THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE DESERT

W. Lamont

Isaiah 35: 1–4; Mark 1: 35; 6: 31; Luke 1: 80; Acts 8: 26; Galatians 1: 15–20

From these scriptures read I would like to make the desert an attractive place to you. I understand from those who have been in such circumstances that deserts are naturally very unattractive places, unfruitful, nothing that would appeal. I want to bring out that the thought of a desert, as applied morally, can become exceedingly attractive and is very necessary in our soul history.

Isaiah 35 shows what God will yet do in Jesus Christ’s day, because that is what is referred to here, the time when the Lord Jesus will reign on this earth—and that time is not far distant.

The world and its affairs, its administration day by day, week by week, and year by year is getting more and more out of control. We all know that this world, as a system, is heading for judgment, the judgment of God, but what I want to speak about is what God will yet do in an area that is barren, an area that is fruitless and unproductive. “The wilderness and the dry land shall be gladdened”—what an attractive thought! “And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose”. God will bring out of an area that in itself is totally unattractive and unproductive an area that will produce in fruitfulness under the administration of one blessed, perfect Man.

The other scriptures read bring out how we would apply it in a moral sense. It was also literal in the scriptures read, primarily in regard to the Lord Jesus Himself. Mark says, “And rising in the morning long before day, he went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed”. The question arises, Why did the Lord Jesus do this? He could have prayed where He was. Elsewhere we know He went into the garden, He went to the Mount of Olives, but in this instance He went away out into the desert in the morning, long before day, with the specific end in view that He might pray. Oh, the dependent Man! Luke brings it out in a fuller way, telling us that He prayed all night (see Luke 6: 12). Who here has had that experience I wonder? We see the perfect character of the Lord’s manhood, that such a one as He prayed all night the One in whom dwells “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2: 9); God as to His Person, God over all blessed for ever, in manhood in a desert praying all night—going into that unattractive area early in the morning, long before day. Earlier in Mark it says He was with the wild beasts (see Mark 1: 13). What a scene to contemplate! The One who created all things, the One who upholds all things by the word of His power, found in a desert with the wild beasts. Mark speaks about the gospel being preached to the whole creation, he brings that in at the end of his book. But there was the Lord Jesus, in those unattractive, restricted circumstances with the wild beasts. What kind of beasts they were, who knows? One thing is certain; they would not be wild in His presence.

In Mark 1: 35 He “went away into a desert place, and there prayed”. And Simon and those with Him went after Him and found Him. What it must have meant to these men to find the Lord there in the desert praying; what an impression it must have left on their hearts to find the Lord Jesus in such circumstances! Then He says to them, “Let us go elsewhere into the neighbouring country towns, that I may preach there also”. The Lord comes from that

area of dependence on God, in prayer, into public service. There is a lesson in that for us, beloved brethren; if we do anything, in any small way, do we attempt to do it in the flesh or in the power of what is natural, or do we come from the presence of God to do or say what is to be done or said in a dependent manner in the very way, in our measure, in which this blessed One did it Himself?

Mark 6 applies very much to our own time. “For those coming and those going were many”.

We live in a day when very many people do not know whether they are coming or going. Get into the presence of God, as the psalmist did when he said, “Then understood I their end” (see Psalm 73: 17). So the Lord considers for them here. What a Man our Saviour is! He considers for us, He has provided for us all that we need. He is thinking of His disciples here, “And they related to him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught”. It does not say He congratulated them on it. He just says, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a little”—away from all the activity—it must be a necessary experience in our souls to find what it is to be alone with the Lord. It is only as proving and experiencing His company that we become like Him. No one will ever become like Jesus simply by reading about Him. If you want to be like that blessed Man it will only be by proving the blessedness of His own company in circumstances where there is nothing to distract. That is another feature of the desert—there is nothing to distract you there, nothing to occupy your attention, nothing of the world, nothing of the affairs of men—you are alone with the Lord. It says,

“And they had not leisure even to eat”—sometimes you find that; you even have to rush your meal in modern life, sometimes for days on end your life is so busy you have hardly time to pause; but the Lord considers for us, “Come ye yourselves

apart into a desert place and rest a little”. We just need to pause sometimes, beloved brethren; we can become so feverish in our activities, but the Lord would say, Come and rest a while; just slow down a bit; just pause and consider; learn in My company—learn from Me.

