Category: Old Testament

The Most Dangerous Kind of Biblical Belief

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The apostle Paul stood before the Roman governor, Festus, and proclaimed the truth of Jesus from the Old Testament scripture. Paul emphasized Jesus rising from the dead in order to be the light of the world. The response of Festus is not unfamiliar to many of us; the governor accused Paul of being “out of his mind” (Acts 26:24). Paul quickly replied that rather than being insane, his words were true and rational. Then, in a winsome turn to King Herod Agrippa I, who was listening to Paul alongside the governor, the great apostle declared, “For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner” (Acts 26:26).

This was a quite a strategic move by Paul. He appeals to the actual historical account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Certainly the king of Judea knows of all that has happened in his time and in his region. When God acts, He acts in real history and real geography. Having brought the true account of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection to the forefront, Paul makes a critical connection. For, what a person does with facts concerning God’s working in this world of ours is of a life-or-death nature. King Agrippa must acknowledge the reality of the existence, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now, what He does with these facts will determine his eternal destiny.

Paul goes for the jugular next, so to speak, in the hope of the king’s conversion. Having established the historicity of Jesus’ life, the apostle now looks directly at the king and asks, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe” (Acts 26:27). Paul is able to ask this question because he knows of the king’s loose connection with Judaism. As the Bible commentator Matthew Henry once wrote, “For everyone knew that Agrippa professed the Jews’ religion, as his fathers had done, and therefore both knew the writings of the prophets and gave credit to them.” The apostle appeals to Agrippa’s background and professed religious beliefs. As a Jew, how could the king discount the Old Testament prophets? Of course King Agrippa held to the tenets of the Old Testament scriptures; he could not deny the reality of Paul’s statement from a purely mental standpoint.

It catches us off guard that Paul says to an unsaved man, “I know that you believe.” Certainly, Agrippa was not a Christian. Despite the fact that he was in the line of wicked Herod’s and also was married to his own sister, Agrippa could have come to salvation. But he did not. He only believed.

What? Yes … he only believed. He only gave mental ascent to the facts of Jesus Christ and all the prophecies of the Old Testament that the Son of God had fulfilled. He only held these beliefs in his mind, as they could not be denied. He only read and knew the Bible verses to the point of head knowledge; never did he lay his life on the truth of Jesus.

We read in the very next verse of this “AGRIPPing” account (you can laugh there) these scary words, “And Agrippa said to Paul, ‘In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” (Acts 26:28) There you have it. The king, although given a concise opportunity to connect the dots of true Christian faith, decided to reject honest salvation. He was willing to believe the facts with his mind, but He was not willing to give his life as a follower of Christ and be called – in the most genuine sense of the word – a “CHRISTian.”

Do you know the facts of the Bible and the life of Jesus? So do the demons and Satan. Read Matthew 8:29 and realize that demons acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and even understand that He has an appointed time in the future when he will torment them for their wickedness. I guess that is why James says in chapter 2, verse 19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder!” But then James goes on to tell us that faith without works is dead. Head knowledge without life application is pointless in terms of our safety. We are damned if we only give mental ascent to the things of Jesus and His Word but do not stake our very lives on Him. To believe with your brain is one thing, to live with your heart is another.

Let the account of Paul and King Agrippa be an intense reminder for us. Answering the question, “Do you believe?” is not just a “yes” or “no” task. The answer needs to be more like, “I believe both with my mind AND my life.”

– By Shelli S. Prindle

Gospel Blown to Smithereens

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The heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was blown to smithereens in just a few minutes one morning over the airwaves. Just as I turned on the radio, I heard a man of Jewish heritage explain the highlights of the Seder meal that his wife would prepare and his family enjoy during the Passover season. As a part of that description, he was asked by the radio show’s host what exactly was the meaning of the Passover. The gentleman explained that it was a remembrance of the Jewish people “dragging themselves” out of Egypt. Yes. He went on for a few moments letting all the listeners know that back in the days of Moses, God’s people were finally able through much effort, hard work, and persistence, to somehow drag themselves out of Egypt. In all fairness, I must add that after a few sentences about this great human effort, the Jewish man tacked on at the end a brief statement in a lighthearted voice, “Of course, God did help them.”

Wow. The Hebrew people were somehow able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and manage to limp out of Egypt by their own hard work, though they were so completely bedraggled? I think not! The book of Exodus (part of the Jewish scriptures and, of course, part of the Christian Bible) tells us the reality of the Hebrews’ desperate situation in chapter 2, verses 23-25, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.”

Clearly, the Hebrews were downtrodden beyond belief, and they needed rescued by God. This was not a work of human effort. Their miraculous deliverance would be the direct result of God’s keeping His Word. He would keep His covenant that was originally made to Abraham and passed down through the generations. The exodus of God’s people was all the result of Him keeping His promise, and not vice versa. For we, even as His people today, continue to fail Him. It is as the Apostle Paul proclaims in 2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV), “If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.”

In fact, Exodus 6:6-9 (ESV) really gets to the heart of the matter by letting us know how helpless God’s people were, how mighty God’s salvation is, how lame the enemy is compared to the Savior, and how lacking in faith and hope the Hebrews remained even on the precipice of deliverance. We read God’s Word spoken to Moses, “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” This passage of the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the work of the exodus was all of God. In fact, the Lord tells His people that they would know it was Him who brought them out, because the work would be so miraculous. Despite the reiteration of God’s promise, the people still did not listen. This was definitely not a group of people who were pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and dragging themselves out of a bad situation; rather, this was a nation that was about to be thrown out of Egypt after a series of supernatural interventions by the Lord!

