Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

June 1– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“[God] will make [Israel’s] wilderness like [the Garden of] Eden.” 

—Isaiah 51:3

Picture in your mind a howling wilderness, a great and terrible desert, like the Sahara. As far as the eye can see, I am wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way in the pitiless waste. What an appalling sight! How horrible! A sea of sand without limit and without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn!

But behold and wonder! Suddenly a wondrous plant rises from the sand. It grows its buds, and the buds expand; it is a rose, and at its side, a lily bows its modest head. What a miracle of miracles! As the fragrance of those flowers is diffused, the wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and blossoms appear everywhere. The glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Don’t call it a desert any longer; call it Paradise! Stop calling it the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead– a mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that wondrous plant. His presence makes all things new. He comes to save!

Dear reader, are you cast out, an infant, unclothed, unwashed, and defiled with your own blood, left to be food for beasts of prey? Look! A jewel has been thrown into your lap by a divine hand, and, for its sake, you have been pitied and tended by divine providence. You are washed and cleansed from your defilement. You are adopted into heaven’s family.  The seal of the King’s love is on your forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand. Though once an orphan in the desert, you are now a prince unto God.

O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts into gardens and makes the barren heart sing for joy. [M&E]