February 20: In the Wilderness
♫ Music:
Day 7 - Tuesday, February 20
Title: IN THE WILDERNESS
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NKJV)
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Poetry & Poet:
from “The Wasteland”
by T.S. Eliot
After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that
cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water
IN THE WILDERNESS
The wilderness. Now there’s a phrase that captures meaning even before trying to figure out exactly where we’re going. A quick Google search defines “wilderness” as an environment void of human interaction––a place where the earth just grows alone. We coin the phrase “going out into the wild” with the intentionality of materialistically getting away from it all or perhaps roughing it on a camping trip in the backcountry. We tend to think of the wilderness as a place––rivers, valleys, forests, vast deserts––with animals, sure––but without people. The wilderness is a place of aloneness, isolation, and a place where nature runs…literally, wild.
We see the wilderness in Scripture, represented as a dry, barren place where the people who did venture into it were wandering, lost, and seemingly far from refuge, and really, the salvation of finding home. The wilderness is referred to as a desert waste (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 68:7), a dry place (Psalms 78:17; 105:41), an unoccupied place without form (Deuteronomy 32:10: Job 12:24; Genesis 1:2), and we of course know about the wilderness wanderings of Israel (Exodus 16:1-14; Psalms 78:19, 40, 52; 95:8). In today’s verse in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul likens the Corinthian church to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings stemming from their exodus from Egypt.
But the wilderness can mean so much more than the physical place of the overgrown unknown. Revelation refers to the wilderness as a spiritual condition of dryness and emptiness (11:3; 12:6; 14-17:3-6). And really, that seemingly represents the lost and conflicted nature of both the Corinthians and Israelites within the Scriptures. They are lost in the physical wilderness and they are lost in spirit. But here’s the thing––while the physical representation of the wilderness is visually powerful and being literally lost is palpable, the intangible wilderness is a dangerous place indeed.
The intangible wilderness is an isolating place where we are held captive by our thoughts. We see that in the art, which depicts the artist, tortured and searching for inspiration, creativity, meaning, and purpose. Emanating from a single focal point and swirling around as if to represent an entire life lived in a moment of human fate, the stress and turmoil expressed in light and dark captures the conflict, the temptation, and the confusion of one’s own inner reality and the raw angst that we suffer from within. The enemy likes nothing more than to turn the wilderness of the soul into an internal warzone, or worse, a limbo––where, like in the poem for today, we read of confusion, ambiguity, and the longing for peace that seems so far away.
That’s what the Israelites were looking for but could not recognize it. That’s what Paul was imploring the Corinthian church to do differently––to resist temptation, remain faithful in the Lord, and to choose the path out of our inner wilderness that truly does surpass all understanding. After all, doing this provides what we all in a way are trying to find––and really, what is the opposite of the inner wilderness––peace.
Prayer
Dear Father in heaven, we pray that in the stress and chaos of this world, that we can wrestle and tame the inner wilderness of our souls. That we can remember the fate of Israel and the words of Paul to the Corinthian church and choose the will of our Lord for our lives, which produces the peace and joy of traveling within the plan the Lord has for us.
Amen.
Anna Sinclair
Assistant Professor of Public Relations
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Vicious Cycle
Jacek Malczewski
1895–1897
Oil on canvas
174 x 240 cm.
National Museum
Poznan, Poland
Today's painting depicts a vision of human figures whirling dynamically in midair within circles of light and dark. The artist Jacek Malczewski, who frequently painted himself in his work, represents himself here as a pensive young man sitting atop a stepladder. Surrounded by fears, fate, temptations, and choices, he ponders the complexities and ramifications of life’s decisions.
About the Artist:
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929) was a Polish painter associated with the patriotic Young Poland Movement and is regarded as the father of the Polish Symbolism movement. Malczewski combined the predominant style of his time with historical motifs of Polish martyrdom, the Romantic ideals of independence, Christian and Greek traditions, folk mythology, and the natural environment. Between 1885 and 1916, Malczewski regularly visited Paris, Munich, Vienna, Italy, Greece, and Turkey, where he drew inspiration from a wide variety of sources and then translated these themes back into Polish folklore, tradition, and motifs within his own paintings. Many of his paintings prominently feature his own self-portrait in elaborate costumes. In the years 1897–1900 and 1912–1921, Malczewski served as a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. His art has been compared to that of artists Gustave Moreau, Arnold Böcklin, and Salvador Dalí.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacek_Malczewski
About the Music:
“Voice in the Wilderness: II,” Poco lento
There are few composers of such profound sincerity as Ernest Bloch. He said that the intention in his music was to capture the Hebrew spirit in “the complex, ardent, agitated soul that vibrates in the Bible.” The symphonic poem Voice in the Wilderness has no biblical link, though the title suggests a kinship—as does the modal idiom of Middle Eastern music and the calling of the shofar (ram’s horn) in the orchestration. There are six meditations, in which the cello takes the role of commentator on the preceding music, as it journeys from world-weariness to “the victory of the spirit” with “father and son” perfectly partnering each other as they traverse this moving musical composition.
