When the Righteous Pray.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. – James 5:16 ESV

This verse can be extremely encouraging and frustratingly confusing at the same time. Too often, it is lifted out of context and this tends to dramatically alter its meaning. Beginning in verse 13, James brings up the matter of prayer a number of times. First he says, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray….” Then he adds, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him…” (James 5:14 ESV). But he makes sure to mention “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15 ESV). Finally, James provides on last condition: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16 ESV). It is obvious that James is focused on prayer. Prayer for the suffering, the sick, and the sinful. But he adds an important condition concerning prayer for these people. The prayers are to be prayed by the righteous. But what does that mean? Is he saying that only those without sin can pray? That would be impossible. All of us sin at one time or another. So how could he speaking of a state of sinlessness?

James tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16 ESV). So who is this righteous person? Is he some kind of super-spiritual saint who has a special hotline to God due to his righteous nature? Is it an individual who has somehow kept themselves free from sin and therefore right in God's eyes? I don't think that gels with what the Scriptures tell us about man's condition. Over in Romans 1:17, Paul writes, “This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life.’” In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9 NLT).

The issue here is faith. Our righteousness before God is based solely on faith in Jesus Christ. It is our belief in His redemptive work on the cross that brings about our transformation. It was His death that made possible our right relationship, our right standing, before God. What makes us righteous is our faith in Christ. It is what allows us to come into the very presence of God and make petitions on behalf of those who are suffering, sick or struggling with sin. And it is our faith in the power of God to hear our prayers and do something about them that results in remarkable answers to those prayers. God doesn't answer our prayers because of any righteousness of our own. We don't earn His answers based on some good deeds we have done. It is always based on faith and that faith is placed in Christ alone.

Paul told the Philippians, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (Philippians 5:21 NLT). It is our right standing before God, our righteousness provided by His death, that allows us to offer up prayers on behalf of one another. We can pray, knowing that we have access to God's throne room and His full and undivided attention when we pray. God sees us as righteous because of the blood of Christ shed on our behalf that cleansed us from all unrighteousness once and for all. But we must come to Him in faith. Not based on our own merit, but on the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Our prayers are powerful, because our God is powerful. Our prayers are heard, because our Savior made us right with God. Our prayers can accomplish much, because nothing is impossible for our God. But we must pray. We must understand that we have a right standing before God. Our sins are forgiven. Our requests are heard. Our righteousness is acceptable to God. And He is ready to do far more than we could ever imagine – for the suffering, the sick and the sinful.

Non-stop Prayer.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 ESV Prayer is not so much a state into which enter, as it is a condition in which we live. Prayer, like breathing, is to be ongoing, natural, and effortless. When Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, we tend to conjure up images of hours spent on our knees in a state of constant, uninterrupted conversation with God. It sounds foreboding and impossible to pull off, so we avoid it as unachievable. But in essence, Paul is encouraging us to make prayer a regular part of our everyday lives by treating it as a non-negotiable necessity for our very spiritual survival. It is no different than if Paul were to say to us, “Breathe without ceasing.” That would not sound strange to us. It would sound logical and sensible. To stop breathing would be unnatural and potentially harmful. We would avoid a state of non-breathing like the plague. The same should be true of prayer. To not pray is to cease to relying on God. It is to stop taking in the one thing we need for our very survival: God.

In a real way, Paul is encouraging us to practice the presence of God. There is a wonderful little book, written in the 17th Century by a Carmelite monk, entitled, The Practice of the Presence of God. In it, Brother Lawrence writes of God, “He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present, He has bestowed on you, in the midst of your troubles to take solace in Him as often as you can. Lift up your heart to Him during your meals and in company; the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him. One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.” It is essential that we learn to see God as with us at all times. He is not just someone we seek in times of need. He is not a resource to be called upon when the circumstances require us to do so. Like oxygen, He is to be the key to our very existence. We can't live without Him. To pray without ceasing is to live in a constant state of awareness that God is with you and that you are completely dependent upon Him. I take oxygen for granted. I don't think about it. But I can't lie without it. God is so much more. He is a divine being who has created me and longs to have a relationship with me. He cares for me. He loves me. He wants to pour out blessings on me. He is determined to transform me into the likeness of His Son. Prayer is my daily opportunity to practice His presence, to live aware of His ceaseless activity in and around my life. 

The thought of rejoicing always, praying ceaselessly and being thankful in any and all circumstances sounds ludicrous. It comes across as an impossible task to pull off. But it is less a list of activities to accomplish than a state of mind in which to live. We have much for which to rejoice over. But we fail to do so. We have plenty of things to talk with God about, but do we. We have more than enough to be grateful for, but we can through a whole day without uttering a single word of thanks to God for all He has done. Brother Lawrence would encourage us, ““Think often on God, by day, by night, in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone.”

Non-stop prayer is far from impossible. It is the life of the believer in Jesus Christ. It is to be our natural and normal relationship as we consider that our very existence is due to God's grace and mercy. He has created us. But even more so, our salvation and future glorification are all His doing. We live because He chose to allow His Son to die. And now we live because of His love for us. We exist according to His power and survive based on His ceaseless presence in and around our lives. God is always with us. He never leaves us. But we constantly leave His presence by forgetting where we are and allowing our minds to drift away to the cares and concerns of this life. Talking with God is to be like walking with a friend through life. We may not always converse or hold an ongoing conversation, but we are always aware of their presence at our side. What we see, we point out to them. What we think we share as we walk with them. We vocalize our thoughts. We share our impressions. We listen. We talk. We live – together. That is the relationship we are to seek with God. Constant. Coexistent. Continual.

When Pride Infects Our Prayers.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” – Luke 18:11-13 ESV Two men. Two prayers. One conclusion.

Jesus told a parable. He told a lot of parables. But this one had to do with prayer. He used two characters. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. In the culture of Jesus’ day, these two men were on opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum. The Pharisee represented the religious elite, the spiritual superstars or their day. They were considered righteous because they were strict adherents to the Mosaic law. They were meticulous in their rule-keeping, but tended to twist the rules to fit their own agendas. Jesus was unflinching in His assessment of their religiosity. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23 ESV). These men had the average Jew fooled by their outward appearance of piety, but God knew their hearts. In fact, that was the point behind Jesus’ parable. Luke records that Jesus “told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9 ESV). In other words, He was telling this parable directly to the Pharisees themselves.

In His parable, Jesus juxtaposes a Pharisee, a self-righteous, religious rule keeper with someone everyone would consider a selfish, self-centered sinner: the tax collector. These people were despised in Jewish culture because they were considered pawns of the Roman government. They collected taxes on behalf of the Romans, but added fees on top to line their own pockets. They were money-hungry and greedy, taking advantage of their own people in order to make a buck.

So Jesus chose to portray one against the other, and He chose to do it by having them pray. Why? Because their prayers revealed their hearts. What they said to God opened up a window to their souls. Their prayer lives reflected the true condition of their relationship with God. By having them pray, Jesus showed what they thought about themselves and what they thought about God. Prayer has a way of doing that. When we turn our prayer lives into a time to boast about all that we've done for God, and expect Him to bless us for being such a blessing to Him, we miss the point. The Pharisee’s prayer was all about him. He bragged about his superior spiritual condition, especially when compared to everyone else. He was arrogant and prideful. He could have used the wisdom of Paul who said, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 ESV). He looked down on others. He pridefully boasted, “I thank you that I am not like other men.” No humility. Just hubris.

But the other man, the tax collector prayed a starkly different prayer. He couldn't even raise his head to pray. All he could say was, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He knew who he was. He wasn't self-deceived and self-righteous. He knew he was a sinner and in need of a merciful God. His prayer reflects a solid understanding of his relationship with God. He was a sinner. God was his only hope for salvation.

Earlier in the book of Luke, there is recorded a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. They were upset that He associated with sinners. He even ate with them. A certain tax collector named Levi held a party in his home and invited his work associates to join him as he hosted Jesus and His disciples. In the room was “a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them” (Luke 5:29 ESV). The Pharisees caught wind of this party and expressed their disgust with Jesus’ poor decision making. They asked Him, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:29 ESV). And Jesus calmly replied, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32 ESV).

