Worshipping God in Spirit and in truth...

Jeremiah 17:12

“A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary…”

 

 

For 7 years the nation of Israel had worked tirelessly on Solomon’s temple, employing 30,000 split up in 3 groups working 2 months, then having 1 month off. When it was completed, it was a wonder to be seen. God was most definitely pleased with this magnificent temple. There was a unity of worship and allegiance to God so significant it brought about the blessing of God’s hand on the nation. 

 

Unfortunately, something happened between the days of Solomon and the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. While the temple remained, while sacrifices continued, the worship that was taking place was half-hearted at best. A religious checking off the boxes, while at the same time worshipping the false gods of the land God had given them.  As a result, the days of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem were coming to an end. In a short time, King Nebuchadnezzar and his army would descend upon Jerusalem and completely destroy the city as well as the temple. The physical sanctuary was soon to be gone.  For people with a half-hearted allegiance to and worship of God this was devastating.  For them much of their worship revolved around the building rather than on the Most High God.

 

 

Perhaps that is what was in the mind of God when He inspired Jeremiah to pen, “a glorious throne on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary”. The worship of God never was, is not, and never will be dependent on any building.  God is omnipresent, abiding everywhere and, as Jesus made it clear to the woman at the well in John 4, “true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth”.

 

In Jeremiah 17:13 we read

“LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame.  All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.”

  

Jeremiah is prophesying and speaking to the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, God’s chosen people, as a result when He writes, “…all who abandon You will be put to shame.”, He is writing to a people who at one time had a relationship with God.  The word “abandon” in the original Hebrew is a very strong word, used frequently in Jeremiah, starting in 1:16 where God says the nation of Judah, they “abandoned Me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands”.

 

 

The picture here is that the people of Judah have turned their backs, abandoned, forsaken, the God who had literally formed them with His own hands. Don’t forget, throughout the creation account God spoke virtually everything into existence except when it came to man, with His own hands, He reached down and formed him out of the dust of the ground, then breathed in him the breath of life.  Now here man is abandoning God and declaring as god, something they formed with their own hands, except they were unable to beath the breath of life into these idols. They were worshipping dead things, capable of doing nothing, instead of the living God who was and is all powerful and perfect in every way.

 

 

Jeremiah goes on to write, “all who turn away from me will be written in the dirt.” In reading this, my mind quickly was drawn to John 8:2-11 and the biblical account of the woman caught in adultery. In this passage, the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery.  I’m not sure where the man was, but that is a topic for another time. They were testing Jesus, to trap Him into saying or doing something they could use against Him.  Jesus initially says nothing, He simply bends over and begins to write something on the ground. Scripture does not tell us what He wrote, but I am guessing he writes some very specific sins.  Ignoring what He was writing, they persisted at questioning Him, then He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, Jesus bent over and again began to write on the ground. As before, Scripture does not give any indication what Jesus wrote.  In my mind I wonder, did He begin to write names of men next to the specific sins He had written earlier?  What we do know is that as He wrote, one by one, each man left, until He was there alone with the woman.

 

This fits well with Jeremiah 17:13, because as these men were leaving while Jesus wrote on the ground, they were turning away from Jesus. In the end, the only one who didn’t turn away was the woman. She was the only one who was able to drink from “the fountain of living water” to experience the incredible freedom one obtains from the “Lord, the hope of Israel.”  He was her only hope, and He is our only hope.  Our freedom comes when we abandon our sin and turn to Him with repentant hearts, drinking from the living water.

 

Father in heaven, O that my heart would be wholly and completely devoted to You. May I never move into a position of merely checking all the religious boxes. May my worship never revolve around places, things, or people, but on You, the one true God. My hope is in You and You alone. May I, day by day and moment by moment, abandon the sin that can become so prevalent in my life, and turn to You with a repentant heart, that I might drink from the Living Water that is Jesus my Savior.

This I pray, in His Holy Name, Amen

Come, All You Who Are Thirsty...

 

“Come, everyone who is thirsty,
come to the water;
and you without silver,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without silver and without cost!” Isaiah 55:1

 

Isaiah 55 begins with a call to the desolate, a call to those who were in great despair, who in a physical sense, had little more than the clothes on their backs. It is a prophecy with a dual fulfillment, with the first fulfillment serving as a precursor to the ultimate fulfillment. In this instance, the first fulfillment was around 150 years in the future when, by a decree of King Cyrus, the Nation of Judah, returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God, and later the walls around Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah). But its ultimate fulfillment is a spiritual fulfillment and it finds that fulfillment in the heart of the repentant Sinner. Isaiah begins; “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water”. In reading this, my mind is drawn to John 4 and to the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. She came to draw water from a physical well, Jesus directed her to draw from the spiritual well for living water. 

