HEBREW – Wilderness

miḏbār
The most common Hebrew word translated wilderness is miḏbār (H4057), which appears about 250 times. The literal idea, of course, is that of a desert, or other such uninhabited wasteland (Deu_32:10; Job_38:26), such as the great Sinai wilderness (Deu_2:7; cf. Exo_19:1-2; Lev_7:38), or sometimes even vast pastureland (Joe_2:22; Psa_65:12). Besides Sinai, many other tracts of wilderness are referred to including Beersheba (Gen_21:14), Sin (Exo_16:1; Exo_17:1), Judah (Jdg_1:16; Psa_63:1 title), Damascus (1Ki_19:15), Shur (Exo_15:22; Exo_16:1), and Egypt (Eze_20:35).
The figurative ideas behind miḏbār, however, provide deep application. One of the concepts represented by wilderness is that of trial and testing. A dominant theme throughout the Pentateuch, for example, is Israel’s presence in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. Deu_8:2, in fact, explicitly states that the desert was a place to prove whether Israel would obey God’s commandments. Sadly, she repeatedly failed, from grumbling about food (Exo_16:2-3) and water (Exo_17:1-3), to her idolatry at Mount Sinai (Exodus 32), to her ultimate failure in “the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh” (Num_13:26; see Numbers 13-14)), where the people were afraid to enter the Promised Land. This resulted in their having to wander in the wilderness for forty years, demonstrating that judgment is also represented by wilderness.
Two other ideas pictured in a wilderness, however, are positive, namely, solitude and preparation. David felt he could be at rest in the wilderness away from people (Psa_55:6-7) and had the opportunity to seek God early in the morning while in the wilderness (Psa_63:1). God took Moses into the wilderness to prepare him for what he would face (Exo_2:15 ff, Midian was located either in Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba, or in the Sinai Peninsula). Likewise, John the Baptist was prepared in the wilderness (Mat_3:1-4), and our Lord Himself spent forty days and nights in the wilderness, where he experienced all the above (Mat_4:1-2). Further, on at least one other occasion He “withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed” (Luk_5:16).
Dear Christian Friend, even if you live in a city of a million people, you live in a wilderness—it is called the world. Your faith will be tried and tested every day, but God is using the trials and testing to prepare you and to prove He is there with you.
Scriptures for Study: What does Php_2:14 command? Read 2Co_11:23-30. Besides “perils in the wilderness,” what else did Paul suffer, and what was his attitude?

 

HEBREW – Longeth

kāmah
Psa_63:1 is one of those verses of Scripture that once you read it, you can’t leave it: “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” Once David understood who God (’Elōhiym, January 7) is, he longed for God in a way that should strike all of us.
To get the full impact of this verse, we need to set the stage (2 Samuel 15). After being driven from his throne by the political intrigue of his own son, Absalom, David is forced to leave Jerusalem and head into some of the most desolate, dismal, and depressing land on earth, the wilderness of Judea, which stretches right to the banks of the Dead Sea to the east.
David, therefore, writes: “My flesh longeth for thee.” Longeth is kāmah (H3642), which appears only here in the OT and literally means “to faint” and is related to an Arabic word that means “be pale of face, gray.” Driven into exile, it wasn’t his possessions, power, or position that David missed; rather it was God and the “sanctuary” (2Sa_15:2), that is, God’s presence in the tabernacle, that place of prayer and public worship, that David longed for.
Especially striking is that kāmah speaks of something physical. David’s craving for God was not some “emotional high,” rather a physical need; without God’s presence, his face was pale and he was physically ill. As the story continues, Zadok and Abiathar actually brought the Ark of the Covenant to David, sincerely thinking this would comfort and encourage him, but David sent them back. Why? It wasn’t some object that David needed, no matter how sacred. It was God that David needed. He didn’t want a picture; he needed the Person.
We, too, live in a “dry and thirsty land,” a desolate world. While it has amusements, some of which we can certainly enjoy, as did David, true pleasure is found in God alone. Likewise, if we were driven into exile, what would we miss most? Would we long for our nice house, creature comforts, and possessions? Or would it be God’s presence that we missed most? Would we miss the house of God, being with God’s people, and being immersed in His Word?
Scriptures for Study: What does Psa_63:1 say concerning how David began His day? Compare that with the following: Psa_5:3; Psa_119:87; Psa_119:147-148; Pro_8:17.