The essence of faith trials for salvation and relationship is to bring one to the spiritual knowledge of the love of God and His saving grace to deliver mankind from sin and world. Therefore, it becomes essential that one is stripped of all material or worldly lusts and desires that may distract you, so that you may be humbled to submit to His guidance and understanding His ways.
God explains this saying: “therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt”. (Hosea 2:14-15; Micah 7:15). This representation of the wilderness, is like the deliverance from Egypt, into the wilderness where the children of Israel sang unto the Lord, received manna from heaven and water from the rock prior to their possessing the promised land (Exodus 15:1-21 and 16 ; Psalm 78:24).
In such trials for salvation relationship, one would feel trapped between the world and seeking the face of God as you begin to realise that there are more things that are important in life than material needs, fame and worldly riches. Gradually one begins to feel isolated, or forsaken by the world, and become more absorbed in the ways and knowledge of God, relying on his mercy and trusting in His provender.
The wilderness thus becomes the place of revelation, where God will “speak comfortably” or tenderly to you as you come to rely on Him as the only hope to deliver and restore you from the affliction, sorrow or difficult trials. As your relationship enhances with God, the barrenness one feels becomes fruitfulness and the affliction becomes a “door of hope”. This “door” is the revelation and knowledge of Jesus Christ. He is the “door” to knowing the one true God; and by him, “if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9; 14:6).
4. THE COVENANT OF MERCY AND RECONCILIATION
