Month: March 2020

Read: Psalm 130

¹Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! ² O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! ³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

⁴ But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; ⁶ my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. ⁸ And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

For many of us, peace is one of those feelings that is often elusive. We live with stress; with discouragement; with unsettledness; with dissatisfaction; with discord. We have want to be at peace – to have a sense of hope and joy and well-being – but we feel like something’s missing; not quite right; just out of reach.

How can we have a heart at peace? How can we walk through our days and weeks with a joyful sense that everything will be ok – even when it doesn’t look that way? The biggest obstacle we face in our desire for that peaceful heart is our own sin. Sin deceives us. It lies to us. It subtly plays upon our weaknesses and our insecurities and leads us to do, say, or think things we don’t want.

Psalm 130 is “a song of ascents”. It was one of the fifteen psalms (Psalms 120-134) pilgrims would sin as they came into Jerusalem for one of the three festivals all Jews were required to attend. They are psalms of hope, joy and expectation. Psalm 130 gives us a pattern that can help us find that elusive peace we long for: repentance; forgiveness; waiting; and worship.

Repentance (Psalm 130:1-3): Scripture encourages us invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and show us where we are out of step with God. Where have we disobeyed? Where is there sin?

When we come under the conviction of sin, often there is a heavy weight of guilt that leads us to cry out to God. David begins this psalm by crying out to God from the depths of his heart. He longs for God to hear his confession; to hear his plea for mercy; to not hold his sin against him. If God were to “mark iniquities,” who could survive?

Forgiveness (130:4): But God does forgive. When we confess our sin to him, he is faithful and just to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus paid our debt in total at the cross. His blood washes us clean. The holy, perfect, almighty God is to be feared – respected; awed; overwhelmed – and he loves us so much, he doesn’t hold our sin against us. He made a way for us to be forgiven.

Waiting (130:5-6): God’s timing is perfect. When we seek him with confession and receive his forgiveness, we also wait. We come to his word with hopeful expectation he will speak. We pray and speak to him with a heart tuned to listen as well. We wait for a nudge of his Spirit; we pause at a word or phrase that catches our attention; we sit in his presence and wait.

Waiting here is not simply sitting in his presence as we study his Word. Nor is it not stepping out to serve or to trust him until he moves in an incredibly obvious fashion. It is a companionable walking with him; a seeking to keep in step with him. It is a relationship that does not run ahead and seeks never to lag behind.

We wait for wisdom or guidance. We wait for answers to our prayers. We wait for him to make us whole and holy. We wait for him to come again and make all things new. We wait for him to take us home and to hear him say, “Well done!” Until Jesus returns, we wait.

Worship (130:7-8): We do not wait because God is too busy or because he is on a break. God is always moving. He is always at work. He is constantly doing all that is needed for us to grow closer to him. He is constantly moving in and around us to draw us closer.

All God does is worthy of our praise and adoration. Everything he does is good. Each and every character trait of our God is awe-inspiring and far more than we can imagine. He is infinitely good and infinitely worthy of our worship.

He is the God of hope. He is the God of steadfast love. He is the God of plentiful redemption. He is the God who saves. Worship is the appropriate response of hearts that are forgiven. Worship is the appropriate response of lives that have been and are being transformed. Worship is the only appropriate response to the God of the universe because of who he is and all he has done.

These four things – repentance, forgiveness, waiting, and worship – anchor us in a rhythm of grace. They help us to continue to seek God and to experience his deep love for us. They keep our eyes focused on the God of our circumstances rather than on the circumstances themselves.

Take time to reflect:

As you reflect on the psalm and on this pattern, where do you sense an invitation? What is stirred in your heart? Hope? Discouragement? Why do you think?

Take time to pause and ask God to reveal to you any sin you need to confess and repent.

Thank God for his promise to forgive your sin.

Take time to pray and ask God for whatever is on your heart. Ask too for the grace to wait on him for all you need. Ask for eyes to recognize how he answers.

Before you move on, take a few moments to silently wait in his presence. Rest and enjoy the presence of a Father who loves you beyond anything you can imagine.

Finish your time with worship. It could be a prayer of praise for who God is and what he does. It could be a praise song or hymn you sing or listen to. However you wish, give glory to the God who saves, redeems, and forgives.

