BibleProject Podcast

Episode: The Wilderness Remixed in Israel’s Prophets

Date: October 13, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves deeply into the theme of “the wilderness” as remixed and reinterpreted by Israel's prophets—namely Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Tim Mackey and John Collins explore how the wilderness is portrayed as a prison, a romance, a tragedy, and a promise. Through biblical narratives and prophetic poetry, they unpack the wilderness as both a place of consequence for Israel’s rebellion and an opportunity for intimate restoration and transformation with God.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Wilderness in the Biblical Story

• Creation & Exile

  • The Bible opens with God creating humanity from wilderness dust, situating them in a garden sustained by God’s life. Remaining there means trusting in God’s wisdom (00:05–00:26).
  • "If we don't want to play that game, then God escorts us outside the garden into the wilderness that we choose for ourselves." — John Collins (00:26)

• Wilderness as Consequence and Opportunity

  • Existence in wilderness is a metaphor for life apart from God—a space of disorder, danger, and “semi non-existence,” but also a training ground for trust (05:19–06:26).
  • "Wilderness is a repeated location for really important events throughout the story of the Bible." — Tim Mackey (03:10)

• Israel’s 40 Years in the Wilderness

  • Israel’s journey from Egypt could have been short, but God led them the long way through wilderness for testing, purification, and character formation (06:26).

2. Modes of Wilderness

• Wilderness as Punishment vs. Preparation

  • Adam & Eve (exile): “They don't know how to trust God's wisdom.” (07:30)
  • Israel (sojourn): Not ready to inherit the promised land—testing and learning trust in God (06:26–07:07).

• Dual Life in Wilderness

  • Becoming “one with the wilderness” like Cain, or leaning into trust, experiencing “Eden moments” where God provides miraculously (09:01–09:36).

• Human Life as Perpetual Wilderness

  • All of history outside Eden is life in wilderness, punctuated by “haunted echoes of Eden”—moments of love, community, beauty, and grace (11:36–12:47).

3. Wilderness Through the Lens of the Prophets

A. Hosea: The Wilderness as Intervention and Romance

• Hosea’s Symbolic Life

  • Hosea marries Gomer, a promiscuous woman, as a living parable of God’s relationship with Israel—persistently unfaithful, yet persistently pursued (16:07–16:50).

• Containment and Severe Mercy

  • God puts Israel in a metaphorical “hedge of thorns” (wilderness) to cut off self-made Edens—an intervention for self-destructive behavior (18:40–22:44).
  • "Hosea is describing like an intervention with somebody who's so self destructive that you have to put them in an environment where they can't do very much anymore." — Tim Mackey (22:44)

• Wilderness as Place of Intimacy

  • After containment, the wilderness also becomes a place for wooing Israel back into intimacy, “enticing” her to fall in love again (24:10).
  • "Now that wilderness becomes a place to fall in love again. Like, let's take you out there so that I can woo you back." — Tim Mackey (24:24)
  • Valley of Achor (trouble) will turn into a “door of hope”—the site of punishment transformed into hope and gift (24:39–26:45).

B. Jeremiah: The Wilderness as Engagement Period

• Revisionist Love Story

  • Jeremiah, addressing Jerusalem during Babylon’s threat, recalls the wilderness as a “betrothal period”—a romantic time of loyalty and love (27:02–29:14).
  • "I remember about you. The loyal love of your youth, the love of your engagement period, your betrothal time...when you were going after me in the wilderness." — (28:51–29:03)

• Positive Contrast

  • Wilderness seen as the “good old days” versus the later failures after entering the garden land (promised land) and pursuing false gods (33:50–34:28).
  • “He adjusts the wilderness story...to heighten the negative contrast of what they did once they went into the garden land.” — Tim Mackey (34:31–34:41)

C. Ezekiel: Wilderness as Total Failure and Purification

• Prophetic Revisionism and Blame

  • In exile, Ezekiel retells Israel's entire history as an unbroken chain of rebellion—even before the wilderness. Each generation fails (36:48–41:21).
  • “Ezekiel says the first wilderness was a disaster, but so is every period of Israel's history.” — Tim Mackey (42:55)
  • God brings this generation into the “wilderness of the nations”—Babylonian exile, a new desperate wilderness (42:54–44:24).

• Necessity of a New Heart

  • Repeating wilderness won’t work—humans need God’s Spirit (new heart, new breath) to finally learn what the wilderness was meant to teach (44:32–44:58).
  • "The wilderness never actually does its job...so God's going to have to do something to so radically change the human being..." — Tim Mackey (44:51–44:58)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The wilderness first was like a prison to prevent you from destroying yourself. But now that wilderness becomes a place to fall in love again.”
  — Tim Mackey (01:41, 24:10)

• "Wilderness is the binary opposite of the ideal state of creation, which is union with God."
  — Tim Mackey (11:36)

• “But at the same time, life outside of Eden for humanity is still marked by these haunted echoes of Eden...whether it's moments of transcendence in loving relationship…or a good meal, you know…”
  — Tim Mackey (12:47)

• “They engage in revisionist history for the sake of their sermons in the moment. That's what [Jeremiah’s] doing.”
  — Tim Mackey (33:10)

• "So God's going to have to do something to so radically change the human being so that they are still human beings, but they're like divinely charged human beings who have God's breath animating their every thought and desire."
  — Tim Mackey (44:51–44:58)

• “The prophets pulled different layers of meaning out of it. It's like a kaleidoscope of meanings...but it was foundational in their experience.”
  — Tim Mackey (45:54)

Noteworthy Timestamps

• 00:05–03:10: The wilderness theme from creation and Eden to exile.
• 06:26–09:36: Israel’s wilderness journey as testing, trust-building, and “Eden moments.”
• 16:07–26:45: Hosea’s allegory—containment as mercy and returning to intimacy.
• 27:02–35:03: Jeremiah’s “engagement period” and positive spin on wilderness.
• 36:48–44:58: Ezekiel’s revisionist critique—perpetual rebellion and the need for radical renewal.

Thematic Summary

• The wilderness is a multi-layered biblical motif:
  • Punishment for unfaithfulness,
  • Testing/Preparation for future life with God,
  • Containment/Intervention to save from self-destruction, and
  • Romantic/Intimate setting for renewed relationship.
• The prophets remix the wilderness narrative to fit the needs, hopes, and warnings of their generation:
  • Hosea: Severe mercy leading to deeper intimacy.
  • Jeremiah: Engagement romance as the height of Israel’s spiritual life.
  • Ezekiel: Recurring failure, demanding a new heart and Spirit.
• The wilderness is both Israel’s and humanity’s ongoing condition—yet points to a future hope of genuine transformation.

Closing Threads

• This episode sets up the next discussion: the New Testament’s wilderness motif, beginning with John the Baptist and Jesus—where the wilderness “finally does its job” in the life and mission of Jesus (47:05).

For listeners:
This episode offers rich theological reflection on how the prophets used and transformed the image of wilderness to help Israel—and us—interpret seasons of trial, growth, loss, and hope in relationship with God.