Source: Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry
February 23, 2016
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9; 41:17-18; 45:20-21; 54:1, especially vss. 41:17-18: The poor and needy shall rejoice exceedingly, for when they shall seek water, but there is none and their tongues are parched with thirst, I, the Lord God, will hear them; I, the Lord God of Israel, will not forsake them. But I will open rivers in the mountain and fountains in the midst of the plains. I will make the desert into marsh-meadows, and the dry land into aqueducts.
We need only recall Herodias’ malignant plot against the Forerunner and Baptist John (Mk 6:14-30) or the covert bargain to silence the Lord Jesus (Lk 22:1-6) if we wish to identify with the helpless search of the poor and needy for water when “there is none.” We ourselves have known tongues “parched with thirst” (Is 41:17): a loved one suffers cancer, a wounded father returns from combat, a family bereft of livelihood faces overwhelming debt.
Our world is not a kind one. At one time or another we all have been stricken with anguish, searching in fruitless desperation for rivers, fountains, and aqueducts.
God is with us! He speaks to us even in the desert when our hope runs out. Truly, we Orthodox Christians are blessed, for we are never left alone in the face of evil chance and blind, indifferent probability. Many people choose to live without God; they disdain the Church and consider it an exhausted refuge, yet they, too, must face these lands “parched with thirst.” Let us count our blessings!
In the midst of the worst, God comforts His people (vs. 40:1). He directs His priests to speak to the brokenhearted (vs. 41:2). He announces that our humiliation and the sins that separate us from Him are put away (vs. 2), inviting us to the sacrament of confession. Our Lord yearns to straighten out the pathways that we may return to Him (vs. 3). He wants us back!
Let us acknowledge that we encounter precipitous mountains in this existence that refuse us passage. However, God directs our hearts on a path known to Him, where He “will open rivers on the mountain” (vs. 18). True, ultimate answers are not provided by this world, and yet “our God is refuge and strength, a Helper in afflictions which mightily befall us” (Ps 45:1), So let us seek the “the river [that] makes glad the city of God” (Ps 45:4) – His refreshing river.
The worst situations in life are opportunities to discover our one true source of comfort. The saints and angelic hosts of heaven intercede for us (Is. 45:8), and righteousness comes down to this blighted earth. Mercy blossoms; kind words are spoken; great goodness descends from the hand of our Creator (vs. 45:8). Once we will learn to look for God’s activity in every disasters, we discover that He is revealing Himself.
The greatest obstacle we must overcome lies within us, in the form of our susceptibility to the world’s jargon. And yet that very world is terribly unkind, like a Babylon that has taken us captive, with its demonic Chaldean armies whispering defeat in our ears. But God says, “Go forth of Babylon . . . flee from the Chaldeans” (vs. 48:20).
If we seek God through prayer and worship, we have His promise that we will come forth with “a voice of gladness” (vs. 20), even in the face of the impossible. Like the prodigal son, let us realize “how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Lk 15:17). Christ is always available to our heart and soul if we will return home. “Proclaim it to the end of the earth, and say, ‘The Lord delivered His servant Jacob’” (Is 48:20), even in the desert!
O Lord Jesus our God, Thou dost call us even in the parched and desert places; behold us in fear and defeat. Help us to stand before Thee, resigning our despair to Thy deep mercy.
