Day 78: The Gracious Hand of Our God

There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”  So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. (Ezra 8:21-23)

Ezra was a scribe and a priest who led a caravan of Israelites on a 900 mile trek from Babylon to Jerusalem to beautify the temple with the blessings and provisions of Persian King Artexerxes in the spring of 458 BC. In the passage above, however, we see that while this band of travellers had the endorsement of an earthly king, their true help came from God. Ezra’s name is a shortened version of ‘Azariah’ which means ‘YHWH helps.’ Aptly named, we see over and over in the book of Ezra how God is displayed as this man’s help (Ezra 7: 6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31).

As a scribe, Ezra was a faithful witness of the law of God and he was thus bold to profess to the king both the goodness and the severity of God as Paul exhorts us to consider (Romans 11:22). Many in this hour would prefer to only emphasize the aspects of God that resonate with our flesh or that make us popular, but Ezra had just experienced Israel’s darkest hour which God clearly brought upon them because of their waywardness. As a student of the many warnings in scripture of the results of persistent disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28:15-68; 32; 2 Chronicles 7:19-22; the book of Jeremiah) and as a living witness to the discipline of the Lord, the wrath of God would be a fresh and relevant topic to this man in charge of giving spiritual direction to this group of returning exiles. The last thing he would want to do would be to lead them to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem and put them in exile in the first place. With over 150 references to the wrath of God in the Bible, almost a third of which are in the New Testament, we should not be silent on the issue. Ezra wasn’t and it clearly had an impact on the most powerful man of his day: Artaxerxes writes in a letter to the scribe, “Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?” (Ezra 7:23)

But lest you think me overly cranky, gloomy and negative let me balance what I just wrote. First of all, I am preaching to myself, because I enjoy being liked as much as everyone else and the wrath of God is a topic I myself at times get squeamish about. And while there are aspects of this topic I still wrestle through, I know this: there is actually no contradiction between God’s love and His judgments. His judgments are there to remove that which hinders love. If God did not discipline us it would be evidence of the absence of His love. If God did not bring evildoers to justice, it would be evidence of His lack of goodness. And without a place for the wrath of God to be a permissible topic, the fear of God makes no sense. The promises and blessings that come with the fear of the Lord are numerous, but let it suffice for me to quote Proverbs 19:23:

“The fear of the Lord leads to life, And he who has it will abide in satisfaction”

What I appreciate about Ezra is his balanced presentation of both the severity and the goodness of God. Not only that, but Ezra was a man not  content to talk about ethereal concepts without a demonstration of the truth he espoused. The promises of Divine protection layed out in Psalm 91 are either true or they are not. If we come upon a truth through the way of knowledge, that is legitimate, but we should make sure that we exit that room through the door of experience. James was big on this. We are to be doers not just hearers of the word (James 1:22). Conversely if we come upon a truth by way of experience, we should make sure that we exit that room through the door of knowledge. The Father after all is searching for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

There is something inspiring about someone who will boast of the promises of God and then step out in faith and prove God’s word to be true. Ezra recognized that it would be a sham to tell the king of Persia that God’s gracious hand of favor rests on those who seek him and then ask for soldiers and horseman to be their protection. Granted, long trips in those days were treacherous endeavors with the strong likelihood of encountering bandits of thieves. But Ezra knew a God whose promises were not in vain.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement, got saved and began asking, “When do we get to do the stuff?”  “What stuff?” the people around him would ask. “You know, the healings and stuff I read about in the bible.” Most of his peers being raised in the soup of unbelief that permeates Western culture had no grid for what he was talking about. Convinced that God meant what he said when he exhorted his followers to heal the sick (Matthew 10:8, Jams 5:14-16) he began teaching on Sunday mornings about healing and would pray for every person that needed healing. He preached on healing without changing the topic for 18 months (!) and prayed for thousands of people before he began to see any breakthrough. But breakthrough came and touched people all over the earth, giving permission for believers everywhere to take God at His word regarding his power to heal.

The first time I stepped out to raise a support team as a full time missionary  I got to do the Ezra thing in my own little way. I had set a piddly budget goal of raising $900 per month to live on during my college ministry training program. With a few weeks to go before the money needed to at least be pledged, I had $25 per month pledged to my name. I received a phone call from the director of the ministry asking if I was doing anything to make my needs known. “We’ve never had an intern who we accepted not raise their support, but you could be the first.” At first I kicked into panic mode. I made a few phone calls, sent out a few more letters. Honestly, my untrained efforts were not that impressive. I did everything wrong. But then I made a decision. “God, this is your idea. I believe you have called me to this. I will be making sacrifices. I gotta believe you’re more into this than I am. And your word says that if I seek your kingdom and your righteousness, You will meet my needs (Matthew 6:33). So tell you what. I am going to see if you mean what You say. I am going to start telling all my unbelieving co-workers that I get to see a $9000 miracle within the next two weeks.” And that’s what I did. My co-workers thought I was weird, but I was having fun stepping out in faith and putting God’s word on the line. Deadline day came, and the bookkeeper reported that I had exactly $900 a month pledged. Not $875, not $925, but exactly $900. Like John Wimber is famous for saying, “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.” It was risky to declare publicly that I was expecting a financial miracle to happen within two weeks. It was risky for Wimber to labor week after week, month after month professing God the healer before seeing breakthrough. It was risky for Ezra and his crew to travel in the ancient Middle East without armed guards. But faith that gets results says “There is no plan B.”

