Deserts and Prisons

We can’t always make sense of what God is doing in our lives. Sometimes, though, we can begin to see a pattern in the way God deals with people. In the Bible, God sent people to prisons and deserts. Joseph, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and Paul all went to prison and Moses, Elijah, and David spent time in the desert. A desert and a prison have the same effect– you are cut off from everything you know, the comforts you are used to, and thrown into an entirely new set of circumstances, totally dependent on God.

It’s in the prisons and deserts of life that we learn an entirely new way of depending on God. It’s the place where God begins to show us more of Himself. It was in the desert that God called Moses from the burning bush to return to Egypt and free the Israelites. God revealed the next stage of Elijah’s ministry to him during his time in the desert. When Jeremiah was imprisoned, God spoke to him and gave him the amazing words we comfort ourselves with still today.

 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3

Job’s Story

We see another example of this in the book of Job. While Job’s story doesn’t take him to a literal prison, his circumstances were similar. God took away everything from Job and left him destitute. Job gets to know God in an entirely new way. Job no longer knew about God, he knew God personally. At the end of his trial, Job had this to say.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Job 42:5

Captivity

There’s an interesting verse at the end of the book of Job that captured my attention recently.

And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Job 42:10

I think it is so interesting that God calls Job’s testing captivity. It gives us a glimpse into the way God deals with us in trials and testings. The word captivity we can understand. It’s the idea of being a prisoner. God allowed Job to be a prisoner during his time of testing. The time of testing came to an end, and God restored Job’s wealth to him and gave him more children.

What brought about the end of Job’s testing? What happened to Job that God said, “Ok, that’s enough. You passed the test.”?

Iron in Our Soul

I’m not completely sure but I think David may give us a glimpse of it in the Psalms. There’s a really interesting verse in Psalm 105 that talks about Joseph’s time of testing.

He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:

Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:

Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. Psalm 105:17-19

The phrase he was laid in iron literally means “his soul came into iron.” He developed iron in his soul. Joseph was not the same person when God finished testing him. What does it mean to have iron in your soul? It carries the idea of spiritual “toughening up.” God knows that we can’t stay the way we are and hope to serve Him faithfully for a lifetime. Life is just too hard. So He sends us into captivity, times of testing to toughen us up, so we will stay faithful in the long run.

Times of Iron Strengthening

I know in my life personally, Matt and I are not the same people we were when we started our church seven years ago. God has used these years of testing to toughen us up, not to have a hard heart but a tough skin. Matt often says that we need to keep a tender heart but grow a thick skin. The ministry is tough. People can be cruel. God does things we don’t understand. If we want to get through all that, we have to keep a tender heart to the Lord but toughen up a little bit. We can’t let hurtful comments, bad days, and heartbreak keep us from what we know the Lord called us to do.

I don’t know what you are going through, but I know that God allows times in our lives when we are held captive and tested beyond what we think we can manage so that He can put iron in our souls.

A Heart of Iron

Two dear friends of mine are in such a time right now. They both have cancer and are clinging to God during this time. They are totally dependent on God as their worlds have come crashing down. As I pray for them and hurt for them, I am watching the iron process taking place. Somehow they are stronger than they were when they started; they have more faith and grace than what they started with. I am watching as God takes them through this process and is refining them and changing them.

I wonder if that’s what Pharoah saw in Joseph when Joseph stood before him in the palace. He saw a man fresh from prison, but he saw in this young man a heart of iron.

My challenge to you and to myself is to not give up and throw in the towel. God is at work refining us. It’s in this refining process that we get to know Him in an entirely new way. It’s in these difficult times of testing that God is developing iron in our soul so that we can stay faithful for a lifetime.