Listening to the Light

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.” Luke 8:4-5 

 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” Luke 8:16 

Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” Luke 8:19-20 

The verses above are from a passage in Luke 8:4-21 where Jesus talks about three seemingly very different topics: planting seeds (in the Parable of the Sower), lighting a lamp that goes, not under the bed, but on a stand, and then Jesus comments on his family wanting to interrupt his preaching. These appear to be three disparate themes, yet a thread runs through them all: hearing.  

Jesus mentions hearing or listening eight times in these seventeen verses. 

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Luke 8:8 

‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ Luke 8:10 

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away … Luke 8:12 

Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. Luke 8:13 

The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but … Luke 8:14 

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15 

Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Luke 8:18 

“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” Luke 8:21 

Verse 18 was especially curious to me. Jesus is talking about a lighted lamp that should be put up on a stand “so those who come in can see the light,” but then he warns, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen.” I wondered about this until I realized that both the seed that is scattered and the light of the lamp are both the Word of God. 

The seed is the word of God. Luke 8:11 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory … John 1:14 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105 

So what is Jesus saying when he advises, “consider carefully how you listen”? Personally, I think the key to this passage is in verse 15: 

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it (hold it fast, cling to it), and by persevering produce a crop (bear fruit). Luke 8:15 

Those two words describing the heart, noble and good, tell the story. The word translated “noble” means “attractively good, good that inspires (motivates) others, winsome, appealing.”¹ 

In Matthew 5 when Jesus talks about the light on the stand, he concludes with, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” 

Attractively good, good that inspires and motivates others, winsome, and appealing. I love that! But how different we appear to the world at times. Certainly, not attractive. As pastor Troy Gentz says: “Nobody wants to follow somebody whose followers are jerks.”²  

Unfortunately, it is easy to be a jerk at times. It is not so easy to persevere, slog through, soften the soil, pull up the weeds, produce appealing fruit. And what is the appealing, attractive fruit, the light worth putting up on a stand for all to see by? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This is not something we can produce in our own strength. The word translated “good” in noble and good heart has the merciful, grace-filled answer to that problem. 

The word is agathós (ἀγαθός), which means “good, benefit” … “as to the believer, [it] describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith.”¹ 

Wow, yes! A noble and good heart hears and holds fast to the Word and perseveres, empowered by God, to produce fruit. This whole passage is about hearing and responding to and obeying and allowing the Word of God to change us. And as we do this we will be becoming like Jesus, crucified with Him. Attractive. 

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. John 12:32 

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works … Titus 2:7 (ESV) 

Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit … Matthew 7:17 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1:22-24 

“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” Luke 8:21 

¹Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the HELPS Word-studies from the Discovery Bible. 

²Pastor Troy Gentz, from the Refresh series, October 16, 2022 Sunday Gathering  | Sunday, October 16,  2022 

Photo by Jack Bair

The God Who Hears

The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” 

“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied. 

The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.” 

And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.” 

Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” (Genesis 16:7-13 NLT) 

When I last read this passage, I noticed something. Even though God assures Hagar that He has heard her cry of distress and even instructs her to name her baby “God hears” (Ishmael), Hagar latches onto the fact of being seen. “You are the God who sees me.” I understand that she was lost and abandoned in the desert, and probably terrified, and that being seen or found would have been a relief. Still, God said “I heard you.” 

Being seen is comforting when the “see-er” is God, however, being seen for me, as a woman, has not been a happy or comfortable thing. I guess it’s because I have had too many bad experiences. Too much objectifying. Too much harassment. Too much uncomfortable “appreciation” or criticism of my looks. So now, being seen communicates just looking at the outside to me. I know God wouldn’t do that. I know that when God sees me, he is looking into my heart, the core of my being. But still. 

Hearing, being heard, communicates something different to me than being seen. Being heard infers being known, an understanding on a deep level, an intimacy down where the real me is. Isn’t that what we say to someone when we want them to know that we acknowledge their experience, their struggle, their pain? We say, “I hear you.” I would rather be heard than seen any day.  