So if Ezra had faith in God’s word, why call the people to fast and pray? What’s up with that? Isn’t faith in God’s word enough? Yes. Certainly many miracles and breakthroughs happen without fasting and without prolonged corporate prayer. But remember the context. Israel is returning from exile. God told Israel in Jeremiah 29:10-14

For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

What was true for Israel then is true for us today. If you find yourself stepping out in faith with no plan B, you will feel the need for prayer. If you know your circumstances are a matter of life and death, or you simply get a revelation of your great inadequacy, you will be searching for God with all of your heart. Ignoring hunger pangs for the sake of Jesus helps catapult me into wholeheartedness. Denying our flesh and feasting on God’s presence and promises makes a whole lot of sense in the critical hour of need. It’s not that doing so somehow impresses God with our faith and dedication, for He’s already convinced of the truth of His word. Rather fasting with prayer gets our prone-to-unbelieving-selves into alignment with the God who means what He says and says what He means. His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). When our hearts come into agreement with His, we get to experience the benefit of His gracious hand of favor and protection just as Ezra and his caravan did on return to Jerusalem.

Day 77: The God Who Bankrolls Prayer

Moreover I issue a decree as to what you shall do for the elders of these Jews, for the building of this house of God: Let the cost be paid at the king’s expense from taxes on the region beyond the River; this is to be given immediately to these men, so that they are not hindered. And whatever they need—young bulls, rams, and lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the request of the priests who are in Jerusalem—let it be given them day by day without fail,  that they may offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his sons. (Ezra 6:8-10)

The above words are a segment of a longer decree penned in 520 BC by the Persian king Darius (pictured in relief above) in response to Israel’s surrounding neighbors who wanted to make things difficult for this post-exilic community as they sought to rebuild the temple upon their return to Jerusalem after their 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Something mind-blowing had just occurred (eighteen years prior in 538 BC): Cyrus, another pagan Persian king issued a decree that is both the concluding words of 2 Chronicles and the opening of the book of Ezra:

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

This would be the equivalent of present day Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejab saying he wanted to tear down the dome of the rock and finance the rebuilding of Israel’s temple from his own budget. What’s even more mind-blowing than this truly miraculous historical event is that this occurrence was prophesied by both Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 29:10) and Isaiah (Isaiah 44:24…28,45:1-5…13) a hundred and two hundred years (respectively) in advance. Isaiah’s prophecy is truly remarkable, calling Cyrus by name:

“ I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; …Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’ “Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:  ‘ I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me…I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city And let My exiles go free, Not for price nor reward,” Says the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 44:24…28,45:1-5…13)

After Cyrus decrees the financing and rebuilding of Israel’s destroyed temple, work gets under way. But due to opposition and lack of vision, the building project screeches to a halt and stays unattended to for sixteen years. So God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call the people back to this work.  Haggai’s thematic thrust is to draw attention to the returnees economic woes and to connect the dots that the recession they were experiencing was ordained by God since they had sought to build their own houses but had left God’s house ignored. God’s economic sanctions worked, and the people responded by renewing the rebuilding project and completed it within five years. From the moment the community got their priorities straight and set their faces to finishing the mandate God had given them, the Lord stirs up a second pagan Persian king (Darius) to issue the above decree, underwriting the whole project. When Ezra gets sent 62 years later in 458 BC to beautify the temple and again the community faces opposition, God stirs up Artaxerxes, yet another pagan Persian king to bankroll the work of the Lord (Ezra 7). And fourteen years later, in 444 BC when Nehemiah seeks to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, once again God stirs this same king to open the royal coffers to subsidize the God of Israel’s agenda (Nehemiah 1,2).

God’s dealings with Israel during this period of history illustrate over and over just how true Jesus’ promise in Matthew 6:33 is that if we “seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness” all our needs will be met, how true Paul’s conviction that God’s laborers are worthy of their wages (1 Timothy 5:18) and Malachi’s promise that when we honor God with our finances, He will “open the floodgates of heaven” with more blessing than we can contain (Malachi 3:10).

