Relief from the Accuser

Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.” (Isaiah 51:21–23)

By the thinking of many Christians, these days are the last days according to the many descriptions in both OT and NT. I’m cautious about date-setting yet the daily news seems to be building up to something.

One thing I’ve noticed is the activity of the Liar in my own life. Every time God blesses me with answered prayer or an opportunity to share Jesus with someone else, I get an extreme attack of accusations from Satan about who God is (or isn’t) and my failures as a member of His family. His lies have enough truth in them that I often feel lost and crippled and need to remember passages like this one:

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:10–12)

Eve’s downfall came because she listened to what the devil in the garden told her. He appealed to her sense of self and suggested God didn’t really love her. He does the same to me, and when circumstances seem to back him up and my thoughts go there instead of to the promises and character of God, I fall into a pit of discouragement — but not for long as God reminds me again who I am and that I belong. Today He reminds me that the wrath I deserve has been put on my tormentor who wants to walk all over me. The Liar is defeated — by the blood of Christ, by my declaration of faith, and by no fear of death. And get this, he is coming at me, and at the people of God in great fury “because he knows that his time is short.” 

In the mind of God, ‘short’ could mean soon or a thousand years. No matter. The Liar knows that Jesus wins and just those two words erase his accusations and replace them with a hallelujah!

Jesus, just forgetting truth for a moment is awful and the perfectionist in me thinks it is a terrible sin. As I confess my frailties, You are right here to encourage with just the right words for a rebuttal to his lies and nastiness. He can appeal to my human selfishness, hit me where I am weak, twist my emotions with many unexpected events, and side-track me with nonsense, but he cannot defeat You or the blood that You shed for me, or the faith that You planted in my heart. He is also powerless against all fear. For You did not give me a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7). May Your Spirit continually remind me that “Jesus wins.”

 
 

Be Like Jesus?

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. (Isaiah 50:4–10)

While the prophet may have experienced what he describes, many of these words describe events in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. They also describe His attitude.

I’ve been thinking much about what it means to be like Jesus. The first thing is that Jesus came to us fully human and lived relying on the power of the Holy Spirit just as we are supposed to live. He did it perfectly…

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:1–8)

This servant heart included the humility to be taught. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 8:28)

I’m awed by this. God the Son didn’t consider Himself a know-it-all or even having any authority to speak unless the Father gave Him something to say. Because this is true, who am I to think I can blurt out whatever comes to mind? Being like Jesus means listening to the voice of the One who created me and it certainly means yielding all my thoughts and ideas to  Him. It also means total obedience.

Jesus, You know my heart. I can be selfish, wanting to do my stuff rather than listen and obey. Thinking this way seems impossible. Even as a redeemed person who wants to be like Jesus, I know that I cannot do it or even choose it apart from You and the power of the Holy Spirit.

False confidence?

Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you. (Isaiah 47:8–15)

A television series featured one character that had the attitude that no matter what happened, it would turn out fine. One of my friends is like that too. Neither one trusts God for ‘fine’ even though this positive attitude seems to be working for them, at least some of the time.

A pessimist might argue. The dictionary calls this person a prophet of doom. In a recent study of optimism, neuroscientists found an interesting principle: optimists shared similar patterns of activity in a key brain region when they imagined future events, but each pessimist’s brain patterns was unique. 

They were looking for the difference because optimism is associated with better physical, mental and social health. But the above Scripture adds another factor — an optimistic attitude also needs to be based on reality. In the OT audience that Isaiah was speaking to, the people wanted a positive future, but because of their sin, it was not going to happen. Their optimism was based on a strong ‘I want’ rather than on the will of God. The reality is that fighting with God and winning is not likely, no matter how positive I feel about the outcome.

I’m reminded of that book about the power of positive thinking. My dad was hooked until I said, “No matter how positive I think, I can never be an opera singer.” That burst his bubble. He knew how I sounded. 

The fans rooting for their hockey team in the NHL playoffs hold up signs saying “BELIEVE” as if their confidence will make winners out of the team, but that does not work either. Confidence in me and my plans seems right, but it does come with a warning:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13–16)

Some of us are not optimistic, meaning me. I’m more apt to think that I can’t do something. For this, James adds: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

Jesus, You are very good with attitudes and guidance as long as I’m trusting You and not myself or my feelings both negative and positive. Trusting myself never works out and how wonderful that You care and want me to do the right thing — and will let me know what that is. All I have to do is listen to You instead of my own thoughts and emotions.

