Wilderness Wonderings

Wilderness Wonderings

Old Testament

Hope Within the Uncertainty

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In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:1-7

It has been said that one should never meet their idols, for they never live up to the lofty expectations that we build up in our heads. As with any form of idolatry, the created will always pale in comparison to the creator, no matter how brightly the created shines. In times of great uncertainty, it is natural and human to look to our political leaders for guidance. Yet today, when we see our political divide continually fomented by the very officials we purport to idolize, we are sorely perplexed and often left disappointed.

Isaiah begins in a time of political upheaval as King Uzziah, the ruler of the kingdom of Judah for 52 years has died. 52 years of relative peace have come to a screeching halt. However, Uzziah is perhaps best know for his pride as he entered the temple and burned incense to the Lord, a prerogative reserved only for the priests (2 Chronicles 25:18). We would be struck leprosy as a result of his disobedience and forced to live in isolation until his death, with his son Jotham ruling in his stead. It is in the midst of this political chaos and uncertainty that Isaiah has his vision.

When we humbly come into the presence of God, two things become immediately apparent. First, we see Him for who He really is. He is holy, set apart. He is omnipotent. He is righteous. And He is alone is the ruler of creation, which testifies to His glory. Secondly, we see ourselves for who we really are. The illumination of His holiness exposes our lowliness. We are unclean. We are unworthy to stand in the presence of One so glorious. Not only do we see ourselves for who we really are, we see others around us in the same light and recognize that we are no better.

But the omnipotent ruler of creation is also a merciful judge. When we acknowledge our lowliness in the light of His holiness, we are compelled to confess our sin and He is faithful to forgive our sin. It is interesting that the apostle John evokes this image when he writes “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) It is interesting because rarely do we perceive forgiveness as justice, but John makes it clear that He is faithful (consistent) and just to forgive us when we humbly confess our disobedience to Him. He is just because mercy and grace always carry an element of being undeserved. We cannot earn mercy or grace. We simply receive it. We cannot make others earn grace or mercy, because then it is merit.

Grace and mercy are just because the punishment is still fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. It is only when individuals place their trust in the atoning sacrifice of Christ that we can experience true grace and mercy that is faithful and just. My favorite analogy of the cross is this simply picture: it is the intersection of the stake of God’s judgement – from His holiness to our lowliness – with His outstretched arms of mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. Grace and mercy still require payment to balance the ledger. That payment was meted out in the blood of Jesus on a hillside outside of Jerusalem on Friday afternoon in 33 AD.

If you look into the genealogy of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 1, you will find an interesting list of characters. Adulterers, murderers, foreigners, prostitutes, and even unfaithful kings, including Uzziah and his son Jotham. The genealogy that Matthew records is to prove the fulfillment of the promise of the eternal King of kings in Jesus as prophesied in Genesis 49:10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, not the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

Breath of Life

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And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Ezekiel 37:3-10
Image Credit: INcontext International

The events of the last several years have escalated to become frighteningly similar to the events in the history of Israel prior to their Babylonian exile. Abandonment of God. The people given to idolatry. Ungodly political leaders. Destruction, disease, and death all around. For seven years during the Babylonian exile, Ezekiel prophesied hopelessness and judgement against Judah and her enemies. Judgement because Israel did the very thing that Adam and Eve did all the way back in the Garden.

First they allowed temptation to sow a seed of doubt of God’s Word in their hearts. Then their vision was enticed by their own appetites. They rejected God’s commandments and ultimately hid from Him as they were exposed before the world. As a result, they were taken out of the “land flowing with milk and honey” into slavery once again. And true to pattern, the hearts of the people of Israel were dead as a result of their sin. Dry as a result of their abandonment. Scattered as a result of their own ambitions.

But Ezekiel comes along with a message of hope. God’s judgement would not last forever, because His mercies are everlasting. His promises must be preserved for the hope of the world. And He gives Ezekiel a vision to the valley of dry bones.

On the surface, the vision begins with a feeling of hopelessness. The army lay defeated and dead in the low ground of the valley. And God asks Ezekiel a seemingly rhetorical question: “Can these bones live?” The natural man would of course say “No. What is dead is dead.” But we are talking with the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. The God of miracles. The God who breathes life into dead, decayed bones. The God who breathes hope into dead, withered hearts.

