David Comeau: Jane melbourne- jesus and joushua

In researching for my final paper, I studied the wilderness episodes of both the Israelites and Jesus. One of the key sources I used in studying the use of wilderness in the bible was an article written by Jane Melbourne, as well as various bible commentaries. The Wilderness plays a tremendous role in the Hebrew bible. According to Jane Melbourne, the Hebrew term for “wilderness” means different types of unproductive or devastated land. She says that it is the wilderness of the human heart that lacks faith in God. Isaiah 51:3 states that “God will pour out his spirit and the wilderness be like Eden and the desert will be like the garden of the Lord.” “In the wilderness God chose Israel as His son and in the wilderness Israel learned their dependence on him.” (Melbourne 136) Moses also encountered God in the wilderness in the form of the burning bush. It said that he was shepherding flocks in the midbar, which is Hebrew for “back of the desert.” God spoke to Moses here and made promises to him and essentially prepared him for ministry.
She also wrote about the parallels between the stories of Joshua and Jesus having to with wilderness both of the heart and physical wilderness. First, both Joshua and Jesus mean “Yeshua” which means savior. Jane Melbourne claims that Christ’s baptism and forty days in the wilderness parallels Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea and the forty years of wilderness wanderings. Joshua led the Israelites in to the land of Canaan while Jesus leads his followers into the spiritual promise land. I had never heard this comparison made as complete as this before and I love it. Using Joshua as a more concrete, comprehendible illustration of what Jesus did by dying on the cross would be a great analogy for explaining the gospel to someone. I also love seeing the way the old and new testament are so closely linked. In thinking about this comparison more I also expanded to say that the same Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho and broke them down to enter in, Jesus marches around the walls of our hearts and eventually breaks them down and enters in. I would love to give a sermon on this.