The story of the Bible begins with a vast wilderness, where God creates humanity, out of the dust

of that wilderness, and then plants them in a good garden.

And all of this life in the wilderness is sustained now by the creative power of God. So to exist in the garden is to

exist within God's life. The condition of being in the garden of God's infinite life is about

trusting in God's wisdom, partnering with God and letting God guide our choices about good and bad.

And if we don't want to play that game, then God escorts us outside the garden into the

wilderness that we choose for ourselves.

Tragically, humanity ends up back in the wilderness.

But God doesn't give up on them.

He follows them into the wilderness to provide for them.

And he uses the wilderness as a training ground to teach them how to trust him. The wilderness is a place

that God guides his people through as a period of testing and of purification, a character

formation. Today we're going to look at the different ways Israel's

prophets discuss the theme of the wilderness. We'll look at Josea, who describes the wilderness

as a place of restoration. Jose is describing like an intervention with somebody who's so

self-destructive that you have to put them in an environment where they can't do very much

anymore. God's going to cut off access to self-made Edens. For Hosea, the wilderness is a

severe mercy, an opportunity to connect to God in a deep and intimate way. The wilderness first was like

a prison to prevent you from destroying yourself,

but now that wilderness becomes a place to fall in love again. This positive portrayal of the

wilderness continues in Jeremiah, who describes Israel's time in the wilderness like an engagement

period between two people in love. On the other hand, the prophet Ezekiel portrays Israel's entire history

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