For the last thirteen years that I have been involved in full-time missionary work (six months of overseas missions, nine years of campus ministry, three and a half years of serving the Lord as an intercessory missionary), I have seen this promise played out without fail. Truly where God guides, He provides.

There are many in our day who like that post-exilic community Haggai addressed, can identify with the following scenario:

“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:6)

Could it be that we, like them, need to get our priorities straight? Could it be that when we began to set our faces to building God’s global house of prayer, supernatural finances will come in from unusual and unexpected places?

Many in this very hour are sensing that God is calling them to give themselves to the place of worship and prayer as a full time occupation. Perhaps God has woken you to the fact that He is rebuilding the fallen tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11) and raising up a worship and prayer movement all over the earth of historic proportions (Malachi 1:11; Isaiah 42:10-13; Isaiah 62:5,6; Luke 18:1-8; Revelation 5:8; 8:1-5; 22:17) If that is you, you need to know that God will supply your needs, just as He did when Israel gave themselves to establishing the house of prayer in their day.

Out there, there are Cyrus’s, Darius’s and Artaxerxes who will hear the same God that stirred these kings of old, summoning them to partner with you as you seek to build His house, and not just your own.

What stirs me by Darius’ decree is how even this pagan king valued that a company of priests would “offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to the God of heaven” and be praying for him and his sons (Ezra 6:10). May I and all those similarly called to intercession remember to pray faithfully for those who partner with us with their finances. There is a double blessing for such partners. The reward an intercessor (or any Christian worker) receives from God is the reward their financial partners also will receive from God (Matthew 10:40-42). And though the full-time missionary cannot repay them monetarily, they can pray for them with the confidence that Paul had when he prayed for the Philippians assuring that “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19).

As the world economy shakes and rumbles let us not cower into fear and assume a hoarding mentality. It is such thinking that very well might have gotten us in such dire circumstances and it is just such thinking that will only make our situation worse. Let us remember the promise in Haggai that it is exactly in the midst  of shaking that God releases His bountiful provision to those who will give themselves to building His house:

 “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations,and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.  ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts.  ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:6-9)

God owns everything. Surely He is going to take care of His kids as they seek to make His purposes a priority. I believe right now He is raising up a global priesthood all over the earth that He is both willing and more than able to provide for. He is the God who loves to bankroll those who will give themselves to establishing His kingdom through worship and prayer. He did it for Israel time and time again without fail through the most unlikely of means. Surely, He will do the same for all those who feel so called today.

Day 76: The Groan of the Prisoner

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.  He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger. He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites leave the land I assigned to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them concerning all the laws, decrees and regulations given through Moses.” But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.  And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God. (2 Chronicles 33:1-13)

Psalm 102:20 tells us that God hears the groan of the prisoner, whether that groan is made by the one who is persecuted for righteousness sake (think of the millions of believers who have suffered persecution, martyrdom or imprisonment over the last 2000 years), by the innocent victim suffering at the hand of wicked men (think of the 27 million modern day slaves sold into the sex trafficking industry) or they are in a prison of their own doing, as the above story of Manasseh demonstrates. Whether we ever end in literal incarceration in this life or not, unrepentant sin makes prisoners of all who engage in it: both in this life, and in the life to come. Our three cardinal enemies (the world, the flesh and the Devil) would have us to believe that freedom comes in indulging our carnal desires. “If it feels good, it can’t be wrong” is the prevailing wisdom espoused by this ship of fools. These will quickly refer to the opening lines of America’s Declaration of Independence with an air of pseudo-spirituality to tell us what our itching ears want to hear: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. And while it is true that all men are created equal, and that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are good things, how we define life, how we define liberty and how we define happiness is the crucial issue.

The laws of our nation have denied the right to life for 54 million babies (4,000 every day and counting) since the landmark case of Roe v. Wade in 1973 because these lives were deemed inconvenient. This holocaust was justified through the employment of words like “fetus” or “tissue” to redefine life, though these little ones eat, think, feel and have a heartbeat: hallmarks of life if ever there were any. It is no different than the thinking that brought us the extermination of 6 million Jews in WWII, as well as the ethnic cleansings in Rwanda,  Bosnia and Darfur.

Under the banner of “Liberty” our culture is celebrating all forms of promiscuity and perversion even calling the defense of such “liberties” a social justice issue. Jesus counters this mentality in John 8:31-36:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, “You will be made free?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin, is a slave to sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

What the world calls a liberty is actually bondage according to Jesus. Being that he is God in the flesh perhaps we should heed His wisdom in regard to these matters.

