The Desert Comes Alive
Jesus-followers need to escape from a smaller world with the comfort of its familiarity by facing the bright limitless horizon God opens before us.
Opening
I remember as a young boy that my parents would take my brother and me to our church’s New Year’s Eve celebration. We would gather early in the evening and share a dinner together as a church family. Then the different age groups would break out in activities for an evening of fun and games. However, at 11:00 p.m. we would all gather together in the Sanctuary and worship together in a watch night service. We would sing a few songs, listen and meditate upon a New Year’s message from God’s Word, take some time for personal reflection, and receive Communion together. At the stroke of midnight we would all proceed to our outdoor courtyard. We stood in a circle with hands held and sang the beautiful Chorus “Spirit of the Living God.” This song reminded us that we needed to look to God’s Spirit to fall fresh on our lives—melting us, molding us, filing us and using us in the New Year.
We come on this New Year’s Eve to worship together in a watch night service. As we gather, we will sing songs of worship and praise, listen and meditate upon a New Year’s message from God’s Word, take some time for personal reflection, and receive Communion together. We will enter the New Year by gathering on our outer courtyard and sing together “Spirit of the Living God.”
Message
One of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible comes from the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. It highlights the time when the people of Israel would return to their own land, marching across a desert transformed by flowers, singing and dancing (yes dancing) for joy. But (perhaps even more wonderfully) we as Jesus-followers as we enter a New Year can apply this beautiful chapter which speaks of a desert coming alive to our experience this evening.
Today when we read “highway” we imagine a wide straight pavement with cars traveling at high speeds. But back then they didn’t even have cars. And furthermore that analogy would be closer to the road that leads to destruction as Jesus wrote,
“broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” Matthew 7:13.
So what was understood by “highway”? It literally meant a “high” way. What was envisioned was a road which was high, a road of holiness, being near to God. The road of redemption, the highway to heaven, is a restricted road, being only for the redeemed, who have been ransomed through the blood of Christ.
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” 1Tim 2:5, 6.
What is the way to God?
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:5, 6.
Let’s ask God to disclose to us this Way of Holiness, and experience a desert coming alive as we focus on Isaiah 35:1-10…
1 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
We may observe in these verses a progressive transformation. Let’s note the distinction between transformation and change:
Transformation = an inner molding (bonding); newness of being
Change = an outer manipulation (bondage); barrenness of being
So this transformation begins on the inside and is manifested on the outside. True transformation doesn’t happen by pressure from the outside, but by persuasion on the inside. Mere change looks good, but there remains an empty inner being.
We all need to look into the New Year anticipating God’s transforming power at work in our lives. Paul speaks about this transformation we go through as Jesus-followers…
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17.
In every transition of our lives—birth, baptism, graduation, marriage, promotion, moving, parenthood, old age—we encounter a two-headed fear. The first is the anxious question:
“Where is the life I am used to?”
Many of us feel a strange depression and lethargy as we face a new year. The old familiar routine is challenged in favor of the new. We will become strange new persons. But at the same moment we are struck by the second, equally terrifying question:
“But will I ever really move an inch?
Many of us wonder if we will ever really move an inch. If we will be up against the same old ‘me,’ caught in the same old habits. So this progressive transformation includes our fear, and our longing.
Highway to Holiness
This highway or Way of Holiness unfolds transformation in three sequential steps:
Step One: The desert is turned into a garden (vs. 1-4).
1 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom… 4 say to those with fearful hearts “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
The “desert” or “parched land” may be a hopelessly dull office, a loveless home environment, a frustrating ministry situation, a lonely room. If we feel ourselves in a “desert” of any kind, we need to read again verse 4. We must note specifically, “he will come to you.”
Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that he will come to us and save us!
Step Two: Affliction is turned into strength (5-7).
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
The afflictions mentioned here are physical—blindness, deafness, lameness, speechless. With us they may not only be a lingering health need, but they may also be a sense of inferiority, and in ability to tackle a certain situation. It may even be concern a decision that has to be made. All can be changed.
Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that streams will come in the desert!
Step Three: Life is turned into a highway (8-10).
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.
When we look closely at life, it seems like a series of obstacles and detour. Looked at by a faithful Jesus-follower, its’ a grand highway leading straight to Zion—God’s very presence.
Let’s make sure we claim the promise of God that a highway will lead directly into God’s presence!
In closing, there is an insightful story entitled “Shadowbound,” written by David M. Griebner that helps us to look to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this New Year for the progressive transformation God desires to accomplish in each of our lives.
