Mark 6:31-32 (ESV)
[31] And he said to them, “Come
away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming
and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the
boat to a desolate place by themselves.
We tend to see the wilderness as
a place of rest. We go there to get away from the busyness and the crowds. We
go camping, hiking, hunting. . . We love the wilderness. But that was not the
case in Jesus’ day. The wilderness was a place of danger and a lack of
provisions. The wilderness was considered the haunt of demons. Thus we see the
demoniac living in a cave in Mark 5. It was a place of thieves and wild
animals. But a theme that runs through the Scriptures is the idea of God
providing rest for his people in the wilderness. (Thanks for William Lane’s
commentary on Mark to open my eyes to this truth.)
In the Exodus God led his people
into the wilderness where he provided for them, protected them, and entered
into a covenant with them. The very place no one would go is the place God met
his people. At times our lives feel like wilderness. Anxiety rises, grief crushes,
fear grips our hearts, external demands overwhelm us. It feels very much like a
wilderness. Yet it is in the wilderness that the rest of God is experienced. When
we come to the end of ourselves, we find God’s full provision. When we cannot
go on, we find God’s strength. When we are crushed, we find God’s grace and
joy. Joy in the midst of a wilderness experience is an interesting and amazing
experience. It comes when we stop looking for joy and look only for God.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Surprised
by Joy, “I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for
Joy.” In a world of almost unlimited pleasures, it takes a wilderness to strip
them all away and turn us toward the ultimate source of joy. God provided rest
for his people in the wilderness.
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