And the amazing thing is that God wants to be heard too. I think being heard, and letting us know that He hears us, is important to God because He loves us and wants a close relationship with us. The greatest commandment, the Shema, asks to be heard, and the cry is echoed down through time. 

Hear O Israel! (Deuteronomy 6:4) 

Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. (Isaiah 55: 3) 

He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:9) 

Praise God! He is the God who hears me! And I want to incline the ears of my heart to hear Him. 

Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24 (ESV) 

But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7 

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6 (ESV)

Image in the Public Domain

Flowing Myrrh

I slept but my heart was awake. 

    Listen! My beloved is knocking: 

“Open to me, my sister, my darling, 

    my dove, my flawless one. 

My head is drenched with dew, 

    my hair with the dampness of the night.” 

I have taken off my robe— 

    must I put it on again? 

I have washed my feet— 

    must I soil them again? 

My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening; 

    my heart began to pound for him. 

I arose to open for my beloved, 

    and my hands dripped with myrrh, 

my fingers with flowing myrrh, 

    on the handles of the bolt. 

I opened for my beloved, 

    but my beloved had left; he was gone. 

    My heart sank at his departure. 

I looked for him but did not find him. 

    I called him but he did not answer. (Song of Solomon 5:2-6) 

This passage reminds me of the parable Jesus told of the man in bed who didn’t want to get up to help his friend.  

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’?  Luke 11:5-7 

Just like the Shulamite in the above verse, the man was all cozy and settled and didn’t want to get up. But he finally did, as she did, when the knocking continued. Jesus called it “shameless audacity.” And I suppose it is audacious, knocking on someone’s door persistently in the middle of the night – especially the door of a bride. But he does not give up. Though it appears, when she finally gets up, that he has left, he has not abandoned her. But rather he has aroused her to rise up and seek him. For he “works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)  

And he has left behind in his passion, the needed grace, for she says, “I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.”   

He has left behind flowing myrrh. What is the significance of the myrrh? The Illustrated Bible Dictionary says this about myrrh:ⁱ 

“First mentioned as a principal ingredient in the holy anointing oil ( Exodus 30:23 ). It formed part of the gifts brought by the wise men from the east, who came to worship the infant Jesus ( Matthew 2:11 ). It was used in embalming (John 19:39 ), also as a perfume ( Esther 2:12 ; Psalms 45:8 ; Proverbs 7:17 ). It was a custom of the Jews to give those who were condemned to death by crucifixion ‘wine mingled with myrrh’ to produce insensibility. This drugged wine was probably partaken of by the two malefactors, but when the Roman soldiers pressed it upon Jesus ‘he received it not’ ( Mark 15:23 ).”  

So, the myrrh looks forward to Jesus, our anointed High Priest, who would die for us on the cross, and to the Bridegroom, perfumed for the wedding to the Bride.  

“He has come perfumed as if for a festival, and the costly ointment which he brought with him has dropped on the handles of the bolts (מנעוּל, keeping locked, after the form מלבּוּשׁ, drawing on), viz., the inner bolt, which he wished to withdraw.” — Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament 

What really got me about the myrrh, though, is how it is harvested. “Myrrh is harvested by repeatedly wounding the trees to bleed the gum, which is waxy and coagulates quickly. After the harvest, the gum becomes hard and glossy.”ⁱⁱ 

This myrrh that is left behind on the handle is still fresh and running. Still new.

His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:23 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 

The myrrh left behind on the handle is “[s]weet smelling myrrh – Or (as in the margin) ‘running myrrh,’ that which first and spontaneously exudes, i. e., the freshest, finest myrrh. Even in withdrawing he has left this token of his unchanged love.” — Barnes Notes on the Bible (emphasis mine) 

The Bridegroom has left behind the token of his unchanged love for us. But the myrrh also points to the Bride. The running or liquid myrrh was used, as commanded by the Lord to Moses, to anoint, in addition to Aaron, his sons to serve as priests, and to anoint the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 30:22-30). That points to us. We have been anointed as priests to serve our God (Exodus 19:6, Revelation 1:6). We are the Tent of Meeting, or Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16).   

