The Only Remedy

"Ye are they that forsake the Lord...therefore I will number you for the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer, [and] when I spoke, ye did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.... Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Isaiah 65:11, 12, 17, 18

Desolation and glory are not mere abstract principle; they are a part of rugged reality. All the moral motions within men, whether they know God or not (Romans 2:14, 15), cry out in testimony against us. We know (beyond all contentless academic posturing) that there is a right and a wrong, and that those who do evil will be punished, and those who do good will receive reward. Desolation on the wicked (vs. 1-7, 11-16) and glory to the faithful (vs. 8-10, 13-16) are two immutable facts not only of Christian philosophy but also rugged reality, as real and as practical as the ground beneath our feet.
As I have said before many times, desolation is the only pathway to glory, not only in individual lives (as in justification and sanctification) but also in universal existence. In order for the creation to be restored to the glory it was created for, it will mean the desolation of all that is not-God; that is one of the great facts of the book of Revelation. Dies irae is not an arbitrary assignment; it is a necessary remedy, the only remedy. In order to bring out the finest gold, all the dross must be removed; and the deeper the dross is, the hotter the fires must be.
It is the heritage of humanity to know that true happiness and joy is only possible with the destruction and desolation of all evil things. Those who decry God's wrath against the wicked are neither enlightened nor wise; they are fools who deny core elements of the very reality that they claim to be a part of. If the wicked perish with wickedness, so much the worse for the wicked. We should indeed pity them, but we have lost all of our sense if we demand that God end all of our miseries and then turn right round and condemn Him for doing so.

"We are cured, wounded,
Made whole or destroyed,
And destined only
For fire or Fire..."
-Jon Vowell

"If you would have all that God is..."

"Then thou shalt say in thine heart, 'Who hath begotten these for me, seeing I have lost my children and am desolate, a captive, and wandering to and fro? Who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?' Thus saith the Lord...they shall not be ashamed that wait for me." Isaiah 49:21-23

Israel, like Job, had lost everything; but apparently, like Job, they would receive it all again in abundance. There was just one condition: wait for God, and oh how they have waited! Through captivities and dominions and silences and sufferings and assaults and attacks of every kind, they wait for the redemption of God's people. If they would have it, they must wait for Him.
Too few of us truly "wait for" God, because we have no idea what it really entails. We desire the fullness of God; but if we want such glory, we must pass through the desolation. There are ties that must be broken, fellowships that must be severed, trials that must be endured, plans that must be dropped, dreams and desires that must crash to the ground, habits that must be kicked, clarity that must be obscured. It will be grueling, but if you cannot pass through the desolation, then what good are you? You are not fit for the glory that you seek. If, in wanting to become like Christ, you cannot endure the "fellowship of His sufferings," how then can you endure the "power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10)?
I dare say that we want all the blessings of knowing God but none of the hardships and heartaches. We would take the life of Christ if only we could avoid the Cross (avoiding misunderstandings with family and the religious elite would be nice too). We desire God like Joseph did, but we would rather get right to being Egypt's prime minister and avoid being betrayed by our brothers, scandalized by our employers, cast unjustly into prison, and forgotten by those we show kindness to. It is, however, not to be.
If you would have all that God is, then you must go wherever He is and follow wherever He leads, through fire and flood, through dungeons and thrones, through failures and triumphs, through joys and sorrows, through pleasures and pains. If we desire anything other than God (even good and noble things), then we will balk at His wooing, and settle for a lesser view of Him. If we would be gripped by His ever tender and ever stern hand, however, we must be willing to go where He goes, even from the heights of heaven to the depths of hell, remembering always that He is ours and we are His, and He is with us always (Isaiah 43:1b, 2).

"Through the fire and the flames
You carry me unto Yourself,
No turning back,
No turning back..."
-Jon Vowell

The Weapon of God

"[God] hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me. He hath made me a polished arrow; in His quiver hath he Hid me...." Isaiah 49:2
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34

The Jewish hope that the Messiah would be a weapon in the hand of God was most certainly fulfilled, but not as they had imagined. The Romans did not fall; the Gentile empire did not crumble. Instead the Jewish beliefs about God crumbled (I Corinthians 1:23), and all precious loyalties were challenged (Matthew 10:35-38). The Messiah had come to kill, but apparently to kill His own followers (Matthew 10:39). It was the price that would have to be paid, and Christ demonstrated it in graphic fashion: the pathway of life lies through the gateway of death. All things must be made desolate before they become glorious.
"When the law came, sin revived, and I died." (Romans 7:9) "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." (Galatians 3:24) Salvation is an impossibility unless we realize that we are lost; glorious redemption is a myth if there is no desolate damnation. It is the stern claim of God that in order to feel wonderful, you must first feel dreadful; in order to find Him, the weapon of God must shatter us apart completely, until there are no more delusions left, no deceptions, no masks, just the wretched, blind, naked, miserable self handed over to God in surrender. If we are to be lifted up by God, we must step down from our pedestals, for it is the broken and dirty things that God has come to make His children (Luke 19:10). Only sinners can received grace; Pharisees cannot (Luke 18:9-14). Redemption belongs to the broken and desolate things of the world, for they alone recognize and accept it when it comes.

