We feel alone. We live in a world crowded with people, buildings, and events, and yet, sometimes we still feel isolated.
We can be surrounded with family and friends; and we can laugh and look happy. At the same time, all we see around us is wilderness.
Beth-arabah is the name of a city Joshua 15:61 clearly identifies as situated in the Wilderness of Judea. However, according to Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, the Wilderness wasn’t a wilderness at all. It certainly wasn’t a desert, and it contained numerous cities and villages.
Beth-arabah was special in that it bordered Judah and Benjamin, and in the annals of the Bible was located in both.
We don’t have to live in our wilderness alone. Luke 3:2 tells us “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
God will come find us wherever we are.
Cannon Tristram in Land of Israel describes the Wilderness of Judea as having a “peculiar desolate tameness,” with winter watercourses seaming the sides of monotonous round-topped hills.
If we travel south of Hebron today, we can find ancient ruins. This is the same area where David fled from Saul, Rehoboam built fortifications, and the Roman overlords once maintained a garrison.
What ruins do we see around us? Has our marriage failed, or our investments crumbled? Has old age crippled our dreams? Are our children less than we hoped they’d become?
We do well to remember Jesus in the moment of his desolation. Matthew 27:2 tells of the moment when “they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.”
We know the next parts of the story. Jesus rose again, and he returned to heaven in power and glory to rule evermore at the right hand of the Father.
What’s in store for us? We can’t see the future, but God can. We might be blinded by our wilderness struggle, but God knows the power and glory he’s about to shower on us. We can only see the barren hills around us, but the Father sees the world with the eyes of tomorrow.
Our wilderness struggle is at an end, and tomorrow we will rule at the right hand of Christ.
God sees the end of the story, and he knows the glory that’s coming our way.
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Originally Published 7-13-15