Revelation 12. Into the wilderness.
Twice the phrases ampldquoplace prepared for heramprdquo in the wilderness where she would ampldquobe taken care ofamprdquo (6,14) occur in todayamprsquos passage when John talks about the woman who was ampldquoclothed with the sunamprdquo (1) and gave birth to Jesus whom the devil dragon wanted to devour and then, when he was thwarted, pursued the woman to kill her. But God protected her in the wilderness.
When I was young I sought the adventure of wilderness. I worked in the high Arctic where the sun never moved from the zenith and I was surrounded by a wilderness of endless ice.
I traveled through the wilderness of highland Scotland. I canoed a wild river in the wilderness of Labrador and Quebec. I didnamprsquot die in them as many have. I sought them because of the wilderness in me. I needed my environment to reflect who I was inside. I felt comfortable in those places.
I yearn for them still.
Then God allowed me the wilderness of poverty and despair three times in my life.
But he protected me because they were places prepared for me. In the first, God called me to faith. In the second, he broke my idols of career and marriage happiness and led me to see him not them as my God. In the third, far less despairing than the first two, he taught me to trust in him instead of myself and the world.
Those were my 1260 days in the wilderness prepared for me to protect me from Satan and myself. Without my wildernesses, I couldnamprsquot see God, couldnamprsquot see my sins, couldnamprsquot repent and see the blessing of my salvation.
In ampldquoThe Little Princeamprdquo, the fox says the beautiful thing about the desert is that it hides a spring. That spring is Jesus, and Jesus protects me from my sinful wilderness, just as he did the woman and the ampldquorest of her offspring--those who keep Godamprsquos commandments and hold fast their testimony about Jesusamprdquo (17). In the wilderness is salvation.
Application: give my testimony to one of my professors.
Lord, protect me in the wilderness of wealth and worldly delights. Strip me bare again and again that I may stay true to you.