The Pharisees considered themselves righteous. They had no need of a Savior. They would never have admitted that they were sinners. In their minds, they were spiritually “well”. Their pride created a barrier between them and the very one they needed to forgive them of their sins. It seems that this kind of attitude shows up all too well in our private prayer times. Do we come to God in need of His love, grace, mercy and forgiveness? Or do we come expecting Him to somehow repay us for all the good we do for Him? Do we enter His presence in a state of humility and neediness or with pride and an attitude of expectation?

Jesus drew a very simple conclusion from His parable. He said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14 ESV). Prayer requires humility. There is no place for pride in the presence of God. Even as believers, we should never forget that there is nothing we bring to Him, other than the blood of Christ, that provides us with any worth or awards us any favor in His eyes. Like the tax collector, we should come saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Without the blood of Jesus, we would all remain sinners. Our works would still be as filthy rags. Our hope of salvation would be non-existent. We come into His presence only because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

How Long?

Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? – Isaiah 64:10-12 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah's prophetic ministry spanned the reigns of four successive kings in Israel. He had lived long enough to have seen God's warnings of judgment come true. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian troops had laid siege to Jerusalem for years and had eventually entered the city, pillaging and burning the temple of God, and taking captive many of the citizens of the city. As Isaiah surveyed the aftermath of all that happened, he knew two thing: They had gotten what they deserved and God was the one who brought it upon them. Their stubborn refusal to turn from their sin and back to God had led to their fall. God had not only allowed the Babylonians to defeat Judah, He had invited them to do so. They were acting on His behalf, as His agents of punishment. Jeremiah had recorded the words of God, warning, “behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation” (Jeremiah 25:9 ESV).

The sad state of affairs in which the people of Judah found themselves had been brought on by their own sin and had been sanctioned by the very God they had refused to obey. And Isaiah knew that as long as God remained angry with them, they had no hope. There was nothing they could do to change their circumstances. Their redemption lay completely in the hands of God. Only He could restore them, which is why Isaiah called out to Him. He knew that as long as God remained silent, the people would remain enslaved, impoverished, hopeless and helpless. It is interesting to note that the people of Judah had refused to obey God and serve Him alone, but now they were having to obey a foreign king and live as slaves to his will. They had rejected the one true King and found themselves serving a pagan, human king. But Isaiah was not willing to accept their current circumstances as final. He turned to the only one who could do anything about it. His prayer was for God's redemption and restoration of His people.

But when God redeems, He offers more than just release from the guilt of sin. He desires more than just a release from the pain and suffering caused by sin. He wants to restore the relationship necessary for men and women to exist peacefully and pleasantly in His presence. The people of Judah needed more than just release from captivity to Babylon or the physical restoration of the temple and their city. They needed God. They needed their hearts restored. They needed their character transformed. And only God could bring those things about. God's silence would only mean more suffering. God's decision to delay His salvation would only prolong their pain. Isaiah knew the people of Judah well enough to know that, in spite of all that they were having to endure, they were hardheaded enough that they would never repent of their sins and return to God. So He was appealing to God to do what only He could do. Save.

All the way back in chapter 44 of Isaiah, God had spoken these words to Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’; who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” – Isaiah 44:24-28 ESV

Just as God had ordained and orchestrated the fall of Judah through the king of Babylon, He was going to one day restore the fortunes of His people and rebuild the temple through another pagan king. God was not done yet. He was not finished with the people of Judah and had not forgotten all the promises He had made to Abraham and David. Judah had to be restored. Jerusalem had to be rebuilt. The temple must be reconstructed. Why? Because one day God's final solution to man's sin problem would be born into the tribe of Judah, walk the streets of Jerusalem, minister in the temple courtyard and be crucified outside the city walls. All as part of God's redemptive plan for the world.

Isaiah would never live to see that day, but he hoped in it and longed for it. So should we. We live in a time when men are enslaved to so much and held captive by the oppressive rule of so many things. Even believers find themselves living as slaves to sin, when they have already been set from its grasps. Our world longs for release from its pain and suffering. As believers we should long for the day of God's salvation – the Day of the Lord. Our daily prayer should be, “How long?” We should long to know how much longer God will delay before He brings about His restoration and redemption to the world. How long will it be before He sends back His Son to call home His bride, the church? How much longer will He delay before He brings the final fulfillment of His redemptive plan for the world? Only He knows. But we can cry out for His salvation to come. We can long for His redemption to take place. Because only He can bring about the transformation this sin-sick world needs.

The Potter.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. – Isaiah 64:8-9 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah has used this imagery before. He obviously had an affinity for the idea of God being the potter and mankind being soft clay in His sovereign hands. Earlier, in chapter 45, Isaiah referred to the potter/clay relationship. "What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, 'Stop, you're doing it wrong!' Does the pot exclaim, 'How clumsy can you be?'” (Isaiah 45:9 NLT). For Isaiah, imagining God as a potter helped him better understand His sovereignty and control over all things. Seeing man as the clay in the Potter's hand was a way for him to visual man's ultimate submission to God's divine will. Sovereignty and submission were two key themes for Isaiah. And the apostle Paul picked up on this same imagery in the book of Romans. “Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” (Romans 9:20-21 NLT). Paul, like Isaiah, believed that God was ultimately in control of all things. He believed and trusted in God's complete authority and dominion over all creation, including mankind.

Yet, while Isaiah recognized and respected God's sovereign authority, it motivated him to appeal to that authority and plead with God to use it in order to forgive and restore the very people He had made. God had fashioned the people of Israel out of nothing. He had raised up an obscure, no-name individual from Ur of the Chaldees and transformed his lineage into a mighty nation. He had rescued them from captivity in Egypt. He had led them through the wilderness for 40 years, eventually providing them with a rich and fertile land in which to live. They were God's creation. He had formed them. Now, Isaiah was calling on the Potter to rescue them. He was appealing to the mercy of God. Paul knew that God was fully capable of showing mercy on whoever He chose. He wrote: “In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:22-23 NLT). Paul's point was that God, as the Potter, was free to extend mercy to Jews and Gentiles alike. He had made them both. He could show mercy to both. And He has.

All of us were destined for destruction, but God, in His mercy, sent His Son to die on our behalf. He redeemed and restored us. He is in the process of refashioning us. He has the power and authority to do so. Isaiah knew that. That is why he called on God as the Potter and asked Him to extend mercy to a people who did not deserve it. He knew that God had made them and that only God could save them. He was well aware that God had the right to destroy them, but he also knew that God was a loving, gracious, patient and forgiving God. He appealed to God's mercy. He simply asked Him to look on their condition. The rest he was willing to leave in God's hands. He didn't presume to tell God what to do. He didn't question why God had allowed the circumstances in which they found themselves to take place. He didn't shake his fist in anger at God. He didn't demand. He didn't complain. He simply placed the fate of he and the people of God in the hands of the Potter.

There is a great old hymn that speaks of this Potter/clay relationship in a very personal, intimate way. It simply says: “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.” There is a sense in which we must submit ourselves to the sovereign will of God. We must trust Him and rely on Him to do what is best for us. He knows what He is doing. We may not see the benefits of His will for our lives, but we must learn to recognize that He alone knows what we need, what we deserve and what is required to transform us into vessels of honor, fit for His use and capable of bringing Him glory and honor. It is one thing to recognize God's sovereignty and stubbornly submit to it. You can resignedly accept His control, simply because you can't do anything about it. But what if we could learn to see that control as something to rest in and rely on. When you can accept God's sovereignty and balance it with His incomparable love, mercy and grace, you discover that being in the Potter's hands is the very best place you can be. Then you can say, “Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

Like One Unclean.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. – Isaiah 64:5b-7 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah was brutally honest in his assessment of the condition of God's people. It was not a pretty picture. He had just finished saying, “You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways” (Isaiah 64:5a ESV), but then he had to sadly acknowledge that no one in Judah fit that description. God was going to meet them, but it would not be a joyful occasion, because of their sins. God was angry with them, and rightfully so. They just couldn't seem to stop sinning, and Isaiah couldn't think of a reason why God would ever want to save them. Their sins had left them unclean, like a leper banned from access to the temple of God. They were impure, unholy, and unable to come into the presence of God. But Isaiah uses even more graphic language to describe the nature of their sin. All their activities, even their so-called righteous ones, were like soiled menstrual rags – unclean, unacceptable, and repulsive to the sight of God. Like a leaf fallen from a tree, they were lifeless and easily carried away by the winds of sin. 