Read: Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

As a sophomore in high school, our youth pastor shared a message about abiding in Christ. He said if we are not in God’s word, we are walking dead people – alive on the outside, but dead on the inside. The Holy Spirit shook me up with this imagery. I went home that night and all I could see in my mind’s eye was me walking down the hallowed halls of Auburn High School and all my friends turning from their lockers because my bones were rattling so loudly within me. I was alive on the outside, but dead on the inside.

Imagine you are on a hike and as you come around a bend you find a valley stretched out before you. Instead of seeing vegetation and a stream, or crops and openness, you see something like the elephant graveyard in Disney’s The Lion King. You see bones. Dry bones. Disconnected bones. Bones that were under God’s curse because they had never been buried (Jeremiah 34:17-20).

The Lord took Ezekiel to such a place. Stretched before the prophet, in the middle of the valley, were many, many dry bones. Then the Lord said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’”

These dead, dry bones were the nation of Israel. Though God had done so much for them, they had abandoned his Word. They did not listen to the prophets. They did not obey the Law. They ran after false gods. They were no different than the nations around them.

Because of their rebellion, their idolatry, and their refusal to listen to God’s call to repent and return to him, God sent them into exile. Their bones were dried up. Their hope was gone. They were cut off.

God asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel tells God, “O Lord God, you know.”

In the vision, Ezekiel obeys God and prophesies to the bones. First there is a rattling and the bones come together. Then there are sinews that connect the bones. Then flesh and skin cover the bones. And yet, there was no life. There was no breath in them.

God told Ezekiel to prophesy again. And he does. And now, breath entered these bones and they lived. They stood on their feet. They were a great army. God promises the people of Israel that they can live again. He will fill them with life again and bring them back to their land. They will know that he is their God when he raises them to life again. He says, ^“And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

God’s Spirit is the key in this vision. Without it, we are just walking sacks of bones. We are dead. But when God’s Spirit breathes life into us, they anything is possible.

That night some thirty-five plus years ago, I asked Jesus to take control of my life. His Spirit came into me and made me alive. Slowly but surely, as I walk with him, he is rooting out what is dead in me and making me more and more like Christ.

Take time to reflect:

Where are you today? With all the uncertainty in the world today, do you feel cut off? Do you feel dry and distant from God? Do you wonder, “Can my bones live again?”

In Ezekiel’s vision, it is God’s prophetic Word through the prophet and the breathing of God’s Spirit that bring life. How is your time in God’s Word these days? Are you delighting in God’s Word as a message for you? Or is God’s Word something distant that you haven’t spent time in for a while and when you do, it seems like words on a page?

How are you doing at putting into practice what you sense God saying to you? Are there areas in your life where you are in “rebellion” – doing your own thing, not Gods? Take time to ask God to show you any attitudes or actions that show a lack of faith.

If you feel dry and distant, ask God if your bones can come to life again. Invite him to breathe on you afresh and fill you with his Spirit. Confess any sin and ask him for the strength to walk in faith and obedience.

Read: Isaiah 55:1-6

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. ³ Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

⁶ “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.

During Lent, Isaiah 53 is a passage we often focus on. In it Isaiah speaks the word of the Lord looking forward to the Messiah coming and dying for the iniquities and transgressions of his people. Here in Isaiah 55, he invites us to share in the blessings of the Messiah’s work.

God’s invitation is given to two groups of people. In verse 1, he invites “everyone who thirsts…who has no money.” God invites the thirsty and the poor to come to him. They represent people who have thirst in their souls. They feel dry. Dead. Empty. Dissatisfied. They know there is more to life and they can’t get to it.

God invites the thirsty; the ones who have no money; no strength; only a longing for something more. Come. Come in your poverty and your longing and find in me what your soul desires.

The second group is also thirsty, but they have resources. In verse 2, they spend their money, their energy, their time seeking something, but it never satisfies. They buy bread, that isn’t bread. They work and it’s never enough. These are people who keep striving for meaning; for purpose; for something elusive and at the end, their hearts are still empty; their souls are still dry. They may have all the bells and whistles; all the things the world says makes them something; and yet there is a chasm of longing still in their souls.

Two kinds of people – the thirsty who have and the thirsty who don’t. One thinks they are self-sufficient; the other knows they are spiritually bankrupt. Where do you see yourself? We all fit in one or the other group.

God invites us to come to the waters. He says, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Water, wine, and milk. Three beverages. One refreshes. One invigorates. One nourishes. Water restores our souls (as we saw in Psalm 23). Wine revives us and gives us energy. Milk gives us nutrients which strengthen.