Rise up and seek Him church! It is time. He is knocking. 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 (ESV) 

ⁱ M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, 
published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. 

ⁱⁱ Caspar Neumann, William Lewis, The chemical works of Caspar Neumann, M.D.,2nd Ed., Vol 3, London, 1773 p.55 (quoted from Wikipedia) 

Image in the Public Domain. Commiphora myrrha tree, one of the primary trees from which myrrh is harvested. Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#/media/File:Commiphora_myrrha_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-019.jpg  

Breathing After

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen (shama) to me; Israel would not submit (abah) to me. Psalm 81:10-11

The phrase translated above as “you would not submit” consists of the two Hebrew words for not + willing, many times translated “unwilling” in the Bible. You were unwilling. Unfortunately, those two words mostly come together in the Bible.

The willing part of the phrase is the Hebrew word abah, which literally means to breathe after. Figuratively, it means to acquiesce, consent, rest content, will, be willing, to desire. Two other Hebrew words come from abah – the word for “longing” and the word for “reed or papyrus” in the sense of bending toward. It’s one of those passionate Hebrew words. To breathe after – like panting after – longing for, desiring.

The word translated “listen” above is shama. It means to hear, listen to, obey. It is the first word and command of the verse Jesus identified as the most important: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:4-5). Abah and shama come together a lot and while their meanings are complimentary, G. J. Botterweck[i] defines the difference.

“The difference seems to be that ‘aba denotes the first beginnings of a positive reaction, whereas shama’ indicates complete obedience.”

Abah, the first beginnings of desire, of longing for God, the bending toward God to catch that still, small voice. Shama, hearing God’s voice and obeying with all. The Spirit of the Lord in the Old Testament means the breath, mind, or spirit of God. If we are willing to obey, we “breathe after” God, or breathe his breath after him. We are one mind and spirit with him. His breath, his command, his Word becomes part of us.

It reminds me a lot of the practice of the presence of God. Breathing His breath; breathing in tandem with the Spirit. Or maybe like God blowing his breath into us, as at creation, and us breathing it out (Genesis 2:7). The Word, the Breath, the Life. Like mouth-to-mouth respiration. Open your mouth and I will fill it! Maybe we were never meant to breathe on our own. But, isn’t that amazing? The idea that being willing and obeying God is to breathe his very breath? Isn’t the image of opening your mouth, like a baby bird, the ultimate in trusting and yielding?

Why don’t we breathe after God? In the above verse it was because of stubbornness. Sometimes it’s because of fear, caring about what people think more than pleasing God, pride, the choking need to be in control. We keep our mouths tightly shut.

Bend toward. Breathe after.

 

This is the air I breathe

This is the air I breathe

Your holy presence living in me

…

And I, I’m desperate for you

And I, I’m lost without you

–Michael W. Smith

 

I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Psalms 119:131

 

[i] G. J. Botterweck in The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, I, p. 25.

Image copyright by Jack Bair

 

The Desert

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor [Valley of Trouble] a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. Hosea 2:14-15 (NIV)

That phrase translated “speak tenderly to her” is literally in the Hebrew “speak to her heart.”

God wants to speak to our hearts. The Hebrew word translated desert is midbar (מִדְבָּר). It means desert, uninhabited land, wilderness. But is also means mouth. It comes from the word dabar (דָבָר) “to speak, commune, talk, name, teach.” It was in the wilderness where God spoke to Moses and taught the Israelites.

So I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. Ezekiel 20:10-11 (NASB)

Our dry, gasping, desperate wilderness experiences are meant to lead us from the cacophony of this world to a place where we can hear God speak to us, commune with us, teach us, name us. The place we can remember who and whose we are. The place where we can return to our first love. The place where we can look up and see again the door of hope.

The amazing thing is that the word midbar also means pasture, in the sense of a place where cattle are driven for grazing. Jesus said:

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9 (NLT)

Jesus the door of hope. Jesus our salvation. Jesus the Word of God speaking to us. Jesus our pasture or sustenance.

