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In these days of hurry and bustle, we find ourselves face to face with a terrible danger; and it is this--no time to be alone with God. The world in these last days is running fast; we live in what is called "the age of progress," and "you know we must keep pace with the times," so the world says. But this spirit of the world has not confined itself to the world. It is alas, to be found among the saints of God. And what is the result? The result is―no time to be alone with God. And this is immediately followed by no inclination to be alone with God. And what next? Surely the question does not need an answer. Can there be any condition more deplorable than the condition of a child of God who has no inclination to be alone with His Father?
This "desert life" as we may call it, is of an importance that cannot be overvalued. And, as if with a trumpet, we would sound it in the ears of our brethren. Let us turn to the pages of God's own Book, as we can turn nowhere else if we are seeking light on this or any subject. On scanning its precious pages, we find that the men of God God's mighty men were those who had been in the "school of God," as it has been well called; and His school was simply this: "in the desert alone with Himself." It was there where they got their teaching; there they were equipped for the battle. And when the time came that they stood forth in public service for God, their faces were not ashamed nay they had faces as lions; they were bold and fearless, yea, and victorious for God, for the battle had been won already in the desert with Him.
Nowadays, how many of God's dear children have picked up the "spirit of the age"? And how many Christians are pushed into service for God, or thrust themselves into it, who have had no "apprenticeship" ―no desert training? They have taken a terrible "short-cut" into the front of the battle; for that "short-cut" has cut off entirely "the school of God." How different from what meets our eye in the pages of our Father's book. We find Abraham sweetly communing with his God, while his worldly nephew is keeping pace with the spirit of the age in ungodly Sodom. If it is a Joseph, we find him at least two full years in God's school―though it was Egypt's dungeon―before he stepped up to teach her senators wisdom (Psa. 105:22), and "save much people alive" (Gen. 50:20). If it is a Moses, we find him at God's school in the back side of the desert (Ex. 3:1); and then, but not until then, he appears publicly as the deliverer of the people of God. If it is a David, the wilderness for him is the school of God. There he slays the lion and the bear (1 Sam. 17:34-36), when no human eye was near. He gets the victory alone with God. Fresh from God's school, he steps before thousands of Israel; and while all Israel follows Saul, the people's man, "trembling," there is one here who trembles not; and he is the one who has been at God's school in the wilderness alone with Himself. Surely little wonder then, that the Lord wrought a great victory in Israel that day! But why multiply instances from the Book of God? We might tell how Elijah went to the brook to hide who was longer alone with his God than standing in the place of public testimony; a n d who found the solitude of Cherith (1 Kings 17:3) and the quiet seclusion of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:9) a needed training ere he delivered the message of God. We might tell of Paul, whose journey to Arabia seemed to have been for no other purpose than to be at God's school in the desert (Gal. 1:17). But from the instances we have already pointed out, nothing can be clearer than this; that if you or I are to be of any use to God down here―if we could glorify Him on earth―we must have time to be alone with God. If we "can't get time," we must take time. Whoever or whatever is to be put off, God must not be put off. We must have time―every one of us, "gifted" or "not gifted"―we must have time to be alone with God. It is in the closet that the "lions" and the "bears" must be slain.
But the Lord makes all these things clear to us, while in the desert alone with Himself. It is only then we really do God's work―it is only then we do it in God's way―it is only then we do the very things God has fitted us for, and at the very time appointed of the Father. What secrets we get from the Lord in the wilderness with Himself! And if we care not for the secret of His presence, what care He for all our boasted service? It is ourselves He wants, and it is only service flowing out of the joy of His presence that is worthy of the name. It is only such service that shall stand the fire of the judgment seat and bring joy in the day of Christ that we have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. May each one of us have an ever open ear to the Master's voice when He says to us, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place," remembering that though He was the Son of the Father, we find Him time after time departing "into a solitary place," and there praying, although in doing so He had to get up "a great while before day." The faithful witness Himself, as well as His faithful and trusted servants in every age, required a desert experience―a wilderness teaching alone with God; and, beloved, so do we.
W. Shaw
God in the Wilderness
Rise, my soul, thy God directs thee,
Stranger hands no more impede;
Pass thou on, His hand protects thee,
Strength that has the captive freed.
Is the wilderness before thee,
Desert lands where drought abides?
Heavenly springs shall there restore thee,
Fresh from God's exhaustless tides.
Light divine surrounds thy going,
God Himself shall mark thy way;
Secret blessings, richly flowing,
Lead to everlasting day.
God, thine everlasting portion,
Feeds thee with the mighty’s meat;
Price of Egypt's hard extortion,
Egypt's food no more to eat.
Art thou weaned from Egypt's pleasures?
God in secret thee shall keep,
There unfold His hidden treasures,
There His love's exhaustless deep.
In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found―
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy,
All His grace shall there abound.
On to Canaan's rest still wending,
E'en thy wants and woes shall bring
Suited grace from high descending,
Thou shalt taste of mercy's spring.
Though thy way be long and dreary,
Eagle strength He'll still renew:
Garments fresh and foot unweary
Tell how God hath brought thee through.
When to Canaan's long-loved dwelling
Love divine thy foot shall bring,
There with shouts of triumph swelling,
Zion's songs in rest to sing,
There no stranger-God shall meet thee,
Stranger thou in courts above,
He who to His rest shall greet thee
Greets thee with a well-known love.