Blooming deserts

https://odb.org/2024/05/09/blooming-deserts

I recall that in my religious pilgrimage trip to Israel, more than 10 years ago, there was a remarkable contrast when we travelled from Egypt into the Holy Land. Egypt was perhaps like Malaysia 30 years back, but Israel was a thoroughly modern state equivalent to any Western city. But more amazingly, it was desert lands to blooming deserts with lots of cultivated greenery. The key was, of course, irrigation, and Israel has perfected the science of chanelling water from the Sea of Galilee to its sparse, arid, and dry desert lands.

But in Isaiah 35:1-7, the LORD speaks of blooming deserts in a different context. It is the Day of the LORD when God would judge the other nations and rescue and deliver Israel. It is the time when the misery and suffering of Israel will be turned to joy. From exile and enslavement to freedom and liberty. In a way, the blooming deserts of modern-day Israel is a reflection of Isaiah 35, although the latter beckons to a future when God will dwell with mankind again.

However, taken spiritually, there is a sense that if there are arid and dry desert places in our lives, God with His transformative power is able to change and transform those areas into blooming deserts filled with Jesus’s overflowing river of life, where as we drink of it, we will never thrist again. The Lord is able to transform our barren situations and make us whole again, despite what the locusts have devoured over the years. We will once again be filled with life, with greens, with fruits and flowers in full bloom as we live in the centre of God’s will and glory! We will not be barren anymore but will bear fruit ten-fold, twenty-fold, even hundred fold! There will be a new beginning in our spiritual life, a breakthrough in our walk of faith! We will become blooming deserts in the Lord!