Life in the wilderness
Church forests of Ethiopia
I love this video:
It captured my imagination the first time I saw it several years ago: A church, a space of LIFE in a wilderness-land. As you read through the Bible, you will notice that obedience and God’s blessing bring fertility to the land. When the people disobey God, they are driven from the land, and the land becomes a wilderness. All suffer because of the peoples’ disobedience - including the plants and the creatures that inhabit it. We see this motif first in the story of the fall in Genesis 3. Because of the man’s disobedience, the land is cursed (Genesis 3:17). Thorns and thistles sprout. Isaiah 32:10–18 also contains this motif and seems to reflect on the fall story. It is reapplied to the people who are living in Judah. They are complacent in the face of God's impending judgement and are called to mourn as the land dies.
“In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent ones; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come.
Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and put sackcloth on your loins.
Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yes, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant city.
For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks;
But, there is hope given as well, again in ways that I think are supposed to bring to mind the creation story1:
[U]ntil a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”
A spirit/wind is poured out and what is dead will again become alive and fertile. And in this fertility of the land righteousness will also be like fruit. There will be quiet resting and trust.
The promise of the fertile land (also called “the Rest” in the Bible) is still one we look forward to (see Hebrews 11:8–16). The spirit of life is watering/will water the earth, and new life begins.
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I’m toying with the possibility of a reversal of Noah imagery as well - instead of judgement water poured out bringing death, the spirit is poured out bringing life. Note too, the Hebrew word used for “pour out” here appears to be related to the word for “naked,” which would be another link to the creation story. ↩︎
