Christ Is No Mirage

Christ is No Mirage

Isaiah 35:7

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQefljIpico

If I could put a subtitle to today’s message, it would be, “The World’s Mirage verses The Reality of Christ.”

As this new year began, the Lord pointed me to present a two-part message revealing how the Cities of Refuge were a type and a representation of the coming Messiah, and then how Jesus fulfilled their very purpose.

And through this, the Lord was showing me how there are so many Scriptures that speak to the coming Messiah and how Jesus fulfills them, which is at the heart of our message today, because the verse that I would like to share with you isn’t really anything that we would say, “Hey, that’s amazing,” when we read it, but that is exactly what it is.

Now, Isaiah 35, where our passage is taken from gives us a preview of the coming of Christ, that is, the Messiah, and the great salvation He will bring, but not only that, how He is none other than the Lord God Himself. And it begins with how great it will be in those days, and how the Lord Himself is coming to destroy our enemies, and then is says that “He”, that is, the Lord God Himself, “is coming to save us” (Isaiah 35:4).

And this idea of salvation coming in and through Jesus is seen in His very name, as the name Jesus means, “God saves.” And in the Old Testament it is the name, Immanuel, or “God with us.”

And then Isaiah gives us the signs of His coming.

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” (Isaiah 35:5-6a NKJV)

In fact, Jesus references this very thing in describing His ministry to John the Baptist who sent his disciples to see if Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

Jesus responded, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5 NKJV)

Now, Isaiah gives to us what is so often quoted about the revival that is to come.

“For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:6b NKJV)

And then we come to the verse that literally took my breath away when I looked more closely at the wording at what it means to us.

“The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” (Isaiah 35:7a NKJV)

Now, at first glance it would seem that this is just further explaining what the end part of verse six says about water coming forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. But it is so much more.

And it’s found in the meaning of the word “parched ground.” In the Hebrew this word is “sharab.” And according to the Strong’s Concordance it comes from an unused root meaning “to glare,” a “quivering glow of air,” and then it gives this definition, “a mirage.”

To fully understand the importance of this, and how those reading it in the time of Isaiah would have understood this is that the people of that time were somewhat nomadic, and something they would have been well aware of, especially as their ancestors wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before they could enter into the Promised Land.

You see, a wilderness was a piece of land where nothing grew, a desert in the purest form of word, that is, nothing but sand and heat, and a place where there is no water.

Now, those who would traverse these stretches of parched and dry earth would always be on the lookout for an oasis, that is, whatever water they could find. This was Israel’s main difficulty as they continue to complain against Moses and the Lord, where once again they found themselves in a location where there was no water.

But, those who traversed these spaces, what would happen is that they would see something glimmering, something looking like water, and so they would head toward it only to find it was nothing but a mirage, that is, it looked like water, but it was nothing more than glowing sand.

And that is what a mirage is, it is where the cooler air would meet the heat that was rising from the sand, and the light was refracted giving the appearance of the color of the sky, which just so happens to be the color of water.

And this is what people today are experiencing in this world we are living in. And that is, people today are always moving to the next mirage the world is offering thinking that it is a source of satisfaction, only to find out once again that they’ve arrived at nothing more than a mirage, glowing sand with no life.