When we think of the plagues – the blood, the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the death of livestock, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the darkness, and the death of the firstborn – how can we imagine that the exodus was the result of human endeavor with a little bit of God’s help? The only thing we see in this historical account is the incomprehensible work of a God who never fails to keep His promises. The Israelites could in no way cause any of the plagues of judgment; it was all a work of the Lord.

The most disturbing part of what happened over the airwaves the day this gentleman talked with the radio host is how the reality of the Gospel was distorted by this discussion from the Old Testament. Not only was the truth of the book of Exodus not brought to light accurately, but the message of Jesus Christ as Savior was greatly harmed. You see, the New Testament is built upon the Old Testament. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the law (of the Old Testament), but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17) Jesus made clear that the Bible’s purpose is to point people to Him for eternal life. He said to the Jews in John 5:39 (ESV), “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The historical account of the exodus, therefore, points to Jesus Christ! It is a beautiful picture of how God saves us. Remember that Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The Israelites in Moses’ day had no reason to brag about their own efforts in the exodus. In the same way, Christians today have no reason to boast about our salvation; it is all God’s work!

When God sent the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, after wearing the Egyptians down with the other nine, it was a picture of the necessity of the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive our sins. The only way that Hebrew people could be spared death during this plague was to put the blood of a lamb without blemish over the doorposts of their homes. (Exodus 12:1-13) In the same way, we are saved today by applying the blood of Jesus Christ, the sinless One, to our hearts. (1 Peter 1:18-19) In all this narrative and theology, we notice that God is the one bringing deliverance through judgment of Egypt by plagues and that He is the one prescribing the only hope His people have for surviving that judgment.

The final plague struck the heart of Pharaoh and his nation, provoking him to throw the Hebrews out of His country. Exodus 12:30-32 (ESV) explains, “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, ‘Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!’” There you have it. Pharaoh effectively threw out the Hebrews from his land. Why? Because the Lord sent plagues, culminating in the last one that put Pharaoh over the edge. God’s people could not initiate nor carry out their deliverance – except for their calling out to God. The same is true today. The only part we play in our salvation is calling out to God to save us.

The damage done on the radio by a person who was referring to the Bible – but inaccurately so – is devastating. In deemphasizing the work of the Lord and pointing rather to the work of humans, one man gave the impression that human achievement is what saves us. “Every word of God proves true” (Proverbs 30:5, ESV), so we must take into account every detail of every part of the Bible. When any portion is distorted or misrepresented, untold spiritual damage occurs. I am sure that the devil was pleased with this particular instance of the work of Jesus Christ being minimized. The devil cannot create anything of his own, and so he works ardently to pervert what God has already said. This has been the devil’s method of operation from the beginning. He is the “father of lies” (John 8:44), and he is at work all of the time trying to twist God’s Word so that people will not be saved.

Be aware. Be watchful. (1 Peter 5:8) Know God’s Word for yourself. Do not let anyone misdirect your understanding of God’s truth. My experience with an “innocent” radio program is a grand example. The enemy is always at work to distort the message of God’s salvation. There is nothing more important than your eternal life, and there is no other source for understanding the salvation that Jesus Christ provides other than the Bible – exactly as it is written.

Curing the Grasshopper Complex

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Grasshopper
The promise of God was clear. The faith to claim it was weak. Sound familiar?

God has made many precious promises to His people, but we rarely walk in the strength of sheer belief. We get stuck in the natural – what we can experience with our five senses – rather than clinging to the greater reality of the supernatural. After all, “what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3, ESV). The obvious implication is that the invisible – the Word of God that created the universe – is infinitely more trustworthy than what was created. I can bank on God’s Word more than anything else in this vast collection of galaxies.

Enter grasshoppers. Yes, of all the unique illustrations to keep our faith on track, grasshoppers are easy to remember. Let’s explore what these little insects have to do with trusting in our mighty God.

The glorious promise God made to His people was repeated over and over to them. And it is an oath that we still wait to see unreservedly fulfilled at the return of Christ. Hear it succinctly in Exodus 6:7-8 (ESV, emphasis mine) in the response God gives to the Israelites regarding their desperate cry for deliverance from Egypt: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.”

There you have it. Straightforward. Unequivocal. God’s people were to be not only brought into the Canaan land, but they were surely to take possession of it. In fact, when the Lord tells Moses to send spies into that enemy territory to observe the land of Canaan they are soon to inherit, He calls it the land “which I am giving to the people of Israel” (Numbers 13:2, ESV). We see unquestionably that the Creator, the Ruler of the universe, has given Canaan to His people. It’s a guarantee. Why then, the disbelief? The majority of the spies sent by Moses come back with this report: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there” (Numbers 13:27-28, ESV, emphasis mine). Pretty negative assessment in light of the plain vow of God, right? They basically said, “The land is good like God said, but the enemies are strong and very tall like giants, and the cities are huge and well-protected. We don’t stand a chance.”

When Caleb, one of the spies and a man of faith, intervened by proclaiming, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30, ESV), the other spies quickly responded, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are … and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (Numbers 13:31, 33 ESV, emphasis mine). May we focus for a moment on that particular statement, because it summarizes much of my problem and yours in a memorable way? The bottom line was that God made a promise, and His people refused to see things from His true viewpoint instead of their own, skewed perspective. They felt so small and weak compared to the enemy (like grasshoppers to giants), and they, therefore, assumed that is how insignificant they also appeared to the enemy.

