I had made up my mind that when I got back to preaching in the weekly recorded services I would not launch into a long expository series. Better to ease myself in with passages of Scripture that have struck me as helpful in these Covid-19 days. Maybe the Lord had other plans. Quite by ‘accident’ I seem to have stumbled on a series. Not preaching through a book or a passage but focussing on different Bible people and how they coped with crisis in their lives. I began with ‘Paul In Lockdown’, then ‘David Hemmed In’ followed by ‘Hezekiah Under Pressure’. A week on Sunday, if I am spared as my mother used to say, I hope to to preach on ‘John In Exile’.
The one thing that links all these people, and who knows how many more we will find, is that they were restricted in some way and yet through faith in their God they not only coped but transformed their circumstances to His glory. They call to mind one of my favourite passages in the Psalms: Psalm 84: 5-7.
‘Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.’
It is a picture of pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem passing through a particularly challenging area. Opinions differ as to the the exact location of the Valley of Baca, barren and unfruitful, but it has become symbolic of difficult circumstances that yield to the influence of God’s people. As they pass through this place that might break your heart they make it ‘a place of springs’, fresh and filled with promise.
That has been the story of the Church at its best, making a difference in the Bacas of this world with the truth proclaimed and the love embodied. Christians have made a difference in famine, flood, earthquake, epidemic, prison, and concentration camp. Arguably we face an equal challenge in transforming the spiritual deserts of the West where there is still confidence in humankind’s ability to overcome every adversity and little acknowledgement of the God revealed in the ministry of Jesus.
It is possible to become overwhelmed by the conditions as we travel through Baca but would God place before us the vision of transformation if it were not possible? We travel with His Word in our hands, His Spirit in our hearts and the example of Jesus before us. Do we need more as we seek to work the desert to ‘a place of springs’.