"Sword of Heaven,
Missile of God:
Shatter me! Batter me!
And make me whole..."
-Jon Vowell

Throne of Lies

"...there is no throne...." Isaiah 47:1

All of chapter 47 is God's declaration of destruction upon Babylon, and its destruction hits right at it core: "Thou...sayest in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me'...thou hast said in thine heart, 'I am, and none else beside me." (vs. 8, 10) They had set themselves up to be God; not gods, but God ("I am"). This is the Satanic attitude ("I will be like the Most High," Isaiah 14:14), and thus the height of evil. God cuts them right at their hearts: "Come down, and sit in the dust...there is no throne," their power and status is but a self-delusion, and God unravels all of it (vs. 8-15; c.f. Isaiah 14:15-17)
The height of all evil, nay, the very source of all evil is the desire to be God, to be the highest, the controller and ruler of either all things or just yourself. It is the disposition of Satan (Isaiah 14:13, 14), the very temptation whereby Adam fell (Genesis 3:5) and we fell with him (I Corinthians 15:22a). We have all inherited the Satanic disposition of "Me first." This is why it is only desolation that leads to glory: we must be brought to the dust before God can help us, made helpless before we will accept any help. The throne that we set up for ourselves must be revealed as a throne of lies before we realize our true condition: damned sinners with no hope outside of Christ. Many will reject Christ and forever abide in desolation. Others will take hold of Christ's outstretched hand and be returned to God.

"Destroy all my thrones,
Till I rest only in You.
Take me to the dust,
And lift me to Heaven..."
-Jon Vowell

"You can't make an omlette..."

"And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction...thine eyes shall see...and thine ears shall hear...Ye shall defile also the covering of the graven images...thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth; thous shalt say unto it, Get thee hence." Isaiah 30:20-22

Nothing removes smokescreens quite like desolation. All illusions cease, all false and naive hopes are gone, all foolish self-confidence falls away; all that remains is the shattered, quivering self in the midst of the fire quite conscious that it is in fire, for it can feel the heat on all sides.
This is one of many claims Christianity asserts that people resent: clarity never comes until the breakdown, understanding never arrives until after the collapse of our self-will and self-assertion, we do not truly see and hear and walk the right way until after we have tasted the bread and water of desolation. Of course, we would much rather do without desolation, but it is that which drives us towards wholly and solely trusting in God. Without desolation, no matter what we tell ourselves, we will always try to do things ourselves. Before we can truly stand in His strength, we have to have our legs knocked out from underneath us.
"You might as well come quietly," said Lewis once, and it is sound advice. The desolation hurts horribly only when we fight against it. If we surrender without a struggle (such a hard thing!), we find that we have fallen right into the arms of God, and His glory is ready to shine through us.

"I was but dust
Until You Breathed in me.
I am still dust
Unless You Breath in me.
Raise this dust to Heaven..."
-Jon Vowell

Desolation and Glory III: Changed into His Image

"Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto me as Ariel [once more]." Isaiah 29:2

Before Jerusalem can be the "Lion of God" once more, it must go through heaviness and sorrow. There is no escaping this fact: there are no crops unless the seed dies, no remission of sins without the shedding of blood, no change without pain, no glory without desolation. If we would be everything God wants us to be, it will mean the death of everything that is not of Him. That process will mean pain and sorrow and heaviness, but its fruits are joy and peace and all the evidences of God's Spirit.

At salvation, the old man died and is no more; the inner man is now Christ (Galatians 2:20). The battle line is drawn between the life of God within you and your dead body without (Romans 8:1-11). All the old habits and thought processes formed by those habits will have to go, and that means death and pain. To be formed into the image of Christ means a shattering of the old image of man.

We do not take seriously our prayers to be "like Christ." To be "like Christ" means to pray the prayer that Paul prayed (Philippians 3:10). Are we ready for that kind of likeness? Are we ready for the total wounding to annihilation of our pride? A total collapse of our self-reliance? A total loss of our control over our circumstances? Are you ready for desolation? Are you really ready for glory? It will mean walking through the valley of the shadow of death first.

