If I were to ask you what your definition of “holy ground” is what would you say?
What does “wilderness” mean?
How are these two concepts similar or different?
Tonight, I hope to get to the bottom of these questions. You see, we have been following a reading plan. I’ll post the next one at the bottom of this sermon. This week was 1 Enoch. Much like I said last week with Jubilees, it is not in most biblical canons. And yet, 1 Enoch is arguably the most important text of its time. It influenced a large chunk of biblical authors. Jude quotes it directly!
Overall, 1 Enoch has a worldview that the age we live in is unjust. It is corrupted. We need renewal. It speaks of expectation. Waiting for God, Yahweh to come in all His glory to set things right. To go back to His original intent for creation. A new Eden. We can even see these themes in our own traditional Scripture. Journeys in order to get to the place the Lord has anointed. Paths He set. The need to put effort into our relationship with God. Waiting on Yahweh. So much waiting. Trusting. And it especially speaks of fear.
“The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous; therefore judgment comes forth perverted.” – Habakkuk 1:1-4
In this reading, Prophet Habakkuk is afraid and beseeching God. He doesn’t understand why things are happening as they are. So much is unknown. Yahweh has revealed to him that the Chaldeans are being sent as judgment against Judah. Habakkuk doesn’t know how this will end. He is begging Yahweh for guidance. He is straining to trust the Almighty.
Have you ever felt backed against the wall? You see no path. You feel blinded? That’s how this prophet must have felt. And yet, he was able to muster this prayer in the midst of his fear.
“Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer and makes me tread upon the heights…” – Habakkuk 3:17-19
I know that must have been difficult even if Habakkuk heard from God directly. It is even more difficult today. When we as individuals struggle to hear our Creator in the noise and distractions of the creation. Yet, we are still expected to trust Him. Even in the wilderness. Even in the darkness. Even when our voices feel muffled.
“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” – Exodus 3:1-6
In this story, Moses has been living in the wilderness, a wasteland. A desert. He was working a job appointed to him. And in this wilderness, beyond it, THAT is where God met him. He met Moses in the most unexpected way. A burning bush. Yahweh said, “…Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Yahweh made a holy place in the midst of Moses’s time in the wilderness. During a time he was forced to be separated from his people, his family. The only home he had ever known. And yet, this was how he found God!
You see, Moses was scared. He had done something terrible and so he ran. He ran from the backlash. Ran from the punishment he expected. Ran from the unknown outcome. But God. Yahweh met him in the running. Met him in the fear. Met him with the provisions to walk in the anointing that Yahweh had planned for him. From the very beginning. The Great I Am!
Fear can lead you to the desert places. Fear can cause you to live in places foreign to you. Places you never expected. Away from comfort. Away from what feels like home. Yet God can use it. Yahweh can turn your wilderness into HOLY GROUND.
Let God take you beyond the wilderness so you can get to your anointing. However, you can’t go around the wilderness. No. You must go through it. You must experience it. Sit with it. Process it. Let go of it. You must be pruned and change through it.
Moses had struggles with speaking. Yet God pruned him to be the mouth piece of God for a NATION. What do you think God can do with your doubt and fear?
But. A big “but.” We must pursue God. We must put in the effort to reach holy ground. Like any relationship, you must build it. Time. Energy. Coming to church to be fed only one day out of the week will leave you starving the rest. You must pour into God in prayer and study of the Scriptures. To be continually renewed in the Spirit. Don’t grow a wilderness. Grow an oasis. Pour into the path the Lord is guiding you to and through. Meditate on the Word day and night. Get beyond the wilderness. Get out of God’s way so he can make you stand on holy ground.
Amen.
Further Study
1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation
1 Enoch was an important and popular text in ancient Judaism, well attested among the manuscripts at Qumran, and a key piece of the puzzle of the development of early Judaism and Christian origins. George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam have now revised their translation in conjunction with their publication of the complete two volumes on 1 Enoch in the Hermeneia commentary series. This is the only English translation of 1 Enoch that takes into consideration all of the textual data now available in the Ethiopic version and the Greek texts, in addition to the Dead Sea Aramaic fragments.
The 52-Week Expanded Canon Reading Plan
08/17/2026–08/23/2026): Exodus 1–20 (The Exodus and the Decalogue)