The wilderness that Israel traveled through for 40 years and the wilderness in Matthew 4 are symbolic of the church.
Matthew 4:1-8
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,
‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
The wilderness is the place where God took care of His children and provided all of their needs. The children of Israel escaped from Egypt, from slavery. They left Egypt and went into the wilderness. The wilderness is symbolic of the church. God brought them to the wilderness to protect them from Egypt.
Egypt is symbolic of this world and of slavery to sin. Egypt was prosperous and rich, but their lives in Egypt were miserable.
We all have the desire to go to the Promised Land, which is symbolic of heaven. If we want to go to the Promised Land, we must walk through the wilderness. No one can go from Egypt to the Promised Land without passing through the wilderness.
You cannot go from sin to heaven without experiencing salvation and becoming part of God’s family. You must become part of the church. This doesn’t mean that if someone gets saved and dies very shortly afterward that they will go to hell because they didn’t join a church. But God wants us to submit ourselves to a church and a pastor.
What did they do in the church? God trained them and taught them. He provided their needs.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3
2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
There is a process that we must go through to go from Egypt to the Promised Land. We should not resist this process. We must submit ourselves to the process of the wilderness.
The wilderness is a dry place. The church is not always filled with love and peace; sometimes there is a time of dryness. There were times when Israel was in the wilderness that they wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to eat melons and garlic and leeks. They complained about the manna in the wilderness. They missed the world. They missed Egypt. Those people did not survive through the wilderness to make it to the Promised Land. There are people inside the church who complain and nag and wish to go back to Egypt.
The wilderness is a place where we learn to become a servant like Joshua, Caleb, and Moses. A good leader is a good servant.
When you look back to Egypt, you will struggle with the wilderness.
Not everyone in the church is satisfied; some people constantly long for this world. When you long for this world, you will not be satisfied with the provision of God in the wilderness. God did so many miracles in the wilderness, providing food for the Israelites every day, guiding them with a pillar of fire and cloud, keeping their clothes from wearing out. They saw daily miracles in the wilderness. You can choose to see the wilderness as a paradise or as a place full of fiery serpents.
As long as we obey and follow God, we can live happy and successful lives in the wilderness. We can have encounters with God and live powerful lives. Many good things happen in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place to be trained by God to become spiritual.
God bless you,
Pastor Sun Hui East
Never thought of our Christian lives that way… it makes sense.
Because it is so uncomfortable, it is so tempting to complain and fight when you go through the wilderness, but it just makes the process take longer and more miserable. When you recognize that is where you are, stop fighting, rest in the Lord and in His word, and praise Him for the great thing that He is doing in your life.
Thank you, Pastor Sun East, for bringing to clarity the significant role of a Pastor and Church family. God knows what is best for us. The Israelites grew impatient in the wilderness just like I do at times and need to remember that His ways are not my ways and His timing is not mine. In Christ we are one but so much worldly baggage comes attached that it requires time and diligence and submission to let go of all that “Egypt”. So during those dry times I just need to ask the Lord to help me be a better servant and thank Him and remember I am in a far better place than when I was in Egypt!
Thank you Pastor Sun for your awesome work in the Lord.
Amen! Christians today want to go straight to the Promised Land, without going through the wilderness. Even though the wilderness can be dry and trying at times, it’s important training that we need. God bless you, Pastor Sun!!!
This is teaching is sound in doctrine.This message has great spiritual food to aid in Christian maturity. This is a whole new view of the wilderness. Thank you Pastor East.