The exodus from Egypt and the subsequent wilderness wandering, provided the foundational story for Israel, from long ago, and still through into the present. It is regularly recalled in the Psalms (68:7, 78:15–20, 40, 52 95:8 106:14–33 136:16) as well as in various prophetic oracles and other narrative references. The journey through the wilderness figured in the songs of Israel. There, we read of thirst and hunger in the wilderness, encounters with snakes and other trials-as well as the giving of the law, on Sinai, a mountain in the middle of the wilderness. The story of Moses and the Israelites is narrated in Exodus 13:17–19:2 and 40:34–38, through the book of Numbers (where it is mentioned 44 times), and in Deuteronomy 1–2. Indeed, so central is this period, that we find many references to it in Hebrew scripture, and lengthy narratives recounting incidents during that period. It was in the wilderness, throughout that long period of wandering, that they had encounters with the divine, that their identity was shaped, that their foundations as a nation were laid. Yet, it was also the place where the character of Israel was forged. The wilderness experience, for Israel, was long, seemingly unending, and challenging. The wilderness is the place where Israel spends forty years-not forty periods of 365 days, measured precisely and carefully, but, in the way of the ancients, forty was the way of saying, a heaps long time, a lot of weeks and years, a period extending out into the unseeable future. In the biblical tradition, the wilderness plays a pivotal role in the story of the Israelites, freed from captivity in Egypt, yearning for the promise of land and safety still ahead of them. Matthew also sets the encounter in the wilderness (4:1). Matthew’s account is the version that we are offered by the lectionary this coming Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent (Matt 4:1–11). The whole of that book demonstrates how such a courtroom setting plays out, as the argument is investigated, the evidence is explored, the case for a verdict is painstakingly built. Of course, the role that is enacted by this figure-the tempter, the devil, the tester, the Satan-is the role of divine advocate, the one we know from the book of Job as the prosecuting attorney, the accuser, the one who puts the case that Job needs to answer. The back-and-forth of this disputation is recorded by Matthew. Here, Jesus engages in a disputation with “the tempter” (Matt 4:3, which uses the language already found in the Markan version). The forty days in the wilderness becomes a time when Jesus fasted (Matt 4:2 something not mentioned in the earlier Markan account). So in this later work, the details of the story are expanded and the plot line is filled out (Matt 4:1-11). But this wasn’t the first Gospel written the author (by tradition, Matthew) quite clearly knew, and made use of, the earlier account of “the good news of Jesus” which we link with Mark. The story also appears in the “book of the origins of Jesus, the anointed one, the son of David, the son of Abraham”, which we attribute to Matthew, and is placed as the first Gospel in canonical order in our scriptures. And these days are part of the intention that God has, for Jesus, to prepare for his role. The forty days in the wilderness stand at the start of the public activity of Jesus, as a declaration of what he is on about. So this short, succinct, concentrated version already gives us key pointers to the significance of this story. Under whose auspices did this all take place? The first line of the Markan account is, “the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness”. What was the purpose of this challenging, difficult experience? Mark says that Jesus was there to be “tempted by Satan”. Present with Jesus throughout these days were both “wild beasts” and “angels”.
That account simply notes the bare minimum. The shortest and most focussed version is in the earliest of these Gospels-the account of “the good news of Jesus, the anointed one, the Son of God”, which we attribute to the evangelist Mark (Mark 1:12-13) This story is told early on in three canonical Gospels. We start into the season of Lent, this Sunday, with the story of Jesus being “tempted in the wilderness” (Matt 4:1–11).
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