How long does it take to unlearn a cultural inheritance that dominates you? The Israelites spent decades in the wilderness, and only a few of the original adult generation who left Egypt entered the promised land. This is often understood as a punishment, but what else was going on? (Joshua chapter 5 vs 1-8)
Wilderness is often seen as a place of exile and punishment. When communities were small and relied on their local area for the necessities of life exile was an extreme punishment. In the early 20th Century penal reforms of prisons transformed them from miserable holding cells into centres for reform. Perhaps we need to understand the role exile and wilderness can play in spiritual life.
What if the Israelites needed the wandering in the wilderness to transform from a community defined by oppression and slavery in Egypt? Perhaps then the Wilderness could be seen as an agent of transformation rather than a symbol of punishment and suffering. Jesus is recorded as walking in the hills and praying at significant times during his active years of ministry. How often was he in the wilderness before that, perhaps remembering childhood events where he discussed with the teachers of the law and felt at home in the temple.
- Next time you hear the call of the wild, why not consciously respond and take steps to enter an unmanaged space where you can experience change and transformation. If you don’t have the opportunity or resources, who might you turn to for help?
- Next time you feel cast out or excluded use it as an opportunity to examine your desires and the nature of the barriers that have been raised. If you don’t have the opportunity or resources, who might you turn to for help?
Some things take time, and if the head and heart of an individual don’t change at the same rate, it much more complicated for the ethos of a community to transform. Perhaps wilderness plays an important role in this.
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9 NIV
4 replies on “Exile”
I think we need to have sustainable minds which hold onto timeless truths while constantly being renewed in how these truths live for us now in the world. I don’t want to be a fossil but I need to have a backbone!
Thanks for providing some helpful context for the idea of exile. We found it very positive to be in a different place but still connected to the regular group… there was a sense of experiencing God in a fresh way which was enriched by knowing our friends were also enjoying his presence in the same temporal space. Geography was transcended as well as integral to our experience.
Putting it less pretentiously, we felt connected while being distant from each other.
But the concept of exile itself goes a lot deeper and does not depend on being geographically removed from one’s normal surroundings – see Simon’s blog above.
Now we see wilderness not as a place of exile but as a precious space to be preserved as there is so little of it left. At least we have some wilderness in Scotland. It’s one of my favourite habitats!