Standing In

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.  -- Zechariah 3:3-4

This Joshua is the high priest in the time of Zerubbabel.  The prophet sees this scene in a vision that foreshadows the work of our Joshua which, as you know, is simply another form of the name “Jesus”.  Jesus as our great high priest was clothed in the filth of humanity’s iniquity and rebellion.  Because of His willingness to come down to us, to be shamed, humiliated, and put to death on our behalf, He was raised up, clothed in purity and perfection.    

Unlike the high priests of Aaron’s line, the Lord had no iniquity of His own to be taken away.  The sin that was removed was mine and yours. 

There are days that I wake up and think that I am broken beyond all hope.  I wonder if I can ever be anything except a miserable, pathetic excuse of a person who sometimes actually rejoices in evil.  My self is a corrupt, grubby beggar.  But between that soiled and sinful dead man stands the living Christ, clothed in spotless robes of righteousness, making intercession for me.  He is the one who is seen and accepted in my place. 

Numbers chapter 16 tells the story of a rebellion among God’s people led by Dathan, Abiram and Korah.  Those who thought they were righteous enough to stand before God challenged Moses and Aaron and brought their own censers to offer incense (prayers) before the Lord.  Korah was a Levite but not of Aaron’s line.  He was a son of Kohath and had duties relating to the tabernacle.  But he was not a priest.  The principals in the rebellion were swallowed up by the earth, and two hundred and fifty of their followers where struck down by the fire of God. 

The next day – and who thought this was a good idea? – the congregation was grumbling against Moses and Aaron.  They said to them, “You have killed the people of the Lord” (v.41).  Brilliant.  The cloud of the Presence descends and the Lord tells Moses and Aaron to step back because He has had just about enough for this week.  A plague falls upon the Israelites and people start dropping dead.  At the urging of Moses, Aaron took a censer and ran into the crowd.  And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped (Numbers 16:48).

So today, the High Priest stands between the Living God who is a consuming fire and the dead man. 

Nature Photography

Shhhh.  It's a family group of Collum Rufus Missourius in their natural habitat.

You can embiggen some, but it's from a phone.

Stickers

You are those who have stayed with me in my trials … -- Luke 22:28

Jesus commended His disciples who had made His trials, up to that point, their trials.  The Lord has made all of our trials His trials. 

We have a choice, and it is not whether or not we will experience suffering and temptation, fears and uncertainty in life.  We can choose our trials or His trials.  We can choose to go through life’s pain becoming embittered by its meaninglessness, randomness, and purposelessness. 

The other option is to go with God.  He will lead us into times, not of temptation, but of tempering.  The blade of the sword passes through fire, goes between hammer and anvil, is quenched in oil or water.  It is not destroyed but perfected.  It becomes sharp but not brittle, flexible yet unyielding. 

God created the cosmos, and He sustains it.  He can move heaven and earth, but He loves us and leaves us free to love Him.  Or to reject Him.  The will is ours.  Will we stay with Him through His trials?  Or will we pick up our sack of suffering, and, doubled over by the load, stumble off on our own? 

When I stand before the Lord, I think it would be good to hear Him say, “You stayed with Me.”  Sometimes it is hard.  We go through things that make us question our faith and doubt our worth and God’s goodness.  Yet these are His trials, and, as we go through them with Him, He also goes through them with us.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Speaking the Truth in Love

Therefore thus says the LORD:  If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me.  If you  utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth.  They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. -- Jeremiah 15:19

I can understand how Jeremiah felt.  He was living in the midst of wretched perversion and an atmosphere of spiritual apathy when it was not outright apostasy.  Judgment and destruction hung over the heads of his nation and his people.  He was ridiculed, condemned and threatened for his warnings and his calls for a return to righteous standards. 

Can we blame him for feeling a little down?  Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me (Jeremiah 15:10).  We live in a time when doing good and living right are cursed.  When I would read these passages just a few years ago, it never occurred to me that something like this could be the state of affairs in my nation in my lifetime.  Hollywood has been making Christians the villains for many years, but I suppose I have always assumed that the First Amendment would protect us from direct government hostility.  I’m not so sure anymore. 

Like many of us today, Jeremiah began to wonder if perhaps God was playing him:  Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? (v.18)  You, Lord, are telling me to say all this, to stand up for holiness and truth, yet nothing is happening.  I’m beginning to wonder if You are going to back me up or if maybe You are just going to make a fool out of me. 