 

Isaiah goes on to write; “and you without silver, come buy, and eat!Come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!” Moving back to John 4, we see that, similar to the recipients of Isaiah’s message, the only thing The Woman At The Well brought to the table was a bankrupt soul. She was completely desolate. Here she is desolate, with a bankrupt soul, yet at the same time her spiritual mouth was parched with thirst, tongue dry and sticking to the roof of her mouth. In a spiritual sense, her stomach was completely void of any nutrition with an unquenchable hunger and deep rumblings that come with an empty stomach. Just as Isaiah does here in chapter 55, Jesus directs her attention to… well He had directed her attention to Himself. He was and is the Living Water, He was and is the Bread of Life. Spiritually, His Blood the wine, His Body the bread. She brought nothing to the table but a bankrupt soul, He laid before her an incredible feast, which He paid for in full, on the cross. 

 

What was true of her, what was true in the returning exiles, is also true of us. All that we bring to the table is a bankrupt soul, empty pockets spiritually, parched mouths, and spiritually empty stomachs. Jesus says, Come to a feast I have prepared for you. I know what it is you bring to the table, bankrupt souls, facing a debt you have no hope of repaying. That insurmountable debt you owe, you owe to Me, and I Myself have paid the debt, with My Own Blood, with My Own Body, broken for you. Come, drink and thirst no more. Come eat and be satisfied. 

 

Have you drawn from the well of living water that is Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so today?

A Portrait of the Suffering Servant - Isaiah 53

A Portrait of the Suffering Servant - Isaiah 53

 

Is there a more vivid picture in all of the Old Testament than the portrait painted by Isaiah in Isaiah 53? The old prophet takes a hold of the paint brush, and the Hand of the Holy Spirit directs his hand to the questioning color of black. Isaiah 53 begins with a question. In some ways this question could have been asked by any of the prophets, as their prophetic utterances generally fell on ears that refused to hear. 

      “Who has believed what we have heard? 

And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?” (vs. 1)

 

The old prophet discards the used paint brush, reaches for a new one, once again, the Spirit of the Almighty directs his hand on to the palette to a very light shade of green, he then moves to the canvas and paints, what appears to be a “root out of dry ground” (vs. 2), so tender, you would think that the scorching sun and strong wind from the south would wither it into nothingness. Then, there was his brush strokes, honestly the least impressive you had ever seen, a 5-year-old could have done a better job. 

 

Keeping the same paint brush, and still directed by the Hands of the Almighty, the old artists hand's moved back to palette and then moves through every other shade of green, until the tip of the brush resembled what would proceed from the mouth of someone with a high fever. As he moves to the canvas, what came forth went from bad to worse, it was as sickening as the combination of all the green colors, actually, it was worse. You found yourself despising (vs. 3) what was appearing before you on the canvas. No longer able to “look” (vs. 2), you “turned away from” (vs. 2) the painting. It was hard to imagine there ever being any “value” (vs. 3) at all in this painting.

 The old artist placed the paintbrush on the palette, giving the impression that he had finished, however, moments later, something began to change, not so much in the portrait, it was more a change inside your heart. Honestly, it was impossible to put into words what was taking place. Somehow, the sick feelings and feelings of illness, some of which you didn’t even realize you had, began to move from inside of you and, strangely enough, move onto the canvas. As you think back on it now, you are taken aback by your initial reaction. Rather than a heart of gratitude at the transfer that had just taken place, you looked at the portrait with a deep disdain, a sense that the individual appearing on the portrait as being “stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.” (vs. 4) 

More than that, He was being “crushed” (vs. 5), as if the God of heaven were placing His foot upon the Figure on the canvas, Who now appeared to be alive, and crush the Him to pieces under God’s great wrath. Crushed, not because of any wrong done by Him, He was being crushed, experiencing the wrath of God, as a result of the “iniquity of us all” (vs. 6), past, present, and future. Throughout all of this, though all our iniquities were being thrust upon Him, “He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb being led to the slaughter and like a sheep is silent before her shearers, He did not open His Mouth” (vs. 7).