OT and NT redemption are the same…

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. 
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” (Isaiah 43:18–44:5)

One problem with spending much time in the OT is that the rebukes to God’s people back then often distract me from the new thing God has done in redeeming believers by grace through faith. Not that this makes me think that God is still looking for obedience as a means of salvation, or that He ever did, but that if I do not obey, the consequences will make me respond to trials as if God is using them to punish me.

If I slip into that thinking, discouragement sets in. It seems like God is looking for obedience as a means of salvation by faith rather than evidence of it. Of course that appeals to human pride, but then there are days when that mountain I try to climb is way too high. This makes all those ‘therefore’ passages repeated in an era when God was using unpleasant consequences to illustrate that the relationship His people had with Him was missing faith in Him and His power. 

Today, since Jesus came, He uses trials to test and build faith. All the punishment I deserve was taken by Christ. Instead of the ‘therefore’ I need to focus on the “but now” and the “I will make a way” which are both true because of His grace and mercy to me.

Actually, salvation in the OT was like that also. God promised a Redeemer and His people were to live by that promise, believing He would keep it, and waiting for it in godly living rather than giving in to their old fears and doing what was right in their own eyes. Salvation has always been by faith. Right living is the evidence of it.

Since Jesus came, we are saved by faith, not by works but demonstrated by works in obedience. Same as the OT. 

Now I’m realizing how easily others separate the two testaments as they do. These ‘therefore’ passages are false accusations in a sense, yet they make me feel like jumping from Isaiah to Matthew. I need to remember that the OT points to Jesus, even in those ‘therefore’ rebukes.

Jesus, keep Yourself continually in my mind so my thinking is all about grace and not about anything else but You and Your promises. You will pour water into my thirsty life, and streams into my barren life. You will pour Your Spirit upon my children and descendants so they too will confess You as Lord and call on Your Name — even call themselves Your children. Keep me from getting caught up in anything else but You, Your will, and Your power to keep such promises as these and even more.  You say my offspring shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” That happens because of Your grace and goodness.

When threatened…

Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? (Isaiah 36:13–18)

While this passage sounds like today’s political ramps and promises, it also sounds like the junk that my spiritual enemy, the Liar, tosses at me. Don’t trust the Lord. Trust yourself and you will prosper. Blah. Blah. Blah.

King Hezekiah was not so easily thrown into a panic at this threat nor interested in the false promises of this enemy. He “tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.” Then he called on other spiritual leaders and said: 

“This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ” (Isaiah 37:1–4)

Isaiah also sent a message to this king: “Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ” (Isaiah 37:5–7) Hezekiah then prayed:

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” (Isaiah 37:14–20)

God responded to the threatening king: “I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. . . . . For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria returned home and as he was worshiping in the house of his god, his sons killed him. (Isaiah 37:28–38)

Jesus, this encourages me. I’ve had similar lies threaten me, lies against God and causing me a struggle to pray in faith that He will rescue me and those I pray for. I need the courage and trust of Hezekiah, realizing the lies, but also having wisdom to know how to encourage others who fall for the same threats.

 

Test #2

 Writing directly in an I-pad could be stressful! But easier than lugging my laptop on holidays.

His strength is perfected in our weakness:

Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. 

Egypt represents my old life of bondage, and like the grass seems greener there, the people of God can be lured into thinking that living that way is better than living for the Lord. It may be easier, but not better. When I drift into a fleshy way, God truly exalts Himself by showing mercy to me. My task ought to be:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

He convicts me of my error, forgives when I confess, and cleans up my thinking and actions. He uses even my sins in His redemptive process. The above passage adds more wonders such as:

For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 

As I get rid of sin and all idols, He blesses my productivity, binds up my brokenness and heals the  wounds inflicted by His blows. He gives me songs in the night, and I can hear His voice with a glad heart even as my spiritual enemies hear His fury. (Isaiah 30:7–31:3)

Jesus, I am so aware that relying on the way I thought and lived before You rescued me brings sorrow. Trusting my ways and not consulting You is foolish. You are wise and work against all who do evil. That old life is mere human without the power of the Holy Spirit and in it I stumble and suffer loss. Keep me always in Your will. Fill me each day with Your mercy and grace that I will live as You lead me and enable me to rejoice in You.