Out of the wilderness...

I realize that I promised a post last week on Revelation 5, but I can't even begin to describe how busy last week was, so please forgive me, I will go back to it at some point...  But I have to write about something that really grabbed my heart this morning...

I just found the most AWESOME Bible... It's by Crossway and it's a Journaling Bible!  It's the ESV translation, which I'm really loving, but it has 2 inch margins with lines.. It is the perfect quiet time/devotional Bible, you can write your thoughts on verses that touch you in the margins...

Originally when I found it, I thought I would use it to start reading through the Bible, from start to finish, but then I decided to pray and ask where I should start instead of just following what seemed like a good plan to me.  And what He impressed on my heart was the book of Hosea!  REALLY?  I love the book of Hosea, but it's not the book I would immediately think of for devotional reading...

But I am blown away!  And I just have to tell you about what I read this morning...

Hosea was written just before Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BC, God led them into exile because of their idolatry, because they had turned from Him...  He says in chapter 2, verse 13...  "And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals (idols) when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD."

Israel has blown it...She has been behaving like a harlot, running after all kinds of other lovers (idols) and she has forgotten her one TRUE God, who led her out of Egypt, out of slavery and into freedom.  But listen to what God says, in verses 14-17...

""Therefore I am now going to allure her;
       I will lead her into the desert
       and speak tenderly to her.
 ¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
       and will make the Valley of Achor (Achor means 'trouble') a door of hope.
       There she will sing (also means respond) as in the days of her youth,
       as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
 ¹⁶ "In that day," declares the LORD,
       "you will call me 'my husband';
       you will no longer call me 'my master.'
 ¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
       no longer will their names be invoked.

God leads her into the wilderness, not to punish her, but to draw her back to Him!  In the wilderness, He makes her fruitful (vineyards vs. 15)... He gives her hope in trouble (v15)...  It is there that she sings, or responds as in the days of her youth...  It makes me think of Jesus' words to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2...  The church had lost it's first love and He urges them to repent and do the things they did at first...

In the desert, God brings her back to her first love, the ONE who led her out of slavery...  It is there, in the desert that she comes to know Him as her husband...not just as master...  Her life becomes a sacrifice of love, rather than a task of duty and obligation...

I've always hated the wilderness of life, but you know, as I think on this, I have a different perspective... 

First, if I am in the wilderness, chances are it's because my sin has made it necessary...  Over and over, when I think of the people who are led to the wilderness in Scripture (with the exception of Jesus, of course) it is because of sin in their life...  Moses went there because he tried to take God's plans into his own hands and murdered an Egyptian...  The Israelites ended up there for 40 years because they refused to believe the promises of God and take the Promised Land...  Over and over God has led His people to the wilderness to purify and refine them, to draw them back to Him...

And when I slow down and really consider the longings of my heart, I want to be fruitful... I want to live in hope, in the face of trouble...  I long to remember my first love...  I want to know Him as my husband, not as my task master...  And it is in the wilderness that God accomplishes that...

Does it have to be that way?  If we were perfect, then no...  But we live in a land of prosperity.  There are just too many distractions, lovers if you will, who will draw us away from Him and make us forget Him.  But because He loves us so much, He leads us to the wilderness...  And did you get this part, He speaks tenderly to our hearts!  I looked up the Hebrew words for speak and tenderly and get this...  Speak means to commune and tenderly is really referring to the inner man...the heart, mind and will...

God leads us to the desert to commune with our heart, mind and will...  The very thing that He wants us to love Him with all of (The first and greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength!)  In the wilderness, we learn to love Him as He longs to be loved!

Perhaps the wilderness isn't such a bad place after all...