Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Walking Through the Wilderness | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 21

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Why does God lead us into the wilderness? Where did David turn in times of tragedy? Do you trust God's guidance through suffering? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 1 Samuel 21 reminds us that there is a purpose behind our times in the wilderness, and encourages us to trust that God will lead us home. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 21

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. When I had my first child, I faced a season of life unlike any I'd had before. I had left a job in vocational ministry, a job where I worked daily alongside some of my closest friends. My daily rhythms had been disrupted. The plans I had for my career were no longer attainable in the way that I had hoped. My husband soon began his residency where he worked. long hours, six to seven days a week. And I was navigating the life-altering shift that comes with

learning how to be a mother, how to keep a baby alive, how to find purpose and changing diapers, and how to steward my days in time well when I felt unprepared and ill-equipped to be a mom in the first place. I felt isolated. I felt lost. It was not a time of flourishing or abundance in my life. I felt like I was wandering through a barren, wilderness. Mom or not, I'd guess that you faced a season like this one before. Unsure of where to go, feeling isolated, experiencing lack, wandering in the wilderness. The pandemic, certainly in many ways, was a season of wilderness globally. Chapter 21 of 1st Samuel marks a shift in the narrative. David is now entering the wilderness.

He's running from Saul, knowing that his life is in date. he escapes to the wilderness, a fugitive. This time in David's life, it's fraught with danger, hunger, trials, testing, and need. We learn about his time in the wilderness factually in the book of First Samuel, but we can also turn to the Psalms and read about David's inner life during this time. We're going to look at some portions of this chapter now and just get a picture of what the wilderness was like for David. In the first few verses, he takes refuge in knob, asking the priests there for food. He lies saying he's on a secret errand from the king. David's not blameless in the wilderness. He's desperate. What we do see is a powerful man, one the people

used to sing about, sitting at the right hand of the king who is now relying on others to give him food. He then flees knob and enters Philistine territory. Here he's recognized as David, the one who killed Goliath and out of fear for his life he acts insane and the king casts him out not wanting a madman in his courts. Now this is the instance that Psalm 34 references when David writes this. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. These verses reveal to us that David clearly sees God's hand at work in this time in the wilderness, and he will continue to remain faithful and look to God for wisdom

and direction in the wilderness. Now, facing the wilderness is scary. It's lonely and daunting, but God's people have never been strangers to the wilderness. In Genesis, Hagar is sent out of Abraham's household with her child, wandering in the wilderness. Wandering in the wilderness, desperate, fearing that death is coming in the bleak setting of wilderness. And then God meets her, speaks to her, provides water, and makes a promise that her son wouldn't die, but would grow to become a great nation. And though she continued to live in the wilderness with her son, she knew that God would provide like he had when he met her that day. And he does. Later in the story of God's people, God delivers them from slavery in the land of Egypt. And before he

brings them into the promised land, into a land of abundance, remember they must enter into the wilderness. During this time, the Israelites face difficulty, a large nation on the run in a land that does not produce food for them, in an environment that is hostile. And still, God is with them, guiding them by a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke, providing them with food, guiding them on paths of safety, giving them his law and dwelling among them in his tabernacle. It's through the wilderness that the people of God are led into the promised land flowing with milk and honey. In the New Testament, directly after his baptism and before he begins his public ministry, Jesus is led by the spirit into the wilderness. There he is tempted by the

devil to step outside of God's will and take power for himself. But he remains strong, strengthened by the spirit and the truth of Scripture. He resists temptation. It's only then that he begins his ministry, where he declares in Matthew 4, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And of course, we see David, a fugitive in the wilderness, wandering, unsure of his future. but like all who came before him, he has a promise from God to cling to. He knew he was the anointed king, but before he was given the kingdom, God led him into a time in the wilderness. Why? Why not just deliver Hagar from Abraham's household directly into safety? Why not take the Israelites straight from slavery into the promised land?

Why take David on this chaotic journey through the wilderness before he becomes king? Why lead even Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted before he steps into his calling, establishing the kingdom of God here on earth? Now, I won't pretend to know the mind of God or his purposes in all things, but I will say that throughout Scripture, we see the thematic use of wilderness in the lives of the people of God as a time of testing and experiencing God's provision prior to his redemptive acts. We see throughout the New Testament the understanding that in this life we will face trials, but that they are not without purpose. First Peter puts it this way. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith, who through faiths, faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come, so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. You have a glorious inheritance waiting for you, new life through the resurrection of Jesus,

a future destiny on a renewed earth. This inheritance is kept for you, while now you walk through trials. But you will notice that those trials are refining you, molding you, shaping you, strengthening your faith in God, your dependence on Him, your understanding of His God, His understanding of His goodness. Throughout the prophetic book of Isaiah, we see visions of the future hope of God's people. And again and again, we see the language of wilderness used. In Isaiah 35, the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. In Isaiah 51, we read this. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins. He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden

of the Lord, joy and gladness will be found in her. Thanksgiving and the sound of singing. The devastated city of God, in ruins, no longer a city, more like the wilderness, desert, wasteland. That place will be renewed. We specifically see the use of language that points us back to the Garden of Eden, to the beginning of creation, where sin and brokenness have marred God's beautiful creation, joy and gladness, gardens and singing will burst forth. The wilderness will find its redemption. This has been the plan from the very beginning. God began creation with a garden, and he will reunite with his people in a redeemed world, a garden city that breaks through the wilderness and the desert and breathes new life again. That is our future hope, our inheritance that is secure.

even as we walk through the wilderness today like Hagar, like the ancient Israelites, like David and like Jesus, we have a future hope to hold on to, a purpose and a calling. And we have the promise of God's presence here with us even as we walk through the wilderness today. The beauty of life bursting forth, the miracle of new life cannot be fully appreciated or longed for without the experience of wilderness. If you don't understand the trial, the testing, the difficulty, and pain associated with the wilderness, then you will not be able to fully grasp the wonder of a God who meets his people in that lack and provides for them, who promises to one day fully eradicate the wilderness to fill it with life.

What was once barren will be new again, full of vegetation and green. growth. If you find yourself in the wilderness today, remember the hope of the gospel. Remember the redemptive arc of God's people. You are not alone. God has not abandoned you to the wilderness. He is walking with you, refining you, providing for you. Look to him to bring life where there is none. Put your trust in him to provide. Put your peace and your hope in the promise of His redemption. The reality of the wilderness in the lives of God's people does not take away the promise of redemption. It produces a deeper understanding and gratitude and awe for the God who can bring forth abundant life even in the vast wastelands of the wilderness.