Last time we emphasized the wonder of the promise of God’s presence, private and fully accessible within your own mind.  It is the Secret Place of the Most High and the Shadow of the Almighty where you are safe. (Psalm 91:1) An awareness of His presence, a mindfulness of His nearness is the essence of a triumphant life.  The glorious adornments of such a life are deep insight into circumstances and world events, blissful hope without fear of the future, and God-given joy that is not dependent on what you see around you.

I have recently made new discoveries regarding deeper meanings of Hebrew words.  I’m subscribed to a YouTube- series called Revelation Road – I can recommend it.  The subtlety and shades of words give profound insight.  To me, it’s a word-feast every time.

The Hebrew word for wilderness differs by one letter from the word to speak. Such words usually come from the same root.  The meaning of the word for wilderness implies that the voice of God is heard in the wilderness.  Why on earth would it have to be like this?

We have many examples of this in the Old Testament because there we learn how physical reality forms the bedrock of spiritual reality.  God speaks to Moses in the burning bush in the wilderness — physically, yes, but also wilderness-season in his life after he fled Egypt.  At Mount Sinai, during the Israelites’ wilderness sojourn, he receives the Law of God, the revelation of God’s character to man.

Spiritual wilderness-time is not fun.  It is usually accompanied by struggle and disappointment.  At its best, it’s a time of expectation and hope — expectation that God is going to do what He has promised and hope for the glorious miracle of divine intervention that we cannot see and hold on to in faith. This is a time of transformation— the renewing of our thinking and expectations, meaningful insight in the Word with sharper sensitivity to trust God with deeper resolve than ever before.  We are tested and moulded until we are soft and useful, schooled in grace and forgiveness, to live the glory of God in the world.

David’s ten-year wilderness time, fleeing from the king’s forces, his own people, prepares him to be the king he is anointed to be – not flawless, but deeply dependent and finely tuned to his calling.  David reigns the full 40 years as God ordained, despite his sin and the rebellion of his children.  

In Isaiah, the prophet proclaims the voice in the wilderness that prepares the place for the Messiah.  The greatest events in all human history are being set up in the wilderness. John the Baptist grows up in the wilderness, trained and equipped to live his calling. Jesus’ ministry begins with the preparation in the wilderness right after His baptism.

The wilderness is given prominence in the life of Hosea (and the book called by his name) as a place of restoration and renewal.  Israel’s apostasy is likened to Hosea’s marriage to a prostitute.  Hosea must marry her, love her, and have children.  Each child bears a name that trumpets the sin of idolatry and God’s wrath over it.  Along with it comes the prophetic word through Hosea of God’s promises of restoration.

It is precisely here, in the second chapter, that God invites the backslidden woman (His people) into the wilderness.  It will become her place of restoration.  

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her. (Hosea 2:14)

The desert is directly connected to the voice of God.  She must be persuaded to go into the wilderness so that she can hear.  It is in desert- times where we are enabled to hear.  It’s away from the humdrum of everyday routines, the familiar rumble that clogs our ears to the whisper in the calm of the wind or the still, small voice as Elijah described it.

In the next verse is the all-surpassing promise.

I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.  (Hosea 2:15)

Vines are a symbol of provision and prosperity.  She will experience God’s provision in the wilderness, all needs being met.  Further on in Hosea he speaks of the new wine, oil and grain – the essential as well as the luxurious. 

The valley of Achor is symbolic of trouble.  The valley was so named by Joshua (7:26) following Achan’s sin and the defeat at Ai.  The trouble, the destruction that sin brings, will be restored with hope.  Hope’s root word is to wait. It’s not a passive time of sitting still chewing your nails in desperate anxiety.  Waiting and hoping are not different actions.  It is one concept.  It is, in fact, a rope that is intertwined to be made stronger and bear weight.  It is the rope by which Rahab escaped from Jericho, she and her entire family.  

In the wilderness, the voice of the Lord is the lifeline — the provision, promises from the Word, times of fasting and prayer, blissful hope, revelations of God’s glory and character, his goodness and grace — all of this is woven together in a rope that rescues us from Jericho, the walled evil fortress crumbling when the promises are being trumpeted.

The covenant is renewed, the marriage is consummated, and a husband vouches for the full extent of provision and protection.  In Hebrew, the word for husband is Baal. It denotes a landowner and spouse.  Because the word was associated with the Canaanite idols, God referred to himself as ishi – my husband.  The description of a husband is found in Isaiah.

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And a cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:2)

It is the provision of your husband, your God, in the valley of trouble that ushers in your wilderness time where you hear the Voice and confidently  weave the rope of expectation and hope to save you from the evil that surrounds you.

In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul. (Psalm 94:19)

For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,”
Says the Lord, who has mercy on you. (Isaiah 54:10)