Did God create deserts?

The Bible teaches that God created all things, and that, upon completing His work of creation on earth, He "saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). But even those who embrace this teaching and revel in God's works can have difficulty reconciling God's assessment with the popular sentiment felt towards deserts - that they are lifeless, barren, "God-forsaken" places of no value to anybody. Some believers feel that deserts serve no greater purpose than to provide a metaphor, in rock and sand, for spiritual barrenness. Others see them as a result of "the Fall" or the Noachian flood. The September-November, 1997, issue of the creationist magazine, "Creation Ex Nihilo", says that, ". many creationists believe that there were no deserts before the Flood" (p. 28).

But are we wise to reject God's judgment in favor of our own subjective opinion? The geological evidence shows that some deserts are very old. The Namib Desert, the oldest, is dated at about 55 million years. So deserts are not a result of the deluge described in the book of Genesis; they are part and parcel of divine creation. Further proof of this fact can be found in the almost endless variety of ecosystems with their concomitant flora and fauna that can be found in the world's deserts. Numerous species of animal and plant are obviously designed to live in arid places. Camels bear a panoply of special anatomical and physiological features for life in the desert. "Barren wildernesses" are, in fact, a haven to such creatures. God created deserts; He had reason for doing so.

True, deserts cannot provide a solid agricultural base and so, by and large, they remain unpeopled. After all, we like to eat. But to curse deserts for their "unliveableness" is as logical as cursing the ocean or the steamy Amazon jungle. Like deserts, the Amazon is not conducive to large-scale habitation while the ocean, of course, is almost 100% "useless" as far as a place to live is concerned. And let's not forget the Arctic and Antarctic. Hey, what are we complaining about? God has given us human beings plenty of arable land to provide food and suitable places for human habitation. Six billion of us have found somewhere to live. And as we pointed out in last week's blog, deserts actually perform a vital role in maintaining earth's intricately-integrated systems; like the unlivable oceans and Amazon jungle they may, indeed, be critical to the survival of living things.

Unquestionably, some deserts are virtually lifeless. In some cases, man is the cause. The lifeless Iraqi deserts of today once were rich farmlands. Live-for-today irrigation practices using brackish river water are responsible for turning them into barren wastes. Before 2400 BC these lands grew truckloads of wheat; by 2400 wheat was replaced by barley, which is more salt tolerant. Some hundreds of years later it was all over, with the area rendered a cropless desert saturated with salt. At least one natural desert, the Atacama, is also virtually lifeless. But our next door neighbor visited it recently and found it enchanting.

But what about the Isaianic prophecies that promise that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" (35:1)? Then you have 41:18-20:

I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together, that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it (Is. 41:18-20).

I suspect we are misinterpreting these passages when we take them to mean that deserts will vanish during the Messianic age. These verses do not say that God will take deserts away but that He will plant trees in them. The trees listed are probably all species that thrive in dry places. The cedar spoken of is the cedar of Lebanon which lives in dry soil and cannot tolerate shade. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary describes the "acacia" as a tree that occurs in "the desert wadis of Sinai and the hot Jordan valley". Foolish human practices of denuding such landscapes will be prohibited. These verses may be saying that God will miraculously replant them.

Nor do these verses say that rain will begin to fall in bucket loads in such places, only that they will abound with rivers and springs, fountains and pools. In short, people will be able to live in them. As Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, demonstrate, arid landscapes can be perfectly pleasant places to live if sufficient water is available to meet daily needs. Yes, even deserts are "very good".