The God of the Wilderness
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 10:42 pm
In the Caedmon's Call song "We Delight" there's a line that goes:
The nations of men will rejoice in the God of the Wilderness
I always loved that line. It called to my spirit in a way I couldn't quite pin down. I think it had a lot to do with growing up in the Cascade foothills in WA, where my favorite thing to do was escape to the wild places and find a place where the only noises to be heard were wild ones. I knew better than to say, "I find God in nature," but I also knew that it was in the wilderness that people often met God in the stories in Scripture, so if I wanted time with him, it wasn't a bad place to start.
As I'm reading Shepherds After My Own Heart I'm seeing how true it is to call him the God of the Wilderness. In ancient days, the city-states all had their own deities that ruled their city and their people. St. John of Damascus was convinced that these were not just local inventions to explain the world, but were actually demons manifesting themselves to the people they'd been assigned to govern, and I think he might have been right. In a way, I can imagine the people of those cities feeling safe under the care of their god, because there's a god in the wilderness that is untamable, unappeasable, and unexplainable. He wanders, and so do his people, and this makes him unexpected when he comes upon you.
The people of our world today find their comfort in their familiar settings and the security they can make for themselves. The God of the Wilderness still intimidates because he can't be bound to a bank account, or a political party, or even a religious system. But what's best is that the God of the Wilderness is also a Shepherd whose wandering is always purposeful, to gather and lead his sheep. But we can't follow him if we get too comfortable in one place.
The nations of men will rejoice in the God of the Wilderness
I always loved that line. It called to my spirit in a way I couldn't quite pin down. I think it had a lot to do with growing up in the Cascade foothills in WA, where my favorite thing to do was escape to the wild places and find a place where the only noises to be heard were wild ones. I knew better than to say, "I find God in nature," but I also knew that it was in the wilderness that people often met God in the stories in Scripture, so if I wanted time with him, it wasn't a bad place to start.
As I'm reading Shepherds After My Own Heart I'm seeing how true it is to call him the God of the Wilderness. In ancient days, the city-states all had their own deities that ruled their city and their people. St. John of Damascus was convinced that these were not just local inventions to explain the world, but were actually demons manifesting themselves to the people they'd been assigned to govern, and I think he might have been right. In a way, I can imagine the people of those cities feeling safe under the care of their god, because there's a god in the wilderness that is untamable, unappeasable, and unexplainable. He wanders, and so do his people, and this makes him unexpected when he comes upon you.
The people of our world today find their comfort in their familiar settings and the security they can make for themselves. The God of the Wilderness still intimidates because he can't be bound to a bank account, or a political party, or even a religious system. But what's best is that the God of the Wilderness is also a Shepherd whose wandering is always purposeful, to gather and lead his sheep. But we can't follow him if we get too comfortable in one place.