Wilderness wanderers

"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way." The wilderness had no roads in it of any kind, or in any direction. No beaten paths were there made, to guide the wanderers, and except from the stars they did not know north from south, nor east from west; wherever they wandered it was a wilderness still of wide, waste, barren sand, out of which it seemed scarcely possible for them ever to emerge. Taking the figure spiritually, does not this feature describe how many of the Lord's people are wandering in a wilderness world, not knowing where to direct their steps, and doubting whether they ever shall emerge out of it, often fearing that they shall die in it, and that without hope?

But two other marks are added–
1. that they found the wilderness "a solitary way;"
2. "that they found no city to dwell in."
We will consider both these features, and the last first.

1. By finding "NO CITY to dwell in," is meant that the wilderness wanderers found no place where they could take up a settled abode. A city is a place with settled inhabitants, in ancient times, and even now in most foreign countries, surrounded with walls and gates, and thronged with a populous crowd, engaged in pursuits of business or pleasure. As opposed to the wilderness, it carries with it the idea of a fixed and settled habitation; and you can easily conceive what a wide difference there must be between the inhabitants of a wilderness and of a town. Indeed, so great is this difference, that nothing can induce the Bedouin Arabs to live in towns; and on the other hand, the inhabitants of a town could as little exist in a desert.

Thus the idea is, that these wilderness wanderers could find no place to obtain settled rest; they could not settle down anywhere, so as to say--"I have now found a happy home; now I am comfortable; now I am come out of the wilderness, and here I am in a peaceful, inhabited city, where I can eat, drink, and be merry." Far better is it for them to be still wandering in the wilderness than obtain such a false peace and deceptive settlement as this.

And yet, how many of whom we once hoped well seem to be entangled in this snare. There seemed to be a time when we could feel toward them as wilderness wanderers, but now they are sunk into carnal ease and security. They have found a city to dwell in. They are resting in the form without the power; the name without the reality; the doctrine without the life and spirit of it; the shadow without the substance. Far better would it be for them to be wandering in the wilderness than to have reached and found a home in 'the city of the dead'. O how many who once seemed exercised with wilderness trials, and to manifest in them the life of God, are now sunk into a worldly state, and appear more at home with worldly professors than with the living family of God.

2. But now let us consider another special feature that is stamped upon the true wilderness wanderer. His path is a SOLITARY PATH. "They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way." The wilderness was so wide, and they were so thinly scattered in it, that they seemed, for the most part, to be without friends or companions. One was wandering here and another there, each traversing his own path as if he were alone in the desert. How this adds to its trials and difficulties. In a literal desert, it is almost, if not wholly, death to be alone; and therefore they always travel in caravans or companies. You will recollect it was to a company or caravan, as we now call it, of Ishmaelites or Arabs, that Joseph was sold; and so it says in Psalm 84:7--"They go from strength to strength," where it is in the margin, "from company to company." But in the spiritual wilderness there is not much of this company, nor do the pilgrims heavenward travel much in caravans. Theirs is for the most part a solitary way. One well says–
"Companions if we find,
Alas! how soon they're gone;
For 'tis decreed that most must pass
The darkest paths alone."

Now I believe that all true religion is a solitary religion--a religion carried on between God and one's own soul; and I do also believe that a saint of God can never do without solitude. He must have seasons of retirement for prayer, reading, and meditation. I pity those who are compelled from circumstances to live in houses or families where they can scarcely get an hour's solitude to meditate, to pray, to confess their sins, and to carry on that gracious and heavenly communion with God--without which religion soon dwindles away. The best of our religion is what we learn in solitude, in the quiet hours of the day, or the solemn seasons of the night.

But as the Lord knows all our circumstances, as in trouble He can give quiet, so in a crowd He can give solitude. And thus He no doubt often deals with those of His dear people who are crowded up in their rooms or their families, even amid crying children or a confused din of conversation. They can sometimes be, as it were, dead to all surrounding noises, and dropping their head upon their bosom, commune with God as much as if they were in the most solitary spot. Besides which, they can get away sometimes from their families into the fields; can creep under a hedge, or stand under a tree, as I have often done, and there pour out their souls before God. A laborer who truly fears God, when engaged in his daily work, can carry on secret dealings with God who reads the heart, when those who work at the same bench, or are laboring in the same field, are carrying on a busy communion with thoughts and desires of carnality and sin.

As solitude in itself cannot make a carnal man spiritual--so company, when he is thrown by necessity into it; cannot make a spiritual man carnal. He may be surrounded by company, as in a railway carriage, where all manner of conversation is going on, yet sit in a corner and have solitary dealings with God. The Lord may come down and commune with him while all around him is vanity and sin. I remember when the Lord was first pleased to indulge my soul with some sense of His goodness and mercy, I have sat in a room, where I was obliged to be present, and when those around me were talking of all manner of worldly things, my heart was secretly going up to the Lord. It is not the place, it is not the company, though we should never go into the place or company where we cannot ask the Lord to accompany us; but at any time and at any place the soul may have solitary moments of prayer and meditation, and the Lord may commune with it from off the mercy seat.

But look at it in another point of view. A solitary way is for the most part the lot of God's people; and especially in our darkest paths, each has to walk alone. We are brought at times into circumstances where none can help us but God; into temptations out of which none but the Lord can deliver; into trials under which none but the Lord can support; afflictions in which none but the Lord can comfort; and fears in which none but the Lord can relieve. As thus walking in a solitary way, we find we are in places where God alone can do us any good. And as all the help and support we get, we get in this way, it endears to us a solitary religion. Not that we do not prize and love the company of those who truly fear God; but the Lord is often pleased to place us in those peculiar circumstances when all our help must come directly from Him alone. We must die alone, and therefore it is good to learn to live alone.