People get ready, there’s a train a comin’

The obvious question and the one I get asked the most is, “What are we supposed to do?”
If the darkness is deepening around us and Jesus is coming into that darkness, how are we to prepare?

I could provide a checklist of all the things we need to do in order to get prepared, but who wants to live their life based on a checklist?! You have that list anyway. Half of the Old Testament and certain portions of the New are spent listing ways people are not living how God requires, and telling them what to do about it.[1] The solution is usually summed up in a word: “turn”. Sometimes it’s “return”; in the New Testament it’s “repent”. They all mean the same thing. Turn from the things that have captured your attention and make God the focus of everything.

If you haven’t read those parts of the Bible chances are you won’t be reading this either.

Instead of talking about what we traditionally think of as repentance, I want to address God’s role in our preparation because although people ask me “What do I do?” everything I’ve seen over the last 15 years shows me that God is already doing it.

Before we get going I should warn you, this is a long one, and it gets kind of complex from here. So grab a cup of your favorite Fair Trade, Utz Certified, Bird Friendly, bug free, organically skimmed, naturally caffeinated, warm black stuff and try hard to keep up.

Thoroughfares

About 15 years ago I decided to seek God for some direction, so I set aside three days to fast and pray. On the first day God said nothing to me. On the second day God said nothing to me. And on the last day God said nothing to me. (No real surprises there!)

Late that night my wife and I were getting into bed and she said to me, “Does ‘First Kings chapter 10 verses 11 and12’ mean anything to you?”

My first thought was, “Nope”.

My second thought was, “Great. I do the fasting, and God speaks to my wife. What kind of a deal is that!?”

Anyway, I looked up 1 Kings 10 and started to read. I assume all of you know this passage by heart, but for the two or three of you who have momentarily forgotten, this chapter is about the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon where she is “overwhelmed” by the wisdom, wealth, and splendor of his kingdom. Think of that in relation to the Kingdom of God and its working out in the Church. The peoples of the earth are supposed to be in awe as they encounter the spiritual wisdom, wealth, and splendor of God in us – his Church.

Anyway, right in the middle of this passage, almost like an afterthought, are verses 11 and 12 which say:

Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones. The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. [No such] almugwood has ever been imported or seen since that day.

There’s a parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 9:10-11.

(The servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon brought gold from Ophir; they also brought algumwood [no, it’s not a typo] and precious stones. The king used the algumwood to make steps for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Nothing like them had ever been seen in Judah.)

Now, just bear with me while I get a bit technical for a minute. The writers of Kings and Chronicles have used two different Hebrew words for what Solomon made from the wood. One says “supports”, the other says “steps”. But nobody seems to know exactly what it was he made from the wood. They all agree that he made harps and lyres, but the other thing he made has been variously translated in these passages as supports, pillars, parapets, a raised structure, steps, terraces, and walkways. The most common use of the word elsewhere is roads or highways.

Stick with this just a bit longer and I’ll show you where I’m heading.

When I first read these passages I thought how strange it was that the writers had deliberately inserted that paragraph where it didn’t seem to fit, and how they had used two different words (with different meanings) for what Solomon built. The whole thing just smelled odd.

The first word, in 1^st Kings 10 (מִסְעָד, mis’ad), is an architectural term scholars today aren’t familiar with, but it comes from a root which means to support, sustain, or strengthen.[2]

Keep that in mind for later.

The word in 2^nd Chronicles 9 (מְסִלָּה, mslh) originally meant “a road firmed with stones” from which we get the idea of a highway, road, steps, a pathway, or a thoroughfare. The origin of the word points back to building a road that is higher than the surrounding terrain – hence, “a high-way”.[3] This would be the road the king would take to avoid the obstacles of a stony path or the open land.

So the first word has the idea of pillar, support, or strengthening; the second is a highway, a thoroughfare, a road for the king.

Okay, if you haven’t nodded off, here’s the first point.

If the darkness has fallen around us, and if God is coming into that darkness, the first move is not first and foremost ours – it is God’s. And he is making it. And he has been making it for quite some time. He is taking you and I, the prized but rough wood of Ophir and he is making us, yes, into instruments of worship, but he is also making some of us into thoroughfares so that he might have unobstructed access, through us, to the people around us, and so that they might have unobstructed access to him.

Sounds a bit like I’m leaning too hard on that passage, doesn’t it? Maybe you think that’s not really what God was trying to say to me in my fast.

Well, there were two other passages that God led me to as I studied these words. One was from Revelation 3.12. I’ll get to that in a minute. But the first was Psalm 84.5 where mslh (steps/highway/thoroughfare) is translated “is set on pilgrimage”.

