Jesus lived in the dust of the desert for forty days. Dust means dryness, aridity. Often, in the Bible, dust has negative associations with desolation, diminishment and decline into death. “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
However, it is also seen as the crucial raw material of life. It has echoes of fecundity and prosperity. God tells Jacob that his offspring shall be like the dust of the earth. In Isaiah 43 v 19, the desert blooms and the dust blossoms with hope.
Mankind was formed from the dust of the earth and gifted with God’s breath of life. Adam (humanity) was made from adamah (red earth of the desert).
Our dusty origins inspire God’s compassion Isaiah 103 v 13-14. God’s breath (His spirit) works with the dust to make life on God’s initiative. His hands are like the potter’s, moulding and forming us. His hands continue to nurture us.
During the Exodus, as the Israelites wandered through the dust, they constantly tested the covenant relationship with God. God remained faithful and uncompromising in his protection and care. His love and mercy are the moisture that prevents the dust from crumbling away in His hands, massaged into the dry hardness of human hearts and resuscitating them back to living and loving.
However, there were times when His people forgot God and even turned to worship others. When the dust of humanity falls away from the Creator’s hands in idolatry, only the howling arid desert remains with its potential to devour and destroy.
In Jesus’ temptations in the desert, Jesus can be seen as a new Israel formulating a new covenant relationship with God based on forgiveness, fidelity and obedience. His temptations reflect the major failings of the wandering Israelites – grumbling over food provision, adherence to God’s promises and worship of other gods.
In comparison to the fall of mankind, when angels drove humanity out of the succulent garden, angels minister to Jesus in the desolation of the desert. This is God’s renewal of created order, not just a re-shaping of an old spoiled pot but a complete remake. A restored paradise – fertile soil worked from the dry dust of sinfulness.
Creator God,
Wash me Lord. Remould me and reshape me. Make me a vessel worthy of Your Name. May my transformation proclaim how gracious You are. Amen