After the Wilderness - Holiness

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. (Isaiah 35:1)

The wilderness if often thought of as a barren, uninhabitable land, and rightly so if you consider the dryness there through the lack of rain. I always think of the wilderness as a huge beach with sand as far as the eye can see, and I know what it's like at the beach on a really hot sunny day. The sand becomes like small particles of glass beneath your feet and the heat can make it seem like you are walking on hot coals. It can be deadly when it's windy. The sand stings your face as it is whipped up and blown by the wind - but in the desert, deadly is the right word, for a sandstrom can suffocate both man and beast.

As a Christian I think of the wilderness as a place of testing. Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devl (Matthew Ch. 4). Dealing with the devil would have been bad enough but perhaps Jesus had to deal with the elements too. The heat of the day, the sub-zero temperature of the night, and he hadn't eaten for 40 days and nights. I wonder - would you or I survive?

Reading Matthew got me thinking that we all go through our own wilderness experience, and maybe we feel totally on our own as we go through this time, but Jesus said "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb 13:5).

As I thought of my own wilderness time I was reminded of a song by Michael Card, which says that when we are in the wilderness we are wondering for a way to understand, but there is no way - for the way's become a man.

The song goes on to say that God calls his sons and daughters to the wilderness, but that he gives grace sufficient to survive any test.

How true God's grace is sufficient - Jesus is with us, especially in our times of testing and temptation. 1 Cor. 10:13 says "There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it!.

After being in such a barren, uninhabitable place read what Isaiah says about the final kingdom of God. (Isaiah 35)

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold yur God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

No lion shall be there, nor any ravious beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

This passage of scripture is such an encouragement to me and reminds me that lives that have become dry and parched can be watered and made to grow again. I read that seeds can lie dormant in the desert for ages but even a small fall of rain is enough to help them burst into life, they grow and flower for a while but because of lack of water they soon wither and their seed lies dormant again.

It can be like that with us, we need constantly to go the water of life - Jesus said in John 4:14 "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thrist ... We need to go to the very source that will help us to bud and grow and bear fruit. To Jesus himself who said "but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". As we stay close to Jesus our lives, if dry at times, will I am sure, burst forth and blossom like the rose.

Verse 8 of Isaiah 35 makes me realise that there will be a highway out of the wilderness - a way of holiness where no unclean thing will pass.

God is preparing a way for us, not just out of the wilderness, but throughout every area of our life we surrender to him. Jesus will be with us, directing our way. We will come out of any wilderness experience with thankful hearts. This should cause us to put right the things in our lives that might hinder us from walking this highway of holiness.

If we go through troublesome times, and feel that we are on our own we must not forget that the Lord could be allowing us to experience the wilderness for such a time to come, for a time when we must draw ever closer to our Lord and Savour Jesus Christ.

Let us also encourage one another as Hebrews 10:25 says "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhoriting (encouraging) one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching".