Wilderness: Lenten preparation

A collection of biblical texts that speak of wilderness

•Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. Exod. 7:16

•The Israelites complained to Moses, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” Exod. 14:12

•Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food. Num. 21:5

•They looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. Exod. 16:10

•See the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. Exod. 16:32

•And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!" Num. 14:2

•God knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing. Deut. 2:7

•Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. Deut. 8:2

•In the great and terrible wilderness, God made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Deut. 8:15-16

•Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the LORD from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. Deut. 9:7

•He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye. Deut. 32:10

•Forty years God sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. Neh. 9:21

•The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness. Ps. 29:8

•The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy. Ps. 65:12

•He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. Ps. 78:15

•They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? Ps. 78:19

•Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. Ps. 78:52

•But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert. Ps. 106:14

•. . . until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. Isa. 32:15-16

•The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Isa. 35:1, 6

•A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isa. 40:3

•I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together. Isa. 41:18-19

•I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isa. 43:19

•The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people. Isa. 43:20

•For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. Isa. 51:3

•And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, “We are free, we will come to you no more”? Jer. 2:31

•Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my portion, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. Jer. 12:10

•For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course has been evil, and their might is not right. Jer. 23:10

•Even the jackals offer the breast and nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. Lam. 4:3

•Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. . . . Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make an end of them in the wilderness. Ezek. 20:15,17

•I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. Ezek. 20:35

•Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. Hosea 2:14

•Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal-peor, and became detestable like the thing they loved. Hosea 9:10

•It was I who fed you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. Hosea 13:5

•Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Joel 2:22

•The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel. Luke 1:80

•In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matt. 3:1-2

•John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark 1:4

•In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of the region, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Luke 3:2

•Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. Luke 4:1

•And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Mark 1:12-13

•Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness. Hebr. 3:8

•But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. Rev. 12:14

Compiled by Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org