"What Pains You bring me through,

I am in Fellowship with Christ.

Through the Fires I come forth

Purer than Gold..."

-Jon Vowell

More Desolation and Glory

"...for upon all the glory shall be a defense." Isaiah 4:5b

The glory that comes after desolation is marked by the presence of God. The restoration of Jerusalem to glory is not merely superficial: it is not just the restoration of buildings and lands. It is the restoration of a people back to their God.
The glory of Jerusalem is the presence of God, and the glory brought about by the desolation is the return of that presence: "The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night..." (Isaiah 4:5a). Any Jew (and any Christian with a Sunday School education) would recognize those two images as the presence of God (hint: remember the Exodus?). "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert [i.e., covering] from storm and from rain." (Isaiah 4:6). The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God, and it will return after (or perhaps, because of) the desolation. God's presence is the glory (and therefore the purpose of the desolation).
The glory that follows desolation is not marked by power, wealth, health, recognition, or sound sleep. Those things may (or may not) come with the glory, but they do not mark it, i.e., they are not its most important and predominant feature. What marks the glory that comes from desolation is the presence of God, and subsequently closer communion with Him. That single feature is the point of desolation and glory, nothing else.
We cheat ourselves if we submit to the desolation for the sake of something and not Someone. Moses, in the wilderness (i.e., in the desolation), asked God to show him "thy way" for one purpose only: "that I may know thee..." (Exodus 33:13). Paul counted all things as loss so "that I may know Him..." (Philippians 3:10). The point of Job's sufferings was not so that his "latter end" would be more blessed than his beginning, but so he could say, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5). The desolation and the glory are to draw us closer and closer to God, nothing more and nothing less.

Desolation and Glory

"And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she [i.e., Jerusalem] being desolate shall sit upon the ground." Isaiah 3:26

The desolation of Jerusalem is not merely cruelty on God's part. Yes, it is an act of judgment, but His judgments are always juxtaposed with His love: there is always a "rising up" after the "falling down." We like the rising up part; what we don't like is that we must be brought down before we are brought up.
Jerusalem's destiny was to fall (Deuteronomy 31:29) so that in her falling she and all the world might be raised up (Romans 11:25-32). Job was brought down so that he could know God in a new way (Job 42:5), and all was restored to him. There had to be a falling down before the rising up. There has to be desolation before there can be glory, humbling before there can be grace.
Humility is born out of desolation, not self-downing. Humility does not come from you constantly downing yourself ("I'm just an old sinner!" "I'm nobody!" "I'm as dumb as a bag of rocks!"). Such an attitude keeps the focus on yourself, and therefore is a hidden form of pride. Humbling is not brought by self-downing; humbling is brought by desolation, which is to be brought down. We can fight this "bringing," which is why God does say we should humble ourselves (I Peter 5:6). Ultimately, however, God will bring us down; we either submit to the bringing or not. "Humbling yourself" means we submit to the Will that brings us down.
Desolation means an emptying of yourself of anything "glorious," anything that could counterfeit as solid ground for your soul. Desolation leaves you with nothing in you (including your "humility") that you can rely on. Desolation is to be "the poor in spirit," (Matthew 5:3), to be a "spiritual pauper," as Oswald Chambers put it. The desolate soul is the soul that God can raise up to glory.
This is nothing new. Desolation and Glory is the framework for the paradox of the Incarnation. The Incarnation was the desolation of God, an emptying of His glory, the making Himself "of no reputation...and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself..." (Philippians 2:7, 8). (Note: The fascinating part is that God brought Himself down, but we must be brought down by Him. To seek to bring desolation on ourselves is another form of pride because it is claiming to do something only God can do.)
Christ death and resurrection involves Desolation and Glory as well. His death was a "shame" (Hebrews 12:2), it was Him being "made sin" (II Corinthians 5:21) so that He would be raised up to a glorified body and the salvation of the world.
We want the cure without the medicine when we want glory without desolation, the power of God without the sufferings of Christ. The Apostle Paul not only longed for the "power of [Christ's] resurrection," but also for the "fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10), and there is no resurrection without the sufferings, no power without that fellowship. Desolation forces us to focus not on ourselves but on our need for Christ, and we can never know the Life that brings the power unless we first know the fellowship that brings the suffering. When God (and God alone) brings desolation to us, we must remember that there must be a falling down before the rising up. Submission to desolation is the pathway to glory. What a beautiful paradox.

"Before God can use a man greatly, He must first wound him deeply." -A.W. Tozer