Living in the Wilderness Now

BibleProject

BibleProject Podcast

Christianity, Old Testament, Torah, Theology, New Testament, God, Demons, Tim Mackie, Bible Study, Angels, Bible, Jesus, Spiritual Beings, Jon Collins, Religion & Spirituality, Spirit, Satan

4.8 • 18.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Wilderness E11 — After his death and resurrection, Jesus sends his disciples out into the world to share the good news of the Kingdom and make disciples. These disciples, also known as apostles, plant churches across the Roman Empire and write letters to congregations made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. And their letters often wrestle with the tension of living in the new age of Jesus’ reign while also living in the old age of idolatry, corruption, and injustice. To talk about the overlap of these two ages, the apostles use a familiar metaphor: the wilderness. In this final episode of the series, Jon and Tim discuss how the New Testament authors use wilderness imagery to encourage and warn followers of Jesus to stay close to their good shepherd through the danger and deception of this present age.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We've gone on a long journey through the theme of the wilderness together.
0:08.5	The wilderness is a dangerous place that will drive our bodies back into the dust from which we came.
0:15.0	We sometimes end up in the wilderness because of our own folly, but other times we're thrust into the wilderness by the corruption of
0:21.2	others. Yet, however we end up in the wilderness, God is committed to meeting us there. And ultimately,
0:28.3	God meets us there through Jesus. And so in a way, all of life, this side of new creation is a type
0:34.3	of wilderness wandering. We're no longer captives to death, but we're not home yet.
0:39.4	The Messiah has risen from the dead, the spirit's been poured out, the new age has arrived,
0:43.9	but the wilderness is the in-between phase where we've left slavery and we're not fully in the
0:49.9	promised land. We can succeed in the wilderness because Jesus and God's spirit are with us in the
0:56.9	wilderness, guiding us and providing for us. And so the Apostle Paul tells us to take this seriously,
1:03.6	because the wilderness is no joke, and it can ruin us if we don't stick with Jesus. You can
1:10.2	ignore the oasis on offer.
1:13.1	And if you do that, you will find that the wilderness is going to kill you.
1:17.2	It'll destroy you.
1:18.3	You're cutting off the branch that is supporting your very life.
1:22.2	This is sobering.
1:23.4	The wilderness can still get us?
1:25.7	The point is, you want the warning to stick.
1:28.3	I want to be motivated not to wander in the wilderness needlessly.
1:33.3	Yet Paul also wants us to consider that even if we fail in the wilderness,
1:38.3	Jesus is more powerful.
1:40.3	Paul has this category that if somebody is going to follow the way of the wilderness and
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