The Bible talks quite a bit about the wilderness, in part because there is a lot of wilderness in the land where the people of the Bible lived! Everyone knew about the wilderness; the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, people herded sheep in the wilderness, and you had to travel through wilderness to get almost anywhere outside your own village.
These days, we tend to go out to the wilderness for recreation. As my dad says, “When God wants to speak to His people, He often brings them out to the wilderness. We just go voluntarily!” Still, I love some of the verses about the wilderness in the Bible, so here’s a smattering of my favorites!
Behold, I am doing 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. Isaiah 43:19
“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Ezekiel 34:25
He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Deuteronomy 32:10
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. 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, that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. Isaiah 41:17-29
He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us. Acts 7:38
Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. Nehemiah 9:19
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. Isaiah 35:1
Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Joel 2:22
For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. Deuteronomy 2:7
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. Hosea 2:14
And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Exodus 16:10
He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. Deuteronomy 8:15
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:3-5
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Jeremiah 2:2
For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. Nehemiah 9:21
Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness. Hebrews 3:8
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Mark 1:12-13
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. Revelation 12:6
The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. Deuteronomy 2:7
