Jeremiah 9:2 “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.”
Jeremiah was God’s on-scene Prophet who was duty bound to observe and report and admonish the sinful wickedness of Israel. God had wonderfully and abundantly blessed them, but they had turned from God to worship the gods of their greed and lusts. The wretched sinfulness of Israel so dreadfully vexed Jeremiah’s soul that he longed to flee away to “the wilderness” to “a lodging place of wayfaring men”. Historians tell us that, in those days, in the most remote regions of “the wilderness”, there were solitary buildings along the way with no facilities or furnishings; they were entirely barren, but they afforded a blessed rest and protection from the elements and harmful beast. Sometimes dreadful storms would ravage the wilderness and these little buildings provided a refuge until the storm was past. In this case, the misery of Israel’s sinfulness was so grievous that Jeremiah cried, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 9:1). Similarly, king David wrote, “And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” (Psalms 55:6). In our lives, sometimes the miseries are so great that we long to just “fly away, and be at rest” in some distant “lodging place of wayfaring men” isolated in “the wilderness”. We often lose sight of it, but we do have a restful “lodging place” in “the wilderness” of this world; a refuge from the storms of life, from the disgusting behaviors of the world around us, from things that would harm us, and from pain and loneliness. Our Lord simply calls it, “My Church” (Matthew 16:18). He built His Church so that we could come aside from the world and rejoice in Worship, in real Brotherly love, and in sweet fellowship. In this blessed “lodging place” our Lord pushes back the ugliness of the world and fills our minds with Heavenly things and points our thoughts toward “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6) that He has in store for us. It is no wonder that David jubilantly declared, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” (Psalms 122:1)! It is such a blessed refuge that we are Commanded to “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25).