What Does the Wilderness Have to do with Hearing God’s Voice

Here’s the text to the video.

Hi, I’m Jennifer Manges. In a few days, I’m releasing an original song called “Still Waiting”. It’s a reminder of the true focus of Christmas. In my music video, I chose to position our Jesus character in the desert. In Hebrew, the word for wilderness (or desert) and the word for speaking have the same root. It is in the wilderness where we are most able to hear God’s voice.

In the wilderness, the Israelites of the Bible found their God. It has been in many a personal wilderness that I have found my God, and I practice stillness, as a way to continue that connection with Him. For silence is the space where words arise within us and descend upon us.

The modern world is very visually based, while the Hebrew tradition is ear-based. It’s easier to focus on things we can see. But how often do we take time to listen? To really hear?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, “While almost every other culture has been a culture of the eye, Judaism is a culture of the ear—of words, speech, listening, interpreting, understanding and heeding. . . Only in the emptiness of the wilderness is the eye subordinate to the ear. Only in the silence of the desert can the sound beneath the sound be heard.”

I’d invite you this holiday season to make time for stillness, to listen for the sound beneath the sound, where God’s voice reveals itself.

He’s waiting. . . he’s still waiting for us.