One pastor writes, “Verse 1 says is that God is willing to revive us from the heat of Death Valley with the miracle of his water; and make us strong and healthy and stable with the miracle of his milk; and then give us endless and ever-fresh exhilaration with the miracle of his wine.”

God calls to us. He says, “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” God offers to us food that will satisfy our deepest hunger; drink that will satisfy our most extreme thirst. It is good; it is rich. It satisfies and there is an abundance of it!

Then in verse 3 God says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” God is the only one who can satisfy our soul; our heart’s deepest desires. He is the only one who can sustain us. David wrote, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26). God is the one who supplies all our needs from his riches (Philippians 4:19). God is the one who strengthens us with power to endure with joy (Colossians 1:11).

How do we experience this blessing? John Piper points out that there are twelve commands in these three verses. Three times we are called to listen carefully. Then, we are told to 1) Come; 2) Buy; 3) Eat; and 4) Enjoy.
Take time to reflect:

1) Come. Do you feel distant from God? Do you long for more than what you’re experiencing with him? Draw near. Consider the pattern of your relationship with him and press in for more. What’s one thing this week you could do to draw nearer to God?

2) Buy. Have you drawn near but are holding back? You are still considering what to do. There is no charge. The price is free. But you must receive the water, the wine, and the milk by faith. Jesus paid the price at the cross, and now we can take and drink freely from the blessings God offers. Are you all in for Jesus? Where can you find more of him in your day?

3) Eat. Have you said yes to Jesus? Have you trusted in him and “bought” the water, wine and milk? You need to eat/drink. You need to consume it; to experience him. It isn’t enough to “know” about him. How are you pursuing Jesus? Is he inviting you to something more?  

4) Enjoy. If you have “eaten”, you’ve pressed in for more and more of Jesus; now you can rest. Enjoy. Delight yourself in your Lord. Join the psalmist in saying, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Read: Psalm 23

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. ³ He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousnessfor his name’s sake. ⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ⁶ Surelygoodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

There are experiences in life that turn us upside down. Events that are thrust upon us that shake us to the core. Even things we plan for can surprise us in how they hit us in unexpected ways and places.

These experiences can be incredibly disorienting. Losing a spouse, a parent, or a best friend and suddenly having a huge hole in our hearts. Getting laid off, fired, retiring, or quitting and instantly losing a title or role that we’d worn as a badge with pride. Watching a child leave for college (or kindergarten!); walk away from the Lord and us; or slipping away through an illness or accident and leaving a chasm where our parenting used to be.

Losses of these kinds stir up all sorts of questions, but perhaps the most disorienting of all is, “Who am I?” I thought I was a spouse, parent, child, pastor, engineer, coach…fill-in-the-blank. What am I? Who am I? Where do I go and what do I do to find out?

I wonder what life experiences led David to write the twenty-third psalm. Certainly, he had served as a shepherd and was very familiar with such a lifestyle. But what had happened that caused him to view himself as a sheep in need of someone to lead him. He was a king! He was a mighty soldier! He was a great leader! He was even called “a man after God’s heart.”

But David also knew hardship. He was chased and hunted by King Saul who wanted to kill him. He had children who were messed up and made horrible choices – including trying to overthrow his reign. And he committed horrible sin by committing adultery, trying to cover it up, and then having a man killed.

Through all of this, David rooted his identity in his relationship to God. He wrote seventy-three psalms – nearly half of them – pouring out his heart to God. He knew that the Lord was his strength; his rock; his deliverer. He knew that any blessing he had come from God.

“The Lord is my shepherd” – A sheep is bought at a price or bred and raised from a small lamb. David doesn’t say the Lord will be his shepherd if he does certain things; he doesn’t say the Lord is his shepherd except in certain conditions. There is a quiet confidence. He is a shepherd.

And he is my shepherd. He is not some nebulous shepherd to the masses (well he is, but that’s not how David knew him). He is a shepherd who cares for me. He watches over me. He preserves me. The personal care and concern. The beauty of this deep love. David found comfort and security in the thought that God cares for him like a shepherd cares for his sheep.

Like David, we need to find our identity not in the roles that can be lost or shaken or changed – parent, child, success, employee, owner, husband, wife, friend. We need a shepherd. All we have, ultimately, comes from our shepherd. He is the one who cares for us. He is the one who takes us to the green pastures and the still waters. He restores our souls.

