Wilderness

January 11, 2026 –  The Place of Speaking— Acts #27

David Chupp Acts

January 11, 2026 –  The Place of Speaking— Acts #27
Acts 9:1–30 

We discussed last week how Saul went into the Jewish synagogue to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.  But he didn’t get the response he wanted.  Rather than being convinced, they became confused.  And they started to get agitated.  It wasn’t as easy as Saul thought it would be. Let’s pick up in Acts where we left off with the following two verses:

Acts 9:22  But Saul became more and more capable, and was causing confusion among the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. 

Acts 9:23 Now, after some days had passed, the Jews plotted together to kill him…

“After some days had passed….”   Now I read that today, and I wonder how many days?  Maybe a week or two?  What you might miss is that Luke, telling the story of the early Jesus followers, skips 3 years here. There are 3 years between Acts 9:22 and 23. Now, if Luke’s purpose in the book were to tell the life story of this man Saul, he would have included material between these 2 verses.   While Saul is an essential figure in Acts, it is not a biography.  So Luke skips that part of Saul’s life.   But we need to understand that these were crucial years for Saul.

 Since people are not responding, as he intended, Saul needs to back up and consider things. And thankfully, Saul tells us what happened in these three years in his letter to the Galatians:

Galatians 1:11-14   For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

Saul needed some time.  He met Jesus a week ago on the road to Damascus.  He had a call on his life to share Jesus with everyone.  But how could he share what he had just discovered himself?   He had studied these scriptures for so long, and he now realized they led to Jesus, but he needed some time to work through this.  His old framework for understanding scripture needed to be dismantled and rebuilt in the light of Jesus. 

Saul tells us how he came to understand the gospel he was preaching to the Jesus followers in Galatia.  It wasn’t man’s gospel.  Before meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road, Saul had done a lot of preaching of man’s gospel.  He had been trained by the best men, the greatest rabbis. And Saul says, I was the star student.  I absorbed everything they taught me like a sponge.   I was at the top of the class in knowing the gospel of man.  Saul says, I was the expert in the traditions of my fathers.  But that was the wrong gospel.  It was man’s version, not God’s.

He tells the group of Jesus followers in Galatia that the gospel that he taught them, the story of Jesus, was not something some man taught him.  He didn’t sit in a classroom taking notes on Jesus.  He didn’t go to a Bible Study.  He didn’t sit and listen to some preacher tell him about Jesus.  He got it directly from Jesus himself.  He didn’t seek out men in Damascus to teach him.  He didn’t go to Jerusalem, where Jesus’ disciples were, to discuss it with them.  So what did he do? He went away into Arabia.    He said he received this message straight from Jesus.  

Jesus came to Saul on that road with a blinding light and told Saul that he had it all wrong.  Saul was out hunting down these Jesus followers and taking them back to be punished in Jerusalem, and he thought he was fighting for God.  But Jesus said, “You are not fighting for God; you are fighting against God. You are persecuting me.”

Saul gets this wake-up call from Jesus, but let me tell you, that one experience with Jesus is not enough for Saul.  That gospel of man that he had been preaching had to be thrown out, and Saul had to start back from scratch.  He needed to understand the real gospel, and Saul was not about to trust that some man was going to give him the correct answer.  He has already made that mistake once.  No, he wants to learn the truth from the one who is the truth.  No more intermediary.  He has to get the story straight, direct from God himself.  So Saul goes to Arabia.

Arabia in the first century included much of what we call Saudi Arabia today, but it extended west to the Sinai Peninsula and north to the latitude of the Sea of Galilee.  We don’t know where exactly Paul went in Arabia.  He could have gone as far as Mount Sinai here and may have spent time in the city of Petra here, but wherever he went, he would have spent a lot of time in the wilderness, for most of Arabia is a desert wilderness.

Saul has a lot to work through.  He needed to work through his own forgiveness before he could proclaim forgiveness to others.  He was carrying a lot of guilt.  He had voted to have Jesus’ followers stoned. He watched as Stephen was killed for proclaiming Jesus.  He was hunting them down like animals.  He had to come to grips with his own forgiveness.  

He had lived his entire life under Levitical law, with all its requirements and sacrifices, seeking atonement for his sins, yet knowing that there was no offering in the Scriptures for intentional sin.  Under Levitical law, if you sinned purposely, there was no offering that could be given.  You had to depend on grace.  If you thought that the Jews only relied on the law and didn’t understand grace, you need to reread the Old Testament. 

They knew they had no hope outside God’s grace.  Sacrificial offerings were never enough.  Now that Saul has found the truth of Jesus’ offering for sin, Saul wondered, “Could there be atonement for purposeful sins?”  Does Jesus’ sacrifice for us cover even that?  Saul had to work this out and then find forgiveness for his personal campaign of terror against Jesus.  Saul was a man undone.  He needed more revelation from Jesus himself. 

And where do you go when you want to hear directly from God?  Sure, God can speak to us anywhere, but let me ask you, “Where do you go when you want to hear from God?”  If you are familiar with the Bible, like Saul, then you know where to go – you go to the wilderness. The wilderness is where God speaks.