I often feel like a grasshopper – skittish and tiny – ready to jump at the step of a larger creature. And, sadly, I frequently assume that I really do seem like a grasshopper compared to the enemy of my soul. I know the promises of God, but I feel miniscule compared to the enormity of the problem in front of me. Do you?

Here is the answer for our “grasshopper complex.” When we ourselves feel like grasshoppers compared to the enemy – despite the clear promise of God – we need to be firmly reminded of who the grasshoppers really are – EVERYONE BUT GOD! Yep! Wrong perspective is feeling like a grasshopper compared to the difficulty standing in your way. Right perspective is understanding that everyone and everything shrinks to grasshopper status before God!

The Bible declares, “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings prices to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” (Isaiah 40:21-23, ESV, emphasis mine)

And there it is spelled out for us. It is wrong for me to feel like a grasshopper compared to my challenge or my enemy, because they are as grasshoppers too; it is right for me to feel like a grasshopper before God, because He is infinitely more strong than me. BUT, He is also infinitely more powerful than the problem and the enemy! The difference between me as a grasshopper and the enemy as a grasshopper is that THIS grasshopper has the promise of God on my side. I belong to Him, and He cares for me, and He cannot go against His own Word.

The unbelieving spies in the days of Moses never set foot in the Canaan Land. But the two who believed in the seeming impossible promise of God – the two who had the proper grasshopper perspective – they entered the land. No wonder it was called the “Promised Land.” It was reserved for those who would take God at His powerful, unseen – but real – Word. It belonged to the people who believed that they were only grasshoppers when compared to God, and not when compared to the enemy. It was given to people who believed that they were protected and empowered by a God at whose feet every enemy power and problem will jump away like jittery grasshoppers.

Will you claim the Promised Land with me? Can we please enter in?

Animals in the Scheme of Things

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A student recently asked me if animal experimentation is wrong from a biblical perspective. This is an important question that actually gives opportunity to highlight the invaluable nature of humanity, the preciousness of animals, and the incomprehensible love of God.

I will say at the outset that my heart is particularly grateful for animals used in the field of medicine, as the insulin I had to inject for survival during my first years as an insulin-dependent diabetic was pork insulin. Pork insulin was made from pig pancreases. As Erika Gebel, Ph.D., notes, “We’ve come a long way since more than two tons of pig parts were required to produce eight ounces of purified insulin. Today, the insulin that comes in vials, pens, and pumps is not from pigs and cows but from designer microorganisms. These critters provide more of the hormones (and in forms more similar to the body’s own) to the millions of people across the globe who depend on a steady stream of high-quality insulin.” (1)

All of us are touched personally by disease and deformity. Everyone loves or knows someone who survives and/or benefits because of animal use in medicine. Each of us has also been touched by the lives of animals in other ways. God has made them good and beneficial for a number of reasons. We enjoy the companionship of domesticated animals as pets and the beauty and mystery of other creatures.

But as our culture continues to deemphasize the value of human life while simultaneously emphasizing the significance of the environment and animals, we begin to see questions surface. As Christians, we rightfully need to think through the issues using biblical principles; for the biblical perspective is the only perspective that is always correct and never changing. Despite our culture’s changing standards, God’s Word is timeless, and its principles stand true through all of history. As we will explore in the Scriptures in a moment, human value is above that of both the environment and animals (though the other parts of creation are vital and blessed!). William A. Dembski (mathematician, philosopher, and theologian) asserts, “Genesis clearly teaches that humans are the end of creation. For instance, Genesis describes the creation as merely ‘good’ before humans are created but describes it as ‘very good’ only after they are created. God’s activity in creation is therefore principally concerned with forming a universe that will provide a home for humans. Although this anthropocentrism sits uneasily in the current mental environment, it is not utterly foreign to it. Indeed, the intelligibility of the physical world through our intellects and, in particular, through such intellectual achievements as mathematics suggests that we live in a meaningful world whose meaning was placed there for our benefit.” (2)

I appeal to two passages of Scripture at the outset. First, Genesis 1:20-28 (ESV):

    And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
    And God said, “Let the earth bring for the living creatures according to their kinds – livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
    So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
    And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Notice that the living creatures were created and deemed “good” by their Creator. Notice also that when God created man and woman, He jumped into a new paradigm, making them “in his own image” – unlike anything else He had made. Humans were designed to have a unique relationship with God that no plant or animal or galaxy can ever have, no matter how beautiful or enjoyable. Additionally, humans were instructed to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Part of the human task of filling and subduing the world God created was to dominate the other creatures. Certainly this dominion is not for evil purposes, as evil goes against the very nature of God. The subduing of creation is for the purpose of building society.

The second passage to which I appeal at the start is Psalm 8:3-8 (ESV):

    When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
    Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

We see here reiterated the emphasis of Genesis. Added though, is the truth that people are made just a bit lower than heavenly beings and are crowned with glory and honor. All things are put under our feet in order that our true destiny of godly glory and honor is fulfilled. Again, I add that it is dishonorable to mistreat any part of God’s creation out of a malicious heart. Moving toward honor and glory in a broken and sinful world must happen as we seek to do so within the parameters of God’s plan, for honor and glory can only come from Him.