When all around us is chaos and upside down, he is the one who is the same always. He is the one who walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He is the one who supplies all our needs that we might not want. He is our shepherd.

We need not fear death; we need not fear evil. Our shepherd is with us. His presence – the One who is Lord of all and who loves me and who does not abandon me – is constant. Even when the Lord, my shepherd, disciplines me; when he pokes and prods with his rod and staff; I know it is for my own good. His discipline, his redirection, his correction is a comfort to me.

There is an invitation in this psalm. We are invited to know God as our shepherd; to experience the intimacy, love, care, guidance, discipline and reward of the one who is Lord and shepherd. He promises blessing – a table set for us; a place to dwell; goodness and mercy to follow wherever we go. We may not understand who we are or where we fit from outside factors, but we can know with certainty that we are His. His child; his treasure; his sheep.

When our life is turned upside down; when we experience loss or simply find ourself disoriented and feeling lost, let us look to our shepherd. Let us look to the Lord who is always at our side. We shall not want. We will find rest and restoration for our soul.

Take time to reflect:

When have you felt disoriented or turned upside down? What did you do? What brought you comfort?

When you think of God as your shepherd, what is stirred in your soul? If a sheep could speak to its shepherd, what would it say or ask? What would you like to say or ask your shepherd? Take time to pour out your thoughts and questions to him!

Read Psalm 23 again. What comfort do you find in these verses? What encouragement? Do you sense God drawing your attention to a particular phrase or thought? Take time to ponder that. What is your shepherd saying to you today?

Read: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Years ago, the team leader of our church planting team in Jordan received a call from a satellite television ministry asking if we would follow up on a person who had asked for more information about Jesus. There was a young twenty-something man and an older sixty-something man who had each asked for a Bible and a visit to discuss Jesus.

Conventional wisdom would say he should choose the younger man for the visit. A young man was more likely to be open to new ideas and perhaps more willing to change his beliefs. But as our team leader prayed, he sensed God nudging him to follow up with the older man.

He went to visit this man in his home in a conservative part of the city. He expected it would be a Nicodemus-like visit (one-to-one and secretive). When he walked in there were thirteen people in the room. Being a conservative area, it was customary that Muslim women would be in separate rooms from the men. But there were both men and women there.

The man began his story. He had put his faith in Jesus after watching different Christian programs on satellite TV. He’d gotten ahold of a Bible and had been reading it. Everything he read, shared with his family. The people gathered with him were his wife and children and their spouses. All of them had believed in Jesus too!

Before our friend could ask any questions the man went on to explain that everything he taught his family, they shared with others. They had seen another thirty-five people choose to follow Jesus from their witness and study! And that wasn’t all! Those thirty-five had been sharing what they learned with others and were meeting with twenty-five more who had believed and were following Jesus.

Our friend was stunned. He had gone to this meeting expecting to meet a man who was curious about Jesus. Instead he found that God had already begun a movement of the Holy Spirit! Over the next many months, God would add exponentially to the number of people following Christ as a result of this family’s witnessing.

What would have happened if our team leader had followed conventional wisdom? I imagine someone else would have eventually found this man and visited him, but we would have missed out on being a part of what God wanted to do. We would have missed out on an outpouring of the Holy Spirit unlike anything we had seen before. It was something we had prayed for many times, and we were blessed to be witnesses to God’s answer!

Samuel was sent to find a new king since God had rejected Saul after his disobedience. As Jesse’s sons were paraded before him, Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah and four others pass before him. Each one looked like a leader. Each one appeared to be the one. But the Lord rejected each of them.

More important than appearance, God looks at the heart. He looks for a person who is available and teachable. He looks for a person who is humble and trusting.

Take time to reflect:

When you are faced with a decision, what do you consider? How open are you to God steering you away from conventional wisdom?

Why does God look at the heart? What can we look at that would help us see the heart and not just appearance?

Do you focus more on your own outward appearance more than your inner life? David was called “a man after God’s own heart.” How do you cultivate a heart like that?

This week pause for a few minutes in a quiet place. Take three deep breaths. Ask God to take a good look at you. Ask him what does he see? Wait a few minutes in a posture of quiet listening. What do you sense him saying? Where do you sense an invitation from him? How will you respond?

Finish by thanking God for the work of His Holy Spirit in your life and the promise that he will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6)!

