Wilderness Experience or Pit: Choose Your Path to Freedom
“So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud” Jeremiah 38: 6.
This chapter describes the persecution of the prophet Jeremiah. He is thrown into a cistern by officials of the king. They consider his prophecies of defeat if they don’t surrender to their enemies as treasonous. To read the passage it in its entirety, click here.
But this post, actually has little to do with this account. I just want to look at the figurative implications of the fact that the pit or cistern had no water in it.
Demons Don’t Like Dry Places
Mathew 12: 43 tells us “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none” Mathew 12: 43.
Demons or unclean spirits do not like “waterless places” and will not stay there.
This explains why we get set free from our demons in our wilderness experiences. The demons will either leave with us, causing us to return to Egypt, and give up on our pursuit of the promise land. Or they will leave without us, in which case we will be delivered of them.
This, I believe, is the whole point and purpose of the wilderness. Namely, to deliver us of our demons and bring us to maturity. The cistern, or well without any water in it accomplishes the same purpose.
The Demons Will Leave Your Wilderness Experience with or without You
Demons will not stay in a waterless pit. So if that’s where we are, we’ll get set free of our demons. The advantage of a pit over a wilderness experience is that we can potentially escape the wilderness. But we cannot escape a pit as easily.
So, if Jeremiah had any demons, any areas of weakness or corruption, he may well have gotten delivered of them in his pit.
We may not see the value or point of the wilderness or pit. But these are the places where we get delivered of our weaknesses, our sin, our demons.
For this reason, we have cause to rejoice in our wilderness or pit. This is where we are being prepared for the promise land.
To read another post related to Wilderness Experience of Pit: Choose Your Path to Freedom, see Who Has Authority Over Me, God or My Boss?