The Wilderness of Kadesh-barnea and the Pool of Bethesda

Why did the Lord make the children of Israel wander in the wilderness so long? And what does the wilderness represent?

We are told in various scriptures that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years (see Numbers 14:33 for example). What was the Lord's reasoning for this? The verse in Numbers correlates the number of days of the spies' search to report on the promised land with the number of years of wandering in the wilderness. You will remember there was a person chosen from each of the twelve tribes to go and search out Canaan and return and report. Representatives from ten of the twelve tribes brought back bad news, but Caleb from Judah and Joshua from Ephraim brought back good reports. Then there is the issue of those twenty years old and upward who murmured against the Lord (see Numbers 14:29). Perhaps the Lord wanted to bring a younger generation into the promised land, because their parents had already rejected it through disobedience.

But there is another timeline and another possible explanation. In Deuteronomy it states:

"And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them" (Deuteronomy 2:14).

In this reference the space of wandering is 38 years. And now we can connect an Old Testament story with a New Testament story.

Fast-forward about 1300 years and we find Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda. It has an interesting name in Hebrew; it means "house of mercy." And here mercy should abound. The pool has five porches, and the number five symbolizes mercy. Remember when Joseph's brothers return to Egypt and food and clothing is provided. Benjamin's mess (meal) was five times more than the others, and he received five changes of raiment (Genesis 43:34; 45:22). But just how merciful is this place?

John, in his typical style of always testifying of the Savior's identity, is careful to point out that this is Jehovah at work, as it echoes the Creation process. During the Creation, it states, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). And at Bethesda, there are moving waters (John 5:3). Here are the blind, halt, withered, and maimed just waiting for the movement of the waters. Now verse 4 is not included in many of the Biblical translations, but it does appear in the King James Version. And it's here we find that whoever steps into the water first, after the troubling of the waters, is healed of whatever infirmity he or she had.

There's no mercy here. It sounds more like Survivor! Whoever can run fastest into the pool gets cured. And it's certain not to be the man who needs it most!

So we have a man at the pool who has been waiting around for 38 years--just like the children of Israel wandering for 38 years. Now we can put two and two together and plainly see that the journey in the wilderness represents our mortal probation. And it might as well be you or me lying beside the pool. As the poor man exclaims, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me" (John 5:7). In a competitive world, there is always going to be someone faster, stronger, smarter, better-looking, etc. And how will we ever make it with all those commandments?

Then, to make matters worse, the Savior asks this man to commit a capital offense. He asks him to rise, take up his bed, and walk--a crime punishable by death (see Exodus 35:2). But the man does it and is healed.

We are all on this mortal journey together. We walk around in the wilderness of life, ever learning in the school of hard knocks. Sometimes there isn't much mercy. Sometimes life doesn't seem fair. And whether we make it through, and find ourselves whole, will be determined by our reaching out to a merciful Savior who stands with outstretched arms to heal, embrace, and welcome us home.