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bloch-schelomo-voice-in-the-wilderness-caplet-epiphanie
Lyrics: Instrumental
About the Composer:
Ernest Bloch (1880–1959) was a Swiss-born American composer whose music reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes, as well as European post-Romantic traditions in the style of composers Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. Bloch’s principal training was in Frankfurt with Iwan Knorr, who most influenced Bloch's distinct musical personality. Bloch incorporated established and novel musical elements into highly dramatic scores, often influenced by philosophical, poetic, or religious themes. A master composer of music for strings, Bloch wrote four-string quartets which are deeply emotional works and rank among the most distinguished achievements in the neo-classical and neo-romantic idiom of early twentieth-century music. He was the director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Bloch composed a significant group of works on Jewish themes; among them is his sacred service “Avodath Hakodesh,” which represents the full maturity of his use of music appropriate to Jewish themes and liturgy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bloch
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Bloch
About the Performers:
BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Benjamin Wallfisch, Conductor
For over ninety years, BBC National Orchestra of Wales has played an integral part in the cultural landscape of Wales, occupying a distinctive role as both broadcast and national symphony orchestra. The orchestra performs a busy schedule of live concerts throughout Wales, the rest of the UK, and the world. The orchestra is an ambassador of Welsh music and champions contemporary composers and musicians. The orchestra performs annually at the BBC Proms and biennially at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and its concerts can be heard regularly across the BBC—on Radio 3, Radio Wales, and Radio Cymru. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3YV0XMLfSTrsrtT8PdfYPNV/about-the-orchestra
Benjamin Wallfisch (b. 1979) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer known for his work on film scores. He has contributed to over seventy-five feature films since the mid-2000s, including notable films like Blade Runner 2049, Shazam!, It, It Chapter Two, The Invisible Man, Hidden Figures, and A Cure for Wellness. His work has earned recognition and nominations, including a joint nomination with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer for Best Original Score at the 74th Golden Globe Awards for Hidden Figures, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award for Blade Runner 2049. Additionally, Wallfisch was nominated for Film Composer of the Year in the World Soundtrack Awards in 2020 for the second consecutive year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Wallfisch
https://www.benjaminwallfisch.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), one of the twentieth century's major poets, was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary critic. Born in Missouri to a prominent family, in 1914 he moved to England, where he settled, worked, and became a British subject. It was poet Ezra Pound, in his role as a friend and editor, who helped establish Eliot as a preeminent figure in the modernist poetic movement, particularly through his editorial assistance on Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922). With its collage of voices, its violent disjunctions in tone, and wealth of cultural allusion, The Waste Land resonated as a depiction of the ruins of postwar European civilization. The 1920s also saw Eliot become increasingly conservative in his outlook, particularly following his conversion to the Anglican Church. His religious conversion would have a far-reaching impact on the rest of his career, culminating in the Christian meditations found in Four Quartets (1943), which garnered him the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/t-s-eliot
About the Devotion Writer:
Anna Sinclair
Assistant Professor of Public Relations
Biola University
Anna Sinclair earned her B.S. in public relations at Northern Arizona University and her masters in organizational leadership at Biola University. Sinclair spent several years working for the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, and then Mariners Church in Irvine, California. Her master’s thesis included study on the generational and professional differences of individuals which in turn affect where and how those individuals volunteer their time. Based on her research, Sinclair created a model for strategic and targeted volunteer outreach that institutions such as museums could utilize for their docent programs. After her time at Mariners Church, Sinclair accepted a position at Ambassador Advertising Agency, where she served as an account executive for nearly seven years. Sinclair learned the broadcasting industry while working with such clients as Joni Eareckson Tada, Elizabeth George, Gary Chapman, and other Christian ministries that utilize radio broadcasting. She transitioned from working at Ambassador full-time to becoming an adjunct at Biola teaching in the Media, Journalism and Public Relations Department.