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Lesson 9: Choose trust not control.  

The most famous wilderness resident in the day of Jesus was Herod the Great. He came from the wilderness area of Idumea. He built at least nine major palaces from the Mediterranean Sea to the Herodion near Bethlehem, to Jerusalem itself, and then over to Jericho, and then to Masada on the Dead Sea, and finally across the Dead Sea to Machaerus in Jordan. Most of the palaces were in the wilderness where he was comfortable. Herod became very wealthy because he controlled the trade routes for spices coming out of Arabia. He was powerful as well ruling over both Idumea and Israel with the support of Rome. At the same time both growing up in the wilderness and experiencing the assassination of his father taught him about the precarious nature of life. In response he built these palaces as an escape route of sorts across the wilderness to Jordan in case his people revolted. He also killed anyone whom he thought threatened his throne including family members. He killed his favorite wife wrongly suspecting her of plotting against him. He brutally suppressed a tax revolt killing thousands of innocent people and enslaving thousands more (including a man and woman who would later become the mother of Paul the apostle). Herod responded to the precarious nature of life with an all out attempt to control his fate.

Around the same time arose another well known resident of the wilderness. His name was John the Baptist. He carried out most of his ministry in the wilderness areas around the Jordan River. He owned no palaces, had no fancy clothes and lived on a simple kosher diet. He did not seem to want power. He attracted a large following but he pointed them away from himself towards Jesus. He told his followers, “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30) John acted more out of a sense of trust than he acted out of a desire to control. For his efforts, he was imprisoned in one of Herod the Great’s palaces at Machaerus. There Herod’s son Antipas would have John beheaded for opposing Antipas’s taking of his brother’s wife.

Lest it seem that the way of control won over the way of trust, consider that Herod the Great died of a nasty disease, his sons squandered his kingdom, his palaces became ruins; and he is remembered as a baby killer. And John? Though he died too young, the movement for which he sacrificed lives on. Today there are no followers of Herod but the Jesus to whom John pointed has more than two billion followers.

These are precarious times. Shall we try to control life or shall we trust in God’s goodness? Play the long game. Choose to trust.

~David