A HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS

Sometime around 1491 B.C., God sent a savior to deliver His people Israel from the terrible bondage that they were suffering at the hands of a cruel Egyptian Pharaoh.  Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years, and their experience there had gone from “fruitful” to “bitter” during that time.  Things were good for them after their ancestor Joseph brought them to Egypt to save them from the great famine that he had foreseen.  While Joseph was alive, the Egyptian Pharaoh that he served treated the Israelites kindly and with respect for Joseph’s sake.  After Joseph and that Pharaoh died, however, another Pharaoh began to reign who didn’t know Joseph and didn’t honor the memory of what Joseph had done.  This new Egyptian king enslaved the children of Israel and forced them to work on his vast building projects.  Eventually, he grew suspicious of the Jews as they began to multiply and arranged for the Egyptian midwives to murder the male Hebrew babies as they were being birthed.  Israel’s plight was, indeed, hopeless; and their prospects were bleak.  That is when the Israelites cried out to God because of their bondage, and God heard their cries and sent a savior to deliver them.  His name was Moses. 

 

From all appearances, Moses was an unlikely candidate to deliver his people from their servitude to the Egyptians.  He had been set adrift on the Nile River by his mother when he was just three months old to save him from the Egyptians.  Of all people, it was Pharaoh’s daughter who found him and saved him from the river.  After he was weaned, she then raised him as her own. 

 

Moses was 40 years old when he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew.  This aroused Moses’ sense of justice and he killed the oppressor and buried his body in the sand.  The next day Moses saw two Hebrews striving with one another and tried to intervene; but one of them said, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?  Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:14).  Moses knew then that his deed the day before was known and that he would be tried for such a crime and put to death.  He fled from Egypt, therefore, and went into the land of Midian to escape Pharaoh’s wrath.  Moses stayed in the wilderness of Midian until the death of the Pharaoh who sought to slay him – 40 years.  The wilderness became the crucible which God used to refine this child of God into a vessel that He could use.  The wilderness is the place where God refines His children today also.  It is not so much a physical place today as it is a spiritual place.  It’s a place where we learn that we can’t rely on the world or ourselves, but must rely on God.  

 

Moses learned many valuable lessons while he was in the wilderness.  These lessons, along with many hardships, shaped him into a vessel that God could use in marvelous ways. 

 

The first lesson that Moses learned in the wilderness was that God cannot use someone who is intent on trying to establish their idea of justice in their way.  We must learn to hear God’s voice and then follow His way.  In trying to defend God’s people himself, Moses got in the LORD’s way and misrepresented God’s justice. 

 

The second lesson that Moses learned in the wilderness was to wait on God.  We humans are very hasty.  We are ready to handle things immediately even if we don’t understand all the facts in each situation.  Scripture tells us to “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalms 37:7).  God has His own timeline and methods, and we can’t improve on either one of them. 

 

The third thing that Moses learned was that God is a consuming fire.  While leading his father-in-law’s sheep to the backside of the desert, Moses saw a bush that was engulfed in flames and yet was not consumed.  God spoke to Moses from out of that bush.  The significance of this sign was that God wants to consume our old nature while at the same time replacing it with His nature.  We may appear like the same old bush, but there is a monumental difference in the bush after God’s refining fire has had its perfect work: God now speaks out of the bush!  Moses needed to become a burning bush that could speak God’s words.

 

The fourth thing that Moses learned was that God is holy.  Moses could not even approach God without first removing his sandals.  It was holy ground that Moses was stepping onto because God’s presence was there.  It was a place of surrender,  It was a place where one must walk carefully, being sensitive to everything that a bare foot steps on.  It was a place that was all about God’s time, God’s will, and God’s way.

 

The fifth thing that Moses learned was God’s name.  God is the I AM.  He moves in the “here and now”.  With Him, now is the accepted time, and today is the day of salvation.  We must not grieve over yesterday nor worry about tomorrow: God’s grace and mercy are sufficient for the day.

 

The sixth thing that Moses learned in the wilderness was that if God sends you, He will also empower you.  Moses was anxious about the task that God had for him to do and said, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11).  God simply said, “Certainly I will be with you.”  This is all the assurance we really need when God sets a task before us.  We can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us!

 

Moses describes the purpose of the wilderness in Deuteronomy 8:2.  He is speaking from personal experience when he says, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.  And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”

 

Humility, obedience, reliance on God, and absolute trust in God’s Word: these are the lessons that we must learn in the wilderness.  We must all pass through the wilderness to learn how to serve God and not serve our own selfish interests.  Jesus set the example for us in this.  After His water baptism, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  His faith was tried in a variety of ways, but He came through victorious and emerged from the wilderness “in the power of the Spirit.”

 

Isaiah 35 speaks of the wilderness place and of the victory that can be ours as we learn to trust our Savior as He leads us through it.

 

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.  It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.” (Isaiah 35:1, 2).  Instead of the wilderness defeating and discouraging us, we have here a picture of the desert being transformed into a place that is teeming with life!  It will blossom abundantly and break out with joy and singing!  Even better, God’s glory will be revealed to us there along with His excellence.

 

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35:3, 4).  It is here, in this desert place, that we will learn to sense the presence of Almighty God.  He will come to us, and He will save!  Those who are weak or feeble He will strengthen and support.  They will learn to be strong and brave, and overcome the fears that the wilderness can produce.

 

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.” (Isaiah 35:5-7).  It is in the wilderness that God opens the eyes and the ears of our understanding.  It is there that we learn to overcome our natural weaknesses and handicaps.  Waters, fountains of living waters, will break out and nourish the parched places and satisfy the thirsty souls.

 

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” (Isaiah 35:8).  Where only sand dunes and barrenness existed before, there will be a highway.  It will be a highway of holiness for those who have overcome in the wilderness.  Those who are unclean will not find it.  It is for the wayfarers: those who have become fools for Christ to obtain the true heavenly wisdom.  For them it will be a plain path from which they will not err.

 

“No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35:9, 10).  This is a highway for the redeemed of the Lord.  Those whose souls have been ransomed and paid for by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ.  They shall know joy and gladness even amid trials, and sorrow and sadness shall flee away.  Also, because they have learned to resist the devil, the lion that sought to devour them will be forced to flee from them.

 

The wilderness place is not a place that we must fear, but one that we can learn to embrace knowing that we are being drawn closer to our Lord.  When we do, we will then fulfill the words of Solomon that he wrote concerning the Bride of Christ: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved [Christ]?” (Song of Solomon 8:5).  We can only be overcomers in this life as we learn to lean on our Beloved Lord and Savior!