I have mentioned before that Hebrew is a language of few words.  Very commonly, the names of places are not unique, but are derived from the activity that happens at that place. For example, in Hebrew, the verb “to slaughter” or “to sacrifice” is ‘zavach’.  The word for the place where sacrifices happen, the altar, is “mizbeach”—same consonants with the ‘mem’ or our letter ‘m’ as a prefix.    

Another example: the word for “holy” is ‘qodesh’.  You add the mem (m) to the beginning, and you get miqdash, the place that is holy, or sanctuary. And one more: take the Hebrew word for ‘sunset’, ‘arav’.  Again, add the mem and you to the place where sunset happens. ‘ma’a rav’, the Hebrew word for “west”, because that is where the sunset occurs.    The psalmist says God will separate our sins from us as far as the east is from the ma’arav.  (Psalm 103:12)

And I have shown you all that to show you this:  The Hebrew verb “to speak” is ‘dibber.’  Again, add the mem to create the Hebrew word for the place where speaking happens, ‘midbar.’  And ‘midbar’ is the Hebrew word for the wilderness.  So, literally, in the Hebrew Bible, the place where speaking happens is the wilderness. 

And that is odd, because the wilderness is a place of barrenness, emptiness, loneliness.  There is no one there.  This is the place where the language of the Bible says that speaking occurs.  But if there is no one there, who speaks in the wilderness?  I can not overstate the importance of this concept in Scripture.  The wilderness is where God speaks.  Let me give you a few examples.

Moses – Moses entered the wilderness not by choice.  He was adopted to be a prince in Pharaoh’s court but was kicked out of Egypt for murder.   In the Egyptians’ minds, it was a death sentence.  For them, the wilderness was where you went to die.  There was nothing there.   No food, no water. 

Look at this Google Earth view of Egypt.  Notice the thin ribbon of green in a sea of brown.  The green is the fertile land surrounding the Nile, the most fertile land in the world.  But take one step past the waters of the Nile, and you are in the wilderness, where nothing grows, where there is only death.  Aside from the delta, Egypt is a narrow ribbon of green, with the rest desert.  Let me give you another view.

This is from about 200 feet in the air.  Egypt has the richest farmland in the world.  Thousands of years of Nile flooding, bringing rich deposits of silt, have created topsoil layers several feet thick.  This view was from last fall in one of these:

And we floated in a basket out over the ribbon of green that accompanies the Nile.

These particular fields were corn or sorghum.   The fertility of this land is fantastic.  But go up a little higher, and you can see where the green ends.

You can see a sharply demarcated line that divides rich farmland from desert and wilderness.   A place with no water, where nothing grows, a place where you die.  Who would ever leave this lush land and go to this land of death?  To be banished to the wilderness is to be sent to die.  But Moses doesn’t die; he survives and thrives. He spends 40 years in the wilderness, the same wilderness Saul entered.  It was a time of deep introspection that Moses needed.  And after 40 years, when Moses is ready, he encounters God in a burning bush on the mountain, Sinai.

Moses’ time in the wilderness became a season of preparation, where his own past in Egypt and his 40 years of shepherding would serve him as he led Israel through that same wilderness for 40 years. What started as a death sentence —a time of punishment for Moses —became a path to his purpose—a training ground for the mission God had prepared for him.  In the wilderness, God spoke to Moses.

Elijah — Elijah fled to the wilderness after his battle with the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.  You know the story.   God sends Elijah to King Ahaz to tell him there will be a drought and famine due to the nation’s worship of the false god, Baal.  God takes care of Elijah during the famine, first by ravens bringing him food and later through a widow whose jar of flour and oil never run out.  Then there is a confrontation between the prophets of Baal and Elijah on Mt Carmel.  Both are to build an altar, and whichever god brings down fire on their altar would be the true god.  So Yehovah brings down the fire, and in judgment, Elijah slaughters the prophets of Baal. 

Then Queen Jezebel is angry at Elijah for killing her prophets and swears to kill him.  Elijah flees to escape Jezebel.   After this great victory, he is depressed.  He feels he is the only prophet of Yehovah left in the world.  He flees to the wilderness, where he just wants to die.  He ends up at Sinai, the same mountain where God spoke to Moses.  And Elijah sits alone in a cave on the mountain.  Loneliness is hard.  But the wilderness of loneliness can be a gift because in those times, God can speak.

And in this lonely wilderness, God speaks to Elijah, telling him he is not alone.  God restores his strength and comforts him. There, you remember, God didn’t appear in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a “still small voice,” revealing Himself not in overwhelming power but in gentle presence, speaking to Elijah, giving him new tasks, and assuring him that he is not alone.  There are 7,000 faithful Israelites who remain.  In the wilderness, God speaks and restores Elijah’s hope. 

And there is David, who flees to the wilderness as a fugitive from King Saul, who hunts him relentlessly.  There are times when David thinks he has come to the wilderness to die.  But there he learns to trust deeply in God to provide for him.  And it is there that David learns to listen to God speak, in the land of speaking.  And there he sings out to God in psalms like this:

Psalm 63:1-4   O God, You are my God;  Earnestly I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;     My body longs for You
In a dry and weary land    Where there is no water. 
I have seen You in the sanctuary, 
 Beheld Your power and Your glory. 
Because Your love is better than life,   My lips will glorify You. 
I will praise you as long as I live,
And in your name, I will lift up my hands.

