Last week we studied Isaiah 43:16-19 about what God told the people of Israel who were in captivity concerning their hearts dwelling in the past and not recognizing “the new thing” that God was doing because they considered the place where they were like a “desert” and a “wasteland”. Isaiah 43:18-19, 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
When a Christian is in a place in their life and with their relationship with God, which seems that they are going nowhere and they believe that there is no hope or promise for the future, it can be very easy to think one is in a “desert” and in a “wasteland”. When we have been feeling this way but finally recognize “the new thing” that God is doing, it is important to understand that this does not necessarily mean that the situation will immediately change. What changes first is our perspective of “the desert” and “wasteland”. Seeing the “the new thing” that God is doing, is seeing the place where we are at from God’s perspective. Which also is recognizing what God is doing, “I am making a way in the desert”. This “way” or “pathway” (NLT) that God is leading us on is not an immediate or instantaneous exit from “the desert”, but it is the direction on the road that He is leading us to exit “the desert”, which is usually gradual. While we are traveling on that “pathway out of “the desert”, God provides for us “streams” which is what He uses to sustain us when we are traveling through “the wasteland”.
When God refers to “a way in the desert”, He is not referring to a literal journey on some back road or interstate highway. In Israel’s situation, the “way” was the amount of time left that they were to be in exile in Babylon. God told them through the prophet Jerimiah that at the end of the seventy-year exile He was going to return them back to their homeland. Jeremiah 29:10-14, 10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
The people of Israel still had many years to travel to finally exit the “way in the desert”. In other words, they still had not yet completed the seventy-years of exile in Babylon.
The question that we should consider while we are on our “way in the desert” is, how are we going to live our lives while we are waiting to get to the end of our journey through the desert? Are we going to live with our hearts only focused in the promise that God told us He has for our future? If we do, we will not be productive or relevant to our current situation and not fulfill Gods purpose for our lives for the present. If we do not learn how to live our lives to glorify God in the present while we are in the “desert”, we will not know how to live our lives to glorify God in the future when we are out of the desert.
We can be in situations where we are so focused on the future, we are not seeking or paying attention to God’s will and purposes for our lives and or even the welfare of others in the present. This is what was happening to the people of Israel while living in exile Babylon. For this reason, God gave the following words to Jeremiah to speak to the people of Israel while they were still in exile. Jeremiah 29:4-9, 4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
The Bible does not tell us what the people of Israel were thinking or feeling about being in exile in Babylon. What we do know is the following. “The people of Israel were governed by special laws concerning clean and unclean things. The Jewish people would have a difficult time adjusting to a pagan Babylon society. God wanted them to be good witnesses to the idolatrous Babylonians in spite of their captivity.” Even though the exile in Babylon was going to be difficult for seventy-years, God wanted the people of Israel, His chosen people, to prosper and not live as captives with a captive mentality. God makes this very clear in verses five through seven. Hebrews 12:11, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
It was God who sent the people of Israel into exile, it was He who was disciplining them. Ver. 4, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:” But why? By reading the following verses, we find out why the people of Israel were in exile, Jeremiah 2:17, Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way? Jeremiah 4:18, “Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!”
As Christians when we are experiencing difficult and unpleasant situations for many different reasons, what are our attitudes and how are our actions reflecting our attitudes? Are we easily discouraged? Do we begin to doubt God even though it is not our fault? Who are we and are we being an example to others of who Christ is in our lives?
Our difficulties may not be the result of our sin and living disobediently to God’s Word but it is always important to realize God has His good reasons for allowing us to face difficulty. 1 Peter 1:6-7, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Pastor John