Our Lord clearly tells us that unneeded cruelty is wrong. Proverbs 12:10 (ESV) proclaims, “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” Jesus Himself often uses the metaphor of being a Shepherd, and He even speaks of “laying down his life for the sheep” (John 10:15, ESV). When we look at righteous King David of the Old Testament, we see a man who valued the keeping of His sheep enough to risk his own life in protecting them from lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34-35). In fact, when necessary, he would kill the beasts if both the life of the sheep and his life were threatened by them. So we see – that in a fallen world – the best option to protect what is valuable can involve death.

Research seems to demonstrate that domesticated animals can be a benefit to their owners in terms of emotional and physical health. This seems right, as God made animals to live on the same earth as humans, yet under our ultimate dominion and as part of the plan for us. In the same way, animals can benefit humans by providing health research for the treatment and cure of illness and disease.

Here is the ultimate biblical point that brings home the case for both the precious nature of animals and the allowance for their use in saving human health and life. Think about our redemption from sin. Our salvation from our own sinful nature is necessary to preserve our eternal life with God. Without salvation from sin, we die one day physically and we die spiritually for an eternity. Our Creator thought our redemption so vital that He provided His own Son as the sacrifice to stand in our place. His death on the Cross and His blood that was shed appease the wrath of a holy God against our sin (Ephesians 1:7).

God sacrificed Himself in real flesh – and in real space and time – to save us. (No other religion’s god claims to have done this utterly unique and historically evidential act.) Our value is inestimable. Not only do we read of our worth in His Word, but we know of our value because the infinite Son of God gave His own life for ours. Two thousand years ago, Jesus began the restoration project of giving back to us our intended glory under the sovereignty of God. Made in His image to reign under Him, we will see that reality in the future. The cost was the very life of the Son of God.

Now think about this. Before Jesus came to earth to die and do the most pivotal thing God could do to demonstrate our human value and His love for us, how did He instruct humans to look forward by faith to that coming promise? The answer is critical: He told humans to make animal sacrifices. Innumerable animals were continuously slain so that their precious blood could point to the perfect blood of Jesus. As Scott Langston and E. Ray Clendenen note, “Leviticus 1-7 gives the most detailed description of Israel’s sacrificial system, including five types of sacrifices.” (3) As a matter of fact, when Adam and Eve attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves after the shame of their sin, God quickly demonstrated the inadequacy of such an attempt, and made them garments of skin (Genesis 3:7, 21). Skin clothing requires the death of an animal. And from then on, humans were instructed to deal with their sins by shedding animal blood to look forward to the final answer in the blood of Jesus (Genesis 4:3-5).

Sacrificial animals were precious enough (having been made by God) to foreshadow the work of Jesus. But they were not as valuable as the people for whom their blood would temporarily point to redemption by Jesus. God Himself makes clear both animal value and the limits of that value when compared to humanity. To God, our spiritual hope is worth animal sacrifice. Most assuredly, then, our physical health is worth it, too.

God cares for the animals. “He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry” (Psalm 147:9, ESV). Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26a, ESV). But then He directly adds, “Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26b) This rhetorical question Jesus asks, which follows an affirmation of His care for little birds, drives home the point. Animals are important. God sees all that happens with them. But people are more important, and one of the ways God has certainly provided for humans is by animal life.

We rejoice in the New Heavens and New Earth God that God is creating, because the sin curse will be erased and all disease eradicated (Revelation 22:3). People and animals will live without the hindrance of sin’s nasty effects. For now, we thank God for His calling on us to take dominion of this world under His sovereignty. Above all, we thank Him for the unimaginable price He paid for our entrance to the new world – foreshadowed at great cost by precious animals – and fulfilled in His Son. As I Peter 1:18-21 (ESV) tells us:

    Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

All of us who value animals and what they provide by way of medical help and emotional help rejoice in this promise about the millennial reign of Christ in the beginning of that new world (Isaiah 11:6-9, ESV):

    The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

References:

(1) Erika Gebel. “Making Insulin: A behind-the-scenes look at producing a lifesaving medication.” Diabetes Forecast. July 2013. Web. Jan. 27 2015.

(2) William A. Dembski, The End of Christianity (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2009), 143-44.

(3) Scott Langston & E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1429.

Grabbing Lions by the Beard on an Ordinary Day

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Young David – without armor – slays a 9’9″ tall enemy warrior in an amazing and unexpected upset. So what’s actually behind one of the most famous confrontations of history? Believe it or not, this one success can be traced back to an ordinary young man performing seemingly insignificant duties for countless days – but doing so with extreme devotion at great personal risk.

We usually hear preachers talk of or children’s books tell of only the face-to-face encounter between David and Goliath, and we rejoice in God’s underdog seeing victory. We think only of that glorious moment and neglect to consider the tedious preparation that led to the pinnacle experience.

For the full story, we need to take note of David’s response to King Saul when the king tried to discourage David from fighting Goliath since the giant had so much war experience and David had none (I Samuel 17:33-37a, ESV):

    And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has stuck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Let us not carelessly discount the importance of this section of God’s Word! Here we learn that David’s confidence – while ultimately rooted in the Person of God – was directly connected to his endless hours in fields with nothing but sheep for which to care. Although David could have perceived those times as rather unexciting and unimportant, he obviously chose to regard his shepherding assignment as a high calling from His Lord.

The young shepherd testifies that he would risk his life for sheep! He clearly explains that he would go after lions and bears that took his lambs, and David would deliver the sheep directly from the mouths of the beasts! In fact, he goes on to specify that at times he would take a lion by the beard and strike it and kill it. I don’t know about you, but to me, that kind of personal dedication and risk of life and limb for the sake of the job is remarkable … even … supernatural. David took most seriously his care of the sheep to which God had entrusted him.