David grew closer to God in the trials of the wilderness, the place where God speaks.

And then there is Jesus, who, after his baptism, was “driven to the wilderness” by the Spirit.  He spends 40 days in prayer and fasting to the Father in preparation for his ministry.  But Jesus’ story reminds us that in this land of speaking, there may be more than the voice of God.  For in the wilderness, where there are no other people or distractions, there are two voices one may listen to: our Father God, and the accuser, the satan.  Jesus gains insight and instruction from the Father, but he is also tempted by the accuser.  In the wilderness, there is a voice to heed and a voice to reject.  

So we see that Biblical characters end up in the wilderness for different reasons.   Moses is sent there as a death sentence.  Elijah flees in depression and loneliness.  David flees from an unjust king, and Jesus is driven by the Spirit.  I didn’t mention the first person in the Bible who is seen in the wilderness.

It is Hagar, the slave that the Pharaoh of Egypt gave to Abraham and Sarah; tradition tells us she was a princess in Pharaoh’s court.  But Sarah and Abraham mistreat her sexually, and Hagar bears them a son, and then they kick her out of their home into the wilderness to die.  Twice, Hagar is in the wilderness, but there God sees her and speaks to her. 

And look at this parallel:  400 years after Hagar. Moses, a prince in Pharaoh’s court, is kicked out of his home into the wilderness to die, and there Moses hears God speak to him.  This slave turned prince of Egypt was kicked out to the wilderness to die because he took a life. Again, that was 400 years after Hagar, a princess of Egypt, turned slave, kicked out to the wilderness to die because she brought life into the world.

These two people with exactly opposite circumstances both end up in the wilderness, where they are expected to die, but where God speaks to them. These mirror-image stories illustrate an important point:  No matter your circumstances, find your way to the wilderness, for that is where God speaks.

Where do you go to hear God speak?   Don’t tell me you go to YouTube.  God doesn’t have a channel there.   Don’t tell me you listen to Christian music or watch a church service on TV, or attend a small country church.   Saul would ask you to be very careful listening to the gospel of men.

All of those can be good things. But again, Saul would tell you that you need to hear from God Himself to avoid being off track by listening to the traditions of men.  There are some great Christian books and Christian Music out there.  But some contain some really odd ideas about God.  There are some great teachers and preachers out there, but again, you have to be careful you aren’t just getting Man’s Gospel.  Remember what Paul said:

Acts 17:11  “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

If not for Jesus stopping Saul in his tracks on the Damascus Road, Saul would have wasted his whole life.  Saul was giving 100% for God, but he was 100% wrong. That is what he got for following man’s gospel and traditions instead of the real gospel of Jesus.   So Saul went to Arabia, to the wilderness, because he knew that was where God spoke.  And he wasn’t about to be fooled by another person.  So Saul encouraged all his listeners to follow his example and that of these Berean Jews.  Saul said, “Listen eagerly to what I say, but don’t take my word for it.  Never just accept what any man says.  Study the scriptures yourself every day to make sure you are getting it straight from God.”

Do you want to commune with God?  Do you want to hear God speak?  Then find a lonely, quiet place, open his Word, and pray and listen. It may be on a hike in the woods.  It might be in your backyard.  It might be in a quiet room of your house at 4 am. God desperately wants a relationship with you.  He wants that so much that he sent His son to pay the penalty, the debt we owe for our sins.  God wants to speak to you, but he can’t be heard over the noise that we constantly surround ourselves with.  We all need to go to some form of wilderness to hear God speak.  Go with me to the wilderness — God is waiting for you there.

Step by Step with Jesus #2 — A Course Correction

David Chupp Step by step with Jesus ,

If you read the accompanying resource and make it all the way to the end of this post, you are a certified Bible Nerd.  If you just want the details on following Jesus’ steps, skip to the last 2 paragraphs.

As I explained earlier, I am attempting to map Jesus’ journeys throughout this year of ministry.  I was aware that there would be some difficulty determining some locations and routes, but since I have been unable to find anyone who has attempted this, I had no real idea how hard it would be.  I certainly didn’t expect to have trouble the very first day. 

I had always accepted the traditional location of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  John 1:28 says, “These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.  I had read that it states “Bethany beyond the Jordan” to differentiate from the ‘Bethany’ near Jerusalem that is listed many times in the gospels.  “Beyond the Jordan” is assumed to mean “on the other side of the Jordan” from Jerusalem, so on the east bank.  Currently, we know of no places named ‘Bethany’ anywhere near the Jordan.  Both Origen and Chrysostom (early ‘church fathers’) favored a location called Bethbara, on the Jordan about 6 miles southeast of Jericho. But none of the earliest manuscripts of John support the spelling of ‘Bethbara.’  

