When the wilderness drags on
The 40 days leading up to Easter mark the liturgical church season known as Lent. This period of time recognizes the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. From Hagar to the children of Israel to Elijah to Jesus and beyond, generations of people have known the wilderness as a place to go and meet with God.
Read a bit about one of those wilderness experiences below. Then join us for a Wilderness Scripture Circle to continue the conversation.
January marked one year since covid-19 cases started popping up in the United States. March will be one year since our first quarantine was announced.
It’s been one whole year of this global pandemic, and our hearts and bodies know it.
For many, this year has meandered through different stages. There have been days with unexpected space for new hobbies, like bread-making or embroidery. There have been mornings when getting out of bed into the same repeating monotony of previous days has been overwhelming. There have been evenings when the grief over lost moments together has been tangible, and heavy. Some weeks, the increased time alone has felt like a gift. Sometimes we’ve even forgotten where we are, and lived in a sense of unexpected normality.
The pandemic has not brought us to a singular place. It has engaged us in an unpredictable journey.
Even now, as we shift into the vaccine season, we are not “out of the woods” or “back to normal,” we are just at a new stage of wandering in this covid-19 land.
It reminds me of the biblical journeys through the wilderness.
It’s easy to think about the wilderness as a singular place—especially when we contain it within geography. We might think of it as the desert areas in a particular part of the Middle East—the land in which the Israelites wandered after Egypt and the land to which spiritual leaders traveled when they wanted to hear from God.
But the wilderness is not a singular destination.
Whether we are physically or metaphorically there, the wilderness is a place that brings us on a spiritual trek as we process our lives in new ways.
Numbers 33 would be an easy passage to skip over. It reads like an itinerary; it’s just a list of place names from the Israelites’ 40-year journey.
But what if we look more closely at those place names? What if we translate them? Might they speak to us about some of the stops we encounter on wilderness journeys?
Naming where we are
Numbers 33:8 says the Israelites “went three days journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.”
Etham is a word of Egyptian origin, which means this part of the wilderness is being named by the place the people have just left. This is the beginning of the journey. It is not where they were, but it’s also not quite where they are going. The name Etham might mean “with them,” perhaps marking, in both its origin and meaning, how Egypt was still tangibly present to them.
A few days into this wilderness, they camp at Marah, which is no longer an Egyptian word. It’s a Hebrew word, and it means bitterness. We read about Marah in Exodus 15. Marah is a place where the first frustrations of the wilderness are felt. In this case, lack of water. It’s a place of questioning, wrestling, anger, uncertainty, and grief.
Have you ever wandered around with an old place still with you, and, after a few days, ended up in bitterness?
The names that don’t have stories
And what about places in Numbers 33 that don’t have a narrative to go with them? In verse 19, it says “they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmonparez.”
Rithmah comes from a root meaning “to bind or yoke”. Perhaps this was a place where the day-in, day-out rhythms of wilderness labor felt heavy and binding. Maybe it was a place where they longed for the work they once had. We don’t know—the story isn’t ours. It was theirs.
Rimmonparez means “pomegranates of the breach”. How curious is that name!? Perhaps this was a place where hope of the future broke forth into the present. Or maybe, for a moment, they got a taste of something more than manna, which might not taste as good at year 36 as it did in year one.
Have you ever left a place of binding and set up your tent in a place of abundance?
What would you name where you are today?
The above places are just four of the 49 place names given in Numbers 33. Traversing the wilderness is not about staying the course on one long and predictable road. Going to the wilderness opens us up to a collection of journeys, as we listen for God’s voice, deconstruct from the old, and learn the new.
Want to continue exploring?
Join us in the wilderness of Lent.
During Lent this year, we will be offering a series of Scripture Circles called “Why the Wilderness.” Join us as we wrestle together through some Old Testament wilderness encounters and see how they might shed light on the bigger narrative Jesus was entering into with his life and work, and on our own lives today.
Our Lenten Circles will be held at three different times. Come to one, two, or all three.
All are welcome, whether you have participated in many 40 Orchards Scripture Circles or whether this is your first time. This Lenten season, we hope to expand each other’s experience of what is sacred, whole, and good—together. Join us.