Solitude

Likely we have never understood the truth of solitude until now, in the Year of our Lord 2020. A season of enigmatic suffering, seclusion, fear. We hear stories of the elderly dying alone. There can be no funeral, just burial. We hear of refrigeration trucks being used as morgues to hold the bodies until they can be disposed of. Sadness and loneliness hover over the epicenter of our once untouchable city where literally thousands are dying—Alone.

At least, we thought it was invincible—

Our Savior considered that and more when He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). It makes perfect sense that God had to turn His back on Jesus at the Cross, because a Holy God cannot look upon sin, and in those moments on the Cross, Jesus "became" sin for us that we might be made righteous through His shed Blood. In all of that, of course, the God-Man was—Alone.

For He (God) hath made Him (Jesus) 
to be sin for us, 

Who knew no sin; 
that we might be made the righteousness 

of God in Him.
(II Corinthians 5:21)

Complicated? Maybe for us, but not for God. It was all part of His plan from Genesis 3:15. After the Serpent tempted Eve, Adam "hearkened" to her voice to eat of the fruit, hence plunging mankind into Sin (Romans 5:12: "Wherefore, as by one man (Adam), sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.")  Read Genesis 3 again for the first real time. It is the spindle upon which all history turns. The Adamic Covenant conditions the life of fallen man and secures the promises and prophecies concerning the birth, life works, death, burial, resurrection and coming again of Christ, even to the Kingdom Age.

At the anointing of Jesus on the Banks of the Jordan, after His baptism by John the Baptist, the Spirit of God descended like a Dove and lighted upon Him. No, the dove did not light upon Him—the Bible says, "like a dove." It was the Holy Spirit who descended, and that same "Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Satan desired to catch Jesus at a vulnerable moment, at a time when He had fasted forty days and nights and was hungry. Satan offered Him something to satisfy His hunger. Three times the Tempter ambitiously tried his schemes and miserably failed, and the Bible says, "the angels came and ministered unto (Jesus)." This is the God-Man we're speaking of. He was 100% God and 100% man, hence he felt loneliness forty days and nights, as we would.

How precious of our Savior to endure the entire scope of life's trials, tests and sorrows, for He was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." The Bible says He was "afflicted, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities." If it hurt, Jesus bore it. "He was despised and rejected of men." (Isaiah 53). Indeed He knew solitude from the viewing platform of the Cross, for He fought and won that battle alone.

Have you thought much about the fact that we are no longer grouped together with our friends, our loved ones, even our closest relatives? Maybe not forever, but we all know and we've all talked about the fact that life may never be the same. We are mostly viewed as "a single life" now. Perhaps that was the way David (Shepherd, Psalmist, King) felt most of his youthful life as he roamed the hills, tending his flocks and singing the songs he had written.

And what lesson does the "Man of Sorrows" have for us in this season of our lives? Have we learned something here that will be invaluable when we have endured the storm and come out on the other side unscathed, unlike so many who lie alone in the refrigerated trucks, in the morgues of the epicenter, in ashes waiting to be scattered. Have we learned anything?

Listen to F.B. Meyer once again as his words echo through the century in a relevancy that may be helpful in these days of confinement and to the glory of God.

The bright light of popularity is too strong
and searching for the perfect development 
of the Divine life.

Loneliness, solitude, temptation, conflict—
these are the flames that burn 
the Divine colours into our character;

such are the processes through which 
the blessings of our anointing

are made available for the poor, 
the broken-hearted, the prisoners,

the captives, and the blind.

There may be someone out there who needs us, and we can definitely take coaching from those who are on the front line helping to keep our country afloat until these days pass forever, for it is those whose "Divine Colours" bleed into their character and make them shine.

May we be found faithful.