I  have been to the traditional Baptismal site several times.  There are ruins of church structures dating back to 500 AD at that site to commemorate the baptism of Jesus.  But when I began to calculate Jesus’ journey from that area to the Galilee, I ran into a problem.  On March 30, Andrew and John, disciples of John the Baptist, spent the day with Jesus, where he was ‘dwelling.’  The following day, March 31, Jesus “decided to go to Galilee” and then has conversations with Philip and Nathaniel in the Galilee.  The next day he was at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  

The problem is that even to get to the most southern aspect of the Galilee would be 48-50 miles at least.  Jesus was a miracle worker, but I doubt this one day 50-mile hike is one of them.  So then I began searching to see what other locations John may have been baptizing at that could be near “Bethany.”  I won’t bore you with the missteps I took, but I did find a resource that explains the problem well and does an excellent summary of the possibilities.  Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel, by Rainer Reisner,1  Jesus returns to this location ‘across the Jordan’ in John 10:40.  Looking at when Lazarus died and when Jesus arrives in Bethany near Jerusalem (by which time Lazarus has been dead four days) also makes the location near Jericho in the south unreasonable.  So Reisner locates Jesus’ baptism in the north, in the region of Batanaea (see map below) with Batanaea being a variant of the Greek that our current English versions translate as ‘Bethany’.  I believe Reisner makes a strong case for this location.  Read his article.  It is available online and not too difficult to follow, but the ability to read a little Greek is helpful. 

Also, there is the possibility that since this is the spring season, the Jordan might be at flood stage, making baptism in the Jordan dangerous.  Joshua 3:15 says”now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest.”  (We know that he was referring to the barley harvest, which begins just after Passover because Joshua 4:19 says, “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.”  The 14th of the first month is Passover.  So baptism in the traditional location (which is very close to the location of the crossing in Jordan) is very unlikely. We know that John the Baptist baptizes in several locations, using springs for baptism at some times.  John 3:23 says, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was plentiful there.”  Aenon near Salim most likely means “the springs near Salem.”  These springs still exist and currently feed many ponds in the area that are used for fish hatcheries by a local kibbutz.

So now I have to revise my previous articles that refer to the baptismal site in the south. Jesus’ time in the wilderness would be not in the Judean wilderness but in the wilderness east of the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Batanea.  And his journey from the place John was baptizing to Galilee on March 31 (in John 1:29-34) would be between 2-7 miles.  He would then travel around 14-15 miles to Cana for the wedding on April 1.  

So for those of you following with your feet, it makes more sense now and is certainly more doable.  I’m sure we will run into other issues determining these 2000 year old locations, but for now, happy walking!

  1. “Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel” by Rainer Reisner. Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://tyndalebulletin.org/api/v1/articles/30556-bethany-beyond-the-jordan-john-1-28-topography-theology-and-history-in-the-fourth-gospel.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjqyez4lpKFAxUB18kDHdmRBzEQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0KvtX1aUZskL6fmZI-vCJ2

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #15

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

Week 3 What did Jesus do in the Wilderness?  (Part 2)

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

Last time, we introduced the idea of fasting and how it demonstrates our desperate need for God and how we desire God more than even the basic human needs.   Don’t forget that in the Hebrew culture, all verbs are action verbs; for example, love is an action, not a feeling.  James said show me your faith by your deeds.  Fasting is an action we can do to learn our desperation for God and to show our desperation for God. 

Other than this 40-day fast associated with the beginning of Jesus’ mission1, we don’t see Jesus fasting.  In fact, John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus why his disciples don’t fast.  Jesus tells them this is the time for a feast because the bridegroom (Jesus) is here.  There will come a time when the bridegroom is gone, and fasting will be appropriate.2  Apparently, Jesus had quite the reputation for feasts and not fasts, and he later tells a group of Pharisees:

“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”  Luke 7:33-35

After Jesus has ascended to heaven, we see the church resume fasting (Acts 13:1-3, Acts 14:21-23, and 1 Cor. 7:5).  The Didache (the 1st Century ‘church handbook’) says Christians are to fast twice weekly, specifically Wednesdays and Fridays.3  Jesus gave instructions for our fasting:

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  Mathew. 6:16-18

Jesus’ emphasis is not so much that you fast in secret but that you do not do it for the reward of others.

Should we fast?  There is plenty of evidence for fasting throughout the Bible. The only time it was put on hold was the year that Jesus spent with his disciples. Notice that in the passage above from Matthew 6, Jesus says, “when you fast,” not “if you fast.”  In Acts and Paul’s letters, the early church seems to have practiced fasting.  Let me ask you some personal questions.  Do you crave time with God?  Do you hunger for time in prayer when you miss a day of prayer?  Do you look forward with anticipation to your time alone with Jesus, studying the Word? Do you do these things with such fervor that you let nothing stand in your way?  For me, the distractions of this world tend to fill me at times to the point my desire for Godly things is numbed.  That is why I need to fast.  I must remind myself that my Creator is everything, and this world and its pleasures are just part of the creation, like me.  I need to, as Paul said, “discipline my body and keep it under control (1 Cor. 9:27), and fasting is a way to remind myself physically.  Finally, the Spirit drove Jesus to fast.  If Jesus needed to fast, how much more do I?

Last time, I mentioned the more than 20,000 people who have completed a 40-day fast in South Korea.  In Piper’s book on fasting, he attributes the fantastic growth of the churches there to their strong emphasis on prayer and fasting.  

