And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Luke 1:80
I think I can say with confidence that we have all walked through a wilderness season of life. The wilderness is a place of isolation and obscurity. It’s remote and uninhabited.* Wilderness regions are far and away from powers and influence and the benefits of their oversight.* The wilderness can be a place of great testing. The wilderness is often quite hard.
Have you experienced a season like this?
For John, the wilderness wasn’t an experience. The wilderness was home. It was the place of his development and growth. In this scripture, we see that John became strong in body and in character.* Shockingly, the wilderness was the environment that God chose to grow John.
Maybe your upbringing could be described as a wilderness. Perhaps you have lived your whole life feeling isolated and hidden in obscurity. Though it was hard, know that God was at work even in your wilderness. Though there was pain, God was using it for your good.
After Luke 1:80, we don’t hear about John again until Luke 3:2-3:
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The preparation and growth and character-building that God invested in John in the wilderness birthed the greatest message of all time: repentance and forgiveness are possible! The Messiah was coming! The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand!
God wants to give you a word. He wants to put a message in your mouth that will bring others to repentance and forgiveness and relationship with Him. The pain and difficulty of our wildernesses can be used for good. They were used for preparation. Will we, like John, hear God and proclaim"?
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to view your wilderness journey through God’s preparatory perspective. Perhaps today God wants you to hear His Word and proclaim it. Maybe today God wants you to know that your pain and difficult seasons were not in vain. Perhaps today God is asking you to step out of your isolation and into the presence of others.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke (Lk 1:76–80). InterVarsity Press.
Garland, D. E. (2012). Luke (pp. 109–110). Zondervan.
Edwards, J. R. (2015). The Gospel according to Luke (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 64–65). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
Liefeld, W. L., & Pao, D. W. (2007). Luke. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 72). Zondervan.
Liefeld, W. L., & Pao, D. W. (2007). Luke. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 74). Zondervan.
Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke: 1:1–9:50 (Vol. 1, pp. 194–195). Baker Academic.
Nolland, J. (1989). Luke 1:1–9:20 (Vol. 35A, pp. 90–91). Word, Incorporated.