Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, and have caused her to go to the wilderness, and I have spoken unto her heart, and given to her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope, And she hath responded there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah, Thou dost call Me — My husband, And dost not call Me any more — My lord.  And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name.

Hosea 2:14-17 YLT

The bridegroom woos his beloved to restore her.  He entices her to barrenness in order to restore her.  He causes her to depart from all else, or order to free her.

Surely, in the valley of Achor, that is, the valley of trouble, He has created the doorway of hope, and in the place of destitution, He has ordained deliverance for the wayward wife.

The place of the wilderness is the place of preparation, and, for some, the place of testing.  He leads us to a place of complete desperation, in order that we might look to Him, see only Him, and rely only on Him.

We have known the Lord, but we have not been faithful.  The names of the baals have been been on our lips, and the food of their table has been in our mouths.  But, the Lord will lead us there, to the place of His vineyards, not from the place of plenty, but from the place of nothing.

As rivers in the deserts and floods upon the dry ground, so the Lord will make it clear to us that it is His arm that has saved, and that only His mighty right hand is trustworthy.

[Most Happy] are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3, edited

For, surely, most happy are those who are led thus, who trustingly look to and learn to rely upon their God.  Their place of safety  their place of rest, comes in the promise.

No longer will they look to their maker, Jesus, as Lord.  But, they will know Him as something much deeper, as unto a husband.  He is always Lord, but they will call Him by the name, Ishi, “my husband”.

For, as in intimacy and loving-kindness did the Lord lead His servant David, and so He longs to lead us, taking us past what even our own flesh can handle or conceive, for His hand is great.

And, the names of the other gods, the other lovers, and the other wines of this world have been turned aside and altogether removed from her in this.  What she could not do, what she could not even conceive, has happened.  She, through the wilderness time, has become pure, a spotless bride for Her husband.  Because of the barren time, because of the waste place, because of the alluring of the Spirit.

For, it is only in the place of the leaving in which we can cleave.  It is only in the place of utter abandonment to this age that we can wholly, steadfastly cleave to life.

The mountain of the Lord is always the same, and yet men have gone in search of other things.  They have added and taken away from the command of God, until what they have left is a mixture good for nothing.  But, they have become unable to perceive, unable to grasp, unable to ascertain their error, and their lack.  They do not understand that it is the other lovers that have robbed her, they do not see that all they do is kill and steal and destroy.  They do not comprehend that there is no other way.

But, God has ordained, and affirmed, there will be a day, when those who are ready seek seek the wilderness.  They will seek the lonely places, the far away places, and the empty places, and there, in the stripping and the wasting away of their years, as Moses on the back side of the desert, they will lose sight of every lesser thing.  They will enter trouble and tribulation, and hardship and heartache, but on that back forty, they will one day see a strange thing, a bush on fire.  And, there, they will marry the Lord.

They will be betrothed to the Lord, and be united with Him.  They will be wedded, and be one, for they have in and of themselves nothing left of this world.  They will be stripped and clean, and see with a single eye their master, their creator, their Lord.  Their husband.

And, their union will be the undoing of every woe upon their Earth, with great shaking, for the greatest power in Eternity has been fully believed, that love is as strong as death, and it’s jealousy is as unyielding as the grave (Song of Songs 8:6), and precious in His sight is the death of His saints (Psalm 116:15).