We read in Luke about John the baptist. “And the child grew and was strengthened in spirit; and he was in the deserts until the day of his shewing to Israel”. I do not suppose anyone here would have liked the experience of having been brought up in a desert; but I want to apply it morally. John the baptist was a man who grew up apart from all wrong human influence or interference until the day of his shewing to Israel. Not his shewing to the priest, or to the Jews, but his shewing to Israel, that is, the glory of God’s thoughts regarding His people. God would say to us, There is the kind of man I want you to be. John would be in an area entirely independent of the philosophy or thinking of man after the flesh, and God would say, Out of these very circumstances, see the kind of man I can produce. The Lord says, “For I say unto you, Among them that are born of women a greater prophet is no one than John the baptist; but he who is a little one in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (see Luke 7: 28). What a favour we have to be positionally greater than John the baptist. We need to understand what the Lord is saying there; He is not saying that any one of us was morally greater than John the baptist.

In Acts 8 we have Philip active in preaching and in service—“But the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Rise up and go southward on the way which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza: the same is desert”. Philip had probably served in Jerusalem and had preached in Samaria. It would be a great thing to be prominent in Jerusalem—it would tend

to make something of a man to be serving there. It was probably something less to serve in Samaria, but he was told to go down from Jerusalem to Gaza, “the same is desert”. Philip might well say to himself, What am I going into a desert for? There will be nobody there to preach to. How humiliating, after preaching before crowds, to go down into the desert!

Perhaps Philip did not want to go there. He might (I am not saying he was), but he might have been a bit like Jonah, rebelling against what he was told to do. Whether we are young or old we do not naturally like to be obedient—it is something we have got to learn. So Philip was told to go southward on the way which goes down; not elevation but down—humble yourself—as later he went down into the water; he did that himself. Philip had learned deep lessons; he was a man who had gained a convert and went down into the water with him. I do not think a man like Philip would boast in, or be elated by, a conversion. He would have learned this lesson that he had to be obedient, whether it meant Jerusalem or Samaria or the desert.

In Galatians we read about the great apostle Paul, who says that God “was pleased to reveal his Son in me”. The revelation to Peter was to him, but the revelation of the Son of God to Paul was in him. The Son of God had such an impact on Saul of Tarsus that He found His way in influence into every part of his moral being. I wonder, beloved brethren, if we have allowed the influence and affections of the Son of God so to captivate us that it has got into every thread of our moral being. One great end in view in Christianity is that we are so laid hold of by this blessed Man that, as Paul could say, “for me to live is Christ”. Who of us can say that? The natural thing for Saul of Tarsus to have done after his conversion would have been to go to where all the apostles were—to Jerusalem. But Paul says, No, I am not going

there, I am going into Arabia: in effect he is saying, I am going where I can be alone with God, alone with the Son of God, and learn from His own lips, learn from Himself. So he says,

“I took not counsel with flesh and blood, nor went I up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia”—involving, no doubt, as Mr. Taylor said, the exercises of Romans 7 (see Vol. 96, p.501). There would be no human influence, nothing of man to intrude, nothing to detract from the work of God in Saul of Tarsus’ soul. I have no doubt he learned some wonderful things which come out in his ministry.

Then he says, “and again returned to Damascus”; not to Jerusalem but to Damascus where he had proved the touch of the saints. He had learned obedience, learned the necessity of it.

“Then after three years” he went up to Jerusalem to make acquaintance with Peter. Why did Paul take this course? I believe, beloved brethren, he had to learn for himself, first hand from divine Persons, his own part in the testimony. He goes on to say “and I remained with him fifteen days”; the forging of these personal relationships is so essential, relationships between ourselves which should be forged and maintained at this level. So Peter later speaks of “our beloved brother Paul”. Beloved brethren, let us forge links that will take the strain, no matter what may arise. What we sometimes see is that, if relationships amongst the saints are shallow, the moment something arises to disturb you find the relationships are disrupted; but if this kind of relationship is formed where, each one of us having been alone with God and having come under divine influence, and from that standpoint we have established our links together, they will take the strain no matter what may arise.

It is noteworthy that the beloved man who says,

“if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer” (2

Corinthians 5: 16), is the very one who says that he “saw none other of the apostles but James the brother of the Lord”. Why would he seek out James the brother of the Lord? I think Paul would want to know first hand from James his impressions of the Lord Jesus here in manhood.

May we be helped, beloved brethren, to see the moral import of the desert in these scriptures, so that it becomes very attractive to us and also essential in our souls’ histories, for His name’s sake.

Address at Dundee
20 October 1984