Read: Jeremiah 2:4-13

¹² Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, ¹³ for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

In Old Testament Israel, water was an incredibly valuable resource. A cistern was an artificial reservoir which was dug in the earth or carved into the rock to collect and store water. Cisterns were very important in the land of Israel because of the long dry season and the relatively few natural springs.

Imagine going to your cistern and discovering that it was cracked! A broken cistern was practically worthless. Cracked rock or crumbling masonry could hold only a small quantity of water and what it held was usually dirty. Collecting and storing water in a broken cistern was futile. It amounted to little and what little there was tasted terrible.

Ideally, you would live near a spring, but that was rare. A spring was far better than a cistern. It’s fresh, running water was plentiful and tasted much more refreshing. If you had a choice between the spring or the cistern, you’d always choose the spring.

In Jeremiah 2, God says the people of Israel have done the spiritual equivalent of choosing a cistern over a fresh spring. They had turned away from the living God and were doing their own thing. They were no longer putting God first, but seeking after their own interests.

God offered them the spiritual equivalent of a fresh spring. He offered a fountain of living waters which would satisfy their souls and provide their deepest needs. And they knew it! They had been taught that what God offered was life giving and would satisfy their souls.

Yet they still chose to make their own way. They chose to make their own cisterns. Not only was the water bad, but they were broken cisterns. They had foolishly run turned away from their God and followed the false gods of the nations around them.

Take time to reflect:

Do you think people today are guilty of the same mistake? Have you wandered from the Living Water after another source, hoping it can satisfy? Have you built your own cistern?

There are all sorts of things we might try to build into our own cistern. We might try building a career and success as our cistern. We might use recreation and entertainment to fill that space. We might spend time seeking information through the Internet or newspapers and magazines. We might seek to build our cistern out of our family or friends or marriage.

Any cistern we might build is broken. Complete fulfillment and satisfaction can only be found in the fountain of Living Water. It can only be found in our God.

Where are you seeking to satisfy your spiritual thirst? If it’s in anything other than a relationship with God through Jesus, it’s a broken cistern. Repent and ask God to help you drink deeply from his spring of living water!

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14:27

Many of us are wondering what on earth is going on right now. The Coronavirus scare seems to be growing exponentially each day. Maybe we’ve sensed we’re in the last days for some time, but now it seems imminent!

Don’t forget, God is in control. Not even a sparrow can fall from the sky apart from our heavenly Father (Matthew 10:29). He is the creator and sustainer of life. Even when everything around us seems to be changing, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

God is still good. He does not fail. The promises he’s made, he will keep. We can look back over our lives; we can look back over history; and we can affirm that the God in whom we trust has never failed.

Stay grounded in Jesus. Even as the world around us is panicking and wanting to pull us down with it, we have the chance to show something different. Fear and anxiety spread even quicker than a virus. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take precautions, it simply means Jesus is with us even as we do.

Peter wrote that believers should be ready to give a reason for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15). This presupposes we have hope even at times that are most stressful and in full crisis mode. We need to root ourselves – by prayer, the word, community – in Jesus. May the world see the hope we have because we know and love the Lord of all!

In these days of uncertainty, let’s remind ourselves – and one another – constantly of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Let’s pray for the peace that surpasses understanding; the peace Jesus promised to his disciples. Jesus was on his way to the Father. It was the night he would be arrested and within twenty-four hours he would be laying in a tomb. Though their hearts would be troubled, they could trust in him.

We can too. Though our hearts be troubled; though the world around us seems to crumble; though all around us is fear and anxiety; we have the hope that death has been defeated. We have the hope that by Christ’s wounds, we are healed. We have the promise that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God.

Take time to reflect:

What kinds of things cause you to feel fearful or anxious? List them and see if there is a common theme or connection between them. Are there any truths you know about God that speak to this?

Make a list of ways God has answered prayer in your life. What are times you’ve seen him “show up”? How has he provided for you? Where have you seen his love?

Take time to tell God how you’re feeling about things going on around you. Ask him to help you remember his grace and faithfulness in your life and to stir up more and more hope for what is to come.

Read: Numbers 21:4-9

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

I once heard a story of a woman who had been asked by her husband’s doctor to come it to see her. He explained that her husband had a rare condition that was often fatal if not treated properly. She asked what could be done. The doctor instructed her, “Well, he needs plenty of sleep, so let him sleep as late as he needs to each day. He will need plenty of good nutrition, so you’ll have to cook him three big, healthy meals each day. He shouldn’t have too much stress, so he won’t be able to help much around the house for a while. He may experience aches and need a massage each evening. If you can do all of that for him, I think he has an excellent chance at recovery.”

