Forgiveness can be a challenge…

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:22–28)

Years ago someone sinned against me and I struggled to forgive this person. Forgiveness is difficult enough, but that person would not acknowledge it, making it even more difficult. Finally God gave me the same thought expressed in the above passage — that God forgives for His own sake. It is who He is.

At that. I was able to forgive, for God’s sake but also for my own sake. He had given me a new heart and His Holy Spirit and forgiveness was part of that new nature. It had to be done for that reason.

The Lord adds to this and His words humble and bless my heart:

And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. “Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:29–36)

If nothing else, these minor prophets show me what God is like, both holy and gracious. He loves His people but hates sin, not only because it hurts us and ruins our lives, but because it also defiles His Name. He is not like us, and if our sin is not forgiven and cleansed, we are not able to be like Him. Sin mars the image of this One who created us in His image. Many excuse it by inventing the idea we came from apes, yet others reveal it in incredible creativity and sometimes by extreme generosity. However, apes don’t build skyscrapers or invent artificial hearts or paint Sistine chapels, or fund orphanages and hospitals.

We are supposed to love, forgive, help the helpless, and display other God-like characteristics, not rob banks, shoot children, beat up our spouse, abuse, and slander, or do all that humans do that is not like our Creator. But we are not able to shed that selfishness of DIY effort. Only God can say:

Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:12–14)

He proved He could do this by coming here, dying for our sin then rising from the dead, the firstborn of many.

Jesus, because You lived and died to save me from my sin, I want to die to those old nature ways and honor You, live for You. Oh dear Lord, thank You.

 

Christ defeats the pain of a guilty conscience

Leviticus 18; Psalm 22; Ecclesiastes 1; 1 Timothy 3

The topic headline in my Bible for Leviticus 18 is “Unlawful Sexual Relations” and the list, mostly about incest, covers everything else humanity comes up with. My devotional guide has this to say: “Just because this is the first time that some prohibitions have been articulated in the Bible does not necessarily mean that this is the first time anyone thought of them or condemned the practices in question. Before murder is actually prohibited as such, Cain commits it, is condemned for it, and is punished. The same is true for many actions treated in the Law of Moses. Much of the Law of God is written on the human conscience, so that societies without Scripture erect moral structures which, however different from the values of Scripture, overlap with Scripture in important and revealing ways.”

Having God’s laws written on our conscience no doubt keeps much of the world from total chaos. Without a general sense of right and wrong, anarchy would take over. I shudder thinking about what the world would be like. I also shudder to think about the weight of guilt that is on the lot of us. I know my own sins, both deeds and evil thoughts. I watch the news and see depravity in its headlines. Just hours after Easter celebrations, I’m thinking of the horror of the cross where Jesus bore the sin of the world, all of it, every person’s sin from the beginning to the end of time. I shudder and cannot imagine how awful His pain.

On the cross, Jesus spoke the first few words of Psalm 22. He died before saying all this psalm where David describes His death in vivid prophetic poetry:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? . . . . But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” . . . . I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. . . . For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots . . . . You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him . . . . All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you . . . . For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. (Psalm 22:1–31, in part)

In the beginning of His horrors, He felt forsaken and as the psalm goes on to describe the rejection of man it also describes the assurance — God has not hidden His face but has heard His cries and turned this horror into the greatest of all victories. He would soon rise from the grave declaring His righteousness and proclaiming salvation for all who put their faith in Him. Jesus shouted, “It is finished” and Jesus wins!

APPLY: And because He defeated all that guilt and shame can do to us, we who believe in Him are also winners. Nothing can change the victory of Jesus over death. Today I’m filled with gratitude and worship for the One who gives me freedom from guilt and shame and life everlasting. Even as I still battle my selfish and sinful self, I have His assurance that one day, that battle will end and I will be with Him forever.

The length and breadth and depth of sin . . .

During and after the wildfire in Fort McMurray, thousands of people sacrificed time, effort, and money to help the 80,000 plus evacuees and those who lost everything to the flames. Hearts were warmed by the outpouring of people helping people. Yet this does not negate what God says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

Theologians say that because we are made in the image of God at times that shines through the muck of sin. I’m not sure about that. I don’t know what motivates others to do good or what goes on in their hearts when they do it, but I know that in me the principle of sin tries to rule even when I least expect it. We did something for those needy people and while in the process, I sensed pride and a ‘look what I did’ attitude that had to be rejected. Perhaps this is why Isaiah said, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment . . . .” (Isaiah 64:6)

Each of us has occasions when sin works its way through our pretensions and best efforts. When Jesus was arrested He queried those who came to Him with swords and clubs . . .

“When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” (Luke 22:53)

Their sinful hatred of the Son of God rose to the surface and erupted in an unlawful arrest, an illegal trial, and eventually the crucifixion of the only truly innocent person who ever existed.

Chambers says we need to accept as true the fact of sin and its role in the disasters of life. Yes, we often see noble deeds done, but “there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have.”

Sin is like that, and if I refuse to agree there is vice, self-seeking, spiteful and pure evil in human beings, then when it strikes me (and my hour has come) I will compromise with it. I might even say there is no use fighting it. But if I make “allowance for this hour and the power of darkness” then I will recognize sin in myself and realize the danger. I can never say that this little mistake or that little foible has no power to ruin me and deeply injure if not ruin others.

This does not mean being cynical or suspicious of everyone. Jesus never was — because He knew what He could do about my sin and the sin of others. He paid the penalty that we might be forgiven, justified, born anew.

