Desert Days - Chambers, Oswald
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. . . . 1 peter 4:12
We have no faith at all until it is proved, proved through conflict and in no other way. There are things in life equivalent to the desert. This war 10 is a fiery trial, it has come out against our faith in gods goodness and justice. Are we going to remain steadfast in our faith in god until we see all that contradicts our common sense transfigured into exactly what our faith believes it should be?
1. The decree of the desolating desert
And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which i commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. (genesis 3:17)
In actual life there is a desolating desert, and it is there by the decree of god; the bible knows nothing about what we call natural law. Back of the origin of the desert is the decree of god. The desolating desert is not a distress to god, it is completely within his grasp, although not within ours. The moslems have a fine phrase for the desertthe garden of allah. One characteristic of the desert is its fierce, cruel, unshielding light. The sun shall not smite thee by day . . . Another characteristic of the desert is its storms; these are never beneficial, they are of the sirocco order, blighting, fierce and pitiless. Jeremiah describes them at that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, a dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse ( Jeremiah 4:11). The sun as seen in the desert is not a benediction, the storms are not beneficial storms; and night in the desert is a desperate thing. It is all very well to think of the night in our own land, but night in the desert is appalling. Little bits of the desert are fascinating, but the real thing is terriblethat great and terrible wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:19).
The characteristics of the desert are the characteristics of god to a man when he tastes life as it is. Ibsen saw very clearly the desolating desert of life, i. E. , the terrific penalty of sin, and he also saw god as he appears to a man awakened to the facts of existence. We are apt to say that ibsen was pessimistic, but every man whose thinking has not been interfered with by his temperament is a pessimist. To think fair and square is not to see goodness and purity every- where, but to see something that produces despair. When a man sees life as it really is there are only two alternativesthe cross of Jesus Christ as something to accept, or suicide. We are shielded by a merciful density, by a curious temperament of hopefulness that keeps us blind to the desolating desert.
The reason the desert came is that man ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God placed the tree in the garden, but he did not intend that man should eat of its fruit; he intended man to know evil only by contrast with good, as our lord did. It is by the decree of god that the man who knows good by contrast with evil shall find life a desolating desert. When the cosmic order of earth and the moral nature of man are in touch with god, the order of the earth is beauty, and the order of human life is love. Immediately a man gets out of touch with god, he finds the basis of things is not beauty and love, but chaos and wrath.
The first Adam, the federal head of the race, swung the race on to the basis of wrath, and Jesus Christ, the last Adam, swung the human race back on to the basis of love. The terms in Adam, in Christ, are not mystical terms, but actual revelations of mans condition. When we are in Adam we get down to the desolating desert aspect of life. Take lovethe most abiding thing about love is its tragedy; or life, the most desolating thing about life is its climax, death. When we are in Christ the whole thing is reversed. We read that Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with god and men(rv )he never ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, he knew evil only by contrast with good. When a man is born from above (rv mg) the desolating desert aspect of life goes. There is no sadness now in natural love, it ends nowhere but in the heart of god; in christ life knows no death, it goes on more and more fully. If you want to know gods original design for man, you see it in jesus christ; he was easily master of the life on the earth, in the air and in the sea, not as god, but as man; it was the human in Jesus that was master.
2. The devil and the divine in the desert
And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. (mark 1:12)
In the bible the devil is represented as the antagonist of deity; satan represents the self-interest of humanity. Our lords words get thee hence, satan (Matthew 4:10; see also Matthew 16:23), refer to the interests of humanity in conflict with gods interests. In the temptation the devil antagonised the same thing that he antagonised in the first Adam, viz. , oneness with god. Our lords unvarying answer was, i came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me the very thing the first adam refused to do. Man shall not live by bread alone, said jesus, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god. As long as civilisation prevents us noticing the desert and the basis of wrath, we do not need anything other than bread, and what bread means. The claim of satan to our lord was, you will get your kingship of men if you give them bread (see john 6:15). Jesus Christs first obedience was to the will of his father, and it is by the obedience of Jesus Christ as son of man that the whole human race is swung back again to god. It was there, in the desert, that our lord bound the strong man and overcame him. The strong man represents the whole of humanity vested in a personal presence enthroned as god. When the strong man rules, his goods, i. E. The souls of men, are in peace; but when a stronger than he comes, he upsets that rule, and taketh from him his whole armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils (Luke 11:22 rv). Jesus Christ is the one who upsets the humanitarian reign. That is why in certain moods of individual as well as national experience, Jesus christ is considered the enemy of mankind. Think not that i am come to send peace on earth: i came not to send peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).
3. The direction in the desert
(Luke 3:2; Galatians 1:1517)
The word of god came to john in the desertthe word of god came unto john the son of zacharias in the wilderness; and to paulbut when it was the good pleasure of god . . . To reveal his son in me . . . I went away into arabia (rv ). The nutriment of a mans life comes when he is alone with god; he gets his direction in the desert experiences. The psalm- ist says, before i was afflicted i went astray. King hezekiah came face to face with death and the experience made just that kind of difference to him i shall go softly [as in a solemn procession, rv mg] all my years in the bitterness of my soul (Isaiah 38:15). Men learn in these ways that man doth not live by bread alone; there are factors in life which produce terror and distress.
4. The divine departure of the desert
(Isaiah 35:12)
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. (Isaiah 35:1 rv )
The divine recovers the desert for man as a garden. The sin of man has polluted the material earth and it will have to be disinfected (Isaiah 24:1), and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The actual conditions of life will surpass all that utopian dreamers have ever dreamed. And death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more (rv )here-after, without the desert; no tears, no darkness, no sinful defect, no haunting thought, no sickness, no sorrow. It has not entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which god hath prepared for them that love him.