The good news in Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness was that God provided manna, quail, and water from the rock. He continued to lead them, despite their disobedience. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.Troubling times can cause us to doubt the goodness of God. The key thing is to notice and celebrate the evidence of God’s kindness and continued care—even amidst the hardship and adversity.
To what might we compare this unexpected and unsettling coronavirus season? We might think of it like “Groundhog Day”: a repeating monotony of locked-down life.
We might think of it like the holding pattern of an aircraft coming in to land: an interminable period of waiting—like that of refugees waiting for a safe place to call home.[1]
A related question to ask is, where the current pandemic fits into each of our life stories? It’s a question worth pondering, for, as Alistair McGrath puts it, “the story we believe we are in determines what we think about ourselves and consequently how we live.”[2]
The Bible throws up an intriguing answer to both questions: the coronavirus crisis is a wilderness experience.
The biblical theme of wilderness is widespread:
- Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden;
- Cain was sent into the land of Nod;
- Abram wandered from his father’s household;
- Moses fled to Midian;
- David was an outlaw on the run living in caves;
- John the Baptist was a voice of one calling in the wilderness.
Each of these experienced dislocation, isolation and deprivation. And the Bible recognizes the hardship of such experiences. The wilderness is “barren, a land of deserts and ravines, of drought and utter darkness” (Jer. 2:6). It’s the habitation of demons (Matt. 12:43) and a place of alienation and wandering (Luke 8:29; 15:4).
