has an even bigger plan for the whole of humanity operating through the Kingdom of God. Jesus is recorded saying this in John 14:12. “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
The only pathway for us to experience this type of life, a land truly flowing with milk and honey from the core of who we are, is to be built up, equipped and empowered by God in liminal spaces. The world calls the wilderness Ra. The Israelites did too. They had everything they needed to survive and were on a journey to thrive, but still found themselves not just complaining, but being so caught up in only what they knew that they didn’t have the faith to trust God with what they don’t know. That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” Numbers 14:1-3
Let us not be so quick to judge the lack of faith and the desire to control of that of the Israelites. This is us, too. We have bought in to the lie that these wilderness seasons of life, surrendered to God, cannot produce far greater than what we could ask or imagine. We are all too familiar with liminal spaces. We can be in multiple wilderness seasons at the same time, or around the corner from another one. Eschatologically, we are in a liminal space. Jesus has defeated the forces of darkness and provided for us a pathway to exceptional life, but we are still waiting his return, and a culmination of all things made right. The question becomes whether we as the bride of Christ are willing to receive from this wilderness season the chiseling, purifying, and equipping that is necessary to present ourselves as a spotless bride. “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:27.
Maybe today, we don’t necessarily seek to create wilderness seasons or find the liminal spaces, but in humility we can begin to see the power within them. Most of us are somewhat lofty in our thinking, even if we think poorly of ourselves. We still allow the Ra to have more say over our lives and the lives of others than the Tov that God has for us. Exquisite goodness was on the other side of this forming season for the Israelites, yet they threw it all away for the slavery that was familiar to them.
We are designed in the image of God and thus we are designed to bring forth life in everything that we do, yet if we are not allowing God to do the work beginning on the inside of our minds and hearts, lasting fruit cannot be produced.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2
Friend, you are designed to bring forth fruit and bring it abundantly. Be the one today who considers it pure joy when you face a trial of many kinds, believing that the testing, the equipping, the chiseling, the forming by the hand of God, can produce a steadfastness within us that leads to complete wholeness and maturity, unshakable by the feeble attempts of a broken world.