And the pursuit of happiness, contrary to popular opinion is not found in selfish ambition, in the deceptiveness of wealth or even in the honor that comes through the praise of men. Turns out the American dream is actually a boring and unfulfilling nightmare. And while pursuing happiness is fine, God offers something better than fleeting circumstantial happiness. Psalm 16:11 tells us “In Your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” A recurring theme throughout God’s word, joy is central to the life of faith. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

Manasseh for some reason thought that to follow God’s ways, as his father sought to do, was confining or unproductive in furthering his vision for the nation. He is a picture of the mindset that is prevailing in our culture in this very hour. But what Manasseh did perhaps in the name of the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness turned out to be a nightmare not only for his nation but for his own children. I am thankful for a God who will actually say “enough!” and send to prison a king who would sacrifice his own children in the service of some deity who in actuality is nothing but a demonic fabrication by the father of lies. Instead of life, liberty and happiness, Manasseh’s choices brought  death, captivity and woe.

The chronicler does not give us Manasseh’s actual prayer, just that he prayed. And while the account of his life in 2 Kings makes no mention of any such prayer, we are told in 2 Chronicles 33:18 that his prayer is recorded in “the book of the kings of Israel”, referring to a book lost to modernity. Again in verse 19, we are told that his prayer is written in “the book of the Hozai” (or Seers) another book unpreserved by history. There is a book listed as “The Prayer of Manasseh” found in the apocrypha but it is officially disregarded as not Manasseh’s actual prayer by Protestants, Catholics and Jews.

Two things strike me as profound about this account. First of all, with such a short summation of Manasseh’s life that we are given here, it is amazing how much focus is given to the fact that he prayed. Six times this prayer is mentioned in the 20 verses we have on Manasseh. Perhaps, when heaven takes account of our lives, our prayers will play a more central role than we know.

Secondly, the mercy of God to a man who led his nation into captivity and burned his children in sacrifice to a false god, because he simply repented and called a sin a sin should blow our circuits. When God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9 that “…My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.  “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” it is in the context of His extravagant forgiveness for the wicked man who forsakes his ways and the unrighteous man who forsakes his thoughts (Isaiah 55:7). And while his sin still had dire consequences [it was after all because of Manasseh’s ways that the Babylonian captivity took place (2 Kings 21:11-15; 23:26,27; 24:1-4; Jeremiah 15:4)], God’s mercy is none the less remarkable. It’s the same mercy that led Jesus, the only sinless man to ever walk the earth, to forgive his executioners  on the cross while they were putting nails through his hands.

If God did it for Manasseh, He will do it for us. Is there a prison you find yourself in by your own doing? You are only a prayer away from freedom. Our sin will always carry consequences, but His forgiveness still knows no bounds.

Day 75: Signs that Make You Wonder

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. (2 Chronicles 32:24)

We already looked at Hezekiah’s illness and recovery on Day 64: Prayer vs. Prognosis. This short verse summarizing the account highlights an element of the story I did not comment about which you can read about in 2 Kings 20:8-11, and Isaiah 38:1-7: the miraculous sign Hezekiah was given to confirm that what God said would happen would.

The brief allusion here in 2 Chronicles assumes familiarity with the fuller story in 2 Kings and Isaiah (2 Chronicles 32:32). Isaiah is told he is about to die. He cries out in prayer to God, which prompts the Lord to have Isaiah turn around and tell him that because of his tears and prayer, 1) God will heal him and give him fifteen more years to live and 2) will protect Jerusalem from the Assyrian threat. So when Hezekiah asks for a sign, while he only refers to the promise that he will go up to the temple on the third day (2 Kings 20:8), he probably had in mind the promise of protection as well. If it were only a sign for his healing, the request for a sign seems a bit impatient, for the healing in 3 days should have been enough. Granted, sickness can be a funny thing. Even if one is instantaneously cured and all symptoms disappear, it is understandable for the question to linger of whether the cure is complete and if resuming normal activity therefore is wise. Even still, I suspect that both promises are in mind when Hezekiah asks for a sign.

And the sign? The account, most dramatically told in 2 Kings 20 goes as follows:

Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?”

Isaiah answered, “This is the LORD’s sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?

“It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. (2 Kings 20:8-11)

Many scholars believe that the shadow cast upon Ahaz’s stairway was from some form of obelisk forming a sundial that Ahaz likely procured from one of the surrounding pagan nations. It is the oldest reference in literature to a sundial (if it was a sundial), older than any current archeological discoveries. In order to pull off this instant redirection of the shadow ten steps in the opposite direction, God had to do one of three things: 1) move the position of the sun 2) reverse, temporarily the revolution of the earth or 3) pull back the curtain separating the realm of heaven and earth and shine supernatural light, like when Jesus was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:1-13; Luke 9:28-36) or when angels have appeared shining with the the presence of God’s glory (Daniel 10:2-9; Matthew 28:2-3). It is possible that a solar eclipse could have caused such an effect on the shadow, but such a dramatic event probably would have made the biblical account if it had happened. There is not enough to go on to prove which of the above was the case, but the point is well taken: God is really powerful. He can move heaven or earth or that which separates the two at will. Certainly He can be trusted to release healing to a body or protection to a city if that is what He said He would do.