There are a few things that the reader should notice in this passage:

  1. The prophet is only commanded to do one thing – speak the Word of God. Nothing more, nothing less. No commentary. No exposition. Simply speak over the bones the Word of the Lord.
  2. The prophet had to obey the command of God in the vision in order to see what God was doing. Obedience to God’s commandments is paramount if we are to experience the miracles of God’s presence.
  3. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that restores, not the words of the prophet. Without the intent and willful working of the Holy Spirit to restore, the bones would have remained dead and withered in the valley of desolation.
  4. There was no life in the restored bodies until the Holy Spirit resided within the bodies. Appearance of godliness is still dead without the Spirit of God animating and living within the people. It wasn’t until “the breath came INTO them” that “they lived and stood on their feet.”

God’s Kingdom is not a social club. It is not an organization for political activism. It is not a non-profit, do-good charity. The Kingdom of God is “an exceedingly great army.” We are called to be ambassadors for Christ, representatives of the King – the ekklesia. Without the Holy Spirit of God residing in us, we are impotent and weak. Dead and withered. Lifeless and hopeless.

My friends, to speak the Word of God, you must know the Word of the Lord. It is imperative that you dive into the Scriptures and absorb every detail. The scriptures are the standard by which God expects us to live. It is the standard by which we will be judged. It is the standard by which we will be held accountable.

Speak the Word of God over your life. Speak His Word over your family. Speak His Word over your workplace. Speak His Word over your friendships. Speak His Word over your school. Speak His Word over your marriage. Speak His Word over your own heart. But be forewarned, it is not the Word itself that holds power. It’s the Holy Spirit of God breathing over the dried bones of your environment. It’s the Holy Spirit of God breathing into restored lives that brings hope to a people in exile from the presence of the Almighty God.

Return to Him today. Open your heart and receive His grace and His power and His authority in your life. And witness a miracle as new life begins fresh in you and the world around you.

To Whom It May Concern

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Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

Psalm 20:7,8
Image credit: Protestors swarming the Detroit vote-couting center – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/elections/100000007436552/detroit-protest-election-center.html

As we sit anxiously awaiting the results of our election that is now 48 hours past, I was reflecting this morning on the last several months of prognostications and even so-called prophecies from the pulpit of victory for a favored candidate. Prophecies uttered that offer hope in form of a leader of an earthly kingdom. Prophecies that ultimately have done nothing to advance the gospel of reconciliation between man and God. Prophecies that have done more to divide the Bride of Christ rather than unite her. And my heart breaks, because when we the church practice religion for the purpose of advancing an earthly kingdom, we have lost sight of the Kingdom of God that transcends all earthly kingdoms.

Yes, earthly governments have their place in God’s ordained order. Romans 13:1 makes it very clear “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” There are times that God will provide a Godly leader as a time of respite and other times that God will allow an ungodly leader for the purpose of discipline and the testing and strengthening of our faith. You need look no further than the books of 1 and 2 Kings to see this cycle repeated over and over again.

Was God not sovereign over the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah even when ungodly kings ruled and instituted pagan religions that allowed for the sacrifice of children to the god Ba’al, Asherah, and Molech? Was God not sovereign when He chose David, a man described as one “after God’s own heart,” to lead the nation from under the ungodly rule of Saul, only to watch him fall to the sin of adultery, covetousness, and murder? Was God still sovereign when the people of Israel were carried away to live in exile in Babylon? Was God still sovereign when He allowed His only Son to be nailed to a cross for the sins of the world?

Of course He was still sovereign. Of course He was still on His throne. Of course He still loved His people. We cannot possibly know God’s immediate plans in the here and now. But I guarantee you, He has a plan and He is working it to completion.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8,9

Now let me be clear: I’m not saying that the church should not be involved in governmental affairs or the electoral process. By all means, as a citizen of this country, we have a duty to exercise our Constitutional privilege to vote and right to voice our religiously informed conscience at the ballot box. I’m not disputing that. But I am worried that the attitudes with which we exercise our rights muddle the vision and distract from our ultimate allegiance to God’s Kingdom.

My friends, I beg you to be patient. I plead with you to allow the results of the election to play out. But more importantly, I beg you to keep your eyes on the King of kings and Lord of lords. Regardless of how this election turns out, He will still be on His throne. So what if your candidate doesn’t win. Our ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God and His Kingdom has stood the test of time and will continue to stand against the very gates of Hell itself.

Secondly, I ask that you carefully reconsider your attitudes towards those that vote differently than you. Such judgement is unbecoming of the very fabric of our American society. More importantly, especially within the body of Christ, such judgement will keep us divided and at each others throats. Forgive one another. Love one another. Live the gospel like your life depends on it, because quite frankly, it does.