Isaiah paints a bleak, yet honest, picture. He knew all too well just how bad things had gotten in Judah. He had been trying to get their attention. He had been warning them of God's pending judgment. But no one had listened. They had even stopped calling out to God. They couldn't even seem to rouse themselves from their sinful stupor long enough to lift a hand in God's direction. From the human perspective, it was as if God had hidden Himself from them. But it was their sin that had created a barrier between them and God. He was still there. He was ready to respond as soon as they were willing to repent. But their constant state of sin had left them in a sorry condition. They were separated from God and unable to do anything to remedy their problem. In fact, God had given them over to their sin. He had allowed them to reap the consequences of their choices. They were experiencing the consequences of their sin.

The apostle Paul describes a similar situation in his letter to the Romans. “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:21-23 NLT). Rather than worship God, they created their own gods. They came up with gods who would approve of their sin and validate their selfish desires. As a result, God let them have exactly what they wanted. “So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired” (Romans 1:24 NLT). That verse should send shudders down the spine of every believer. The very thought of God abandoning us to do what our hearts desire should scare us. Our natural man, left to its own devices, will always choose the wrong path. Our old nature, motivated by pride, lust, greed, and selfishness, will always gravitate toward rebellion against God. Even as redeemed children of God, we must never lose sight of the fact that our capacity to sin remains within us. It is only our dependence upon God and our reliance upon His indwelling Spirit that gives us the ability to live righteously instead of sinfully. Paul reminds us, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves” (Galatians 5:16 NLT).

Sin is a constant threat to the child of God. We have our old sinful nature to deal with. We live in a hostile world that is opposed to us and intent on destroying us. We have an enemy who can't stand us and who is out to steal, kill and destroy. While our sins can never separate us from the love of God or cause us to lose our salvation, they can destroy our joy, rob us of peace, damage our witness, harden our hearts, limit our effectiveness, and harm the reputation of God. There is nothing more sad than a child of God whose life doesn't reflect his position. We have been redeemed by God through the blood of Jesus Christ and are intended to live lives that reflect our new-found status as sons and daughters of God. We have the Spirit of God living within us and the Word of God to guide us. We have been placed within the body of Christ and been given spiritual gifts designed to minister to one another so that we might grow in Christ-likeness. But sin can and will wreak havoc on our spiritual lives if we allow it to. If we give in to our sinful nature, we will reap the consequences. That's why our constant dependence upon God is so important. Paul put it this way: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:2 NLT). I can choose to live as one unclean or as one who has been cleansed by the blood of Christ. I can give in to my old sinful nature or I can live in constant reliance upon the will of God with the help of the Spirit of God.

No God Besides You.

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. – Isaiah 64:3-5a ESV

Isaiah 64

What we know about God greatly influences how we pray to Him. The greater our understanding of God's power, the more likely we are to ask Him to display that power on our behalf. If our knowledge of God includes an awareness of and belief in His grace and mercy, our prayers will contain appeals for Him to extend both to us. But if we don't know God well, it stands to reason that our prayer life will suffer because we will not know what to expect from Him. We can ask Him for things, but we will do so with apprehension, because we aren't familiar with His ways. We can share with Him our burdens, but if we don't know Him well, we'll never even know if He has heard or even cares.

Isaiah prayed to a God he clearly knew. And it was far more than just an academic or historical knowledge. He had a personal awareness and understanding of God. Yes, he knew the stories from Israel's past. He had heard about the appearance of God on Mount Sinai when the people were wandering in the wilderness. He was aware of the thunder, lightning, and earth-shattering signs that accompanied that appearance. He also knew that when God showed up, the people tended to straighten up. He had a way of getting their attention. But Isaiah also knew that there was more to God than just shock and awe. There was more to His appearing among the people of Israel than just to get their attention. He wanted to reveal His power. He wanted to assure them of His presence. He was there among them and He cared greatly for them. Yes, God wanted them to fear Him. But He also wanted them to depend upon Him. The kind of rock-shattering power He displayed before them was available to them, to protect them, provide for them, and to give them an assurance of His ability to do all that He had promised to them.

One of the problems the people of Israel had always had was their seeming inability to see God as personal and loving. They had no trouble fearing God. They just couldn't understand how much He loved them. They tended to keep their distance from God, out of fear that He would kill them. They didn't really trust Him. Which is what led them to seek other gods in place of Him. But Isaiah knew God to be extremely loving, intimate, personal and gracious. Which is why he stated, “You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways” (Isaiah 64:5a NLT). He understood God to be loving and welcoming to all those who trusted Him enough to obey Him. Isaiah had found God to be approachable and merciful. He feared God, but wasn't afraid of Him. He had an awe and respect for the holiness and majesty of God, but had no trouble approaching Him as his loving Father.

Isaiah found himself ministering among a people who had forgotten just how great God was. Their personal knowledge of God was suspect. Isaiah could speak on His behalf and tell them all that God had to say to them and about them, but they didn't take him seriously. Which is why Isaiah was asking God to make an appearance. He longed for God to show up in might and power, as a form of wake-up call for the people. But what Isaiah really wanted was for the people to know God they way he knew God. He wanted them to understand that the God he knew was simply waiting for them to return to Him with humble, repentant hearts, ready to obey Him, and He would bless them. He would extend mercy and grace to them. He would forgive them. Because there is no God besides Him. They were wasting their time looking for help from any other gods. They were going to be highly disappointed if they continued to reject God's calls to repentance. The Babylonians were not going to show them mercy. The Egyptians were not going to provide them with protection. The gods of all the other nations weren't going to be able to save them. Ignoring God was not going to make Him go away. Rejecting His warnings was not going to keep them from happening. They could either experience the wrath and judgment of God, or they could experience the grace, mercy, love and forgiveness of God. Either way, they were going to learn that there was no other God besides Him.

God will display His power. He prefers to do so in order to bless His children. But if He has to, He will do so to discipline them. The greater our knowledge of God's love for us, the more we will expect Him to reveal His power for our good. We will learn to fear Him less and respect Him more. We will understand His power, but know that it is there to protect and provide for us. We will approach Him expectantly, not hesitantly. We will run to Him, not from Him. Because we will know that there is no God besides Him.

Longing For God's Presence.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence—as fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! – Isaiah 64:1-2 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah was a prophet of God speaking the words of God to the people of God. He prophesied over a period of time in Judah that spanned the reigns of four different kings. Over that time, he had watched their brothers and sisters in the northern kingdom of Israel fall to the Assyrians because of their sin and rebellion against God. And he saw the nation of Judah committing the very same sins and headed for the same fate if they did not repent and return to God. Early in his ministry as God's prophet, God had given Isaiah a vision and a clear message concerning His people. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand’” (Isaiah 1:2-3 ESV). God's people had rejected Him. They had consistently disobeyed Him. And Isaiah knew that, because of God's holiness and righteousness, He was going to have to bring judgment against them. God would not allow His people to continue to live in open rebellion to Him. He would be forced to punish them for their sin, motivated by their pride and self-sufficiency.

But Isaiah longed to see God step in. He knew that their only hope was to be found in God. After years of prophesying to the people of Judah, he had no illusions that they might actually hear what he was saying and repent. Unless God did something, their fate was sealed. They would be incapable of saving themselves, so if anything was going to happen, it would have to be God's doing. So he cried out, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” He was looking for a visitation from God, a physical manifestation of God's presence much like the people had experienced when He came down to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. That had been an attention-getting, never-to-be-forgotten moment for the people standing at the foot of the mountain. “Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17-20 ESV). That appearance by God had made an impression on the people, and Isaiah longed to see God do the same thing in his day. He knew that the people of Judah would continue to ignore God unless He showed up in a spectacular fashion, complete with thunder and lightning, smoke, earthquakes, and other attention-getting signs. In essence, God had become invisible to them. He was out of sight, out of mind. They no longer expected to see Him or hear from Him. The message of Isaiah was just like those of the other prophets who had been warning them for years. Their words went in one ear and out the other. So Isaiah wanted to see God show up in power, might and majesty.