 Then something mysterious began to take place on the canvas. From the deep recesses of the background of the living form on the portrait, a cross began to move, though unnoticed up until now, you had a sense it was there all along, but now it was moving from the background to the forefront. It was an Old Rugged Cross with deep crimson blood appearing towards the top, bottom, and on the ends of both cross beams. At the center of the blood-stained bottom and at the center of the blood stains on both the crossbeams, nails, thick nails, nine inches in length, instantaneously appeared, and a stream of blood began to flow from each of the nail pierced holes. Even more mysteriously, small holes began to appear at the top of the cross, with blood beginning to drip in small droplets, as if thorns were being thrust deeply into the cross. Soon, blood was flowing there as well. 

The four streams of blood joined into one great stream of blood. So great a stream, that it completely encompassed the fading form on the portrait, until His life crumbled, then completely disappeared under the weight of the wrath of the Almighty, thrust upon Him through the iniquities that were laid on His weakened shoulders. What was at one time a living form, forsaken by God the Father, shouted, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), and took one final breath, before the last bit of life left His broken body. 

 

To the left, a grave, prepared for the scum of the earth appeared, in the grave, room was made for the broken form. Then, suddenly to the right, appeared a tomb for the wealthy, hewn out of a large rock. It was there the Body was placed. It seemed fitting, for while He was completely engulfed under the weight of the iniquities of all of mankind, He Himself had never acted in “violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (vs. 9).

 

Now gazing intently at the dark ugly canvas, the Face of the Most High God, the God of the universe appears, and on that Face, you see great pleasure, as if He were “pleased to crush” (vs. 10) the now lifeless body, that was enclosed in the tomb of the wealthy.

 

Overcome with… well you weren’t actually sure what you were overcome with, but for the next three days, your eyes were glued to the canvas, not able to turn to the left or the right, you just stared at the canvas. Somehow you sensed there was more to come. Then, early in the morning of the third day, before the sun had even risen, out of the midst of the dark ugly portrait on the canvas, a light begins to shine forth. Did I say shine? Let me change that, it wasn’t shining, it was flowing, flowing like a mighty flood from the very spots where the crimson blood flowed just three days earlier. And as it flowed, that mighty flood cleansed, completely and totally cleansed, the ugly iniquities of all who gazed upon it. 

 

 

At the same moment, the chest of the lifeless form on the canvas, began to expand and contract as if breath was flowing into the lungs. The eyes, once closed, opened, and the large stone that had been placed in the opening of the tomb, rolled away, releasing from the confines, the now living One, risen joyfully and triumphantly, never again to taste death, having once “willingly submitted to” (vs. 12) it. Now, the “righteous Servant” (vs. 11) Who had become the “Lamb being led to the slaughter” (vs. 7), reigns victorious. The portrait, once so ugly, your eyes turned away in disdain, was now so infinitely beautiful, you never wanted to turn your eyes away. 

 

Isaiah 53 

“Who has believed what we have heard?

And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?

² He grew up before Him like a young plant

and like a root out of dry ground.

He didn’t have an impressive form

or majesty that we should look at Him,

no appearance that we should desire Him.

³ He was despised and rejected by men,

a Man of suffering Who knew what sickness was.

He was like someone people turned away from;

He was despised, and we didn’t value Him.

⁴ Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses,

and He carried our pains;

but we in turn regarded Him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

⁵ But He was pierced because of our rebellion,

crushed because of our iniquities;

punishment for our peace was on Him,

and we are healed by His wounds.

⁶ We all went astray like sheep;

we all have turned to our own way;

and the Lord has punished Him

for the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet He did not open His mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughter

and like a sheep silent before her shearers,

He did not open his mouth.

⁸ He was taken away because of oppression and judgment,

and who considered His fate?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

He was struck because of my people’s rebellion.

⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

but He was with a rich man at His death,

because He had done no violence

and had not spoken deceitfully.

¹⁰ Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely.

When you make Him a guilt offering,

He will see His seed, He will prolong His days,

and by His Hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

¹¹ After His anguish,

He will see light and be satisfied.

By His knowledge,

my righteous Servant will justify many,

and He will carry their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion,

and He will receive the mighty as spoil,

because He willingly submitted to death,

and was counted among the rebels;

yet He bore the sin of many

and interceded for the rebels.”