Chapter 12<\/p>\n
Good Monday Morning to this week 13 of 2020<\/p>\n
\u201cI will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Ezekiel 34.25<\/p>\n
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43.19<\/p>\n
The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails. W. Arthur Ward<\/p>\n
A few years ago I was standing on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, temperatures were in the 40tes. We got off the motorbike and stood in the scorching heat. A wind picked up, first came the relief along with a slight feeling of cooling, followed by red dust covering me with layers, resulting in, me, already a red-skinned into a red-skinned with many layers of Burkina’s wilderness dust.<\/p>\n
But as hot as it was, as awkward as it was, the wind brought a change to the atmosphere. I wished for shade, water, but also for more wind. It felt as in the words of Isaiah;\u00a0 something new was as happening, something springing forth.<\/p>\n
Shortly after,\u00a0 I rapidly moved to the next shade I could find\u00a0 …<\/p>\n
Wind in the wilderness, yes, but how does that lead us to the covenant of peace to dwell in security?<\/p>\n
The wilderness often has an attitude of negativity, feelings of repulsion and hostility, places of horror with wild creatures.<\/p>\n
The wilderness in the Bible is described as places and times of considerable significance where people are called to important tasks.<\/p>\n
The wilderness is often a site of God’s grace expressing a place where God purifies and transforms, also revealing God’s nature.<\/p>\n
A Covenant of peace?<\/p>\n
Covenant a noun meaning “to select the best” coming from the root words “choice meat”
\nleading to the concept “cut a covenant”. A covenant was instituted by the two parties of the covenant who would take a fattened animal, the best of the flock or herd, and “cut” it into two pieces. Then the two parties of the covenant would pass through the pieces symbolizing their dedication to the covenant and by this action are saying, “If I do not hold to the agreements of this covenant, you can do to me what we did to this animal.”<\/p>\n
Let’s wrap this up!<\/p>\n
The wind blows with change through the wilderness. The change comes with a transformation happening after a covenant of peace is made. Isaiah speaks of a “pool of water” filling the wilderness with acceptable trees. In this fructification of the barren land, one can discern God’s creativity along with the promise and covenant of renewed fertility. With the transformation happening the full potential of the change can happen.
\nEzekiel has a very profound vision, that to dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods or the newly restored land.<\/p>\n
As we face this wilderness we are globally in, I pray for the wind of change, accompanied only with the covenant of peace until He the creator brings us to the restoration of fructified land with sustaining life!<\/p>\n
Wishing you a healthy week.<\/p>\n
Philemon<\/p>\n
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Chapter 12 Good Monday Morning to this week 13 of 2020 \u201cI will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Ezekiel 34.25 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do … <\/p>\n