Isaiah's hope was that an appearance from God would ignite a change among the people. Perhaps it would light a spiritual fire under them and cause them to reconsider his message and return to God. Not only that, Isaiah believed it would do wonders for God's reputation among the pagan nations that were threatening the security of Judah. The reasoning behind Isaiah request that God make an appearance was in order “to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!” But the truth is, that was the role the people of God were supposed to have fulfilled. They were the ones who were to have made God's name known to the nations as they lived in obedience to Him. They were to be living illustrations of what it looked like to live in obedience to God, enjoying His presence, power and provision. Any time the people of Israel had lived in submission to God's will and obeyed His commands, He had stepped in a given them victories over their enemies. He had blessed them. And had put the fear of God in their enemies. The reign of Solomon is a perfect illustration of that reality. It was a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity. As long as the people remained faithful to God, His power and presence was with them. The problem in Isaiah's day was not that God was absent, but that the people were disobedient. It was their sin that was preventing God's power from being displayed among them.

We may long for God's presence, but He has not left us. He is never far away. The only thing that puts distance between us and God is our own sin. Longing for Him to show up in power makes no sense if we have no desire to do what He says. Desiring God to do great things is silly if we aren't willing to do what He has called us to do in the first place. The people in Jesus' day longed to see Him perform signs and miracles. They got a kick out of seeing Him do the miraculous. But for the most part, they had no interest in what He was offering them. They refused to repent and return. Longing to see the power of God while refusing to submit to the authority of God is pointless. God's power is best revealed through our dependence upon Him and obedience to Him.

Hoarding God's Mercy.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” – Jonah 4:1-3 ESV

Jonah had received a second chance from God. He had refused God's command to go to Nineveh the first time and attempted to run away from his responsibility. But Jonah's disobedience had only led to God's displeasure and punishment. Jonah had ended up caught on a ship in a storm, was eventually thrown overboard, and then swallowed by a large fish. It was in that dark and hopeless predicament that Jonah had second thoughts about his decision to disobey God. So when God rescued him, he agreed to go to Nineveh and deliver the words of warning God had given him. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4 ESV). There was a part of Jonah that enjoyed delivering this message, because he was thinking about God bringing judgment against a pagan people who he disliked very much. But his greatest fear was that the people of Nineveh might actually listen to his words and repent. Because he knew God to be a gracious and forgiving God. The whole reason he had run from God was because he didn't want to see the Ninevites spared by God. He had figured if he refused to warn them, they wouldn't hear and therefore, they could not repent. But God had other plans.

God doesn't always do what we expect Him to do. Jonah should have known that. There had been countless times in the history of Israel where God had shown Himself to be inexplicable and to do the unexpected. The prophet Isaiah had recorded God's own admission of His tendency to do the surprising and unexplainable. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine’” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT). When Jonah delivered God's message of warning, he did so with the hope that God would bring destruction on the people in 40 days time. He was not hoping that no one would repent. In fact, his message didn't even contain a call to repentance. All he said was, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” But God knew something Jonah didn't know. God had a plan for Nineveh that Jonah would find highly disappointing, but not surprising.

The Scriptures are very clear. As soon as Jonah delivered the message of God, something happened. “And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5 ESV). Even the king of Nineveh got involved, issuing a proclamation: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:7-9 ESV). And when God saw their repentant hearts, He spared them.

This was exactly what Jonah had feared. And this outcome left him angry with God. He didn't try to hide his displeasure, but lashed out at God, reminding Him that this was the very reason he had run away in the first place. “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” Here was a man who had just enjoyed the grace and mercy of God himself, but who became angry at seeing someone else experience that same blessing. In his mind, the people of Nineveh didn't deserve it. But that's where he misunderstood God's grace and mercy. None of us deserve it. Jonah had done nothing to earn the second chance he had received from God. If anything, his actions had earned him an ignominious death in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the sea. But God had spared him. God had shown mercy upon him. And now that God was doing the same thing for the people of Nineveh, Jonah was upset. So much so, that he preferred death over life. He would rather have God kill him than to live to see the Ninevites spared by God.

How easy it would be to villainize Jonah and make him out to be the bad guy in this story. But the truth it, there is a little bit of Jonah in each of us. As followers of Christ, we have been given the mission of telling the world about the forgiveness and mercy made available through the death of Jesus. But we choose to withhold it. The very gift we have received, unearned and undeserved, we refuse to share with others. Especially those whom we don't want to see forgiven. The very gift we have received, we hoard. The message that was so graciously shared with us, we selfishly keep to ourselves. And when we see someone forgiven by God who we feel doesn't deserve it, we can become angry and upset. But our God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We have been the undeserving recipients of His affections. So why wouldn't we want others to experience the same thing? God's grace and mercy were not meant to be hoarded. They were intended to be shared. What we have received, we should be willing to give away to others. Jonah should have been the greatest champion for God's grace. But rather than share what he had received, he attempted to hoard it for himself. God's grace, mercy and forgiveness is meant to be dynamic, not static. It is meant to be shared. What we have received, we should long to share with others.

Salvation Belongs to the Lord!

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! – Jonah 2:7-9 ESV

Jonah 2:1-9

The Psalmist wrote, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 107:1 ESV). That was the exact sentiment of Jonah as he wrapped up his prayer. When the conditions of Jonah's life had reached an all-time low, he remembered God and called out to Him. But what is it he remembered that caused him to call out? The steadfast love of God. In spite of his own stubbornness and refusal to obey God, Jonah knew that God still loved him and would respond to his cry for help. Again, the psalmist reminds us, “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (Psalm 107:4-6 ESV). Why did God deliver them? Because of His steadfast love. 

From the literal depths of the sea and from the belly of a large fish, Jonah called out to God and his cry reached the very throne room of heaven. Distance was no problem. His own disobedience proved no barrier. When he called out in repentance, acknowledging his need for God, he was heard. Jonah knew that his God would hear him and respond in love to him. He also knew that those who worshiped idols would lose hope, because their gods were incapable of hearing or helping. Idols can't extend help or express love. Only Yahweh, the God of Israel, possessed the unfailing capacity to love and the power to back up His love with salvation. Not only does God care about the needs of His children, He can do something about it.

Jonah was so confident in God's love and ultimate salvation, that he pledged to offer sacrifices with thanksgiving as soon as he got the opportunity. As all of us are prone to do when we find ourselves in trouble, Jonah had evidently made some promises to God based on God's deliverance. You know how that goes. “Oh God, if you get me out of this one, I will _______________.” You fill in the blank. Jonah told God, “what I have vowed I will pay.” He was confident God was going to deliver him, so he pledged to keep his promise to God. But the greatest statement found in Jonah's prayer is his closing one. “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” It reminds me of the statement of Peter made before the Jewish Council. Referring to Jesus, Peter said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ESV). Salvation is the sole prerogative of God. Only He can save – from disaster, trouble, trials and from sin and death itself. Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of God's saving power. He sent His Son to die as the payment for the sins of mankind. He sacrificed His own Son so that men might be made right with Him. Jonah's salvation was temporary in nature. He would live only to die again. But the salvation Jesus brought is permanent. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). Salvation belongs to the Lord. And why would God offer that kind of salvation to sinful men? Because of love. For God so loved the world. Paul reminds us, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV). The offer of salvation is an expression of God's steadfast, unfailing love.

Jonah knew God loved him, so he had confidence to call out to God – in spite of his own rebellion against Him. If we don't understand the love of God, it will be hard for us to trust Him. If we fail to recognize just how much He loves us, we will find it difficult to place out hope in His salvation. We can never earn it. We will never deserve it. His love will always be the motivating factor behind His salvation. It's why He sent a fish to Jonah. It's why He sent Moses to the slaves living in Egypt. It's why He sent prophets to His people living in Canaan. It's why He sent Jesus to earth as a man. Out of love. And in order to offer salvation to men who didn't deserve it. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It was His idea. And it is the greatest expression of His love for men.

Love Lifted Me.

Then I said, “I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.” The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. – Jonah 2:4-6 ESV

Jonah 2:1-9

There's an old hymn that I remember singing as a child and I can't help but think of it when I read this portion of Jonah's prayer. The first line says,

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more, But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

The refrain gives a reminder of the motivation behind God's rescue of the sinking sinner:

Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else could help, Love lifted me!