As he walked the fields each day with his animals, David could not have known about the giant Philistine who he would one day face. His only concern was doing the right thing for the animals to which both his earthly father and his heavenly Father had entrusted him. In the mundane tasks of life, David lived with a God-given passion. And he obviously had a daily trust that the God who called him to watch over the sheep would enable him to protect the sheep, even if wild beasts were involved.

When David arose from the ordinary stream of life to an extraordinary moment such as the battle with Goliath, every ordinary moment’s purpose suddenly became evident. The trust in God that grew each time David saved a sheep from a lion with his bare hands now culminated as David saved the Israelites from the Philistine giant and his whole evil army.

What David practiced daily in the trivial enabled him to succeed in the pivotal, because – actually – the small things are the big things. Our character is formed in the trenches of everyday living and our hope in God is built in the daily grind of life.

Interestingly, David compares those wild beasts that attacked his sheep to the man Goliath who was now attacking Israel. Recall that he said, “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for h has defied the armies of the living God” (I Samuel 17:36, ESV).

I think one reason David makes this comparison is that even though the lions and bears were only attacking various sheep (which seem of little value in the scheme of things), they were attacking what David was called by God to protect. This defiant giant is no different really; he is attacking what David is called by God to protect … the reputation of His Lord!

And so the trivial is inextricably tied to the pivotal. Living out “regular” days for the reputation of our God produces supernatural victories. We must remember, however, that living with God-given zeal will not be easy. It is costly. It requires great faith. And any time you need a boost, picture the shepherd, David, grabbing the beard of a lion for the sake of a sheep. Then remember that one day he took down a giant enemy of God for the sake of God’s people.

But for the greatest inspiration, we look to Jesus. He willingly chose the title, “Son of David” (Matthew 1:1). One reason I believe Christ chose to associate so closely with David is because of something particular they had in common. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd … I lay down my life for the sheep” (Matthew 10:14-15, ESV). Do you see it? Each time David risked his life to care so much for a little lamb, he was foreshadowing the selfless love of Jesus in dying for us – his sheep!

David functioned as both shepherd and warrior. He was shepherd first, and then became victorious in battle. In the same way, Jesus came first as our shepherd to give His life for us, and He will come again to be the victorious Warrior against our greatest enemy and all his evil army! (Revelation 19:11-21, 1 Corinthians 15:22-25).

I am thanking God today for recording the history of the life of David … and its connection to our Jesus. I am also thanking God for the ability to grab the lion by the beard in the course of everyday living.

Questions for Reflection and Application:

1. What is the “field” in which you work for countless days that makes you feel your life is insignificant?

2. Will you ask God to help you see how your dedication to His calling in these daily tasks will enable you to promote the reputation of God to the world?

3. Though our “Goliath” is ultimately Satan, what “lions and bears” are you facing? Do you see how God empowers us to grab those lions and strike them down?

4. When we care for what God has entrusted to us, we are reflecting the heart of Jesus in His care for His “sheep.” For what has God called you to care deeply and self-sacrificially?

5. Will you rest ultimately in the promise that Jesus is not only our Shepherd, but our Warrior? We will see the conclusive victory with Him!

Mark of Distinction

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No room for bragging exists when it comes to people of God. There is no place for self-righteousness and no room for human credit when it comes to genuine Christianity. Nothing marks a follower of God as distinct from anyone else except for one thing: God is with him.

Our clever actions, seemingly selfless sacrifices, moral position relative to others, or regular church attendance do not truly separate us from the masses of people. One thing makes a Christian unique – and one thing only – God is with us.

Let no Christian be deceived into thinking that she is special because of her own performance. Let no man of God rest in his own talents, personality, or possessions. We have only one hope for being set apart from all others, and that hope does not originate with us. We are only and marvelously distinct because God is going with us wherever we go. Hear the words of Moses as he prays on behalf of the Israelites he is leading, “For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:16, ESV)

God’s people were not chosen because they were particularly great or better than others; they were chosen and, therefore, made great. It is God’s abiding with a man or woman that makes that person a work of wonder. What we need is God with us. We desperately require His presence at every turn and in every moment. If He is with us, for us there shall be no demise. He conquers all.

No wonder the Gospel of Matthew proclaims of Jesus, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:23, ESV) Jesus is the grand fulfillment of God’s plan to be with His people. Because of Jesus Christ, we both see God in the flesh and are able to be reconciled to God. That reconciliation provides the means for God to take up residence in my body, His temple (I Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). Because of dear Jesus, I am assured that God is always with me, for my sins have been covered with the blood of Christ; and they are no longer able to separate me from my Creator.

“Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct?” asked Moses. The resounding answer is, “Yes!” We are marked for hope and eternal life – made different from the world – because God has willingly chosen to be with us. It is not our doing; it is His doing . . . and it is wonderful beyond words.

Question for Reflection: What stands out to people about you? Is it some quality of yours? Or do people remark that you are special because they sense God’s nearness when they are near you?

Staircase to Heaven

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God wants your eyes opened to a dynamic, spiritual world that both coincides with and transforms the physical universe. He wants you to live extraordinarily in the context of the ordinary. He wants you in on the secret – the supernatural is accessible. Yes, God desires to live with you, despite the infinite distance between the two of you. He wants you to see the unseen and build the eternal, even while stuck in moments of time.

