Just a few weeks before my mom passed away and my marriage came to an unexpected end and my world was about to to spin completely out of my control, I opened God’s Word to Isaiah 35.  Digging into His scripture word by sacred word He began to reveal to me the beauty of Desert Living.  Beauty can and does emerge from the dry and weary and tiring places of our journeys with Jesus.  The biggest truth that I discovered as I poured over this ancient and life-giving, soul-quenching Word about walking with God in the desert places of our lives is that His presence is the sole-producer of Holiness.  During the seasons of life when there is intense soul-stripping, sin-ripping, fire-purifying opportunities given to us through desert dwelling, a pathway lit by Jesus Himself can woo us and call us into a place of great dependency on His presence.  And sometimes the beauty of the journey only emerges as you take an eternally grateful look back at the blossoms that have bloomed in the desert.

Isaiah 35 Word Study    May 2013

Father, here in this desert place and the wilderness I come to you with thanksgiving for your Word clearly says that there are promises here for me in this place, even in the Arabah (sterile valley of Jordan; arid plateau). There are promises for gladness, rejoicing, profuse blossoms, MORE rejoicing, and shouts of JOY.  You have promised the gift of your glory and majesty, and that I will even see your glory and majesty. El Ohiym my Supreme God, the one true God, Creator, King, Judge, Lord, Savior, Faithful Covenant Keeper, and Full of Power I thank you for these promises that are mine.  

I hear and obey Your command to fear not, and I exchange my anxious heart (Leb my mind will and emotions; the seat of my inner being) for Your courage.  I choose this place of trust with the promise that You Will Come with divine redemption.  I know you will Yasha (save) and preserve me as Your protective duty precious Shepherd of my soul.  You will deliver me and bring me to a place of safety.

I am thanking you in advance for your word says that after you Save, your promises are so RICH!  You open eyes, and unstop ears (Ozen metaphor for an instrument of obedience) of the deaf so that they come into obedience to you.  And you promise that in the place of deliverance the lame will leap like deer, the tongue of the dumb will shout for Joy and waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah!  The desert is a dry and scorched land, but your word says that the scorched land will become (Hayah come to pass, be accomplished or come into being-that which was not there before-but is now) a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals (serpents) grass becomes (Hayah) reeds and rushes.

This beautiful highway that I have found, the roadway (Derek) the journey and pathway that I am traveling, may I be pleasing to you, and may I always choose the obedient and righteous roadway.  You have named this roadway the Highway of Holiness (qodesh) that is a sanctuary and a sacred place that is consecrated and set aside for sacred use.  Your presence is what makes any place, anything, or anyone holy.  Just as your presence made the place Moses stood “Holy Ground” Ex 3:5.  It is for those that walk (halak), behave, run, march, move, on the pathways (behaviors) of life.  

No lion, nor any vicious beast can be found here on this pathway.  Only the redeemed (ga’al) those who have been bought back from bondage, spiritual death, or exile will walk on this pathway.  The ransomed (padah) those who have been delivered, will return (shuwb) turn back, recall, refresh, fetch home again, reestablish divine and human reactions attitudes and feelings, and will come again with joyful singing to Zion.  With everlasting joy upon their heads and they will find gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing will flee away.  

Let it be sweet Jesus.  Thank you for this ancient pathway that is filled with promise regardless of circumstances or the terrain.  You, Yahweh are found here, and your presence is the sole producer of Holiness.  

Going through the Desert Places in life often times seem bleak and dry and so desolate.  Maybe your life circumstances, and your current experiences are screaming out to you that nothing good and could ever come from the places you are walking.  As I read back over this beautiful Word just this morning, straight from God’s Word to my heart before I began my Desert Journey, I purposely put in bold print the blossoms that I now see emerging from the Desert.  From the Highway of His purifying Holiness that only comes by seeking His Presence, emerges profuse blossoms that far surpass anything this world has to offer.

May you continue to seek His Presence.

Isaiah 35