Everything in Jonah's life was headed in the wrong direction. And it all started when he began running from God. The instructions Jonah had received from God had been very clear. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2 ESV). But Jonah had other ideas. He had no interest in obeying God's command, so he decided to get out of town. “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3-4 ESV).

As absurd as it may sound to us to attempt to run from God, the reality is that we do it all the time. Like Jonah, there are times when we hear God tell us to do something that sounds less-than-appealing to us. For Jonah, it was taking a message to the pagan people of Ninevah and running the risk that they might actually listen and repent. Jonah couldn't accept the thought of the pagans living in that wicked city being forgiven by God. So he ran. Just like we do. We run from His will. We run from His Spirit's promptings. Some of us avoid His Word so that we don't have to hear from Him. Others read His Word, but if it ever convicts them, they promptly ignore it. They run. But you can't run from God. Jonah discovered that universal truth. But he also discovered that God is a persistent God who expects His word to be obeyed. He had a job for Jonah to do and He wasn't going to let a little boat cruise get in the way. So God caused a storm and Jonah knew exactly who was behind it. He ended up being made a living sacrifice by the pagan sailors on the ship in an effort to appease whatever god was behind the wind and waves.

The next thing he knew, Jonah was sinking – sinking in his sin of rebellion against the will of God and sinking in the cold, wind-whipped waters of the sea. But Jonah was going to learn one more valuable lesson. God is also a loving, merciful, kind and patient God. He was going to reach down and lift Jonah out of the depths of his own sin and rebellion and deliver him safe and sound so that he could complete his assignment. Just when all hope was lost for Jonah, God stepped in and rescued him. Not because he deserved it. It was the love of God that lifted Jonah out of the sea. It was the love of God that sovereignly ordained a large fish to swallow Jonah and regurgitate him up on the shore. Jonah was lifted by the love of God. Which is why he could say, “yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”

It is senseless to run from God. You won't get far. And God will always get what He wants. Attempting to run from God will only result in hurt and heartache. God will not allow His children to live in continuous rebellion to His will. He will get their attention one way or the other. God will bring them to the point where they discover their running from Him has not put any distance from His presence, but has simply left them devoid of any joy, hope or peace. But even when all appears lost, God lovingly reaches down and lifts up those whose lives have been marked by disobedience. He rescues the rebellious. He recommissions the resistant. He restores the prodigal to his rightful place as His child.

In his poem, The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson writes of an individual attempting to run from God. But God, in His loving persistence, cries out:

Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!

When we find ourselves sinking, even as a result of our own rebellion, there are only one set of hands that are capable of reaching down and rescuing us. The powerful hands of our loving God. It is His hands alone that can lift us out of the waves and restore us to a right relationship with Him. So that we can say, “Love lifted me!”

Out of the Depths.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.” – Jonah 2:1-3 ESV

Jonah 2:1-9

If nothing else, this prayer of Jonah proves that you can pray from just about anywhere at any time. You don't have to have a “prayer closet” or a special place in which you pray. Prayer is available to us 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year. We can call out to God whenever and wherever we want and the best part is, He hears us. Jonah prayed from the belly of a fish. Not exactly a worshipful environment, but it was those less-than-perfect conditions that led Jonah to pray. His circumstances provided an ideal opportunity to talk to God. Finding himself in the digestive track of a large sea creature didn't dampen Jonah's prayer life, it enhanced it. And if you doubt that Jonah's story holds any credibility, you have Jesus to contend with, because He seems to have considered Jonah's three days in the fish's stomach as true. He used it when referring to His upcoming death. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 ESV).

It was in the midst of his distress that Jonah called out to God. Prior to that point in time, Jonah had been busy running from God. He had decided to disobey God's will and follow his own. And he was going to learn that you can't outrun God. You can't hide from God. Not only that, you can't find yourself in a predicament that puts you out of touch with God. David seemed to have learned that same lesson. “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (Psalm 139:7-10 ESV). God is always nearby. He sees. He hears. He answers. It's interesting to note that Jonah says, “I called out.” This prayer was prayed while he was still in the belly of the fish. It was while he was right in the middle of his worst-case scenario. And yet, Jonah says, “he answered me” and “you heard my voice”. This isn't a post-salvation prayer, but a smack-dab-right-in-the-middle-of-it prayer. But Jonah knew that God heard him and was going to answer him. He was confident that God was there and that He cared.

What a wonderful reminder for those of us who might find ourselves swallowed up by our circumstances, with the floods surrounding us, the waves and billows passing over us. We can call out to God and not only will He hear us, He will answer us. Jonah had to wait three days for his deliverance, but it came. He probably showed the wear and tear of his ordeal. He would never forget the experience. And he would never fail to remember God graciously rescuing him from the consequences of his own stubborn rebellion. Trials and troubles tend to make prayer warriors out of all of us. When we find ourselves in serious trouble, we suddenly get serious about prayer. It's amazing how the person who claims, “I don't know how to pray” can discover the secret to prayer when the need arises. And that seems to be the key – need. Jonah needed God. He was at a loss to do anything about his condition. He was helpless and hopeless and in desperate need of rescue, so he turned to God. Prayer is always powered by dependency, not pride. Prideful people don't need God. The powerless are those that pray most powerfully. Desperation has a way of eliminating all pretense and pride. When we come to a place where we truly need God we seem to have no problem talking to Him. And that should be a lesson for us. Need is a primary factor for praying effectively. An awareness of our dependency on God will greatly improve our communication with God.

This reminds of the great old hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour. One of the less-known verses says, “I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.” Need is a missing ingredient in many of our prayer lives. And there is a huge difference between needs and wants. We tend to bring God all our wants and desires, but fail to recognize our need. We need HIM, not what He can give us. We need His deliverance, His presence, His power, His peace, His guidance, His joy, His forgiveness, His grace, His mercy, His love. We need Him every hour of every day. The chorus of that old hymn should be the daily prayer of every believer. “I need Thee, O I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.”

Where Is Their God?

Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?” – Joel 2:17 ESV

This was a prayer prescribed by God Himself. It was to be prayed by the priests and ministers of the people in response to the coming “Day of the Lord”. God was bringing judgment against His people. “Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” (Joel 2:1-2 ESV). Joel was used by God to prophesy to the nation of Judah and warn them of the coming judgment of God for their unfaithfulness and empty religious formalism. They had been going through the motions religiously for years. But what had been missing was true repentance. Their sacrifices had been meaningless. They were empty exercises, religious activities that had no heart behind them. The prophet Isaiah had delivered this stern message from God to the very same people: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats” (Isaiah 1:11 ESV). What God was looking for was repentance and actions that properly illustrated their changed hearts. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:16-17 ESV).

God gave the very same message through Joel. “‘Yet even now,‘ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:12-13 ESV). God was willing to forgive. He was anxious to see His people return to Him in brokenness and humility. He even had Joel suggest that they father all the people and hold a solemn assembly and fast. He even gave the religious leaders the very prayer they should pray. Because God knew that one of the consequences of the coming judgment would that the pagan nations would conclude that He had abandoned His people. Their failure to repent and return to God would not only result in their punishment, but it would harm the reputation of God among the nations. God stood ready, willing and able to forgive and restore them. But it was conditioned on their response. Disobedience would bring destruction. Repentance would bring restoration. 

One of the results of refusing to repent would be that the people of God would a “reproach”. The Hebrew word for “reproach” is cherpah and it means “disgrace, contempt, scorn”. By rejecting God's plea that they confess their sins and accept His mercy and forgiveness, they would bring judgment on themselves. It would allow the nations around them to mock and ridicule them. But worse yet, it would cause the godless to dishonor the name and reputation of God Himself. They would sarcastically ask, “Where is their God?” By stubbornly refusing to accept God's offer of forgiveness and restoration, they would be disgraced, but God would be dishonored among the nations. How often does that sad scenario take place even today? We refuse to come to God in repentance, confessing our sins and humbly accepting His offer of forgiveness and restoration. So we continue to live in defeat, despair and disillusionment, lacking joy, missing out on the promise of abundant life and failing to experience the full extent of His power and presence. Many who know us to be believers probably ask that very same question, “Where is their God?” They look at our lives and wonder what difference our salvation has made. We don't seem to live any differently than they do. We don't have any more joy than they do. We don't seem to have any supernatural advantage over them, in spite of our so-called status as children of God.