First of all, the issue of seeking signs must be addressed. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their demand to see a sign saying “an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign…” (Matthew 12:39; 16:1-4). While it could be taken as a universal prohibition against seeking signs, we know from Gideon’s account (Judges 6:36-40; 7:9-15), from God’s invitation to Ahaz (Isaiah 7:11-14) and this account, that God is not opposed to giving or to us asking for signs to bolster our faith. (See my testimony of a time when God gave me a literal sign at Day Four: Expecting Answered Prayer or the many unusual signs God has given in the birthing of the current prayer movement IHOP is apart of at Day 32: Wonders Above, Signs Below). What Jesus refuses to do is to do parlor tricks like some trained circus animal for those already entrenched in their disobedience and unbelief when sign after sign had already been performed before their very eyes. Perhaps they thought that if this was really the messiah, then they wanted to see the signs in the heavens as referred to in Joel 2:30,31 that were prophesied to occur “before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” But religious pride and pre-conceived notions caused them to miss the greatest sign from heaven of them all: the very Christ they thought they were longing for. In John 6:30 when the crowds who had experienced the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 gathered around Jesus the next day asking, “What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will you do? (as if the multiplication of food were not enough!) Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He have them bread from heaven to eat'”, Jesus responds “…I am the bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:41). In other words, “You’re looking for a sign? How about something better than a sign: how about Myself. I am what every sign from God points to. I am the image of the invisible God.”

The people who failed to see Jesus in their day, failed to understand that it was necessary that the Christ come first as a lamb and then as a lion.  How they missed scriptures that seem so clear to us like Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and Genesis 22 mystifies us. But we all are probably guilty of such selective reading on many points. I think many in the church will equally misunderstand and be offended by the activities of Jesus when the cosmic signs laid out in Acts 2:19-21, and throughout the book of Revelation begin to transpire.  With our cut and paste approach to scripture we build paper-maché versions of a god fashioned in our own image. In Exodus 12:9,10 the Israelites were commanded to eat the entire Passover lamb. We also must take in and be ready to agree with the entirety of Jesus as the Lamb in all it’s implications. It is after all the Lamb who opens the seals, unleashing the AntiChrist (Revelations 6:1) and the 20 other judgments that follow, many of which pertain to drastic cosmic signs in the heavens.

As I have been meditating on the details of the sign given to Hezekiah, I’ve seen some interesting connections. I don’t know if they are warranted connections. But I’ll let you decide if perhaps there might be more in this sign designed to make us wonder.

Why is Hezekiah given fifteen more years? Why was he to be healed on the third day? And why does the shadow on Ahaz’s stairway go back ten steps? Why ten? I think it all has prophetic significance. I think Hezekiah was a picture of the Messiah to come. His healing on the third day is a picture of Jesus rising on the third day, just as Israel received the promise of God as Healer on the third day after their exodus from Egypt (Exodus 15:22-26). For Israel the healing of the bitter waters at Marah by means of a tree was a foreshadow of  the healing that comes through the cross. Interestingly when Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration they spoke to him about his departure (referring to his death, resurrection and ascension), which in Greek is his ‘exodus,’ (Luke 9:31) bringing even more strength to my point. I always wondered how Jesus could say that the Christ had to rise on the third day as “it is written” (Luke 24:46). It was written, but veiled in parabolic obscurity for those with eyes to see, and a hunger strong enough to search it out. It is after all the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out (Proverbs 25:2). Other third day foreshadows from scripture can be found in Genesis 22:4; Exodus 10:22; 15:22; Jonah 1:17; Hosea 6:2; Esther 4:16. And I’m sure there are more. Have fun.

Why does the shadow get cast ten steps backwards? I believe God is assuring Hezekiah that though the dark shadow cast by his father Ahaz seems to be a portent for a bleak future, God will see that his promise of a Messiah through this lineage will stand. If you count ten centuries backward from this moment it brings you to about the time of Jacob’s blessing of the 12 tribes of Israel in which a promise was made that “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people” (Genesis 49:10). Shiloh is a cryptic title for Jesus, which interestingly is referenced when God addresses Ahaz’s folly in seeking outside rulers for protection in Isaiah 8:6-10.

And why does Hezekiah get fifteen more years specifically? Perhaps it is a picture of the fifteen centuries from the time of Moses to the time of the greater Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), after which the nation would die, only to be raised up on the third day (think millenium, Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8), as promised in Hosea 6:1-2:

Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. 

