The Wilderness E1 — This year, we are looking at themes that play a prominent role in the Exodus story. And today, we’re starting a new series on the theme of the wilderness. The wilderness is a setting that shows up constantly in the Bible, and it mainly represents a hostile, barren place where humans can’t survive. So why does God repeatedly lead his people through it? In this episode, Jon and Tim introduce the theme and discuss how the biblical authors portray the wilderness as a place of testing, character formation, and even an Eden-like refuge.CHAPTERSThe Breadth and Meaning of the Wilderness in the Bible (0:00-12:30)A Place Hostile for Human Life (12:30-30:35)A Place of Testing and Refuge (30:35-47:09)OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTView this episode’s official transcript.REFERENCED RESOURCESTim alludes to this past episode about the function of settings in the Bible: Setting in Biblical Narrative from our How to Read the Bible series.Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.You can view annotations for this episode—plus our entire library of videos, podcasts, articles, and classes—in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.SHOW MUSIC“Pearly Gates ft. Isaac Wheadon” by Lofi Sunday“Sunrise ft. Jk Beatbook” by Lofi SundayBibleProject theme song by TENTSSHOW CREDITSProduction of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who also edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. Powered and distributed by Simplecast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Released on 1 Sep 2025