14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor[a] a door of hope.
There she will respond[b] as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.[c]’
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in[d] righteousness and justice,
in[e] love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in[f] faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord.
21 “In that day I will respond,”
declares the Lord—
“I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and the olive oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.[g]
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[h]’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[i]’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
in the wilderness you can look at your circumstances and wish they were over.
or you can look around and discovery beauty in unlikely situations
you can see the Lord working and trust that He is faithful
you can love fully where you’re at
you can trust that better days are coming and learn to be content
He’s speaking to you tenderly in the wilderness. Listen to His sweet loving voice, and you’ll gain not only wisdom, but joy in the journey.
He calls you out of your misery and is guiding you to the promise land
He is rescuing us from slavery.
When He leads us into the wilderness we go straight to cursing him. “why am I not exactly where I want to be Lord I took a leap of faith and trusted you”
are you in the wilderness right now?
not the right financial circumstances? not where you want to be relationally? just trying to slide by school? balancing kids? life getting boring and hard? well maybe you’re in the wilderness as well.
He lead the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery into an off route lengthy journey through the wilderness and they complained that He was abandoning them.
when He was he was simply preparing them for the promise land.
striping them of the misery and sin, and teaching them to search for Him.
What kind of child would be fully grateful if their parents just immediately handed them everything they asked for?
He wants you to rely on Him and find happiness where you are focusing in on the most important thing- your relationship with Him. NOT the problems you’re stressing over
It’s a process. Enjoy your process, love in your process, and share His joy. Look at the trees in your wilderness and fall in love with the journey, it’s not just about getting to the promised land.
