“Hearing Voices: Who Are You Listening to in the Wilderness?”

It’s hot.

I mean, it’s REALLY hot.

My mouth feels like cotton; that feeling where I can’t quite get enough saliva to moisten my tongue. I am thirsty, but no water is in sight.

I feel disoriented too…..confused about which direction to go. Unsure of the way out.

And I’m tired….fatigued……the desert will do that to you.

Or so I hear.

See, I’ve never literally been to a desert.

I’ve seen plenty on TV. I remember watching the old westerns back in the 70’s and reruns in the 80s.

     “Gunsmoke”  “Bonanza”  “Big Valley” and I vaguely remember a lesser-known show called “High Chaparral.”

And I mean, those guys were in the desert a lot. It seemed like every few episodes someone got stuck in the desert; their horse went lame, or they were chased by native Americans, or they were taken hostage by a bad guy, or whatever.

All I know is that those guys were in the hot desert sun a lot. And quicksand??  Don’t EVEN get me started on all the quicksand out there. I swear I was convinced that this was the way I would die…quicksand.

But, personally, I’ve never visited the desert.

But…..spiritually?

Well, that’s another story. I’ve been in the desert more than once. Or at least I’ve called times like that the “desert.”

Another term that works might be “wilderness” and because that is a little more related to where I want to go today, let’s use that. The “wilderness.”

I have thought about the wilderness seasons a lot over the last several years. I haven’t always called them that. I might call them “the fires of life” or “the forge” or “the desert” or……well, you guessed it, “the wilderness.”

But no matter what I’ve called them in the moment, the theme is always similar. These are the seasons of life that are the hardest. Times when we feel thirsty for something, but don’t know where to drink. Life feels “hot” with pressure and difficulties, as if it is beating down on us with the intensity of a thousand suns.

And confusing? Disorienting?

You bet.

In those times, we cannot see a way out; we are confused about which way to go to find relief.

Oh…..I’ve been in THOSE places.

And this week, as I pondered what Ashes & Ink might be about, I thought about two separate places in the Bible where the wilderness is mentioned, and I realized that often in the wilderness we end up hearing voices.

It’s true. Don’t be mad. I’m not calling you crazy. But when we are out in the wilderness, where it is hot, dry, and confusing, we start hearing voices.

I said what I said.

But the question really becomes, when I hear voices, “which voice should I listen to?” 

Or, even more to the point, “which voice DO I listen to?”

Allow me to illustrate.

The first incident in the wilderness is found in the Gospel of Matthew, where scripture tells us that Jesus was led into the wilderness after His baptism. He spent forty days and forty nights fasting (and here I almost had to stop writing this because it’s been 2 hours since breakfast), and after all that, he hears a voice.

It’s the voice of the enemy….the devil.

Many of you remember the scene. Satan tempts Jesus three specific times in three specific ways, trying his best to get Jesus to give into his humanity; to defy His Father’s will in order to receive some offered reward from this fallen angel.

Of course, Jesus doesn’t listen to this voice. He stays true to His mission and resists Lucifer until Satan withdraws in defeat.

Well, we could go a lot of different directions with this, but what I want you to hear today is this.

When you find yourself in the wilderness, you are going to hear this same voice. The voice of temptation….of defiance…..of shortcuts and easy-way-outs. And, when you’re in the desert, that voice can be like the siren call found in the Odyssey; both beautifully seductive and incredibly deadly.

When we’re in the wilderness and we’re hot, thirsty, confused, and desperate for relief, the voice of immediate relief is really tempting. If we listen too long, we are at risk. It is in these moments that marriages are betrayed, integrity crumbles, and reputations are sacrificed.

When we view the wilderness as an awful place that MUST be escaped, then those kinds of voices can be really loud.  Because when escape becomes our only goal, almost anything that promises relief can start looking like a way out.

But this week my attention was drawn to another wilderness passage, and a very different voice.

The book of Hosea is all about God’s reaction to Israel, once again, turning away from Him to other things, other gods, other loyalties, other pleasures, and interests. The book is about Israel committing adultery against the Lord, and how He responds to it.

And in the middle of this little book, we find a verse about the wilderness.

“Therefore, I am now going to allure her;
             I will lead her into the wilderness
             and speak tenderly to her.”

Hmmm…….

This forces us to think differently about “the wilderness.” In this verse, God says He is  going to lead them INTO the wilderness. That He is going to strip them of all the other stuff they have been putting their hopes in. That He is going to remove the pleasure they were getting from sin and sensuality. He promises to take them out into the wilderness where it’s hot, dry, and barren; where it is not comfortable at all but, instead, is rough.

And so, we think, “yep….that sounds like the wilderness to me.”

But then, we see a different voice than before.

God says He will “speak tenderly to her.”

Interesting.

This is a unique perspective of the wilderness, but one that should offer us great hope for those seasons.

The idea is that sometimes God knows we must be in the wilderness, away from distractions, noise, and  temptations…..so we can really hear Him; so, He can “speak tenderly” to us.

And isn’t that the kind of voice we want to hear out there? One that is tender and loving, and brings us hope?

Look, the honest truth is that we cannot avoid the wilderness seasons. They happen to everyone; Christian, unbeliever, secular, religious…..everyone.

And so, the question is not, “how can I avoid the desert?” or even “how can I get out of this as fast as possible?”

Shouldn’t we ask other things when we’re out there?

“What might this season be about?”

“What voices am I hearing?”

And maybe the most important of all, “which voice am I going to listen to?”

Because let me tell you….there will be deserts…..and you will hear voices….but they are not all the same.

Some voices offer relief but deliver more pain.

Others? Well, others speak tenderly to us...with love and hope.

But watch out for the quicksand.