The unveiling of this awesome, spiritual realm can happen at any point, in any place. Consider Jacob, son of Isaac. Running from his brother, Esau, whom he had deceived, Jacob finds a place in which to rest one night. “Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep” (Genesis 28:11, ESV). Then God gave Jacob a dream about a staircase set up on the earth that reached to Heaven. Angels of God were ascending and descending on this glorious staircase. To me, one of the most amazing parts of the dream was what the Lord said as Jacob watched angels travel from Heaven to earth and from earth to Heaven. God promised, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring . . . Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (Genesis 28:13, 15, ESV).

Did you catch it? God is interested in even the dirt beneath our feet! God is in the business of bringing His presence to this earth and His promise to the very real and practical places of our lives. The Lord does not beckon Jacob to somehow climb into a spiritual-only realm way out “beyond the blue.” Our God shows Jacob that He connects the earthly and heavenly. The Lord tells Jacob that the very ground on which he rests with a stone as a pillow will be the land that is blessed – the land where God will be with us. Our Creator has not forsaken us or the earth His hand fashioned. No, our Maker reveals to Jacob – and to us – a portal to the spiritual realm of blessing. Through God’s supernatural working, the ordinary stuff is transformed into the utterly amazing.

When Jacob awoke, he proclaimed something that resonates in our own hearts, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16, ESV). Yes! We need awakened to the reality that God is right where we are – working and moving. Your house is more than just a house; it is a place where God lives and moves and comforts and grows you. The stoplight at which you sit in your car is contained in no mundane intersection; it is a location where angels dwell and where God’s Spirit speaks. Do you see the staircase? Is your heart open to that portal between the regular and the miraculous? If not, I can tell you why.

That staircase – that Way – to the spiritual realm . . . is Jesus. He said to Nathanael one day, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51, ESV). Jesus here declares that He is, in fact, the staircase of Jacob’s dream. Jesus Christ is the Gate through which we enter the supernatural world of God’s blessing. Jesus is the Way to see what truly matters in the midst of the ordinary. He paid the price for our sin, in order that we might experience the miracle of God working right here where we are.

Ultimately, God will bring His dwelling place to us. The apostle John declared in a vision from God of the future, “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:2, 3, ESV, emphasis mine). Until that day when God surrounds us with His fullness, we thank Him for Jesus, the staircase that opens the way for us to the things of God even now . . . as we walk this “ordinary” terrain.

The Merging of Human and Divine Suffering

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Human misery abounds. We endure pain that comes in many shapes, sizes and ways. The heart aches, the body hurts, the mind is torn; and all the while life goes on. The questions beneath the surface are, “Does God understand?” and “Does God care?”

In teaching an adult class in Christian apologetics (a reasoned defense and articulation of the biblical faith), I was moved deeply in one moment of time as we recognized the profound message of God through one of the Psalms. We were studying the miraculous fulfillment of prophecy (against mathematical odds) as evidence of the Bible’s credibility. In particular, Psalm 22 is a psalm of David, written c. 1000 B.C. And yet, we find much of its content fulfilled in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ c. A.D. 30. God stays true to His Word over the span of a millennium. The Spirit of God worked through David’s life and mind as the words of Psalm 22 were written, and the same Holy Spirit was at the Cross of Calvary as Jesus suffered.

Striking me in our class that one particular day, were the beauty and comfort of the merging of the affliction of both man and God. You see, David was a mere human. He was a brave shepherd who became a king, but he was also a person who committed adultery and murder. David was a man of flesh and bone. He knew success and he knew failure. He prospered at times, but he also endured great loss. Hated and pursued by King Saul, having watched his baby with Bathsheba die, betrayed by his own son, and regretting deeply His sin; David was a human who knew anguish. That anguish pours from his pen in Psalm 22.

Hear David’s first lament in verse one, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1, ESV) Have you ever felt this way? Forsaken by God? As if God is distant and not hearing your groans? Perhaps we perceive a distance because our distress is so great, or because our sins against God are so palpable. In either case, we at times feel that the Lord has thoroughly forgotten us. We understand David’s grieving.

Ah, but do we understand God’s grieving? Do we recognize that for however intensely we sink into sorrow, God sinks even deeper? Though David asked and recorded these dark questions 1,000 years before Jesus came to earth, the Son of God Himself uttered the same words as He languished on the Cross. Yes, I at times feel like God has abandoned me. The sinfulness of me and the whole world has shattered the framework of peace and right as originally intended. That invasion of brokenness as the result of sin leads us to sense that we have somehow been deserted. Though the feeling is very real to us, the truth is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was actually isolated as His Father substituted Him as the offering for our sin in the grueling moments of the Cross. Jesus did, in fact, endure the unimaginable darkness of being abandoned by the Father. With incredible determination, Jesus willingly took the hit of “being forsaken.” We hear Him call out loudly from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV)

Would you look to the dovetailing here of human and divine misery? What David feels, God fulfills. The hurt we humans face is met directly by our Creator. His love is so profound that He dives even lower into the hurt than we can go. Never believe that God does not understand. Place one finger in your Bible at Psalm 22 and another in Matthew 27, and then ask God to comfort your heart with His immeasurable and tangible understanding of your pain.

The entirety of Psalm 22 is filled with allusions to Christ’s suffering. Amazingly, God parallels the hurt of Jesus with the feelings of David. David cries, “My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast” (Psalm 22:14b, ESV). We know that misery. We have experienced our heart “melting” in despair. Incredibly, this outpouring of David by God’s Spirit is surrounded by words we again can tie directly to God’s Son: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15, ESV). Jesus’ body was hanging on a cross – bones out of joint – but not broken. He suffered unbelievable thirst. Ultimately, God laid His Son in the dust of death, as no human took His life. Following the death of Jesus, water and blood poured from His side at the strike of the Roman spear. All these details correspond to the feelings and prophecy of David’s Psalm. Do you see the merging of how we sometimes and temporarily feel with the actuality of God’s suffering?

