In most cases, a desert landscape does not arouse pleasant feelings. We think of a dry and barren area that is depressing and uninhabitable, and does not invite one to spend much time there. Yet not everything is said with this. If you are seeking rest and quiet, the desert may be an appropriate place.

I even read that today desert holidays are being organized; for example, with a camel through the Sahara, sleeping under the stars. Therefore, we don’t have to approach the idea of a desert in a totally negative way. That was not the case in the Bible either. But is the Christian church also living in a desert today (see title)? In this article I would like to say more about this.

Two Sides⤒🔗

In the Old Testament, in general, the term “desert” has a negative sound. For the Israelite, it was an area that was feared because of its dryness and its dangers. The desert was the antithesis of cultivated land, particularly the cultivated land of Canaan, the promised land. Death and decay lurked there, especially as a result of hunger and thirst, but also because of hostile desert dwellers and the great possibility of losing one’s way. Yet the desert is also referred to in more positive ways. It can be a place where God lets himself be sought and worshipped. It is sometimes a place where you can hide yourself, as we see in David’s history, for example. Furthermore, certain promises are made to the desert by the mouth of the prophets. The desert will rejoice and the wilderness will bloom as a lily, says the beginning of Isaiah 35. Thus, the separation between cultivated land and desert is not an eternal separation.

What does the word “desert” refer to? In many cases, when we hear this word, we can think of the desert between Egypt and Palestine, the so-called Sinai desert. That was the area through which God’s people journeyed on their way to Canaan, as described in the books of Moses (Exodus to Deuteronomy). That was the way God chose at that time for his people. He did not want them to go through the land of the Philistines, since that could have led to military engagement: “So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea” (Exodus 13:18). The desert journey was not a judgment or punishment on the people, but it was certainly a test. God wanted to test if his people would expect all things from him alone. From God’s side, he could, and he also wanted to, fully provide for all their needs in the desert. This often happened in a miraculous manner, as with the manna, the bread that daily rained from heaven. The circumstances never work against God. He sets them up as he wishes.

But in the end, the mindset of the people did work against him. The people were repeatedly unbelieving and unwilling to learn, and this came to a head in the history of the scouts who went to check out the land (or spies as we know them). Then God could no longer move forward with his people, and he sent them back into the desert. From that moment on, the desert showed a different face to them. We notice that when we read what Moses wrote to the people after 40 years in the desert looking back: about “the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water” (Deuteronomy 8:15). God again takes the care of Israel upon himself, but the desert has, as it were, changed colour. Now it is a place of punishment where everyone above the age of twenty will sooner or later die. Because of this the memory of the journey through the desert is later not positive; indeed, it is the opposite.

The Way Back←⤒🔗

Later, when the people of God had already been living in Canaan for a long time, things again went wrong. Think particularly about the time of the kings, when first the ten tribes, but later also Judah, fell away from God and began to serve the Baals or other gods instead of him. Naturally, God could not turn a blind eye to this. In the marriage of the prophet Hosea with an adulterous woman, he let the people, metaphorically, see their own situation. And, is there then also a proclamation of punishment? Yes, certainly, we can read that in Hosea 2:4-13. Yet this is not God’s last word. After the end of his announcement of coming judgment, there follows a dramatic turn. The content of Hosea 2:14 is so significant and so overflowing with mercy that someone has called it the most glorious passage of the whole Old Testament. God says there, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” And then, in Hosea 2:15, God promises that he will change the hearts of his people: “And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.”

That is certainly a remarkable prophecy. God accompanies his people on the way back, and the people truly go with him. For God has persuaded them with his love. As the bridegroom, he allures his people, his bride, to go back to the desert through that she had journeyed long ago, for the sake of making a new beginning. It is a second love, but with the same woman.