“The first Protestant church was planted in Korea in 1884. One hundred years later, there were 30,000 churches. That’s an average of 300 new churches a year for 100 years. At the end of the twentieth century, evangelicals comprise about 30% of the population.”4

That kind of growth while our U.S. churches are stagnant or decreasing in numbers.  It is time for us to learn a new desperation for God, and fasting is a means to do it.

So then, how should we fast?  This is between you and God.  Seek His input, for, after all, submission to his will makes it a fast.  By the original definition, a fast was abstaining from food, but it has become very popular for Lenten fasts to be from certain other pleasures like the internet, social media, television, or a particular food like chocolate, meat, etc.  That may be an excellent place to start, but I only learned that desperation for God by fasting from some of the more basic physiological needs like food, sleep, or shelter. How do you fast from shelter?  I am glad you asked.  Contact your local homeless ministry and find out if you can volunteer to stay overnight with some people who have no homes in their shelter.  I have spent a few nights sleeping on a 4-inch mat on the floor with some of our “neighbors without homes” in our local Room in the Inn program.  You are putting your service to God ahead of and in place of your love for a comfortable bed and home for a night.   It is a fast if done with the proper attitude and as a way of seeking God.  If you aren’t seeking God, then you missed the point. 

You must also be in obedience to God in other areas, or your fast will not be beneficial.  

Look at Isaiah 58.  God instructs Isaiah to scream at the top of his lungs:

“Declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God;”  Isaiah 58:1-2.

Many are living in disobedience, yet they pray daily for God’s help and go to worship “as if they were a nation that did righteousness.”  Ouch!   They were going through the motions of ‘church’ but were living lives of sinfulness.  They were even fasting for God to answer them, but God did not answer despite their fasting.  So they ask God,

“‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?  Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’”  Isaiah 58:3a.

So God answers and tells them fasting is useless if they are living lives of disobedience. 

“Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.  Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” Isaiah 58:3b,4.

God says, “You call that a fast?  You think that is acceptable to me?” (Is 58:5 my paraphrase). So then God tells them what kind of fast he wants from them:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh [people]?”  (Is. 58:6-7)

God wants them to fast from wickedness.  Let me paraphrase it: ’Take a break from sinning, stop oppressing and exploiting people; it is worthless for you to deny yourselves food and not even share the food you have not eaten while fasting with the hungry around you. You have an extra bedroom and a closet full of clothes, and yet your neighbor is homeless and poorly clothed while you hide out from your suffering neighbor in your fancy house.’

God makes it clear that he could care less for our fasting if we aren’t living according to his precepts.  But then Isaiah has good news for them if they will repent and do what he asks (and I’ll let Eugene Peterson paraphrase this time):

“Then when you pray, GOD will answer.  You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’  “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins,  If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.  I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.  You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.  You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”  Isaiah 58:9-12 The Message.

Have you ever felt like your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling?  Have you ever fasted and wondered why God wouldn’t respond?  Have you ever felt like your ‘worship’ was empty?  Then Isaiah says that it is time to check your obedience meter.  As Malachi noted, you can’t buy off God with money or impress him with your fasting or singing if you ignore everything he asked you to do.  Take a fast from disobedience first.  The waters of repentance are still flowing, and Jesus and John the Baptist are still calling.

Jesus is fasting in the wilderness. Have you taken the time to journey outside by yourself this week?  Let’s skip a meal, take a hike, and commune with our Creator.  Food is good!  But God is better!!!

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

  1. In Acts 13:1–2, we see another example where fasting is associated with discernment for mission.
  2. Matthew 9:14-16.  This also suggests that when we are present with Jesus after that day, there will be no more fasting.
  3. Didache, 8:1, in Apostolic Fathers English
  4. Piper, John, “A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer” (2013) Location 1088, Kindle Version.

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #14

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 3 What did Jesus do in the Wilderness?  (Part 1)

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was ________.  Mathew 4:2

This is not a challenging crossword puzzle clue.  Sometimes, I think I am hungry if I miss one meal.  Sometimes, I think I am hungry right after a meal.  But fasting for 40 days is another level.  Some people want to point out that the 40 days is more of a symbolic time in the Bible.  But you must pay attention when the Bible says, “40 days and 40 nights.”  Using the ‘days and nights’ terminology denotes a specific time.  (This will become important when we discuss the sign of Jonah in 2025.)  

In his book on fasting, A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer, John Piper begins his preface, “Beware of books on fasting.”1 While this may not be the best book marketing slogan, I have to agree.  There are thousands of books on fasting.  Pretty much every religion has a form of fasting.  Then there are political fasts (as in Ghandi’s) and medical fasts.  Medical fasting has become much more popular in the past several years, with intermittent fasting for weight control and general health.  What happens medically in a fast is much more complicated than we first realized.  The interplay of a host of hormones (especially ghrelin and leptin) is beyond our current understanding, as the reactions of those hormones to fasting are not always predictable and are influenced by many other factors, for example, sleep.  And while we are talking medicine, despite what the internet says, a 40-day food fast (still consuming water) is not impossible for a healthy person.  In South Korea, over 20,000 people have completed a 40-day fasting prayer retreat.2   (That said, consult your physician before doing extreme fasting or any fasting if you have any medical problems.)