As we enter into this third millenium or this third Day since the first coming of Christ, or the seventh millenium or this seventh Day since the time of Adam we can already see a rebirth of the nation of Israel and the spiritual rebirth of more Jews than in any time in human history. When the whole nation gets saved in a day (Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 66:7-9; Romans 11:26) it will be be like life from the dead (Romans 11:15) that we may live in His sight. May we have eyes to see the many more signs in scripture (Psalm 119:18) and in our own lives meant to make us wonder and marvel at all the Lord has promised and is doing in these most interesting of times to be living in!

Day 74: Two Are Better Than One

Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid in order to capture the city. They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the gods of the other peoples of the world—the work of human hands. King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. (2 Chronicles 32:18-20)

We have already looked at one of the parallel passages to the Sennacherib/Hezekiah (or more accurately, the Sennacherib/YHWH) show down from 2 Kings on Day 61: Praying for the Remnant of Israel, Day 62: Between the Cherubim, and Day 63: The God Who Listens and Laughs.

Rather than revisit the details of the context again, I simply want to muse on the thing that stood out to me about the Chronicler’s simple summation of the story: that Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out in prayer to heaven together about this threat they faced.

Misery loves company. But so does faith. When tempted toward misery there is nothing better than a believing, like-hearted comrade who will stand back to back with you on the battle field and agree in the place of prayer for God to intervene. Oh how I would love to have a friend like Isaiah to pray with in a time of need!

Solomon unpacks this reality of the power of such companionship,

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Jesus promised us “that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19,20).

There is such power when we come together in agreement that God had to scatter the nations and confuse their languages at the building of the tower of Babel, saying “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing they they propose to do will be withheld from them.” How much more powerful when we come together in agreement with God’s purposes and heart for whom nothing is impossible?

When Daniel discovered that he and all the wise men in Babylon were ordered to be killed by King Nebuchadnezzar because no one could give him the interpretation of his dream, he boldly asked the king for time to seek the interpretation, and then “went in to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” (Daniel 2:17,18). When the pressure is on, the wise prayer warrior will seek companions to fight side by side with.

When brothers dwell together in unity, this is the place that the Lord said he would command a blessing, even life forevermore (Psalm 133). The more who come into agreement, the more the impact. God promised the Israelites in Leviticus 26:3,8“‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them…then…Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.” * When the Father answers in fullness Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and makes us one as the Christ and the Father are one, then the world will believe that God sent his Son into the world. And while the power of corporate prayer is undeniable, what is mind-blowing is that it just takes two or three to cause God to act. Two people in agreement in prayer form the synaptic impulse coursing through the slender nerve that moves the mighty hand of Omnipotence.

Jonathan and his armor bearer demonstrated this reality when they took on a whole garrison on their own with the military disadvantage of an uphill fight and were victorious thanks to Divine enabling: “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.”  (1 Samuel 14:6) The Lord can save by many or by few. Gideon learned this lesson when God whittled his army from 32,000 to 300 against an enemy “as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (Judges 7:12), saying “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ (Judges 7:2)

There are many believers who need to know that their prayer meetings with two and three in attendance wield more power than they know with access to the very strength of the Commander of the Angel Armies, whether those prayers are offered from a lonely basement of a church, the obscurity of a suburban living room, a corner of a campus or around the cooler at a place of business. Oftentimes it is God’s preferred method to humble the enemy and glorify the Lord by using the few to thwart the many, to show that nothing is impossible when the Lord is on your team – no matter how small. After the Royal Air Force gained air superiority and secured a victory for the British during the battle of Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill remarked, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.” I love this quote. My only correction is to say that whenever two or three gather in Jesus’ name and agree in believing prayer, there is the potential for more to be owed by even greater numbers to even fewer than those who served in the RAF. I cite Daniel and his companions influencing an empire, Jesus and his disciples turning the world upside down and Hezekiah and Isaiah prevailing against the ominous threat of the superpower of their day as examples.

* Many Christians would suggest I quote Deuteronomy 32:30 to drive this point home, “How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the LORD had surrendered them?.” And while it does illustrate the exponential increase of impact by two versus just one, most Christians who quote this to make that point do so by completely taking the verse out of context. The verse is actually a rebuke to a wayward Israel who failed to discern how obvious it was that they were under God’s judgment, when such impossible favor was given to their enemies. Regardless, the point is taken: a few in agreement with God’s plans can achieve humanly impossible feats.

Day 73: Where do our Prayers Go?

The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place. (2 Chronicles 30:27)

As dependable as the postal service is, when I drop that envelope into the mailbox, there is often that nagging question, “what if my mail gets lost in the shuffle?” When sending an email, as sure fire as the internet seems to be, there’s often the thought, “what if my email takes a detour in cyberspace?” When the text message gets no response, I’m thinking, “Did it work? Maybe their phone is broken or maybe the satellites weren’t up when I pressed ‘send’ ”

What about our prayers? Do you have confidence that your requests and intercessions are gaining an audience in heaven? Do you imagine the Creator of the universe leaning over the balcony of heaven paying heed to the words that ascend from you lips like a balloon unrestrained ascending before the very throne of God? Or does it feel like there is a brass ceiling causing your words to bounce back unheard and unheeded?