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 (NIV)

Lord, may my Valley of Trouble become for me a Door of Hope. Open my ears that I may hear you speaking to me here in this desolate, wilderness place. Feed me, teach me, woo me, name me again.

Yours

Child of God

Lamb of your flock

Bride

Beloved

But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction. He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:15-16 (NIV)

Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me. Isaiah 65:10 (NIV)

 

For more about the wilderness see Highway to Your City

Image of sheep in pasture by Sheila Bair

God is Not Silent

God is not silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second person of the Holy Trinity is called “The Word.” The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind.– A.W. Tozer

God is always speaking to us. It’s just that most of the time we don’t like what he is saying. “Wait” (ugh!), “Hope” (yet!), “Forgive” (I can’t – or won’t), “Love” (but what if they don’t love back? What if I am hurt, mocked, ignored?). What God has said and says is in his Word – the Word written, and the Word made flesh. But even if you have never read the Bible, he is speaking to you. He is speaking to all of us with that still, small voice. Easy to ignore. Easy to deny. Easy to turn away. Frederick Buechner put it this way:

But he also speaks to us about ourselves, about what he wants us to do and what he wants us to become; and this is the area where I believe that we know so much more about him than we admit even to ourselves, where people hear God speak even if they do not believe in him. A face comes toward us down the street. Do we raise our eyes or do we keep them lowered, passing by in silence? Somebody says something about somebody else, and what he says happens to be not only cruel but also funny, and everybody laughs. Do we laugh too, or do we speak the truth? When a friend has hurt us, do we take pleasure in hating him, because hate has its pleasures as well as love, or do we try to build back some flimsy little bridge?  Sometimes when we are alone, thoughts come swarming into our heads like bees—some of them destructive, ugly, self-defeating thoughts, some of them creative and glad. Which thoughts do we choose to think then, as much as we have the choice? Will we be brave today or a coward today? Not in some big way probably but in some little foolish way, yet brave still.  Will we be honest today or a liar? Just some little pint-sized honesty, but honest still. Will we be a friend or cold as ice today? … And the words that he says, to each of us differently, are be brave . . . be merciful . . . feed my lambs . . . press on toward the goal.[i]

In every little choice we make all day long God is speaking. Do we join in the gossip? Do we turn our eyes away and walk by the pain and the need? Do we hide our brokenness and put on a happy mask? Or do we comfort others with the comfort we have been given. Do we surrender to the cleansing fire of his passionate love for us, or cling stubbornly to self-justification?

God is love. And love continually speaks. It cannot be silent for it has been sent out into the world to accomplish something and it cannot, and will not, and has not failed. His love spoke from the cross and speaks on through eternity. And what is Love saying? “I love you!” “My love is always with you” “Give my love away.”

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. John 15:12 (NASB)

“… be brave . . . be merciful . . . feed my lambs . . . press on toward the goal.”

 

 

Image of sound waves from clipart-library.com

[i] Frederick Buechner. The Magnificent Defeat. 1985.

Beat a Path

Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually. Psalm 105:4 (NASB)

There are two different Hebrew words translated “seek” in this verse. The first one is darash– דָּרַשׁ, and means to resort to, frequent or tread a place, seek, seek with care, seek diligently, enquire, require.

“To frequent or tread a place” makes me imagine seeking out the Lord so often as to make a path. My husband likes to take a machete and create paths through our woods. He puts little benches along the way to sit and meditate and enjoy the beauty. As soon as the paths are established, they are followed by our woodland friends. We often walk along the trails with the footprints of deer, coyote, fox, raccoons, squirrels and possums. Hopefully, the paths we tread to God might show the way for others.

But the paths must be maintained. If you don’t walk on them for a while they return to their natural state. Sometimes my husband has to use a chainsaw to remove fallen trees and limbs. He blows the leaves in the fall and mows tall grass. Making and maintaining a path to the Lord requires similar diligence and effort — frequenting it daily, keeping it clear of debris, tripping roots and thorny vines.

