‘I am beginning to understand why you are worried’ I mused ‘What else out there will be challenging him?’
‘There is the landscape itself. In some places the wilderness is pure desert; sand and sand dunes for as far as the eye can see. In the heat of the day the sun reflects off the surface and can burn your eyes. In other places there are rocky hills and dry valleys. The roads from the coast which the merchants take, snake their way through these from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, to Hebron and En Gedi, from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan. There are great wadi’s out there which for most of the year are dry, but then the spring rains come, and the water collects off the plateau and drains into them, and they fill up fast. If you are not alert, you can find a great wall of water sweeping down on you washing you away, throwing you around like a piece of flotsam. If you want water there is one wadi where there is water all year round. It is so deep that the sun never reaches the bottom, and the water flows in gentle steps, so there are always pools where you can find fresh water to drink. There are also a few oasis where you can find fresh spring water if you know where to look. Then there are the white stone hills with caves cut in them by weather and time. They provide wonderful shelter from the heat of the day and the cold of the night. I always have to remember that I might be sharing mine with other animals of Yahweh’s creation, who might not be pleased at my presence.’
‘Will Jesus eat locusts and wild honey as you do when you are in the wilderness?’
‘I expect that he will fast as he prays and begins to accept the task which Yahweh is laying in him.’
‘But what is that task?’ I asked eagerly.
‘I don’t know precisely, nor I think does he. I think that Yahweh will guide him and let it unfold.’
‘How long will he stay out in the wilderness fasting and praying?’
‘For most people thirty to forty days would be as much as the body can manage.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ I demanded
John thought again for a moment, ‘You know what it is to fast for twenty four hours at a time. The teachers of our faith regularly call for fasts through the year. Some of them make sure that every one knows that they fast one or two days a week, just to look better than the rest of us. Fasting should be something that is done in private, something that helps you subdue your body and turn to Yahweh. When you fast for longer, it takes a lot of will power to get through all of the physical discomforts. The first three days are the worst, you will feel so hungry that it will be almost painful. By the fourth day the hunger pangs die down and you just feel weak and dizzy. You have to spend more time sitting and resting. By day six or seven you will begin to feel stronger and more alert, and by the ninth or tenth day the hunger pangs will almost have gone, and will just be a vague feeling somewhere in the background of your mind. Now you will feel really good, your concentration will feel really sharp and you think that you can continue like this for ever. But of course your body is using up all its resources, and any time after about twenty-one days your body will again remind you that you need to eat again. Depending on how things are, you can keep going up to about forty days, but after that you must begin to eat again. Through all this fasting from food, you must drink. You will know yourself that it does not take many days in this heat to kill a man or beast that cannot find water.’
‘How on earth do you begin to eat again afterwards? I would want to sit down at a great feast and eat all I could.’ I said reflectively.
John smiled at me. ‘Your body shrinks so much that you can only eat little bits at a time. It takes days to recover any kind of appetite. Even then, when you remember how good you feel, how close to Yahweh you came at times during the fasting, you really don’t want to lose that. It takes an effort of will to give up food and an equal effort of will to take up food again. Fasting changes you for ever, as it changes your relationship to Yahweh for ever.’
John turned from me and looked back out across the wilderness again.
‘In many ways I envy Jesus for what he is doing, but I know that Yahweh will be challenging him to his very core. He demands only the best from us all, but what he demands from his son is beyond my imagining. He will allow Jesus to be tempted in every possible way to stray from the path he has chosen for him, and his love for Yahweh will have to be so deeply part of him, for him not to give in. He will be honed and refined by this experience as he finally becomes the person that Yahweh has created him to be, ready for the work that is to come.’
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