“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10 NASB Encircled– What good is a fence in the wilderness if it isn’t closed around the camp! Just so, if God doesn’t surround…
“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10 NASB Howling waste– Have you ever been in the wilderness at night? Far from the man-made delusions of protective cities, scary things move in…
“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10 NASB Desert – Life in the house of God is not what the world imagines. Heaven on earth has very little to do…
“Thus says the LORD, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness – Israel, when it went to find its rest.” Jeremiah 31:2 NASB Rest – Did Israel go into the wilderness to find rest? Or did the people go into the wilderness to find fleeting endurance? Unfortunately, the true sense of…
“Thus says the LORD, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.’” Jeremiah 31:2 NASB Found– The Hebrew verb māṣāʾ is used for finding just about anything. The Israelites found grace, but that wasn’t what they were looking for. They were looking for a way of escape. They were fleeing from their pain. Just like…
“Thus says the LORD, ‘The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.’” Jeremiah 31:2 NASB Grace– At the edge of the Sahara, the sand moves as if it were alive. It writhes, glittering scales of shifting silicon. The serpent of the desert is there, slithering its way across the dunes, powered by the…
“Thus says the LORD, ‘The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.’” Jeremiah 31:2 NASB Wilderness– Not everyone finds grace in the wilderness. God says that His people, the ones who have survived the sword, the ones He calls Israel, find something unexpected in the desolate wasteland. They find grace. Imagine the…
“Then they spoke against God; they said, ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?’” Psalm 78:19 NASB Wilderness– Can He? Can God prepare a table? Life as it comes to us says, “No! God isn’t able to provide in the midst of our empty places.” And we go on wandering. Looking for the answer…
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region” Psalm 107:4 NASB Desert Region– For most of us, the idea of wilderness recalls pictures of the Arizona desert or the Sahara or the Northern Territories. We think of wilderness as a place where men cannot live. But what we really mean is that men cannot…
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB Acknowledge– I’m not sure this particular rendition of yādaʿ really captures what we need to know (ah, a pun). yādaʿ is the verb translated “acknowledge,” but “acknowledge” seems too weak. After all,…
