Dcn Leah Sandwell-Weiss

Dear friends,

This photo was taken from Mt Nebo in Jordan in November 2022. Traditionally, this is where Moses looked across the Jordan to see the Promised Land. Moses had been leading the Israelites from Egypt for over 40 years and now he could see the land that God had promised them far off in the distance. But God had also told him that he and most of the adults who fled Egypt would never enter this land. And he didn’t. Moses died and was buried somewhere in this area.

The scenery in Jordan and Israel is like ours in Arizona—dry, scrubby, mountainous. We live, as the Israelites, in the middle of a wilderness. What do you think of when you hear “wilderness?” and “Promised Land?” Are they mutually exclusive? If we’re in the wilderness, are we missing the promises of God? Are we stuck in sin and failure in the wilderness because we haven’t reached the freedom with God? Some have thought this way, but I don’t.

I think of Jesus going to the wilderness after his baptism. He went there to pray and reflect on his purpose and the message he was to deliver to the people. He needed the time in the wilderness to prepare. Like Israelites and then Jesus, we need our wilderness experiences to prepare to live out our life with God.

After Moses’ death, his assistant, Joshua, became the leader of the Israelites. In our readings today, God commands him to “[b]e strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Perhaps this verse is a good one to remember whenever we’re in the wilderness and don’t know where to go.

—Dcn Leah