I love this comment by the Chronicler lifting our gaze higher than the details of daily life to the reality that we have an ever listening audience of One. This One resides in heaven, his holy dwelling. So how does that work? There is this other dimension, a holy place where the Most High dwells that is accessible by fallen goofballs like ourselves at the mere utterance of our lips? This boggles my mind, and I would be tempted to pass this off as the stuff of fairy tales, if I hadn’t seen so many times where my prayers got answered in ways that rule out the fairy tale argument in favor of the truth this verse (and many others) declares.

For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15)

Every time I sense God speak or I see God’s hand in answer to my prayers, I experience revival in my heart.

This one time a few years ago, as I was entering the freeway on a pothole-ridden onramp that looked like it had been neglected for decades near my house, I let out an exasperated plea to the courts of heaven: “God, would you put a bug in someone in city council to have this onramp repaved!” I suppose I could have called the city and lobbed a complaint, but it just seemed easier and more effective to curry favor with the One who can do anything, anywhere, anytime. Within two months that onramp was as smooth as a baby’s backside. If God will do that for a request about infrastructure repairs, how much more when we come before Him concerning the hearts and destinies of the people he loves who are created in his very image?

When sociologists were predicting an 80% increase in human sex trafficking during the time that the 2010 world cup was to be held in South Africa, a department at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City committed to contending for the ending of sex trafficking called Exodus Cry, knew it was time to go an a preemptive strike in prayer. For four weeks, every Monday night, we labored in prayer for the event, knowing that our prayers would reach heaven, God’s holy dwelling place. Afterwards sociologists were stunned to discover that instead of an 80% increase in trafficking, there was an 80% decrease! We serve a mighty God who acts on behalf of the oppressed when we beseech him in the place of prayer!

One morning, early on in my marriage, I found myself laying in bed, frustratingly wide awake at 4am. “There’s no earthly reason why I should be so awake right now!” I thought to myself. “This is either God wanting me to pray or the Devil trying to wear me down to get me to succumb to temptation. Either way, I think I need to pray” went the thoughts in my head. So I turned over on my elbows and I began to quietly rattle off a list of things on my heart to pray for ranging from personal needs, to the souls of loved ones to ministry requests to military conflicts occurring across the globe. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed and I thought to myself, “what difference could my prayers here in my bed at four in the morning possibly be making?” Just as I had that thought, my wife rolls over in her sleep and says out loud “Jesus wins!” and goes back to sleep. I could not believe my ears. It reminded me of that old preacher’s anecdote about the seminary students debating how to make sense of the book of Revelation who were told by an uneducated janitor overhearing their discussion: “Oh, the book of Revelation? I can tell you what it’s about in two words: Jesus wins.” Suddenly there at four in the morning it all connected for me: my weak prayers are filling the bowls of incense in heaven (Revelation 5:8; 8:1-5), which will unleash God’s activity culminating in Jesus coming back in victory on a white horse to drive wickedness off the planet and establish His kingdom in righteousness and truth. My prayers actually matter! Every time I am tempted to question the impact of my prayers, I remind myself, “Jesus wins.”

A seasoned man of prayer I met told be recently about the most vivid vision he ever had twenty years ago that forever changed the way he viewed prayer. In the vision, he saw himself in heaven, in a beautiful library with tall ceilings, and a big window. Prayers were coming in through the window, whizzing past him and lodging themselves in books on the shelf. Each book was titled variously about a person, a country or a campus, etc. Then angels would come in, take a book off the shelf, read the prayers contained within, and then go off on assignment. But this one angel opened a book titled after an individual, and after looking in the book, the angel began to mourn and weep for there was so little prayer for this person. The angel wept because they knew they would be limited in how they could minister to that individual. Now we don’t hold subjective experiences like this on par with the written word of God, but this man confesses how this vision has highly motivated him to strive after “praying without ceasing” as Paul exhorts us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  Now if he sees someone who looks downcast, he always tries to throw up at least a short 20 second prayer, knowing that every prayer counts, and every prayer is heard in heaven.

Let me leave you with the inspiring comments of Charles Spurgeon in regards to 2 Chronicles 30:27:

Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every plight. When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer. Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemy’s hand. We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly succours can come down to us by Jacob’s ladder to relieve us in the time of our necessities. Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its merchandize is precious. Prayer gains audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening. In every condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt, your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from His holy place. Nor is prayer ever futile. True prayer is evermore true power. You may not always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied. When God does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so according to the spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed? This evening, my soul, forget not to offer thy petition and request, for the Lord is ready to grant thee thy desires.