Take comfort! The last verses of the psalm confirm the glorious end result of God’s work in the midst of greatest distress. God was in control even as Jesus died. God raised Him up! God accomplished His goal; the suffering had purpose! So does yours. “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (Psalm 22:24, ESV).

God knows. Your greatest misery merges – just as David’s – with the suffering of God. He did not have to, but God chose to enter into pain more profoundly than we can imagine. When you pray, He understands.

God’s Got This

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Plans. We all attempt to make them. We feel guilty if they go unfulfilled. We struggle to know what they should be. We race the clock to complete them. We envy those of others. Plans. They excite us and they haunt us. And in the end, we know they are ultimately out of our control.

That’s a synopsis of plans from the inside out. What about pondering plans from the outside in?

Before I was ever born, the plans were already laid for the significance of my life. Fundamentally, I had nothing to do with the blueprint of my reality. I did not yet exist when my God wrote my days in His book. Listen to the poetry of Psalm 139:16b (ESV):

    “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Understanding the sovereignty of God and, therefore, the finality of His designing efforts is quite a comfort. Our Lord is not constrained by time and circumstance. He does not work the plan of my life from the inside out. He works it out from eternity! Time cannot thwart His projects. Confusion does not enter the scene of God’s working.

God has hand-written a book about that critical intersection of my life and the days I endure. When I wake each morning, I can know that my all-powerful Lord is central at the meeting place of each day and my existence.

I will not live an earthly day that I am not supposed to live, and I will not miss an earthly day that is planned for me. From God’s plan for my life, not one speck can be stolen.

Thrive, my friend, in the knowledge of God’s strategy. Rather than wonder in frustration about so many plans – old and new – talk to the One who is in real control. Your days were etched in His book before you were a part of this world. God’s got this.

Standing Before Monsters

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Sometimes, in order to get to the promise, we have to stand before a monster. The path to the sacred and wonderful place God wants to take us is not one of least resistance. We gaze forward, and we see monsters looming on the horizon – circumstances, individuals, problems, and heartaches that appear too big for us to handle.

So it was for God’s people when He called them to take over the Promised Land. Just about to enter the fields of blessing, the Israelites were reminded of this life’s harsh realities. “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?'” (Deuteronomy 9:1-2, NASB) What a difficult thing to hear! God clearly explains that His own people are about to come face-to-face with mighty giants. The enemy is bigger than them and stronger than them. Not only so, but the reputation of the enemy is well-known across the land so that many ask, “Who can even survive and stand before these monstrous people?”

A similar question often rings in our own hearts. How can I survive the monsters in front of me? I see them. I hear them. I know that they are real. Others confirm that they are real. They are bigger than us. They are stronger than us. By all logical thinking, we are doomed. The job loss should ruin our finances. The illness should destroy us. The circumstantial setback is one from which we should not recover. The troubled relationship should ruin our family. The human enemy should do us harm. The burden should drive us to insanity. The grief should completely stifle us. The unanswered questions should keep us up at night.

But, they don’t. Even though the monsters are bigger than us, they are not bigger than our God! He is a “consuming fire.” Nothing will stand in His path against His will and be able to remain. He consumes the giants that would consume us! Listen to the resounding answer given to the threat of looming giants on the horizon, “Know therefore today that it is the LORD your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you” (Deuteronomy 9:3, NASB).

As you look longingly for the “land of promise,” what monsters stand on the border – threatening your demise? Does all common sense declare these giants are mightier than you? Do not fear. They are mightier than you, but they are absolutely helpless compared to God. He goes before you, defying all scary reports and difficult realities. He is a consuming fire, eliminating the monsters that cruelly threaten His people.

Child of God, you will enter into the promise of God for your life because you Lord is infinitely strong and wonderfully alive. He consumes what stand against His children – no matter how ominous the giants appear. We will stand before the monsters, but the consuming fire will lead the way.

Splattered Spaghetti and the Heart of God

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“Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” – Psalm 51:7 (NIV – 1984)

The other day I made for myself a simple plate of spaghetti. Of course, spaghetti is not inherently simple when you consider the red tomato sauce in which it is covered. My dinner was fully prepared – spaghetti drenched in sauce with some added mushrooms and parmesan cheese. I loaded the carbs onto my plate after a day of activity and exercise. My husband was out of town, so I grabbed my dinner from the kitchen counter to take it to the living room. My spaghetti was in one hand; my iced tea was in the other. Before I got past the edge of the kitchen, my balancing act proved unsuccessful, as the spaghetti slid off one side of my plate and splattered everywhere as it landed. The four-foot drop produced quite a mess! The white linoleum in that corner edge of my kitchen was covered in wet noodles, red sauce with cheese, and various mushrooms, which – just seconds ago – looked very appetizing. But now, it looked like someone had gotten quite ill. The dinner hit the floor with such force that sauce splattered onto the surrounding walls and carpet. In fact, I found sauce on the front door of my house, a half-story down and seven feet from the accident!

Though I was hungry, tired, and much wanting to eat; my immediate concern was to clean up the mess before stains set in. I went to the carpet and painted walls first, scrubbing with a good cleaning solution. The more I cleaned, the more I recognized additional spots of the sauce in unbelievable places. Finally, after picking up large heaps of the mess and dumping it into the garbage can, I got down on my hands and knees and started wiping away at the linoleum.