Shadowbound
Once upon a time there was a man who lived in the middle of a desert. Yet, that was not quite true. It would be better to say that he was a prisoner of the desert. You see, somehow and sometime in the past our friend had acquired the habit of following his shadow, and only his shadow. It was a relentless and unbending compass, which he obeyed completely and followed without question. Every morning when the sun came up he began walking in the direction his shadow pointed. As the sun traced its slow crescent across the sky he followed the subtle bending of his shadow. By the end of the day he had traced a rough oval and was nearly back to where he had started in the morning. While his course varied a little with the seasons of the year and the speed he walked, it wasn’t much, and it was never enough to allow him to leave the desert.
This had been going on for as long as he could remember. It was familiar and comfortable, the only way he knew. Yet he also had to admit that it often left him feeling trapped and alone. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to face the sun instead of always turning his back to it and walking the other way. And he longed to see if there might not be something more to the world than the desert, but he never seemed to have enough resolve ever to do anything different.
Then one morning, while it was still dark, as he was preparing to set out again, something came and spoke to him. It was a voice. At least it was more like a voice than anything else. It said, ‘JUST STOP IT.’ That’s all, ‘JUST STOP IT.’
JUST STOP IT? He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew without a doubt that what was meant by this was following his shadow. Just stop it. Could it be that simple? What a lovely thought. Yet it was a foreboding thought as well. Certainly there was joy and hope in what the voice suggested, but there was also fear and dread because following his shadow was the only way he knew to get around – such as it was!
About this time the sun came up, and with it the powerful tug of his growing shadow. He tried to resist it but could not. Yet all that day, even as he obediently followed his shadow, the memory of the Voice and the experience of the morning stayed with him. It stayed with him through the night, too. And while he made no significant changes over the next few days, it was enough just to have some hope.
Then one morning, just a moment before dawn, he suddenly turned his back to the dark, western horizon and faced the glow in the east. It was done almost before he realized what he was doing. The freedom to do it happened in a moment. And he recognized in his new freedom the presence again of the Voice, which lovingly offered him what he could not offer himself.
The rising sun in front of him was brighter and more wonderful than he had imagined anything could ever be. As the sun cut across the sky that first day it was all he could do just to stand there and face the light, turning slowly now to keep his shadow in back of him! There was no question about going anywhere. Yet, as the day passed, his shadow became less and less intimidating and his new freedom more and more familiar, even if it was just to stand still.
Finally, one morning, the Voice came again. As with the other times, he could not fully describe what happened, only that the Voice brought him another gift. The gift this time was a sense of direction. Slowly, he put one foot in front the other, fixed his gaze on some distant mountains, and set out. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but at least he wasn’t still going around in circles. And he certainly didn’t feel alone anymore.
This story should feel somewhat familiar to most of us as it depicts a pretty common human predicament. To be shadowbound is to be caught up in an habitual cycle of being; living within the circle of conclusions made, or made for us, in the past; a pattern of living out one’s life, day after day, pretty much stuck in the same old place; stuck with the same conclusions that limit the horizons of our lives; stuck in the same emotional posture that constricts and constrains, resulting in our walking an always familiar, predictable and unfulfilling path. In the story this predicament is presented as following one’s shadow as opposed to facing the sun.
Now this shadow that is cast by our lives can be the result of many different things. It might be the shadow cast by some mistake for which we have never been able to forgive ourselves. It could be the shadow of some deep resentment over having been wronged by another. It might be the shadow of grief over a loss from which we have not healed. It might be the shadow of our legacy fashioned out of the early experiences of our lives; a legacy that shaped for us an image of ourselves and of the world in which we live; a world and an image within which we find ourselves trapped.
Every one of us gathered here this evening to some degree is shadowbound, and our commitment to spiritual growth could be described as our effort to break free from that smaller world, with the comfort of its familiarity, and face the sun and the bright limitless horizon that the Son, Jesus Christ opens before us!
Personal Reflection:
1. What “desert” or “parched land” am I presently experiencing right now?
_____
Remember to claim God’s promise that God will save you!
2. What “affliction” or “perplexity” am I presently experiencing right now?
_____
Remember to claim God’s promise that streams will come in your desert!
3. What “obstacles” or “detours” am I presently experiencing right now?
_____
Remember to claim God’s promise that a highway will lead you directly into God’s presence!
Closing Thought:
Is it possible to experience this Way of Holiness while at the same time feeling for the sufferings of so many of our Jesus-followers?
Let’s pray for God’s transforming touch in the lives of all Jesus-followers in this New Year. May each of us find the courage to so live within this tension between the shadow that always tugs at us and God’s voice that says “Just stop it. Turn and face the sun and let the music play.” Amen!