But the lesson from the book of Joel is that of repentance. It is a reminder that the deliverance of God is never far away. It begins with a heart of repentance. It is as close as our next confession. He has never left us or forsaken us. The answer to the question, “Where is their God?” is: Right here. He stands ready to step in and offer His forgiveness to any who are ready to confess their sins. He is always ready to restore those who are willing to repent. The amazing thing is that each and every time we return to God in repentance and humility, not only do we receive His mercy and forgiveness, but the world gets a first-hand look at what it means to have a relationship with the living God. We become living, breathing witnesses to the love and grace of God. Our lives become illustrations of His power and presence on earth. God gets glory. Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 ESV). Peter echoed those same words when he wrote, “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world” (1 Peter 2:12 NLT). Where is our God? As close as our next confession.

Remember. Renew. Restore.

But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. – Lamentations 5:19-22 ESV Jeremiah was living in what was the ruins of Jerusalem. He is surrounded by a rag-tag remnant of individuals who were left behind by the Babylonians after they took tens of thousands of their fellow Israelites into captivity. In the earlier part of Jeremiah's prayer, recorded in chapter 5, he gave God a vivid description of their circumstances. They were living in disgrace. In keeping with the book's name, Jeremiah laments, “Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows” (Jeremiah 5:2-3 ESV). They were having to pay for clean water to drink and wood to burn. They had resorted to alliances with Egypt and Assyria just to be able to have bread to eat. Crime was on an upswing. It wasn't safe to go into the wilderness. Jeremiah reported, “Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah” (Lamentations 5:11 ESV). Everyone was forced to work in order to exist. There was no longer any joy or any reason to celebrate or dance. And Jeremiah knew that their circumstances were the result of their own sin and rebellion against God. While the remnant that remained had escaped captivity, they were trapped in an endless cycle of poverty and despair. They were living in the land of Judah, but without any of the blessings or benefits they had known before.

And in the midst of all the pain and suffering, Jeremiah called out to the only one who could do anything about it. He turned to God, acknowledging His power and sovereignty. “But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.” Everything else was unstable and insecure, but not God. The temple may have been destroyed, but the one for whom it had been built was alive and well. The city of Jerusalem may have fallen and the king of Judah taken captive and humiliated, but God remained King of the universe. God remained the one stable factor in Jeremiah's topsy-turvy world. But Jeremiah couldn't help but feel that God had somehow forgotten them. He knew that God had promised to restore the people to the land, in spite of all that they had done. But each day Jeremiah woke up to the same sad circumstances. Poverty, injustice, pain, suffering, and hopelessness. He wondered when God was going to keep His word. When would God step in and do what He had promised to do? Jeremiah pleaded with God to restore them and to renew things back to the way they used to be. He longed for the good old days. But he knew that any hope of restoration was up to God. He would have to do it. As a people, they were completely incapable of saving themselves. Those in captivity were helpless to do anything about their situation. Those left behind in Judah were powerless to change their circumstances. They needed God.

It is amazing how quickly we can become God-focused when we find ourselves in a jam from which we can't escape. Nothing improves our prayer lives like troubles and trials. The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness are great motivators when it comes to our spiritual lives. We seem to operate on the maxim: when all else fails, try God. But Jeremiah wasn't turning to God as a last resort. He was appealing to his one and only hope. Without God, all was lost. There were no other viable options. God alone was capable of doing anything about their predicament. But sadly, many Christians always have another trick up their sleeve or another option to turn to other than God. Whether through pride or a lack of faith, far too many of us make God our desperation destiny. When all is lost, we turn to Him. And amazingly, He is always there. He is the one consistent, unchanging and constantly reliable reality we can count on. Jeremiah ended his prayer and his book with the words, “Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.” I don't think Jeremiah believed that was the case. He knew his God all too well to think that He would abandon them forever. He had heard God promise to restore them. He had obeyed when God told him to purchase land in Judah as an investment for the future. He knew in his heart of hearts that God was going to remember, renew and restore. But that did not stop him from wondering when it would all happen. It did not prevent him from asking God to move the timeline up.

And we know that God kept His word. He did eventually restore the people to the land. He brought them back out of captivity and allowed them to rebuild the temple, restore the walls of Jerusalem and repopulate the land. He did exactly what He had promised to do. Catastrophe and captivity were no match for God. The hopelessness and helplessness of men were poor indicators of God's capabilities. To Him, the circumstances were nothing more than an opportunity, not an obstacle. At no point was God worried, concerned, or sitting up in heaven wringing His hands, wondering what He was going to do. He was and is the Lord God, who reigns forever. He is the King of the universe, the all-powerful God for whom nothing is too difficult. He will remember. He will renew. He will restore. We can rely on Him.

God Has Seen. He Will Redeem.

You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. – Lamentations 3:56-58 ESV

Jeremiah had been through a lot. He had been a prophet for God, delivering a message of repentance and warning of future judgment if that message was ignored. Not only was his message unaccepted, his own people persecuted, rejected and even physically attacked him for his efforts. And eventually, Jeremiah had to stand by and watch as the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. He had to witness the destruction of the temple of God. He had a front row seat to the deportation of the people as they were shipped out as captives of the Babylonian king and his conquering army. And while Jeremiah was allowed to remain in the land of Judah along with a remnant of the people, he fared no better than before. He was still despised. He was blamed for all that had happened. He had no friends, only enemies. There were even times when he felt alienated and abandoned by God. “He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;  though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked” (Lamentations 3:7-9 ESV). Jeremiah found himself in a dark place emotionally and spiritually. He confessed, “my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord’” (Lamentations 3:17-18 ESV). But as we saw in yesterday's post, Jeremiah had one thing he continued to hang on to during his dark days of despair. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23 ESV).

The love and faithfulness of God. That is what kept Jeremiah going. And for Jeremiah, it was not some nebulous, bible-verse-on-a-plaque concept. It was real and he had experienced it in his own life. God had been loving and faithful to him in the past, so he knew that it was possible for God to be that way even under his current circumstances. God had taken up Jeremiah's cause before. He had redeemed Jeremiah's life on more than one occasion over the years. So why couldn't He and why wouldn't He do so now? Jeremiah knew that God was fully aware of what was going on. He had seen it all. He wasn't not blind or oblivious to Jeremiah's difficulties. Jeremiah's God was compassionate and fully cognizant of his circumstances. After all, God had been the one to orchestrate all that had happened. There was nothing Jeremiah said in chapter three that God was not aware of already or for which He had a failed to prepare a plan of action. The question wasn't whether God would redeem, but simply when and how. Jeremiah had no way of knowing just what God would do. He had no idea when God would do it. But he had hope based on past experience that God WOULD do something. Jeremiah believed, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25-26 ESV). 

The temptation we face when going through a difficult time like Jeremiah is to lash out, if not at God, at others. We especially want to verbally attach those who are harming us. We want to take revenge and enact vengeance on those who persecuting us. But Jeremiah says it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It's hard to keep our mouths shut when those around us are casting dispersions on our character or attacking us with their words. Yet Jeremiah said, “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts” (Lamentations 3:61-63 ESV). I am sure there was a part of Jeremiah that wanted to lash out and light up his opponents. He wanted to give them a piece of his mind. He would have loved to have been able to defend himself and expose the lies of his enemies. But instead, he was willing to trust God. He sees. He will redeem. In the last three verses of his prayer, Jeremiah states, “You will repay them…”, “you will give them…, “your curse will be on them…”, “you will pursue them….” In other words, God had this handled. He would do what needed to be done. He would redeem. And Jeremiah was content to let God do it His way and according to His timeline. In the meantime, he would quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

We sometimes have a hard time believing that God sees what is going on. We either believe He is indifferent and doesn't care or is too busy and preoccupied with more significant issues. And because we don't think God sees, we doubt that He will redeem. That's when we are tempted to take matters into our own hands. We seem our own vengeance. We attempt to act as our own savior. Rather than quietly wait on God's salvation, we step in and, sadly, we screw things up. Waiting on God can be difficult. Remaining quiet can be practically impossible. But when we have a long history of having seen God work in our lives, it is far easier to trust Him. His past acts of redemption make future waiting on Him less difficult. That is why Jeremiah said, “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.” God had proven Himself faithful in the past. He would prove himself faithful in the future. He has seen. He will redeem.  

