Come Back To Father's House

In Isaiah, chapter 35, there's a great description of what God promises to His hurting people. There are two pics He makes use of to consolation us. One is that of a desert converted right into a garden. “The desolate tract and the dry land shall be happy,” He says; “the wasteland shall have a good time and blossom like a crocus” (v. 1). If you've got gone through a loss these days, you will be feeling like you’re in a barren region that stretches in each direction as a long way as the eye can see. There is no consolation to be found. It’s like having gritty sand for your apparel and the acute heat of the solar beating down upon your weariness. There is not any refreshment to be found. You long to find simply past the subsequent upward push an oasis where water is ample, and the panorama is filled with the color of vegetation and plant life. You lengthy for existence once more.

The 2nd photo is considered one of a set of travelers. They had been exiled far from domestic in a bizarre and terrifying land. But now they're on their manner back to the acquainted surroundings of they lifestyles they once knew. “The ransomed of the LORD shall go back,” Isaiah says, “and come [home] with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall gain gladness and pleasure, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (v. 10). Sounds inviting, doesn’t it? O how we long for sorrow and sighing to escape away! In your season of loss, you can sense stranded, exiled even, displaced and homesick. You yearn for making a song and gladness. You lengthy for a comeback, a way to come back to the joy you as soon as knew.

These two pix shape a sort of sandwich across the middle of the passage. And in the center component, God discloses how he will transform our deserts into gardens and our exile into a homecoming. Again, there are two matters to note. One is something we are to do; the alternative is something we are to agree with.