The woman began sobbing and was obviously distraught. The doctor asked her, “What’s wrong? Your husband will get better if you follow my instructions.” She answered, “I’m going to miss him so much.”

Israel is getting close to entering the Promised Land. When they came to Edom, the Edomites refused to let them pass through their land, As a result, the trip grew longer and the people became impatient. In their frustration, the new generation repeated one of their parents’ mistakes: They began grumbling and complaining about the trip and about the food and water. They cry out against God and Moses, “Why did you bring us here to die?”

In response to their sin, God sent poisonous serpents into their midst. The people come to their senses and realize they’ve sinned and beg Moses to pray for them; which he does. In the end, God gives them a specific plan for how they can be healed from a snake bite. Moses puts a bronze serpent on a pole and puts it in the midst of the people. If a person is bit, he or she must look at the bronze serpent and they will live. But if a person refused to look, they would die.

On that day there were probably those who were bit and quickly ran to look upon the bronze serpent. Others may have thought, I will do it when I finish with my work. Others may have thought, I don’t think I need to look, I looked before. And still others may have thought, it won’t matter if I look or not. What good is a bronze serpent? While some looked, others were like the woman in the story; unwilling to follow the instructions given.

Jesus, when he spoke to Nicodemus about eternal life and being born of the Spirit told him, “¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” We must recognize the poison of sin in our souls and look to the cross, trusting in Jesus who died to bring us forgiveness and life.

The people of Israel kept that bronze snake. In 2 Kings 18:4 we read that when he became king, Hezekiah “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” They had taken a symbol intended to remind they of God’s grace and forgiveness and turned it into an idol.

While I doubt we are in danger today of making the cross an idol and worshiping it, I wonder if we forget that it should daily prompt us to seek God’s face that we might live and walk in his forgiveness. Our sins are forgiven, yet if we do not regularly take time to search our hearts and confess our sins, they can create distance in our relationship with God. Sin can keep us from sensing the prompting of God’s Spirit like a callus can harden and keep us from feeling pain.

We need to follow God’s instructions to look to the cross for forgiveness and life. We need to keep the cross before us each day, not letting sin take root in our hearts. We are forgiven in Christ! The penalty has been paid! Now we can walk in it and enjoy intimacy with our heavenly Father!

Take time to reflect:

Do you have a regular pattern of self-examination and confession? If not, take time right now to invite God to show you areas of sin in your life that need to be confessed.

It’s easy to carry guilt around when we come face-to-face with our sin, remember to also hear the words of God through John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

The people of Israel often grumbled and complained about life’s circumstances. Take time to thank God for his work in your life. See if you can list ten specific things for which you’re thankful. A thankful heart can keep us from doubting God’s goodness and wisdom!

Read: Micah 7:18-20

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

As a child, our family always took a summer vacation. For two weeks in July or August, we piled into our green Ford station wagon and hit the road. My dad would usually try to drive all night so the kids would sleep and not be antsy, but there was always a part of the drive during daylight hours.

I remember looking at the highway and seeing shimmering pools of water ahead. Yet, when we got there the water had magically evaporated. How did that happen? Finally, I asked my parents where the pools went. When they finally understood what I was talking about, they explained the concept of a “mirage” – an optical illusion that made it look like there was water on a hot road, but wasn’t really there. It was actually caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.

Sin is a mirage. It isn’t caused by light and heated air, but it is an illusion. It gives the appearance of being beautiful and fun and just what we want or need, but it kills and robs and destroys.

Time and time again, the people of Israel ran after false gods. No matter how many times God rescued them; no matter how many times God delivered them; they kept running after false gods. The allure of the shiny, shimmering sin seems so inviting, yet never truly satisfies.

“Who is a God like you?” It is a question that expects the answer, “No one!” There is no one who comes close to the true God. There is no one who can match his perfect, holy character; no one who can match his power and the magnificent deeds he has done; no one who keeps his promises always. The more we know God, the more we should trust him. The better we know God’s promises, the more we see God’s faithfulness, the more peace we have when things go sideways.