Don't Fear. He Hears.

I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help!” You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!” – Lamentations 3:55-57 ESV This prayer, recorded in the book of Lamentations is found in the midst of a lengthy section that recounts the faithfulness of God. The book was more than likely written by Jeremiah and is a post-captivity record of his reflections on all that had happened to Judah as a result of their refusal to return to the Lord. Their stubborn rebellion had brought about the fall of the city of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the exile of the people of Judah to the land of Babylon. Jeremiah remained behind and the book of Lamentations contains his thoughts on all that had happened. The book opens with the following statement: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave” (Lamentations 1:1 ESV). The first chapter paints a bleak and depressing scene as Jeremiah, sitting in the abandoned city of Jerusalem, recalls the cause of the nation’s fall from grace. He pulls no punches when he writes, “the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions” (Lamentations 1:5 ESV). “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy” (Lamentations 1:8 ESV). “Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future” (Lamentations 1:9 ESV). All that had happened was the result of their sin and the work of God. “The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes” (Lamentations 2:17 ESV).

In chapter three, Jeremiah recounts his own suffering during his days as the prophet of God. He had spent years attempting to call the people of Judah to repentance, but with no success. He endured rejection, ridicule and even physical abuse as a result of his ministry. There had been days when he felt all alone and it seemed as if God had abandoned him. He had gotten so low that it led him to say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord” (Lamentations 3:18 ESV). But in the midst of all his sorrow, he kept going back to the one thing he knew about God. He was loving and faithful. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him’” (Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV). Even while sitting in the middle of a burned out, broken down, and abandoned city, Jeremiah could think about the love and mercy of God. Even though he knew that the destruction of Judah had been the work of God, it did not change his view of God. He was able to say, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:25-27 ESV). He knew that God's punishment had been justified and had been done out of love. He also knew that, “though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (Lamentations 3:32 ESV).

For Jeremiah it was pretty simple. The people of Judah had gotten what they had deserved. They had no right to shake their fists at God in anger or accuse Him of injustice. “Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!” (Lamentations 3:39-40 ESV). Their circumstances called for a time of reflection and self-examination. They needed to focus on and own up to their own sinfulness. They desperately needed to come to the point where they could confess, “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven” (Lamentations 3:42 ESV). But Jeremiah knew that no matter how bad things got or how deep their pit of despair may feel, their God would hear them when they called out. He knew it from personal experience. “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea.” He had known what it is like to have God come near when called. He had heard God say, “Do not fear!” There is no sin too great for God to forgive. There is no pit so deep that God cannot reach down His hand and rescue. There is no cry He can't hear. All He asks is that we acknowledge our sin, admit our need for Him, and return to Him in humility and dependence.

Too often, our cries to God are based solely on what we want Him to do for us. We want His deliverance from pain and suffering more than we want Him. We want Him to rescue us from our predicament, but we don't necessarily want to submit to His lordship over our life. We want Him to fix our problem, but don't want to admit that we were the cause of it. One of the hardest things for us to do is to test and examine our ways. We don't want to take ownership for our sin. We don't want to admit guilt. We would rather justify our actions. It is difficult for us to say, “We have transgressed and rebelled.” But confession is essential if we want to experience God's forgiveness. “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 ESV). We don't need to fear, because He hears. But he wants to hear us call with repentant hearts, openly confessing our sins and humbly submitting to His will for our lives.

Trust Me.

Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. – Jeremiah 32:24-25 ESV Jeremiah 32:17-25

Things could not have looked any bleaker than they did when Jeremiah prayed this prayer. The armies of Babylon were camped outside the city of Jerusalem, siege mounds surrounded the walls, and disease and famine were commonplace within them. God was bringing the judgment Jeremiah had long warned would come if the people did not repent and return to Him. And yet, in the midst of the eminent threat of defeat and the looming reality of captivity, God had given Jeremiah a small glimpse of what was to come. He had instructed Jeremiah to buy a field. In essence, He was asking Jeremiah to invest in the future of Israel. It was a case of insider trading, because God knew something Jeremiah could not have known. God had already given Jeremiah a heads up about what was to come. “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:10-11 ESV). But now God wanted Jeremiah to have some personal stock in the reality of that promise. He wanted Jeremiah to put his money where his mouth had been and invest in the future of Israel, based on nothing more than the promise of God.

That seems to be how God works with us so often. He had told Noah to build an ark and fill it with animals, when there wasn't even enough water to float a boat anywhere on the planet at that time. He asked Abram to leave his homeland and head to an unknown destination, all based on what had to sound to Abram like an impossible dream. God had David anointed the next king of Israel, but then allowed him to spend the next years of his life running from Saul, the current king and resident madman. Jesus chose His twelve disciples, told them that He was going to establish His kingdom on earth, and then they had to stand by and watch as He was crucified on a Roman cross. The promises of God don't always appear as we might expect them. They don't always work out according to our timeline or in the manner we might prefer. But faith is about trusting God. The author of Hebrews describes it this way: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV). Assurance and conviction in the unseen and, as yet, unfulfilled. It is a determined belief in the reality of what has yet to take place. God was asking Jeremiah to put shoe leather to his faith and some cash behind his conviction. All based on nothing more than the word of God.

And as soon as Jeremiah finished his prayer, God would respond with a rhetorical question: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:26 ESV). In a way, He was asking Jeremiah, “Don't you trust me?” He knew that this was all a lot for Jeremiah to take in, so He gave Jeremiah some further assurances. “Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jeremiah 32:37-38 ESV). He let Jeremiah know that His word concerning the punishment of Judah was be fulfilled, but that would not be the last word regarding their fate. He had more in store. He had a timeline and a plan in place that would assure their restoration to the land. And God would keep that plan perfectly and faithfully.

Sometimes all we have are the promises of God, and they can appear vague and distant to us. We may not fully understand the nature of those promises or understand how God is going to bring them about. But He asks us to trust Him. He asks us to have assurance and conviction, based on nothing more than His character and reputation. God told Jeremiah, “Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them” (Jeremiah 32:42 ESV). He had kept His word regarding the coming destruction of Judah, so why would He not keep His word concerning their future restoration? God doesn't lie. He doesn't make promises and not keep them. God had promised to send the Messiah and He did – in the form of His own Son. He has promised eternal life to those who believe in His Son. He has promised to send His Son again. He has promised to restore righteousness to the world. He has promised to put an end to sin, death, sorrow, pain, and suffering. Will we trust Him? Are we willing to invest ourselves in the present based on the future promises of God? Is anything too difficult for our God? Can He bring about what He has promised? Will He do what He has said He will do? Faith operates on the basis of trust and hope in the fact that He can and He will.

And This Is the Thanks I Get?

And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. – Jeremiah 32:22-23 ESV Jeremiah 32:17-25

Sometimes a little bit of reflection can go a long way. Jeremiah had taken time to look back on Israel's long relationship with God and had recalled the faithfulness of God. He had remembered all that God had done for them as a people. From the moment He had called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to the day He had appointed David the king of Israel, God had been there for nation of Israel. He had promised them the land of Canaan and He had made good on that promise. When they had taken possession of the land God had reminded them, “I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant” (Joshua 24:13 ESV). He had done these things, not because they had deserved it or had earned it, but out of His grace and mercy and in order to fulfill His word.

And how had they responded to the kindness of God? With disobedience. In exchange for His unmerited favor and undeserved love, God had simply asked that they treat Him with the dignity and respect He deserved. He expected them to stay faithful to Him alone and worship no other gods beside Him. He gave them laws to follow that would set them apart from all the other nations and protect them from committing sins that could result in their own harm and destruction. But as Jeremiah so sadly recalled, “But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do.” They had returned God's faithfulness with unfaithfulness. They had repeatedly disobeyed, disrespected and dismissed God, treating Him as irrelevant, replaceable, or even optional in their lives. And now they were about to reap the results of their long history of ingratitude and insubordination. God was not going to tolerate their behavior any longer. 