Finally, we must repent of our self-centered covetousness. We must repent of using the pulpit for the purpose of advancing an earthly kingdom with shallow prophecies designed to offer false hope in a fallible kingdom. We must repent of taking our eyes off the cross and fall our our knees at the feet of Jesus in humble submission to His Lordship. Then, and only then, will we ever know true peace.

The Graceful Holiness of Sovereignty

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“He rejected the tent of Joseph;
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
But He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
He built His sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which He has founded forever.
He chose David His servant
and took Him from the sheepfolds;
From following the nursing ewes He brought him
to shepherd Jacob His people,
Israel His inheritance.
With upright heart He shepherded them
and guided them with His skillful hand.” (Psalm 78:67-72)

Throughout Psalm 78, that we have walked through for the last two weeks, we see the father cycling through judgement and grace. Discipline and mercy. Destruction and redemption. Anger and compassion. Do not be mistaken: our sovereign God is not a moody, bi-polar despot. He is a holy God who longs for His children to love Him as He loves them. And He will do whatever it takes to get their attention and draw them under His sheltering wing.

Holiness without grace is tyranny. Grace without holiness is impotent. But holiness and grace, working hand in sovereign hand, by the omniscience of our Abba Father makes all the difference. It is His holiness that demands judgement for our disobedience. It is His grace that redeems us from His judgement through our repentance and faith. As Charles Haddon Spurgeon once wrote: “Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.”

The New Testament gospel, the Good News, is that we can be saved from ourselves. Throughout the gospels and the epistles, there is a reverberant theme: Salvation is here! Grace has arrived! And all we have to do to receive it is repent and believe.

Can it really be that simple? Can I really just apologize and “accept Jesus into my heart” and be saved? No. That’s not what repentance and belief mean. It’s not that simple. It’s not enough to be remorseful for your sins; you must repent and turn away from your sin and seek to live your life in accordance with the dictates of God’s word, believing that Jesus paid the price for your sins and His Holy Spirit is living in you to empower you to walk in the light, rather than stumble through the darkness. If the Christian life was as simple as saying “I’m sorry for my sin, but I don’t need transformation.” then you’ve missed the point.

Salvation without transformation is a bogus gospel. Without repentance, your faith will not save you. Faith is more than a casual acknowledgement of the truth. Faith is a deep abiding within the truth. God didn’t choose Judah over Joseph and Ephraim because of any merit that Judah had earned. He chose Judah because of His sovereign choice to be faithful to His covenant. Joseph and Ephraim abandoned the covenant by choosing not to fully participate in the settlement of the Promised Land with the remainder of Israel. But Judah fully participated and God chose to reward that obedience. But it was God’s sovereign choice to do so because of His love for Judah and His remembrance of His covenant with Abraham on Mt. Zion.

It is on the spot of where God initiated that covenant that God ordered His temple to be built, as a commemoration of His faithfulness to always be with His people. He chose David from the tribe of Benjamin to be His king in Israel, because of God’s love for Him, which inspired David to write more than half of the Psalms and shepherd the people of God – in spite of his failures as a husband, king, and man. God chose David to be the shepherd king of His people, knowing that he would be imperfect, but also knowing that he would do so with a humble and repentant heart.

David was not immune to the judgement of God when he sinned. In fact, he was repeated called out for his moral failings and Israel fell into chaos because of it. But once he repented and endured God’s discipline, the kingdom was restored and peace was maintained and the kingdom legacy was passed on to his son, Solomon. Ultimately, David’s repentance gave rise to the Savior as his earthly descendent, in fulfillment of God’s promise to not remove the rod forever from His hand.

We must remember that as believers we are not immune to God’s discipline. In fact, we are even more responsible to obedience to His word for the sake of His kingdom. God will put His reputation on the line for you when you put your complete faith and trust in Him. When you abandon Him and refuse repentance, you cannot expect to experience the fullness of His grace in your life. Judgement is the natural consequence of our sin, but grace is the supernatural prerogative of our sovereign God who is simply waiting for His children to cling to Him.

Enduring Faithfulness

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“He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert!
They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember His power
or the day when He redeemed them from the foe,…
Then He led out His people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain which His right hand had won.
He drove out nations before them;
He apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.”
(Psalm 78:39-42, 52-55)

Our flesh, that weak part of our being that is naturally inclined to our selfish appetites, can be a dominant foe. It can control us and enslave us to our subtle lusts and our explicit ambitions. We trust in what we see with our eyes, but have such difficulty trusting what we know in our spirit. We lean on our own understanding, knowing that our depraved thinking leads to a path a destruction. Yet our Abba Father, in spite of our weaknesses, extends His grace.