Micah’s message to Israel came at a time when everything appeared hopeless from a human perspective. Yet, Micah trusted the God who pardons iniquity and passes over trespasses. He had hope in a God who does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love; who will again have compassion on us.

During Lent, as we take time to reflect on our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to show us areas where we’ve pursued the mirage of sin and missed the real thing God has for us, we have to take responsibility. We can’t just bury our sin or sweep it under the rug and pretend like it’s not there. We have to repent – to call sin what it is, ask God’s forgiveness, thank him that in Jesus we have it, and ask for the grace to live rightly.

John wrote, ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The blood of Jesus has purchased our forgiveness. When we confess our sin and ask forgiveness, he promises we have it!

In fact, in verse 19 we read, he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Jesus “treads” on our sins. He subdues them. He conquers them. It no longer has power over us. He casts them into the depths of the sea.

Walter Kaiser writes,:

The last three verses of this book (Micah 7:18-20) are linked with the book of Jonah for the afternoon reading in the synagogue on Yom Kipper, the “Day of Atonement.” Once every year, on Ros Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the orthodox Jew goes to a stream or river and symbolically empties his sins from his pockets into the water as he recites Micah 7:18–20. This is the Tashlich service, named after the word “You will cast.” (shalak) It symbolizes the fact that God can and will take our sins, wash them down the streams of running water and bury them deep in the depths of the ocean. God not only forgives our sins; He also forgets them. If some object that God cannot forget our sins if He is omniscient, let it be remembered that what He does when He forgets our sins is remember them against us no more.

God loves us. He longs to have our relationship with him restored to the intimacy it was intended to have. The blood of Jesus brings the forgiveness and the forgetfulness we need to be able to start each day – and many times each day – afresh.  As John also wrote, ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Sin is a mirage. It looks shiny and satisfying but is empty and harsh. Though our sin be great; God’s love is greater! Who is like our God? No one!

Take time to reflect:

Do you ever feel like you aren’t good enough for God? Do you feel like you’re trapped in sin and defeated in a never-ending pattern?

Take time to think about the things we learn about God in these verses. He is a God who:

• Pardons
• Passes over my weaknesses
• Withholds His anger
• Shows mercy
• Demonstrates compassion
• Conquered the power of sin
• Casts my sin into the depths of the sea

As you look at that list, which speaks the most to you today? Take time to talk to God about it, giving thanks and asking him to help you draw closer to him!

Read: Exodus 16:1-20

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. ⁵ On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ⁷ and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” ⁸ And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

Today, before writing this, I had the privilege of hearing the testimony of a fellow brother in Christ. After growing up in a legalistic church, becoming an evangelistic atheist, he returned to belief in God and eventually trusted in Jesus. The turning point for him occurred in the middle of a mix of life crushing events and drug dependency when he found himself screaming at God in anger. While standing in the middle of the street daring God to take His life, he came to the realization that he couldn’t possibly have this much anger directed at the nonexistent deity he had some vehemently argued against. Thus, his journey to faith started in anger.

In many ways, the Exodus community found themselves on the same journey. After witnessing the miraculous work of God flexing His might over the so-called gods of Egypt, they now face the harsh realities of life in the wilderness. They have needs that only God can meet. Yet God doesn’t provide for them immediately. He allows the people to experience hunger pains, bitter water and the woes of an unwilling vegetarian diet. He even allows them to turn to Him in unrighteous anger only to respond graciously by providing their needs for water and food.

Had God provided immediately and always for the community, what would have been missed? God’s people may have taken the Lord’s provision for granted. They would not have learned the hard lesson that without God’s provision, even the basics of life prove beyond their grasp.

The second generation from Egypt received this story well before we did. How important it proved to them as they faced the seemingly insurmountable odds of taking the land. In this story was the forever reminder that the same God that chose to meet the needs of their grumbling parents would go before them.

This story serves the same purpose for us today. Although we don’t want to find ourselves angry with God, from this position we can remember the story of His grace to the people in Exodus. We can recognize that our irritable state in times of need draws us to our faith in the one capable of meeting those needs.

Take time to reflect:

Where have you found yourselves irritably turning to God for your needs? How has He met you in this space with grace and provision?

How can remembering the provision of the Lord to your spiritual forefathers keep you grounded in trust in your life?

What provision can you praise God for right now?

2 Peter 1:3-4 shows how wonderful His eternal and spiritual provision is for us even if the practical things aren’t met as we wish.

Praise God for this provision in Christ today.