As I cleaned and scrubbed while kneeling on the floor, I thought, “What an inconvenience. What a dumb thing I just did. What a waste of time. This is annoying.” My busy arm came to a standstill as God dropped this beautiful reminder in my heart, “Shelli, this is what I do all the time – clean up the messes of the people I love. My heart is a heart of restoration. Though I don’t have to – for I have no obligations – I choose to be in the business of cleaning up messes, both big and small. People sin and turmoil comes; I forgive and I restore.”

Suddenly, my whole perspective changed. I was no longer bothered by the work I was doing. This inconvenience was now a hint of God’s unfathomable grace. He does not have to, but He willingly works continually to clean up our hearts and make them like new. He will even apply His heart to the restoration of this entire universe one day; though the sum total of its current pain, disaster, confusion, and messes seems insurmountable. God’s love and power are infinite and far-reaching. Just as I went to the farthest places spaghetti sauce splattered, so God goes to the furthest and deepest places human sin wreaks havoc. Projecting into the future, the Bible boldly declares, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'” (Revelation 21:1, 4, 5, ESV)

In the meantime, our God gets down “on the floor” where we are to clean things up. He sent His Son to live here, suffer here, and pay for sin here. God continually works in the business of cleaning and restoration. Out of pure and unbelievable love, He keeps cleaning and restoring.

Do you see nothing in front of you but a terrible mess? Do you see nothing in you but a disaster? Do you see nothing around you but wreckage? Hear the heart of God, the One who cleans so much more than splattered spaghetti:

“Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” – Psalm 51:7 (NIV – 1984)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” – II Corinthians 5:17 (NIV – 1984)

“You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” – Isaiah 58:12 (NIV – 1984)

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” – Isaiah 61:1 (ESV)

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” – Psalm 103:2-3 (ESV)

“I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.” – Jeremiah 33:8 (NIV – 1984)

The Theology Behind a Cell Phone in the Toilet

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Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. – Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV)

It happened. Out of my pocket and into the toilet it fell. My cell phone made a huge splash in the forbidden place – the depths of the porcelain bowl. And without one thought, I reached directly into the waters of the commode to retrieve the cherished item, my supposed lifeline to humanity. My arm lunged to rescue my phone from the toilet as quickly as I would act in any true emergency. I even let out a scream when I saw the shiny, metallic blue piece of technology hit the water and roll over. So distraught was I, and I don’t even have a touch screen phone!

As soon as I had pulled the phone from the toilet, I ran to my blow-dryer and began my feeble attempt to save my phone from death. Carefully extracting tiny screws, I dried the inner parts and surfaces; but I did so to no avail. My cell phone recovered only slightly and remained inoperable.

After replacing the phone the next day at the store, I quietly asked myself, “Why all the fuss?” I knew the answer. Cell phones have become a critical part of communication. How would I stay in touch with “my people”? What about calls and the esteemed texts? Without my cell phone, I would feel cut off from society as we have come to know it.

Then my mind went to a chapter of the Bible on which I had preached many years before, Isaiah 59. My seemingly desperate experience with the submerged phone directed me to ponder a truly desperate situation – that in which we cannot communicate rightly with God. The prophet proclaims in Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV), “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (emphasis mine). Just as the commode water stole from me a source of my communication with family and friends, so does my sin swipe my intimacy with my God.

I was instantly convicted of a great truth: I should be immeasurably more horrified by my heart’s plunge into sin than my cell phone’s nose-dive into the toilet! A submerged phone is a temporary glitch in one of the flows of human communication, but my heart’s sinfulness breaks my honest talking with God Almighty. My sin stops God from answering my prayer. Though His ear is not “too dull to hear,” my iniquity causes Him to refuse to hear. While stained with guilt, there remains a block between me and my Lord.

The question, then, becomes, “How quickly do I jump to remove myself from the waters of sinfulness?” I wonder if we are more outraged at the flood of wrong we have fallen into than the plunging of a piece of sensitive technology into water. How apt am I to quickly repent? Does my sin against God cause my spirit to shriek with disgust? Do I genuinely fear lost communication with God? How much does a block in my fellowship with Him bother me? Rightly, God’s refusal to hear us while we willfully sin against Him should spur us to resolve the matter. Much more than I need humans to hear me, I need God to intervene on my behalf.

Have you lately felt a terrible distance between you and God? Do you go through the motions of prayer, but God is not answering? Perhaps we must heed the warning that “[Our] sins have hidden his face from [us]” (Isaiah 59:2, NIV). And in observing this warning we will find a solution much better than vainly blow-drying a thoroughly soaked cell phone. Yes, the heart can be dried of sin by God Himself. When our Lord sees us lying there in the mess of sin, He decides to wash us when we simply and honestly repent. Isaiah 59:16 (NIV) declares, “[God] saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him.” God knows we are hopeless when it comes to “drying” ourselves of sin. So He takes matters into His own hands. By His own sacrifice and His own blood He saves us! Jesus is God in the flesh, having appeared to “work salvation” for us. All we need do is repent. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins” (Isaiah 59:20, NIV, emphasis mine).

Do you see your fellowship with God submerged in the waters of your sin? What is it in your life that is displeasing Him? React quickly. Tell Him you want to be right and do right. Tell Him you want communication to flow once again. He will then listen, for “His ear is [not] to dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1, NIV). Get that divine cell phone out of the depths; talk to God again!