I read this passage as I was entering one of the most excruciating and prolonged trials of my life. It lasted many years, and during that time I lost all strength – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. And the only thing I was able to say in that time was, “I love you O Lord, my strength.” (Ps.18). I didn’t know where those words came from; I must have learned them as a child. It was only later that I found Psalm 18, and read what led David to write that phrase.

As I read both of these passages (Ps.18 & 84) I realized that the writers had come to understand something about God’s strength in suffering – strength made perfect in weakness, as Paul puts it. It’s not just a catchy phrase or a groovy Christian concept. It’s a deep, painful, but glorious paradox that we can only know God’s strength to the extent we surrender our own. And even when we do so we find (if our “hearts are set on pilgrimage”) that he strips us of yet more strength we did not know we were leaning on, until everything is gone and only he remains. And it is then that we can truly say, “I love you, O Lord my strength”, and it is only then that we are able to go “from strength, to strength” (v.7).

As we are progressively stripped of our ability, our self-sufficiency, our capacity, our reputation we go from our strength to God’s strength. Or, if you prefer, we go to places of increasing strength in God. But here’s the rub: God knows who is willing to know his strength and who is not. Some of us do not have our hearts set on pilgrimage.[8] Consequently, some of us never suffer deeply enough to lose our lives, so we never really find them. And the result is that we never learn how strong God can be in us. Why are we not willing? Because we’re oh so capable ourselves.

Back to the point.

Psalm 84.5 translated literally is:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose hearts are the highways [to Zion]

Here’s a wonderful example of scripture interpreting scripture. Zion was the dwelling place of God. Where did Solomon’s thoroughfare lead? To the temple – the dwelling place of God.

The king used the algumwood to make steps for (or “to”) the temple of the Lord…

For God to come he must have a highway fit for a King; there must be an appropriate road for him to travel. There cannot be any obstacles. Remember, Isaiah said, “Every valley shall be raised, and every mountain brought low; the crooked places straightened, and the rough places smoothed.” That’s God building his highway in us, removing everything from our lives that is an obstruction to his coming.

How are those steps for God – that highway for the king, the thoroughfare for people to have access to God, and for God to have access to the world – how is this being built in us?

Suffering.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.[or “blessings”]

The Valley of Baka was “the valley of weeping” or the “valley of affliction”. As we pass through this valley of suffering, somehow, through that suffering, the strength of God is worked out in us and we are instead able to make that place of testing, barrenness, and pain a place of springs. I’ll talk more about how we do that in a later post but for now I will just say that it is only as we have set our hearts on this journey that we can make it a place of springs. How we walk through this desert is far more important than getting out of it. If our hearts are set to follow him no matter where it leads, and to be worshipful in that following, then God’s autumn rains cover us with blessings.[9]

So how is God preparing us for his coming?

He is making us weak. He is allowing us to go through testing like we have never experienced. In the last 15 years I’ve lost count of those who are, often silently, going through their own private hell. They are taken out from company and friendship to a barren wasteland where they are barely fed and where water is scarce, and they are often left alone there. Life has become for them a desert place of financial catastrophe, or joblessness, or marital pain, personal loss, depression, suicidal thoughts, chronic illness, terminal illness…. The suffering is as varied as we are. And this suffering is taking place in a world that is being shaken. Our turmoil sits within a world in turmoil. The earth is being shaken, and so are we.

I’m not saying God is instigating this, but he is certainly using it to bring us to a place where we recognize our absolute weakness and impotence and where we are forced to throw ourselves onto his mercy. But also where we discover, in a brand new way, his immeasurable strength for us and in us.

And this whole process is a giant construction project. He is building a highway for himself. And the highway is being built in the desert of our lives. Speaking specifically about God’s coming Isaiah said:

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
-Isaiah 40.3

John was that voice, the great forerunner announcing the coming of the Christ and making the people ready for it. And where was he doing this? In the desert! What a stupid place to prepare for the coming of Messiah! In the place where there is nothing!

But if you read Isaiah it’s amazing how many times he says that what God wants to do he will do in the desert.

Look! I am doing a new thing!….
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland (Is.43.19)

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom….
Water will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it. (Is.35.1,6,8)

I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia,
the myrtle and the olive….
so that people may see and know,
may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it (Is.41.18-20).

Each one will be like streams of water in the desert (Is.32.2).

…till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.
The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,
his righteousness live in the fertile field (Is.35.15).

The voice of one calling,
“In the desert prepare the way for the Lord” (Is.40.3)

I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen… (Is.43.20)

And God tells Hosea that it is a deliberate part of his plan.