This is why God reprimanded Jeremiah.  The prophet was uttering what was “worthless”.  God is merciful.  He is patient and long-suffering.  He would rather we repent.  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live (Ezekiel 18:32).  I personally am most thankful for that.  God’s love and mercy are the only reasons I’m not burning in hell right now – a fate I enthusiastically earned and richly deserved. 

Nevertheless, we live in a time of weeping and sorrow.  Reality cannot be changed by changing the meaning of a few words.  If I am driving my truck toward the edge of the Grand Canyon at a hundred miles an hour, my refusal to listen to “negativity” is not going to alter what will happen at the bottom.  It is not time to stop telling the truth; it is time to speak it relentlessly, regardless of opposition.  Comforting lies will spare no one in the end.

The caveats are few.  Our motivation must be love.  We should always, for our part, endeavor to be speaking from a place of peace.  We seek to heal, enlighten, and liberate, not control, dominate or manipulate.  God will speak to the heart.

The Power of Prayer

To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. -- Psalms 28:1

My week, I hope, is about over, and, despite it being a short one, it won’t end any too soon. 

Today’s verse is the subject of one of Spurgeon’s commentaries.  He used the word “formalist”, meaning, I think, those who involve themselves primarily in the forms and rituals of religious activity.  Cultivating discipline, whether in prayer or some other meditative form such as a tea ceremony or archery (I meditate better doing something rather than nothing), is beneficial.  I can appreciate Zen.  The difference for us is that we believe our practice leads to a Person. 

I know that God does hear us when we pray.  I know that He is not deaf to my pleas, and that He does respond -- whether my prayer moves the mountain, causes the mountain to cease to be an obstacle to me, or moves me beyond it. 

Prayer is a discipline.  It is a comfort.  It calms us and encourages us, helps us face challenges and fears.  But it is most effective when we understand that it is communication.  Prayer works because it actually brings God into our situation and causes us to give Him our attention.  

There have been times when I’ve said myself that there is no point in praying because surely God knows what a mess I’m in.  I’m not telling Him anything He doesn’t know.  And I am completely missing the point when I say that. 

This is a personal anecdote.  Yesterday was a bad day.  I say a lot of things here, and some of it could be considered sensible advice.  It got so bad that I took some of my own advice, and I prayed, and I got an answer.  I saw the source of my problem.  As usual, it was me.  I needed to adjust the way I was thinking about a person.  I did that.  This morning, I was on a conference call.  Everybody was happy.  All was well.  I was no longer in the hot seat.  Just like that.    

So, I want to thank the Lord for bailing me out yet again. There is power in prayer. It doesn't always work the way we might imagine, but there are answers because we are talking to God.

Some Reviving

For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.  -- Ezra 9:9

We were slaves to sin, to the old nature, to the powers and principalities of this world and its darkness.  The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity and exile and their restoration to Jerusalem foreshadows our deliverance through Christ who, as Philippians 2:7 says, effectively made Himself a slave like us.  He experienced the rejection of death and exile in hell.  Then He arose triumphant -- just as He had said, at the end of three days, “reviving” and rebuilding the true Temple of God – His own body. 

The world is troubled in many ways today.  There is fear and violence and uncertainty.  Financial crises loom.  Terror and persecution stalk the lives of innocent people in countries all over the planet.  Fools cry, “Peace, peace”, but there is no peace for those ruled and controlled by spiritual wickedness. The problems faced by humanity cannot be solved by military interventions, global initiatives, bail-outs, bail-ins, or changing flags. 

When it comes to eschatology, as I have said before, there is a lot I don’t know, but I do know the Lord gives wisdom to those who will ask of Him.  For those Christians who have not asked already, I would suggest that now would be a really good time to ask in earnest.  I’m not saying that the Lord has spoken to me about anything, but I have a feeling we are going to go through some changes and difficulties such that most of us in the West have not seen or experienced. 

It will, I think, be a kind of exile.  Keep Peter’s warning in mind:  For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)  People are hollering about America being judged for court decisions and such.  The Lord might decide to straighten out His people before He starts on the world.  We should not be discouraged if that should be the case for it means we are closer to revival, renewal, and restoration than ever before.