The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness
“Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” (John 1:22-23)
A farmer came under conviction of sin from the Holy Ghost. He yielded to God, forsook his sins, fully repented, and was wonderfully delivered. He continued to follow the Lord with all his heart, and God led him step by step into a full consecration. He yielded all his heart and life to follow God absolutely without hesitation, and God sanctified him and poured out His Spirit upon him. The Spirit-filled man continued to till his land and follow his vocation as a farmer. The Spirit of God began to deal with his heart to preach the Word of God. There was no one to preach to, but the burden lay so strongly and with such weight upon his soul, that he preached to the corn in his cornfields. He said later that this experience was a great deal similar to preaching to people. They had ears, too, but did not hear.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness.
The divine purpose of Him who sends out His ministers is hidden in many significant respects from those who labor. In Mark 13:9-10, we read, “But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the gospel must first be published among all nations.” None of these results—being beaten, a rejected testimony—is a very enticing result to our flesh, and it takes a special courage, an abandonment of ourselves to the Spirit of God, to be able to continually pour energy and strength into the publishing of the gospel among all nations. Yea, when the work of the Lord is done right, there is no room for the flesh to glory.
In the verse following those quoted above, we read, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” (Mark 13:11) To be the voice of one crying in the wilderness in this way, to take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither to premeditate—to do this is to abandon all human planning and direction. It is to consecrate to be a vessel uncomprehending of the scope and momentum of the Lord’s work. It is to forsake that peculiar fleshly confidence that comes from human reasoning and second-guessing God. It is to enter into His rest. “For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:10) Notice that this is not an entering in our rest, but an entering into His rest.
For crying in the wilderness seems a great waste of time and resources. One minister said, “We are filling sectism. Someone says, ‘Why, you are not doing anything, not getting anyone much converted.’ We are doing more than some folks think. We are doing a lot of work folks do not know about—the work of filling sectism. God wants His work to go on. Souls are being slaughtered because they won’t measure to the Truth and are filling sectism today, and God is expecting His ministers to be true. Send forth the Word; face the enemy; let the sword cut where it will; let the clean come out of her; let the vile go their way.” Crying in the wilderness is not a waste of time and resources from God’s standpoint.
“I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.” (Judges 2:21-3:2) Now here was a wilderness indeed, with ample opportunity to doubt God and His leadership. “I thought we were supposed to be given an inheritance of the land of Canaan. What kind of inheritance is this, all infested with enemies and everything?” It is just the kind of inheritance that God has designed for you to have—an inheritance to prove Israel. It is an instruction class in the ways of God, especially to those who know nothing thereof—to teach war.
Make no mistake. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of war—spiritual war. It is our part to be spiritual soldiers who endure hardness, including the hardness of not knowing the end result of just what we are doing at the time we are doing it. The purposes of God in John Bunyan spending many years of life in Bedford jail, away from his needy family, are still yielding fruit. It was such a wilderness when Brother Bunyan put his hand to the gospel plow. He looked not back. Does he regret it, up in paradise, where he is privileged to see with a perspective not available on earth? I trow not. Does Ezekiel regret now that he continued to preach the truth to apostate Israel while his wife died? (Ezekiel 24:16-18). What a voice in the wilderness is the ministry of Ezekiel to that captive Judah! What shall we say of Jeremiah, of Samuel? “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” (Romans 10:21) The disobedient and gainsaying are a wilderness, indeed; but what sayeth the Lord? “All day long I have stretched forth my hands….” Here is the voice in the wilderness, even the Voice of God.
Beloved fellowlaborer, the wilderness will stretch you. “Make full proof of thy ministry.” Yea, “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist.” (2 Timothy 4:5) But why the admonition, the provocation to love and good works? Because we cry in such a wilderness. “They will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) “The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house…. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.” (Ezekiel 3:7-9,11)
The precious seed must be scattered on the wayside, on the stony ground without much earth, and amidst the thorns. It is fleshly reasoning that would cause us to say, “It is a waste; let us only sow on good ground.” The purposes of the Master are far beyond our fleshly tendency to limit God. Some of God’s children, not led by the Spirit of God, observed a sacrifice for Jesus with disapproval—“But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” (Matthew 26:8-9) No, it would have been waste had the ointment not been poured upon the head of the Lord.
And thus we see, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11) This is the way of God in dealing with the wilderness of mankind. He is not discouraged; the God who created the universe is not desperate nor baffled. He is doing exactly what should be done. He is directing us exactly as we should be directed.
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:3-8)
Let us take courage in God. “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40:9) “Get thee up into the high mountain!” Be not disheartened by the wilderness about it. “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:12) The same inspiration that carried the servants of the Most High through the difficulties of their day will carry us through the opposition and apathy of our time. “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” (2 Corinthians 4:13) We also have a course to finish, a race to be run. Our battles are measured out to us, and all provision that is necessary for ultimate victory has been made by Him who knoweth all things.
“Onward moves the great Eternal
In the order of His plan;
Louder, nearer rolls the thunder
Of His awful word to man.”*
Let us take the mantle and smite the water. The battle is the Lord’s. The obedient host of angels are not disheartened. The saints in paradise are not dismayed. To the watchtower! “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:1-3)
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)