Why, exactly, to the desert? Here, another aspect of the desert is of significance. A desert is quiet and isolated. There, a loving couple can make each other happy without being disturbed. The marriage between Yahweh and his people is renewed, so to speak. The time in the desert was like a honeymoon between God and his people—honeymoon years with manna. Jeremiah also speaks in this manner about God and his people:

Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:2-3

 And in Jeremiah 2:2b, Jeremiah says, “Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.”

That time of love between God and his people will return, proclaims Hosea, for God’s love cannot be extinguished by the apostasy of his people. He cannot allow his bride to remain unfaithful to him. Therefore, he will reawaken and restore the love of his people through his own love. That does not mean that God literally returns to the Sinai desert. The desert is now a metaphor for the beautiful beginning that will be repeated in the future. Here we can think of the new deeds of God in the subsequent history of his people, such as their return from exile. But we can also think of periods and moments in church history, of every reformation that signified a return to the beginning.

Haven of Refuge←⤒🔗

In the Bible, the desert is also a place where you can seek safety, where you can take your refuge in God and experience his faithful care. When the devil can no longer seize the Child of God and directs his anger at the woman, the desert becomes a safe refuge: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God” (Revelation 12:6). Here the desert should not be understood as a geographical location, but rather as a metaphor for a situation in which you are cared for and kept safe by God, a place where you may find asylum with God.

It is noteworthy that in church history, this image becomes reality. In order to seek God and to be close to God, some Christians later entered the desert of North Africa to practice their religion there and eventually founded monasteries there. For example, you can think of Antonius or Pachomius, two the “desert fathers” in Egypt and the current Libya. They were not church fathers, but they were people who stood at the cradle of the later monastic movement. For them, that journey to the solitude of the desert was usually an escape from a world full of enticements and temptations, a protest against the increasing worldliness of the church. They sought a place where their souls could find rest. Yet I do not think that they were acting in accordance with Revelation 12. Their flight was rather a form of escape from the world and of asceticism. But Jesus does not ask of us that we go out of the world in order to escape from the devil. In his high priestly prayer, he himself asks his Father, “I do not ask that you take them [the disciples] out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We do not need to run away, for we can take refuge with God right in the middle of this world.

France and the Netherlands←⤒🔗

From a much later time, we know the Huguenots, the French Calvinists. In the eighteenth century they were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, even being targeted in bloody massacres, especially after the abolition of the Edict of Nantes (1685), which had, up to its abolition, declared them to be as free as the birds. An example of that persecution is the torture and horrible death of Jean Calas of Toulouse. In order to remain a church and continue to hold church services, these Christians used hiding places in the most inhospitable areas of southern France, in the Cevennes. Therefore they called themselves “church of the wilderness” and held their assemblies in the desert. Most probably, this use of words was a reminder of the text in Revelation 12, already mentioned previously in this article. These Huguenots were closer to the words of Revelation 12 than were the desert fathers, who did not actually need to flee, but decided for themselves to seek a home far away from civilization. For the Huguenots, it was a matter of life and death. It was often the only way to stay alive.

How must we, in the Netherlands, deal with the desert idea from the Bible? Do Christians live in a desert or wilderness? There is (not yet) any persecution of the church, so building churches of refuge or preaching hedge sermons is not relevant. Still, the Biblical image of the desert does have something to say to us. I am thinking of two things. First of all, I am thinking of the dangers of the present modern culture. It is necessary to keep oneself away from much of the present-day amusement and entertainment. In that sense, the desert fathers were right to be apprehensive of the image culture of their days. As far as that goes, we as Reformed Christians have often become much too naive.

In the second place, it should speak to us much more strongly that God, in his love for us, desires fellowship with us. It is necessary to make time and room for that, to create a quiet time for meditation, reflection and prayer. As the church, we today are the bride of our God and Saviour. The desert fathers incorrectly isolated themselves from society, but they did have an eye to the spiritual contact with God and took time for that. The Roman Catholic life of the monasteries is not what the Bible means, but we can take an example from their intense life with the Lord. Therefore, let the desert remain a living reality!