The second word translated “seek” is baqash– בָּקַשׁ. It means to seek to find, to seek to secure, to seek the face or Presence of God, to desire, demand, require, exact, ask, request. Note that both words include the meaning “require.” At the end of the path we tread we find the place of His presence and there we ask, present to him our desires, requirements, requests, and sometimes foolish demands. And we listen and he opens our ears and hearts to also hear his demands, desires and requirements of us.

Both of these seek-words are two-way streets. We and the Lord are seeking each other.

Jesus said he came to “seek and save” the lost. He comes daily seeking us out, knocking on the door of our hearts. And we are commanded to “seek the Lord … seek His face” continually and diligently. We are instructed how to do this in another verse using both seek-words.

But from there [from a place of captivity and idol worship] you will seek (baqash) the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for (darash or tread frequently the path to, seek diligently for) Him with all your heart and all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29 (NASB)

The other two-way street is the “require” part. We and God both have requirements of each other. But Jesus assures us that the burden of his requirements is light (Matthew 11:30).

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require (darash) of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (NASB)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)

Our requirements of God are also simple: Everything.

Life, food, water, the air we breathe, shelter, grace, mercy, the strength to keep going, the ability to love and forgive. For all that God requires of us he gives the grace, even the very desire to seek him in the first place. A.W. Tozer wrote that, “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. ‘No man can come to me,’ said our Lord ‘except the Father which hath sent me draw him.’”[i]

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV)

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.” Psalm 27:8 (NLT)

Come! Let’s beat a path into His Presence, and there find the strength from the Lord to go on.

[i] Tozer, A.W. The Pursuit of God. Wing Spread Publishers, 2006.

 

Image copyright 2019 Jack Bair

Running from His Heart

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the [presence of the] Lord by sailing to Tarshish. Jonah 1:1-3 (NLT)

I don’t know why this always makes me laugh. OK, I do know why. Go ahead and put your name in the blank:

But ____ got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD.

See what I mean? We all have done it. We have all tried to run away from God, with the emphasis on the word tried. In Jonah’s case, God was sending him to the city of Nineveh to call them to repentance, and Jonah didn’t want to do it. God said to Jonah, “Get up and go.” Instead, Jonah got up and ran; the word means “to bolt.” God told Jonah to get up or arise. Maybe, as a prophet of God, he was on his knees worshiping in the Presence and received this call. His reaction wasn’t exactly what God had in mind.

It seems nearly every person in the Bible called by God to do something started their reply with an excuse. But, I can’t talk very well (Exodus 6:30). But, I am too young (Jeremiah 1:6). But, I am too weak and unimportant (Judges 6:15). Except Jonah, he just bolted. Apparently, David tried to escape God too.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:7-10 (NIV)

David concluded that it is impossible to run from God. After all, His very name is Immanuel, God with us.

There are always so many reasons why not to answer the call to get up and go. When we look only at ourselves, we see weakness, sin, fear and doubt. But there may be just as many excuses when we look at God. As in Jonah’s case, he didn’t want what God wanted: the salvation of thousands. Especially these particular thousands. “Knowing well the lovingkindness of God, he anticipated that He would spare the Ninevites on their repentance, and he could not bring himself to be the messenger of mercy to heathen, much less to heathen who (as the Assyrian inscriptions state) had already made war against his own people, and who as he may have known were destined to be their conquerors.”[i] Another commentary explains, “he feared God’s compassion would spare the Ninevites on their repentance, and that thus his prediction would be discredited.”[ii]

So what were Jonah’s reasons for bolting? Prejudice, personal pride, and self-preservation. Prejudice: the Assyrians were Gentiles, reprobate, the enemy. Pride: he had a reputation to maintain. He had been publicly calling down horrible judgements on these people. Self-preservation: the Assyrians had attacked Israel before and were prophesied to do it again (Hosea 9:3; Hosea 11:5).