This is not the same as being innocent. While He gives me the power to fight and overcome sin, sin is like a polluted spring, continually bubbling up, particularly when I least expect it. I will be free from its nagging and nattering only when I see Jesus face to face and am transformed into His image. Until that happens, in Him I am declared righteous and in Him I can say yes to God and no to sin. But the awful power of sin still lurks, ready to deceive me by the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and my own propensity to believe those lies.

What else can be done except rely on the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ of whom 2 Corinthians 1:10 says, “He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”

Exodus is over, but what about Babylon?

Isaiah 13:1–14:23, Luke 5:1–39, Job 4:1–11

This week God has shown me how His dealings with me are like Exodus and like Babylon. Exodus speaks of being released from the bondage of sin. It is about salvation and new life. God has done that for me.

However, Babylon is about an exile that God used to purify His people. They had become idolatrous, but their time in Babylon cleansed them from idolatry.

This is deep stuff. Three years ago I prayed that God would bring me into a total surrender to Him. I had no idea what to expect. Had I, maybe I would not have asked for such a thing because immediately things began to happen to test my faith. These experiences were revealing and painful. I began to see how little I trusted God and how many idols I was trusting instead. The experiences of Israel in exile in Babylon are vivid descriptions of what God was doing in my life.

Isaiah said to them, “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame . . . I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” (Isaiah 13:6–8, 11)

I wanted to skip all those parts, but was compelled to read them today after being encouraged by a woman’s testimony on the radio. She also confessed her idols. She wanted power and control, and relied on people to meet her needs instead of God. Anything we rely on instead of Him is an idol.

Toward the end of the passages, I became encouraged by a more positive prophecy: “For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon . . . .”(Isaiah 14:1–4)

Job also helps me recognize the taunts of the enemy while I struggled under the hand of God. One of Job’s friends told him that he was suffering because of sin. While that was closer to the truth for me, this taunt was a distressing lie for Job . . .

“Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.” (Job 4:3–9)

Regardless of whether they are true or not, taunts and accusations are painful. Many times I lost sight of what I had prayed and thought God had abandoned me. It took time to realize that He was doing what I had asked Him to do.

Today’s NT verses depict a real event in the life of Jesus and of Simon Peter, yet I also see myself in what happened. Jesus was speaking to a crowd from a boat. When He was done, He told Simon to, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

As soon as they obeyed, the nets filled up and began to break. They called for help and wound up with so many fish that the boats were sinking.

In a great sense of weakness and inability, like a fishless fishermen, God sends to do things that seem useless, yet when I obey, He does the unexpected and my boat is filled! At the same time, this is still “Babylon” and I feel like Simon Peter who “fell down at Jesus’ knees saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’” (Luke 5:4–11)

Right now, the idols seem to have been smashed (will they come back?). I know fear and have a great sense of weakness because I deeply realize that all I am and can do depends totally on Jesus Christ. I’ve known this since my exodus, yet now I know it in a deeper way, a way that is both liberating and terrifying.

For that, Jesus says to me as He said to Simon, “Do not be afraid . . .” Because He loves me, and because He is sovereign, I can leave everything and follow Him.

They knew He was the Christ

Isaiah 10:20–12:6, Luke 4:1–44, Job 3:17–26

One truth separates Christianity from “religion” and that is the identity of Jesus Christ. At best, the Jews and others call Him a teacher. Some say He was a prophet. Most would say He was a good man. Only a few will point to Him as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Only Christians affirm that He is God in human flesh.

The prophet Isaiah knew His identity. He spoke of Him several hundred years before He arrived:

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord . . . . And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.” (Isaiah 11:1–2, 16)

Isaiah puts my mind on Jesus who has given me life, but also the exodus or first deliverance from bondage and comparing it to the second deliverance where the people of God were taken captive to Babylon then finally allowed to return to their home. God created the highway, a euphemism for the way He opened the doors and put them on the road to freedom.

Being set free from bondage in Egypt parallels the experience of a Christian. So does the second deliverance, but that one does not mean being saved twice. Being in Babylon was an exile related to their disobedience. For some who did obey, it was a test of faith. It helped all of them realize of the power of sin and of their own helplessness.

Christians experience this also. It might be sin, or it might be a test of faith, but that “Babylon” is an unpleasant captivity. And when that test is finished, the deliverance feels like being born again, yet it is not. It is more like graduation after being in school for a difficult, even impossible course of study. Or it can be a release from God’s deeper cleansing. When in “Babylon” it feels as if God is angry, so that release is a time of great blessing. Isaiah told them . . .

“You will say in that day: ‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.’ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel’.” (Isaiah 12:1-6)

It is easy to see that Job was in one of those testing periods. He was already a child of God, but the day came when his faith was being tested. He wished he had never been born: “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.” (Job 3:23–26) Job endured, and God restored him to former blessings.

Jesus was tested too. He, “full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.” (Luke 4:1–2)

Satan came to Him with tests related to those that Israel failed. (An interesting aside is that food was the first test, just as it was for Eve and for the Israelites when they left Egypt.)

Satan knows where we are the weakest. However, Jesus passed the tests, specific yet broad enough that I can see how my tests fit in the same three categories. The good news is that because of what Jesus did, and because He lives in me, I am able to pass tests to my faith.

I am overjoyed that God brought me through the Exodus. I am also overjoyed that He also brings me through any exile to Babylon. I might feel as if there is no hope (like Job), yet He does not give up. God sent Jesus with a mission . . .

“And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to (Jesus). He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed...’” (Luke 4:17–18)

Because of this and the reality of it, I also know what Isaiah knew: Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. I shake my head in wonder, realizing that many people decide Jesus is not what He claimed to be. How can that happen? “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.” (Luke 4:41) Evil demonic beings know who Jesus is. Why then are millions oblivious to or ignorant of the great reality of His identity?