Why do so many suppose isolation should be more conducive to spiritual formation, in the first place? Perhaps this is why: If we're not able to go be monks and nuns, or at least draw a salary to be a professional christian, then we have another excuse. "I just don't have the time to become a really spiritual person."
Another good way to expose these false cop-outs is HISTORY.
Yes, Moses had Sinai but Moses spent ALL of his years after meeting the LORD in a nearly constant state of community. Compare all the passages that focus on Sinai and it can seem to dominate the whole Pentateuch. But estimate all the hours he spent up on Sinai and it still won't compare to the rest of that 40+ years he spent in the midst of God's people, in-between Midian and Mount Nebo.
Yes, Paul had three years in Arabia, but we've no reason to suppose he stayed by himself while down there. Luke names Arabian Jews among those who found Christ and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. After Stephen was stoned, those Arabian Jews most likely went home to Nabatea (North Arabia) and/or Southern Arabia. If there was at least one Synagogue in Arabia, we have every reason to expect Paul found his way into it and shared Christ there. On the contrary, romantic notions of an isolated experience give us NO cause to suppose Paul would have avoided what Jewish and/or Jewish-Christian communities he came across while in Nabatea.
Let's pan out to a wider perspective.
Paul met Christ about four years before Paul met Christ-in-Antioch. That pioneering gentile church herself had four or five years of experience together when Paul and Barnabas arrived to minister there. Paul was a resident of Arabia for just less than three years, but a resident of Antioch for a decade and a half. It was during Paul's time in Antioch that he got caught up in the heavens (42 AD - 14 years before 56 AD). That experience also came while the whole church was partly focused on saving money for an upcoming famine. So not only was Paul neck deep in community while he had that incredible vision, he was most likely working by day doing his part to add to the funds.
The prayer-meeting when Paul heard the Holy Spirit send him happened eleven or more years after his calling. About twenty years in, Paul was rumored to have healing abilities. Three years after those rumors, Paul actually performed the first healing we know of for sure. Two years later, around spiritual-age twenty-five, Paul survived a viper bite. It most likely didn't take Paul three decades to learn what he said in Colossians... but it did take him that long to be able to say it so well, in so few words.
But now, getting back to Arabia...
Paul undoubtedly DID grow spiritually as a believer during those three years. He undoubtedly DID spend some time alone, but he most likely also spent much time with others. If somehow he didn't find any believers, he might just as well have produced a few. But there's no good reason (that is, apart from respecting traditions that took root after Constantine, in the centuries when official church structure and policy successfully marginalized those who felt driven to pursue a deeper experience of communing directly with God!!!) - *ahem* - NO good reason to think that Paul MUST have gained greatly from isolation, in particular.
As a new christian and as someone whom God's provident hand was directing to great ends, Paul undoubtedly DID grow spiritually while he lived in Arabia. On the other hand, if we could measure such growth, and if I was going to bet money on it, I'd say we have many more reasons to think that Paul probably grew much, much more during his years up in Antioch.
One more quick comparison:
Jesus, you know, grew in favor of God while surrounded by a whole village full of people. In the Lord's case, he was isolated even in a crowd. Moses was also a bit like Jesus in that respect. But Paul was a member of the spiritual christ-ones in Antioch.
We do not learn how to be spiritual from mountaintop or desert experiences. We learn how to be spiritual from communing with God. In my personal experience, that practice happens MOST EFFECTIVELY when it takes place in the midst of our brothers and sisters.
Amen?
As a new christian and as someone whom God's provident hand was directing to great ends, Paul undoubtedly DID grow spiritually while he lived in Arabia. On the other hand, if we could measure such growth, and if I was going to bet money on it, I'd say we have many more reasons to think that Paul probably grew much, much more during his years up in Antioch.
One more quick comparison:
Jesus, you know, grew in favor of God while surrounded by a whole village full of people. In the Lord's case, he was isolated even in a crowd. Moses was also a bit like Jesus in that respect. But Paul was a member of the spiritual christ-ones in Antioch.
We do not learn how to be spiritual from mountaintop or desert experiences. We learn how to be spiritual from communing with God. In my personal experience, that practice happens MOST EFFECTIVELY when it takes place in the midst of our brothers and sisters.
Amen?