Last week we looked at Balaam and what happened when he wanted to go and curse Israel. He ended up in a narrow place where he had an encounter with God. This week I want to look at another scripture about a narrow place.
Isaiah 49:18-22 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
As we saw last week the narrow place is a place of testing and trail. As it is described in this passage it is even a place of destruction and it is a desolate place. It is a place that the prophet describes as a place of death and loss. It is a place where you feel like a captive. Have you been through the mill? Are you feeling like destruction has come and wasted your potential and your hard work? Parents raise their children only to see them turn their backs on God and run after the pleasures of the world. They feel like they wasted all those years. Do you feel like you have lost the ones dearest to you? Do you feel like you are left alone to battle this war?
So often when we meet with our racers on the field they say the following: “I feel like God has stopped talking to me and I feel like I am alone.” They experience the reality of abandonment. They learn to abandon the safety of church and family and venture out into the world to find the kingdom in action. They see things they have never seen before. They see the destruction of sin on people and what it can do to generations of woman that have no choice but to end up in slavery to a pimp.
There is good news though. God is a redeemer and a restorer of people. Just like Balaam encountered God in the narrow place, God still shows up today to encounter people. What the enemy meant for bad, God has and can turn into good. Look at the passage again. Even in this narrow place there is an abundance that breaks forth with the very thing that was lost. Children are coming back. The very thing that swallowed you up is removed far away and increase and abundance is coming back to your house. You will not know how it happened because you will not do it. God will do it for you.
Jesus was in a narrow place in Gethsemane. He was under pressure to the point where his sweat became blood. The word Gethsemane means: “A wine press.” The book of Hebrews says that he endured the cross, the narrow place, for the joy that was set before him. What joy was in the cross?
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
In his narrow place he saw children. Many people from all over the world that would become children of God. Abundance in the place of his destruction and waste. He was left alone to the point he cried out: “My God, My God why have thou forsaken me?” He could not do it by himself. God raised him up and caused abundance to spring forth.
I want to give you hope. Don’t look at where you are at and how wasted it seems to look right now. There is abundance being released to you today. God is about to show up in a marvelous way and change your whole life around. The day of your narrow places are coming to an end.