But we are talking about religious fasting, as seen in the Old and New Testaments. What does fasting accomplish?  How does not eating make a difference from God’s perspective?  After Jesus fasts for 40 days, he is tempted by the accuser to use his power to turn stones into bread, and he answers with a verse from Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” But you can’t eat the Bible like bread if you are hungry.  So, how are we to understand this?  The idea is that there are more important things in life than material provision, and that includes food.  That goes against everything I learned in my college Sociology class.

Abraham Maslow is a humanistic psychologist who is most famous for his “Hierarchy of Needs,” which is frequently pictured as a pyramid in which the base physiological needs (food, water, air, shelter, clothing, sleep, etc.) must be met before a human can consider meeting any other needs (Safety, then Love/Belonging, then Esteem, and finally Self-actualization).  According to Maslow, it isn’t easy to consider any relationships or intellectual/occupational achievement until you satisfy your basic physiological needs.3   For example, it is hard to think about doing better at your job if you are homeless or hungry.  That makes a lot of sense and is something we see frequently in our homeless ministry.  But followers of Jesus need to add a new level to Maslow’s pyramid to make it consistent with the Bible.

 

To Maslow, the physical preservation of life is the most critical need (air, food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep).  The Bible is very clear that these things should not be our highest priority, as evidenced by these scriptures:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?…  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’   For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.   But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.   Matt. 6:25, 31-33

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

O God, You are my God;  Earnestly I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;     My body longs for You
In a dry and weary land    Where there is no water. 
I have seen You in the sanctuary,   Beheld Your power and Your glory. 
Because Your love is better than life,   My lips will glorify You. 
And in your name, I will lift up my hands.   Psalm 63:1-4

Jesus is very clear about what we are to seek first, and it is not food or drink or clothing.  Paul said life had no value aside from the ministry he had.  Even though the psalmist of Psalm 63 is in the wilderness (“a dry and weary land where there is no water”), he said that rather than water, what he thirsts for is God’s covenantal love, which is better than life itself.

What about breathing?  Breathing is a particular case.  You can’t fast from breathing (not for long).  What does the Bible say about breathing?

Genesis tells us that “God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature”  (Genesis 2:7).  We are just dirt until God breathes life into us.  We are lifeless without God’s breath/spirit within us. The Hebrew word ‘ruach’ means ‘spirit,’ ‘ breath,’ or ‘wind.’ See how the Scriptures discuss this presence of God’s Spirit that gives us our life:

…as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils…   Job 27:3

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:    Isaiah 42:5   

Remember, on that resurrection Sunday evening, Jesus suddenly appears in the room with the disciples and tells them:

“Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  John 20:21-22

If you don’t understand the significance of ‘the breath of God’ in the Bible, you might have found it odd that John mentions Jesus breathing on them.  But this breath of God brings life from death and new life to all as in creation, as in Ezekiel 37:9, where the prophet is told to speak, “breathe into these slain [the dry bones] that they may live,” and at Pentecost when the ‘ruach’ (Spirit) comes in like a ‘mighty rushing wind’ (Acts 2:2).

God’s presence is the very air I breathe.  I may not live long without air, but I am not genuinely alive without God’s Spirit within me.  Several old hymns contain this concept (“Breathe on Me” and “Breathe on me Breath of God”).  Michael W. Smith wrote a song in 2001 that you have probably sung many times without realizing it was about the idea of fasting.   

This is the air I breathe.
This is the air I breathe.
Your holy presence
Living in me.
This is my daily bread.
This is my daily bread.
Your very word
Spoken to me
And I… I’m desperate for you
And I… I’m lost without you.4

This is more reflective of our hierarchy of needs.

Are you desperate for God?  Do you hunger for him?  Do you thirst for him?  Is your need for God greater than your need for food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep, or air?  Maybe you don’t feel that desperation for God right now.  This is something I didn’t understand for a long time. And perhaps that’s where you are today.  I want to challenge you today to realize that deep need for God more than anything else.  It will change your life.  How do you begin to understand this?  I discovered my desperate need for God only when I began to decide to give up some of these ‘basic needs’ for a time and seek God instead.  And this is what I learned by fasting.

Have you ever been at a restaurant, looking forward to that great dish you ordered, and realized that you stuffed yourself so much on the salad and appetizers that you had no hunger for that wonderful main dish?  Piper says our hunger for God is underdeveloped because we fill ourselves with desires for other things.5  Mark’s Gospel tells us about Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the seeds scattered among thorns that “the desires for other things enter in and choke the word.”

“It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8: 14).”6

Fasting is a test to help us see which desire controls us and what is more important to us, the Creator or the Creation.  We have already noted the parallel between Jesus’ 40-day testing in the wilderness and Israel’s 40-year testing in the wilderness.  They both were led there by God and were led to hunger.  Israel fails the test by doubting God and even assigning evil motives to God.  Jesus passed the test, refusing to go outside God’s will and breaking his fast ahead of God’s plan.  How about you?  Jesus is in the wilderness.  I pray that the Spirit will drive you there for a time to fast, pray, and better know yourself and your Creator.

We will continue this overview of fasting next time.