Even when we defiantly shake our fists to the heavens in rebellion, deferring to our own self-centered desired, He extends His mercy. Even when we forget His faithfulness to His word, He remains faithful to His covenant promises to redeem His children.

We are all sheep led astray by every turn of the wind. We easily lose our way and expose ourselves to the dangers of the wolves that are ever-circling the flock. We so often find ourselves stuck in a ravine of despair, needing His shepherd’s crook to pull us out. We get stuck in the brambles and thorns of a dangerous world as we wander aimlessly following our noses.

And like the Good Shepherd that He is, He leads His sheep through the dry, barren wilderness of this natural life. He safely guides us along the paths of righteousness with His loving hand, in spite of our tendency to wander and look for our own food and drink. He protects us from the enemy and bitterly weeps when He loses one of His flock to the wolves due to our own stubbornness.

And He still calls us His sheep. He paid the price to bring us out of the market and into His promised land. He builds a shelter for us in His temple so that we might rest peacefully in Him. He drives out the opposing forces that seek to destroy His flock, even when we try so earnestly to invite them in.

What was once the barren desert of your life can become a refreshing oasis of comfort. He can and does transform our lives for the sake of His kingdom in accordance with His purposes. He apportions the land before us as He sees fit to advance His purposes. And sometimes that means we lay claim to that which He has repurposed for our good. Many times throughout Scripture, God has used the enemies of His people to provide for His people and fulfill His promises. Many times He uses the enemies of His people to chastise them and bring them to repentance for the sake of His kingdom.

In the end, He always proves faithful to His word. He always proves faithful to His promises. He always proves faithful to those whom He loves.

The Grace of Discipline

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“In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite His wonders, they did not believe.
So he made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in terror.
When He killed them, they sought Him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
But they flattered Him with their mouths;
they lied to Him with their tongues.
Their heart was not steadfast toward Him;
they were not faithful to His covenant.
Yet He, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
He restrained His anger often
and did not stir up all His wrath.”
(Psalm 78:32-38)

Sometimes, the difficulties we face in life, be it personal, familial, generational, or even national, are a direct consequence of the choices we make. Sometimes, our difficulties and struggles are simply the discipline of God upon us for stepping out of line with His covenant and living life with spiritual blinders, ignoring His truth and His ways. He will even at times use non-believers and foreigners to exact His judgement as a form of discipline in order to spur His people to repentance. Yet, in spite of it all, as long as we are on this earth, His judgements are not always fatal or everlasting. God’s discipline could always be far worse than what He doles out because His judgement, while fueled by His holiness, is tempered by His love and compassion for His children.

God Himself would have been well within His rights to kill Adam in accordance with His word on the day of His disobedience. But He had compassion and atoned for Adam’s and Eve’s sin and covered their nakedness as He shed the blood of animals to create a covering for them. He would have been well within His rights to destroy the entire inhabitation of the earth with the flood and wipe out all of human existence, but He had compassion upon His creation and saved a family of seven in order to give humanity a second chance upon exiting the ark. He could have struck down the inhabitants of Babel for their pride and arrogance in trying to reach the heavens by their own hand with their tower, but instead He simply chose to confuse their language and disperse the people apart from one another.

He would have been well within His rights to completely destroy the brothers of Joseph for selling him into slavery and leaving him for dead. Instead he sheltered them in Egypt under the hand of Joseph in order to preserve His covenant. He could have left Israel under the slavery of Egypt, which He allowed for over 400 years. Instead He had compassion upon them and led them out of bondage towards the Promised Land. He could have allowed Israel to die in the wilderness for their faithlessness, but instead He chose to feed them and water them in a dry, barren, lifeless land.

He would have been well within His rights to allow Israel to be destroyed by her enemies because of their idolatry. Instead He chose to allow them to simply be carried off to Babylon in chains for a relatively short time. He could have allowed Jonah to die in the belly of the great fish, but instead He allowed him to sit in the bile for only three days before being vomited upon the beach to deliver His message to Nineveh. He could have allowed Nineveh to simply be destroyed by fire, but He sent a messenger to deliver hope through repentance.

Just like any parent disciplines their child because they love them and want to see them grow into responsible adults in due time, God will discipline His children in order to bring about repentance in their hearts and return them to a proper relationship with Him. And just like any parent rejoices at the repentant heart of their wayward child, so does our Abba rejoice when we run into His compassionate arms and embrace Him.

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