Look! I will allure her (Israel)
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her (Hos.2.14)

The thoroughfare for God isn’t made in rich, verdant pastures when church is wonderful, and life is peachy, and we love everybody. It’s made in the hard places of life where the rocks and obstructions lie before us; where things are not as they should be; in the time and place of God’s crucible. That’s where God comes and he begins to build his highway.

Now, just in case I was tempted to think all these thoughts about highways and stuff was just a bit too fanciful, at the very time I was pondering it all, I opened my daily reading and the first paragraph leaped out with this:

There is no such thing as a private life – “a world within the world” – for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other.[10]

You see, it’s not that we have our life and that God comes and makes a thoroughfare through it or around it. Our life is the thoroughfare. We’re all so busy trying to build our own lives. But there is no “my life” in the world for a disciple; there is only God’s life. In our lukewarmness, or even in our well-meaning spiritual ambition, the suffering Jesus is outside knocking at the door asking to come in, but we’re too busy opening other doors for ourselves – doors to business, doors for ministry, connections, networks, career, programs, relationships. We desperately want to close the door to suffering. It’s only natural – who wants to suffer?! But we share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that he may have fellowship with the world. Look, I’m standing at the door knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship.

People are groping around in darkness, hurt, broken, overwhelmed, desperate. And God is coming. But he needs a thoroughfare, he needs you to be a highway for his presence and power. And people need you to be a highway so that they may encounter him. Our lives can only be a thoroughfare for God and the world to the extent that we give up what we now conceive of as our life. And if we do so we will discover that God enriches all of life so that what we previously clung to so tenaciously we now see was small and poor by comparison.

Strength

If you haven’t picked up on it already, there’s one more point to be made here before I wrap this up. In both Psalm 84 and the two passages about Solomon I began with, the road for God/to God is associated with strength. The building of God’s thoroughfare in our lives coincides with the forming of strength in us.

In 2 Chronicles Solomon made “steps” or “a thoroughfare” to the temple. In 1 Kings 10 the word is “supports” or “pillars”. That word comes from a root that means “to sustain” or “to strengthen”.

When I first read that passage God immediately brought an old song to mind. The lyrics are from Revelation 3.12. This is the only passage to the seven churches where Jesus explicitly says, “I am coming soon.” And then he says this:

The one who overcomes [the word means to win in the face of obstacles] I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.

The ones God is preparing for his coming he is also making strong like a pillar. It’s not their strength. In fact, they have come to recognize the utter futility of their own strength. It is God’s strength at work through them.

The strength and the thoroughfare are, I believe, two sides of the same coin. God is making a thoroughfare of our lives. He wants free access to the world through us; but he also wants us to be the thoroughfare on which the world encounters Jesus Christ.

But God is also building strength in our lives. Not the strength of brute force, but an endurance and a resilience and an unshakeableness. If we, in this desert wasteland, this place of testing and suffering that God has brought us to, are able to persevere and win in the face of insurmountable obstacles, what God plans to do will be established in us and through us. Why? Because as we allow God to have his way – his “high way” in us, we become ones in whom the strength of God has been worked. Like Jacob, whose natural strength and cunning were broken so that he could truly be called Israel, Prince of God, and know the power and authority of that name (see Gen.47.10), the ones God is dealing with now are the ones who will be the pillars and strength when God comes to his church. I don’t know if anyone will be ready when he comes, but they will be more ready than most.

-gb

[1] See e.g. Lk.3.8-18; Am.5.4-15; Am.6; Is.30.15. The OT prophets condemned Israel for two things: (1) idolatry, and (2) their appalling treatment of those around them (including their indifference). Essentially, these fall within the context of the two greatest commandments: (1) Love the Lord your God with all that you are, and (2) love your neighbor as yourself. It was the failure to keep these two commandments that brought God’s wrath on Israel and sent them into exile. Jesus says the entirety of scripture to that point hung on those two commandments. And it is no different today. All of our own preparation for God coming hang on these two commandments.

[2]  POI: The root also occurs in Ezra 5.2

[3] Cf. Is.57.14; 62.10; Jer.18.15

[4] See also Jer 31:6

[5] from a root which means “to weep”; i.e. “the valley of weeping” or the “valley of affliction”

[6] Or blessings

[7] Dt.16.16

[8] If you want to know what that pilgrimage entails read Hannah Hurnard’s classic Hinds’ Feet On High Places.

[9] For a picture of what that blessing looks like see Joel 2.21-32 which is the only other place in scripture where this Hebrew word for autumn rains occurs.

[10] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest. That the highway for God is also a highway to God is evident in from Isaiah 40.3 where the highway is to be prepared for the Lord, and Isaiah 62.10 where the highway is to be prepared for people. It’s the same highway – called the “Way of Holiness” (Is.35.8).