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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: The Desert Song
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
Isaiah 35
Yes, I have been through the desert, but not necessarily on a horse with no name. Hell, for most of my life I have lived in the desert--in the lava fields of Southern Idaho, and on the edge of the Mojave Desert in Southern California. I have been through such desolate places as the Great Salt Lake Basin, most of Nevada and Eastern Oregon. I have climbed a number of great Sand Dunes. I have traveled through Death Valley several times. Admittedly I have never been in some of the greater deserts of the world because of my limited overseas travel.
Because of my experience,though, the desert song of first Isaiah speaks well to me. I have seen the floor of Death Valley erupt in bloom with just a little bit of rain. Some of those flowers can lay dormant for decades, but a little moister will bring them back to life.
Isaiah, of course, was speaking to a people who had been recently exiled through the Babylonian captivity. They had been uprooted and are now in the deserts of Babylon. Their throats are parched, their hands are feeble, their knees are weak. And yet the prophet, who must have been with them, foretells their salvation is near.
I wonder how the Hebrew people forced into exile received the message.
I referenced the Horse With No Name song because of the last line in the third verse.
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground But the humans will give no love
Does this passage still preach today?
[ 05. December 2016, 18:20: Message edited by: Gramps49 ]
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Nigel M
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# 11256
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Posted
Thought occurred that if Christians today are also in exile (between the times, on the way, "already, but not yet"), then the passage should speak to us.
There does seem to be a tension though between the model of Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah's advice to knuckle down and on with work, and the model of returning through a desert. On the one had we are asked to work for the good of the empire, on the other to seek a way out.
Interesting.
Posts: 2826 | From: London, UK | Registered: Apr 2006
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Matrix
Shipmate
# 3452
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Posted
I Love this passage, it reassures me that God is mindful of the wilderness place, that it's not forgotten.
I'm encouraged that this is the very place God seems to delight most in showing up and bringing fruitfulness.
I'm inspired by the reminder that it's all of our responsibility to sustain one another's faith and hope in the time of discouragement.
However, what truly bowls me over is the idea that it is the rubble of the wilderness that God uses to build a highway that goes straight to His presence.
I'm certain all of these things spoke to those wandering (and wondering) exiles.
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Maybe that's all a family really is; a group of people who miss the same imaginary place. - Garden State
Posts: 3847 | From: The courts of the King | Registered: Oct 2002
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