Flame in the Wilderness

“Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer 31:2-3 AV)

It is important to remember even though the LORD must correct us, He hasn’t ceased to love us.  This is the context of Jeremiah chapter thirty-one.  There has been chapter after chapter of judgment and warning.  It must have been overbearing for the people to hear what they needed to hear.  Having rebuked and reproved, the LORD gives Jeremiah a message of exhortation.  His preaching is balanced by something Israel can never forget.  No matter how much they mess up, God still loves them.  No matter how much they disappoint, the LORD will still honor His covenant.  No matter how unfaithful they have been to Him, He will remain faithful forever.  That which the Spirit drew me to this morning is the first phrase I have underlined.  Israel found grace in the wilderness.  In context, that was Babylon and those left behind to till the land.  Prophetically, it will be the wilderness to which Israel flees in the time of Jacob’s trouble. 

When the LORD must correct, it often leaves us in a state of wilderness.  A state of unpredictability, lack of control, and no long term plan to improve our wilderness.  It is in those times we need to find the grace which God has provided.  They normally come is the little things that make the wilderness bearable.  I spent several years in the Boy Scouts.  It is not the same as the Boy Scouts of today.  I would not recommend a Bible-believing Christian get involved with them.  There are so many other alternatives that accomplish the same goals while keeping separate from the promotion of immorality.  Anyway, one of the merit badges one could earn was called wilderness survival.  Some merit badges were required.  This was one of them.  Usually, this merit badge was one you earned while attending summer camp.  Most of the work was textbook work.  The scout had to read and memorize certain plants.  Plants and trees that could be eaten as opposed to those which would poison the consumer.  The scout had to learn his knots and the appropriate knot for each occasion.  He had to learn how to build a temporary structure that would protect him from the elements.  He had to learn how to start a fire without matches and in wet conditions.  He had to learn triage.  He had to learn the identification of animal tracks.  Then came the test.  The leader would take his class on a remote part of the camp which had little to no access to the rest of the camp.  We left in the morning.  In the afternoon, we were tested on what we had learned.  The leader would randomly give out scenarios of physical injury and we had to administer triage and remain ‘injured’ until the test was over.

Then came the overnight test.  We were to build a lean-to.  A structure from branches, string, and our poncho.  We had to build a sleeping area with pine needles as our mattress.  Each scout had to build their own.  There was no communication allowed between scouts.  We were being trained on how to survive in the most extreme of circumstances.  At least for a fourteen-year-old.  No flashlight.  Only one match.  A hatchet, string, compass, poncho, mess kit, fishing line, hook. and the clothes on our backs. We were then tasked to assemble a meal from what we found in our immediate area.  Clover for a salad,  a panfish for our meat, and sumac for our tea.  Cooked over an open fire, it was delicious.  We were also tasked to keep our fire going throughout the night.  It some ways, this wilderness experience was a nightmare.

But, there is power in a flame.  There is something to be said for a campfire at one’s side.  As long as that fire remained, there was hope for warmth, food, and rescue.  Even though all of life’s comforts were removed, that little campfire was all the hope we needed.  When one is in dire straights, the feeling he gets when he has accomplished a flame is hard to explain.  Falling asleep and waking up the next day to see your fire has grown cold, knowing you have no more matches, is a sinking feeling.  Hopefully the flint you brought along will work.  That little fire was the grace in our wilderness.  It was the sum total of all hope.  We had learned how to gather and protect the wood from rain.  We had learned how to start a fire even if the wood was wet.  Nothing could conquer us because we had a fire.

The LORD asks us to go through hard times.  These times of correction are meant to serve one of two purposes.  They are meant to either correct sin (which was the case in Jeremiah 31) or build our faith (as in Abraham offering Isaac).  Either way, they are difficult, to say the least.  In those times, the LORD does not abandon us.  According to verse two of our passage, he loves us too much.  He provides grace in the middle of the wilderness.  Even if it’s a flicker of flame, it is there.  We forget that sometimes.  We are overwhelmed with the trouble that is all around us that we forget to look for the flame of grace.  It is there.  He isn’t hiding it.  Our eyes are not accustomed to looking for that flicker.  Like a small distant campfire in the wilderness, we have to learn how to look for it.  Shifting the eyes so our peripheral vision picks it up, we have to look at what we are not looking at.  It is there.  God has provided it.  We simply have to choose to look for it.