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

  1. Piper, John, A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer (2013) preface, Kindle Edition.
  2. Wesley Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer Grand Rapids: (1990), p. 192.
  3. Maslow later restated his theory and accounted that people did not necessarily move strictly from one tier to another and could simultaneously work on aspects of multiple tiers of the pyramid.  
  4. Smith, Michael W. “Breathe” 2001.  Another popular chorus exhibiting this idea of fasting is “As the Deer” by Martin Nystrom in 1984. (Based on Psalm 42).
  5. Piper. Loc 660, Kindle Edition.
  6. Ibid. Loc 67.

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #13

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , , ,

Week 2 Going where you don’t want to go

It is getting time for the evening meal, and you don’t want to eat at home.  Then comes the classic question, “Where do you want to eat?” with the classic answer, “Anywhere is fine with me.”  This must be very common because all across the country, restaurants have sprung up with names like “Anywhere,” “Anything’s Fine With Me,” “I Don’t Care,” and, of course, “It Doesn’t Matter”1.  When we have a group deciding on a restaurant, and no one has a preference, we then do eliminations: for example, ‘I ate at Applebee’s last week, so not there’ or ‘I don’t feel like Italian food tonight.’  This seems to be more productive.  Sometimes it is easier to know where you don’t want to go.

There is some discussion in the commentaries about whether Jesus fasted for 40 days and then was tempted or if he was tempted the entire 40-day period and then had the final three temptations that Matthew and Luke discuss.

Mark 1:12-13   The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Our English version seems clear that Jesus was tempted for the entire 40 days, and the Greek version even more so.   Matthew and Luke then record the 3 specific temptations, but Mark does not.  It’s not hard to imagine 40 days of temptations.  We are told to expect trials and temptations.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  1 Peter 4:12

We are told that this is the norm.  God told Cain that “sin is crouching at the door”.  Peter says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8).  We are surrounded by trials and temptations — that is the fallen world we live in,

So the Spirit “drove him out into the wilderness”.  The Greek verb is very forceful.  ‘Ekballo’ means to ‘throw out’.  This is the verb used when Jesus drives out the moneychangers in the temple, or when Jesus ‘cast out’ demons, or when Stephen is ‘cast out’ of the city and stoned.    It is the same as when the people in his hometown of Nazareth throw him out of town and then take him to throw him off a cliff.  This was not a friendly suggestion to Jesus by the Spirit to go to the wilderness.  This was no gentle nudge.  The Spirit forced Jesus to go where he did not want to go.

As we have discussed, the wilderness is not a place many would choose to go.  On a trip to Israel in 2016, the bus stopped at the edge of the Judean wilderness, and we were instructed to go off by ourselves for 40 minutes.  It was oppressively hot and dry.  There were no trees, no shade, almost no vegetation, and no signs of water.  40 minutes was long enough.  I could not imagine 40 days.  And in Jesus’ day, it was dangerous.  Mark tells us, “he was with the wild animals.”  That seems an odd detail to throw in a short passage.  That area used to be home to large and small predators.  (We were told the large ones (like lions) were no longer there.)  But this is not a place you choose to be day and night alone. I wonder if Mark was painting the wilderness as an anti-Eden place — Eden was a place of abundant vegetation and fruit of all kinds, the wilderness was desolate.  Eden had abundant water, “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” such that a river flowed out of Eden, but the wilderness was dry.  The animals in Eden came to man without fear, but the animals in the wilderness are “wild.”2  But both were a place of testing and interestingly, Adam and Eve’s temptation was about something to eat, just as the first of Jesus’ temptations by the devil.

No one would choose to go to a place of testing, with an encounter with the devil after 40 hard days.  Jesus was forced there at the beginning of his ministry.  He will be forced to go somewhere else he doesn’t want to go at the end of his ministry.  

Matt. 16:21   From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is “greatly distressed and troubled.” He prays and asks if there is any other way to accomplish God’s plan of redemption.  The way of the cross was not the way anyone, including Jesus, would want to go.  But praying in the garden, Jesus makes a choice that Adam and Eve should have made. 

God asked Adam and Eve, “Will you be obedient to me about the tree?”

“Will you follow my will or your own will?”  Adam and Eve fail at the tree of discerning good and evil.

God asked Jesus, “Will you be obedient to me about the tree?”

And Jesus answered, “Not my will, but your will be done.

  Jesus is obedient about the tree.

“They put him to death by hanging him on a tree”  Acts 10:39

God sent Jesus somewhere he didn’t want to go, as he did other Bible characters.  Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, Moses didn’t want to go back to Egypt, Ananias didn’t want to go pray for Saul.  Abraham left his home, having no idea where he would end up. And then there is Peter.

 Jesus tells Peter, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18). Then Jesus gives Peter the same instruction he gave him at the beginning, “Follow me.” I have been to Rome and have seen the spot where, 34 years later, Peter was led, a place where his arms were stretched-out and nailed to a cross. Peter had learned to be obedient, to be faithful to go somewhere he didn’t want to go.  I believe at some point in all of our lives, God will ask us all to go somewhere we do not want to go.  It may be to minister to an enemy or to people who don’t like you; it may be leaving your home to unknown places, or it may be to a place of desolation or testing. It may be to martyrdom. 

Jesus followed God in everything, even to desolation and death.  

