Mark 1:12 Don’t confuse the Wilderness with the Garden

First Things: Devotions in Mark’s Gospel

Mark 1:12 Don’t confuse the Wilderness with the Garden

Mark 1:12   Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. ¹³ And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. It was great, perfect. They were in harmony with creation, and at peace with God.  He walked with them in the Garden, and the Son was there. In fact, many students of the Bible believe that it is the Son Himself who is the representative of the Trinity who is walking with His creation in the Garden - 

“and he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

But man and woman followed the serpent’s lead, they sinned against God, and they were expelled from the Garden. Perhaps they were thrust from the Garden by the Spirit, into the wilderness. If so, it would certainly parallel what we find in our verses: “Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.” God sent Jesus at this point not into the Garden, but the wilderness.

The wilderness is an unfriendly place. No fruit on the trees. Why not? No trees. Wild animals; not pets. And the Enemy, Satan himself, bent on bending Jesus from His mission.

Why was Jesus sent to the wilderness? So that he could identify with Garden-expelled wilderness-dwellers like you and me. We may have feathered our nests, but spiritually speaking, we are described as “having no hope and without God in the world.” We live in danger of being eaten alive and led astray.

But Jesus, our Captain, leads the way. He is resolute; face like a flint; unmoved by Satan’s temptations. He is as safe with the wild animals as was Daniel with the lions; as secure in the guardianship of angels as Elijah in his wilderness.

Yes, our world is a spiritual wilderness. But Jesus has already been here, and we will make it through if we follow His lead, sticking close, resisting hell’s call; leaning on heaven’s care.