The mountain and the desert

The Lord is a God who is eager to save,
   so he exalted his laws and teachings,
   and he wanted his people to honour them.
But now his people have been plundered;
   they are locked up in dungeons
   and hidden away in prisons.
They were robbed and plundered,
   with no one to come to their rescue
(verses 21,22)

Read Isaiah 42:18-25

Often in their history the people of Israel were in slavery or exile. They found themselves in the flat, featureless desert of foreign domination. The tragedy was that they had done it to themselves. They had been defeated, looted and enslaved as a result of their disobedience towards God. As if to emphasise this, the mighty mountain of God’s law, so obvious yet still ignored and neglected, towered over the drab terrain of their imprisonment.

You can see the same pattern in your own life. In your rebellion or foolishness you too slip into a pattern of following your pride and appetites along dangerous paths. Then, when you find yourself living in a desert of enslavement to self or Satan, you lament your neglect of the mountain of God’s word that could have saved you.

Your comfort is the enduring nature of God’s word and its promises of freedom for the desert dwellers who finally turn back to the voice from the mountain.

Lord, help me to hear your liberating word in my life as I battle with my own flawed nature. Amen

by Richard Hauser, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

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