The one who restores our soul may lead us through paths of righteousness that look to us like the valley of the shadow of death. There are some dark valleys in this world.  Some of you have walked in the valley. Some of you are walking there now.  There is the valley of pain; there is the valley of depression, the valley of despair, the valley of illness so severe it is the shadow of death, the valley of grief over a loved one.  We all will walk through those valleys — places we don’t want to go.  And on that day, may Jesus remind us:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

There they are, the most common command in the Bible (“Do not fear.”) and the most common promise in the Bible (“I will be with you.”).  They are inextricably linked.  As God told Joshua before they entered the land:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”    Joshua 1:9

The same promise is given to the disciples right after Jesus tells them to go into all the nations.  Jesus’ last words in the gospel of Matthew:

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  Matthew 28:20

Jesus willingly went into the wilderness and willingly went to the cross with no fear, knowing God would be with him.  God promises to be with us in the deepest, darkest valleys of death, comforting, healing, and feeding us with cups running over with goodness and mercy. 

Jesus continues to say, ‘Follow me’.  If we follow him, we know he is there with us.  And if we follow Jesus, we are sure to end up going somewhere we would have never thought about going.  But we will never go alone. Are we willing to go where we do not want to go?  Have you been to the wilderness this week?

1. I have heard the “It Doesn’t Matter Family Restaurant” just below Montgomery, Alabama is a great place.

2. Talking about the ‘wild animals’ in Mark, Skip Moen said, “This sinful world into which Jesus enters to accomplish his mission is less like a pristine garden and more like Jurassic Park.”  Yikes!

Step by Step with Jesus #1 – From the Jordan to the Wilderness

David Chupp Step by step with Jesus ,

So this section is for those who want to “follow with their feet” on our 70-week journey with Jesus.  I hope to be able to track Jesus’s movements over his ministry and give you my best estimate of how far he traveled and, hopefully, some information on the places he went.  We will just have to see how this goes.   I haven’t been able to find anybody who has done this before, so we will just do the best we can.

We did have several weeks of discussion on John the Baptist as a prequel to our 70-week study, and I mentioned that Jesus, prior to his February 16th baptism, would have traveled the 80-mile journey from Galilee to the Jordan River near Jericho.  But our walking time begins now.

In The Year of the Lord’s Favor #12, I gave you this information:

For those of you who have elected to follow Jesus with your feet, there is no way to know how much walking Jesus did during these 40 days.  Depending on which part of the wilderness Jesus went to, he either had an 8-mile hike to the west from the river to the ‘traditional’ area, or 12 miles if he went to the wilderness east of the Jordan (both paths up in elevation 1000-2000 feet).  To better understand Jesus’ experience in these times, try doing your usual exercise routine in isolation.  If the local gym is your usual place, do some trail hiking alone.  Pray for the spirit to lead you (or drive you).  Spend this time alone with God, being aware of any testing coming your way and preparing your heart (and legs) for some Jesus-style walking in the coming year. 

So to get to the wilderness (the traditional area west of the Jordan you see in red here), you have 8-12 miles.  How much did Jesus walk each day these 40 days?  We have no information on this.  So I’ll leave you on your own until near the end of March.  But if you want to be ready to keep up with Jesus later,  I would recommend putting in an average of 2 miles a day.  It is, of course, your choice how you log your miles (treadmill, elliptical, hiking, etc.)  My personal goal is to try to emulate Jesus’ steps as much as possible.  So for the wilderness miles, I hope to get out in whatever wilderness I can find, alone, spending time with the Father.

The Judean Wilderness according to Wikipedia:

“The Judaean Desert lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. The Judaean Desert stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by natural terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The Judaean Desert is characterized by the topography of a plateau that ends in the east in a cliff. It is crossed by numerous wadis flowing from west to east and has many ravines, most of them deep, from 1,201 ft in the west to 600 ft in the east.”

An escarpment is a long steep cliff.  Knowing that the wilderness is full of these will become an important fact to understanding a verse later on.

A wadi (in this area) is a dry ravine with steep sides that has water only with rain and typically causes flash floods.

It would be very helpful for your understanding to be able  to draw a rudimentary map of Israel.  Instructions for this are found in “The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #2”.  The blue line in my map here represents Jesus’ 8 mile trek into the wilderness from the Jordan River.

Jesus began his trek from the banks of the Jordan River, not far from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.  So he would climb up in elevation from the Jordan at 1250 feet below sea level to the wilderness at 1000 feet above sea level.

On your walk west from the Jordan, you will pass by the city of Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world with the oldest known defensive wall.  It was the first city taken by Joshua and the children of Israel (Joshua 6).  Jericho was known as the ‘city of palms’ and, in Jesus’ day, was considered an ‘oasis city’ at the edge of the Judean Wilderness, always lush due to the many natural springs.  Herod the Great built a huge palace there with sunken gardens, swimming pools, and a bridge that spanned the gorge of the wadi.  (Herod’s land in Jericho was taken from him by Marc Antony and given to Cleopatra as a gift, so Herod had to lease the land from Cleopatra for his palace.)

Here is a 3 minute youtube video with some good information and pictures. (This does greatly overestimate the water sources, but oases make the best pictures.)