Sometimes, in our obsession over the grace and mercy of God, we can tend to neglect the doctrine of God's holiness. We can forget that God is holy in all His ways and cannot tolerate sin. Yes, He is able to offer forgiveness and extend mercy to mankind because of the sacrificial death of His own Son. But Christ's death did not diminish the seriousness of sin, it simply provided a payment for the penalty. In fact, the death of God's Son provides us with some idea of just how serious God takes sin. The only payment He could accept that would satisfy His own need for justice and cover the steep price to cover the penalty due for the sins of mankind was the life of His own sinless Son. When we look back at the history of Israel and see God bringing destruction on the people He had chosen as His very own possession, we should be reminded of just how much God hates sin. He couldn't just overlook it and dismiss it. He couldn't just say, “Boys will be boys” and act as if it was not that big a deal. Sin was and always will be a bid deal to a holy, righteous God. Sin is an affront to His character. It is rebellion against His sovereign rule. It is a slap in the face of God by the ones He has made and who exist only by His grace and mercy.

As believers, while our sins have been paid for in full by Jesus, that does not give us the right to act as if our sins no longer matter or carry no weight. Paul had to deal with this kind of illogical thinking when he wrote to the Christians in Rome. “Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!” (Romans 6:15 NLT). In fact, Paul had told them, “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:12-14 NLT). As those who had benefited from the grace of God made possible through the death of His own Son, they were to take sin seriously and treat God with the gratitude and respect He deserves by glorifying Him through obedient, righteous living. God's grace is not a license to sin. It is a gift to be appreciated and treated with great honor and respect. God paid a high price in order for us to enjoy a right relationship with Him. He gave His own Son and made it possible for us to exchange our sin for His righteousness. He died so that we might live. Our sins were the cause of Christ's death. His death was the cost required for our salvation. Our obedience is the least we could do to express our thankfulness for all that God has done. Our hatred and rejection of sin is a great way to let God know just how much we love and appreciate Him.  

The Value of Reflection.

You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror. – Jeremiah 32:20-21 ESV

Jeremiah 32:17-25

Looking back can be little more than a nostalgic and idealistic longing for the way things used to be, but it can also be a valuable discipline that provides us with perspective. It was George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His was a somewhat negative outlook, but it reflects the truth that occasional reflection on the past has value for the future. There are lessons to be learned. There are examples to emulate and mistakes to avoid. The old saying that hindsight is 20/20 simply reminds us that the validity or stupidity of a decision is much more clear when looking back than when standing with the choice in front of you. There is value in reflection. We can gain so much insight when we take the time to examine the past and see where we have been. George Bernard Shaw put it this way: “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”

In his prayer, Jeremiah takes some time to look back. But he is far from nostalgic. He isn't longing for the good old days. He is reminding himself of the greatness of God. As he stands on the edge of the unknown, with the fall of Jerusalem looming in the future, he reflects on the one things he can count on: God. God had been a constant in the life of Israel for generations. He is the one who had done signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, forcing the pharaoh to release the Israelites after more than 400 years in captivity. But God's miracles hadn't ceased there. He had continued to display His power on behalf of the people of God all the way up until that moment in time. God had a reputation for doing great things. But a lot of people had forgotten. They had ceased to remember the past. They were caught up in the present and living with a fear of the future. Overwhelmed with the insecurity of their circumstances, they had either forgotten all about God or had chosen to ignore Him. But Jeremiah was counting on God. He was looking back and reminding himself of just how powerful and personal his God was. This was not the first time the people of Israel had found themselves in a tough spot. They had faced difficult circumstances before, and God had always showed up and come through for them before. Jeremiah knew God was about to bring judgment on the nation of Judah for its stubborn refusal to repent and return to Him. The future didn't look bright. But in looking back, Jeremiah was able to remind himself of the faithfulness, love, power, and capacity for deliverance of his God.

When we learn to look back, we discover the immutability of God. He is unchanging. He is consistent and highly dependable. You can always rely on Him to act in the same way, day in and day out. He is the same today as He was in the days of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Daniel, Jeremiah, Paul, and Peter. The difficulties we face are no greater than the ones faced by the people of God in the Old Testament or the believers in the early church. In fact, in so many ways, we have it far easier. And yet, we find ourselves panicking, doubting, worrying, and wondering if our God can handle our problems. We question whether He is strong enough to deliver us from our circumstances. Jeremiah would encourage us to look back. He would remind us that our fear of the future is best faced with a healthy dose of the past. We may not know what God is going to do, but we can remember what He has already done. We can't always know what tomorrow holds, but we can know that it's in good hands because God is in control. He always has been. He always will be. He is consistently, completely reliable. We can count on Him. So when we face the unknown, we simply need to turn around and take a look in the rear view mirror and see where we've been and how God has been there with us all along the way. His presence is sometimes best seen in retrospect. His love for us ofter becomes more clear to us upon reflection. Looking back can be a healthy exercise for the child of God. Remembering what He has done can go a long way in helping us trust Him for what He is doing to do. There is value in reflection.

Nothing Is Too Hard For God.

Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. – Jeremiah 32:17-19 ESV

Jeremiah 32:17-25

The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon were besieging the gates of Jerusalem. Everything Jeremiah had been warning the people of Judah would happen is about to take place. The end is in sight. Jeremiah had been placed under arrest by King Zedekiah because he didn't like the tone or content of his message. It seems that the king thought that by locking Jeremiah up he could alter the inevitable. But God's will was going to be done. Jeremiah had simply shared the word of the Lord. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’” (Jeremiah 32:3-5 ESV).

In the midst of all this chaos and confusion, and with the Babylonians poised to take possession of the land of Judah, Jeremiah received a personal word from the Lord telling him to buy a piece of property. As crazy as it may have sounded, Jeremiah did what the Lord instructed him to do, because God had given him the assurance, “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (Jeremiah 32:15 ESV). Based on the promise of God and in spite of what he knew was about to happen, Jeremiah obeyed. He bought the land and he put the deeds in an earthenware jar and buried it in the ground so that it would last a long time, just as God had instructed him. And then Jeremiah prayed.

“Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” Things may have appeared bleak and despairing from Jeremiah's perspective, but he knew that God had it all under control. The same God who had created the entire universe would have no problem handling the Babylonian situation. In fact, it was all His doing. He had sent King Nebuchadnezzar and his troops to besiege and conquer the land of Judah, taking the people captive. And He would fulfill His promise to restore them to the land because nothing is too difficult for him. Jeremiah acknowledged that God had shown unbelievable love for and patience toward the people of Judah for generations. But the consistent rebellion of the people and their constant sinning against Him was about to catch up to them. Their stubbornness and insubordination could be traced back all the way to the generation that He had set free from captivity in Egypt. And their propensity for sin had been passed down from one generation to the next until God had deemed it necessary to put an end to it all. But rather than question the wisdom of God, Jeremiah acknowledged His character. “O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed.” He knew God was in the right. From Jeremiah's perspective, God was all-wise and all-powerful. He was great and mighty. And as the Lord of hosts, He was ultimately in charge of everything and everyone, including Nebuchadnezzar and his troops. Not only that, Jeremiah knew that God's “eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.” No matter how unfair things may have appeared to Jeremiah, he knew God was justified in His actions. He was righteous in all His ways.

This simple introduction to Jeremiah's prayer, when taken in the context of all that was going on, gives us a wonderful reminder to always give greater significance to God's character than to our circumstances. God never ceases being the Lord of hosts. He is always in control and never lacking in power. Nothing is ever too difficult for Him. We must always balance the knowledge of God's everlasting love with His divine duty to discipline those He loves. God could not allow the people of Judah to continue to dishonor His name and flaunt their privileged position as His people. Sin always has consequences. But in the midst of it all, Jeremiah kept his eyes focused on God. The eternal, unchanging nature of God was his rock in the middle of the storm. He knew he could count on God to come through in the end and fulfill His promise of future restoration. When everything around us is unstable, we need to rely on the One who is always a rock and firm foundation. When surrounded by uncertainty, we must place our trust in the One who never changes or proves Himself unreliable. Nothing is too hard for Him.