But God doesn’t care about any of that. Jesus showed us what God is like and what he expects us to be like. Jesus loved everybody the same. Jesus was completely humble. Jesus determinedly and obediently walked right into his own death. God’s love and purposes were, and are, relentless. You might say he is one-track when it comes to the salvation of the world. After Nineveh repents Jonah exclaims, “I knew you were going to do that God!” (Jonah 4:2). That always makes me smile too – Jonah knew God was going to save those people because he knew God well enough to know who God is, what God is like, and to know God’s heart. We may not be so honest with ourselves as Jonah, but when we run from God isn’t that what we are running from? His heart? His relentless love? His good, life-giving, excruciating purpose for our lives?

Kurt Bennett points out, “There’s only one place in the bible where we see God running.” That place is the picture of God shown in the parable of the prodigal son. In it, Jesus describes a loving father running toward another fugitive. If you are running from God and his call for your life, turn around and run back. You will run right into His relentless love.

Grace that chases me
O relentless Love
Morning faithfully
Brings mercy to me
Your sweet mercy

—James Mark Gulley, Stephen Gulley

 

[i] Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

[ii] Pulpit Commentary. Hendrickson Publishers

 

Image in the Public Domain

 

Excavation

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire (take pleasure in, delight) to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:6-8 (NIV)

In the old testament if a slave came to love his master and wanted to stay and serve him for life, the master would bore a hole through his ear as a sign.

But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. (Deut. 15:16-17 NIV)

The words in Psalms 40 prophesy the coming Messiah, the one who came to be the Servant Savior, “my ears you have pierced … I delight to do your will.”

God doesn’t long for our sacrifices and all the offerings required by the law, but our love and surrender (not all those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom). He wants us to hear his voice and know him, to delight to serve him. The word translated “pierced” in the Hebrew means “to dig, excavate, dig through, to bore or open.”

I think it is kind of funny that it means “to excavate.” I’m sure God feels like it has been an excavation project to get through to me. One of the meanings of excavate is to uncover buried remains – perhaps remains of my first love? The burning passion to do His will? Digging down through the many rocks and bitter roots, to the buried remains of my first love, down to the “fountains of my soul” as Charles Spurgeon wrote in his commentary[i] on Psalm 40:6-8.

Our Lord was quick to hear and perform his Father’s will; his ears were as if excavated down to his soul; they were not closed up like Isaac’s wells, which the Philistines filled up, but clear passages down to the fountains of his soul. The prompt obedience of our Lord is here the first idea. There is, however, no reason whatever to reject the notion that the digging of the ear here intended may refer to the boring of the ear of the servant, who refused out of love to his master to take his liberty, at the year of jubilee; his perforated ear, the token of perpetual service, is a true picture of our blessed Lord’s fidelity to his Father’s business, and his love to his Father’s children. Jesus irrevocably gave himself up to be the servant of servants for our sake and God’s glory.

Yes, Lord, I need you to excavate me. Let the fountains of my soul burst forth again with your spring of Living Water. Grant me grace, each day, to irrevocably give myself up to be your servant. I will delight to do your will.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7 NASB)

I delight to do Your will, O my God. (Psalm 40:8 NASB)

[i] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Psalm 40 http://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps040.php

 

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Point of View

As I have been visiting the jail and coming to know the ladies there, God has been speaking to me about how important our point of view is. He showed me that there are two ways to look at people. One is from the viewpoint of Hell and our Accuser (Revelations 12:10). One is from the viewpoint of Heaven, where we are seated with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6-7).

If you are looking from the viewpoint of Hell, you are looking up at people and can only see the dirt on the bottoms of their feet. If you are looking from the viewpoint of Heaven, you are looking down at people and you can see the hand of God resting on their heads. 

I start to see faintly the hope and passion for the end of their journey, a glimpse of eternity. If I follow God’s gaze I begin to see as He sees.

… and [God] raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show (point out) the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6-7 (NASB)

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work (poem) of your hand. Isaiah 64:8 (NIV)

You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Psalm 139:5 (NLT)