Day 72: The Priestly Blessing

The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place. (2 Chronicles 30:27)

As short as this verse is, I am going to take two entries to meditate on the two aspects of this gem that I am enjoying meditating upon: today I want to take a closer look at the priestly blessing, and then I invite you on Day 73 to ponder with me the true destiny of our prayers.

This chapter chronicles the return of the priesthood in Hezekiah’s day. First we are told that “a sufficient number of priests had not consecrated themselves” (30:3). Then, we are told when the laity were outshining the priests and Levites with their zeal to “take away the altars (to false gods) that were in Jerusalem and they took away all the incense altars and cast them into the Brook Kidron”(14)  and that they beat the priesthood to the punch in slaughtering the Passover lambs (15), that “the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves and brought the burnt offerings into the house of the Lord” (15). After Hezekiah’s prayer which we looked at yesterday, the priests and Levites are back into full swing, finding what they were ordained to do, “praising the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments (21)”  As the celebration is touching the whole assembly so much that they all decide to extend the feasting for another seven days, we are told that “a great number of priests sanctified themselves” (24). To understand what this involved, read about the elaborate process in Leviticus 8, or read this powerful chapter (one of the best chapters I’ve ever read, seriously) on Priestliness from Art Katz’ profound book Apostolic Foundations here. And finally at the end of this 30th chapter in 2 Chronicles, we are told that the priests and Levites stood to bless the people and their voice was heard and that their prayer came up to God’s holy dwelling, to heaven. I think it is fitting, that for fourteen days, the people first blessed and ministered to the Lord, and then here at the end, having put first things first, the priests and Levites take time to bless the people. Though they started off shakey, at the end of the day, they kept their priorities straight.

When the Chronicler tells us that the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, we can be sure that they were using the prescribed Aaronic blessing laid out in Numbers 6:23-27:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:  “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’ “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Though the priests are said to have blessed the people, it is clear by the way this blessing is bookended that it is God who does the blessing. Studying what rabbinic traditions have developed around this blessing is fascinating. There is not space to comment on all the prescribed manner in which this blessing was to transpire, but one tradition I could not pass up commenting on is how the priests would raise their hands when saying this blessing with a two handed version of what we all know as Spock’s “live long and prosper” pose. Leanord Nemoy, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, actually was inspired from noticing the priests do this blessing, when he was supposed to not be looking (part of the tradition that has developed around the blessing – lest one look upon the face of God and die). The priests would stretch out their hands as if the Almighty were standing behind the congregation. The idea was to create a sort of lattice through which the face of God would actually shine upon the people. This is taken from an allegorical understanding of Song of Songs 2:9 that speaks of God as the bride’s “beloved”: My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall; He is looking through the windows, Gazing through the lattice. When the Spock gesture is doubled, it creates five “windows” or “cracks” by the empty spaces between fingers, including the space between the two thumbs coming together. The desire to create five such cracks comes from a breakdown of the Hebrew word for lattice which is ha-charakim, the first letter of which is “heh” which equals “five“, hence, ha-charakim alludes to five cracks.

Another common rabbinic interpretation that I found fascinating, in keeping with the theme of allegorical cues taken from Song of Songs, was how the 60 Hebrew letters of this blessing are believed to be what the sixty valiant men from Song of Songs 3:7,8 speak of:

Behold, it is Solomon’s couch, With sixty valiant men around it, Of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, Being expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh Because of fear in the night. 

Many rabbis believe(d) that when this blessing speaks of God “keeping” us, it is speaking of His hedge of more than adequate protection, especially at night, as this verse in Song of Songs alludes to. Hence not only was this blessing spoken in synagogues throughout the years, but also at children’s bedsides before going to bed.

I found the following remarks by Jeff A. Benner from his website Ancient Hebrew Research Center so good, I will just quote him at length:

The Hebrew word for “bless” is “barak” which literally means “to kneel”. A berakah is a “blessing” but more literally, the bringing of a gift to another on a bended “knee”. When we bless God or others, we are in essence, bringing a gift on bended “knee”. A true king is one who serves his people, one who will humble himself and come to his people on a bended knee. 

The Hebrew word for “keep” is “shamar” which literally means “to guard”. A related word is “shamiyr” which means “thorn”. When the shepherd was out in the wilderness with his flock, he would construct a corral of thorn bushes to protect the sheep from predators, a guarding over of the sheep. 

With this more Hebraic concept of Hebrew words we can now read the beginning of the Aaronic blessing as, “Yahweh will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection”. The remaining portions of the Aaronic blessing can also be examined for its original Hebraic meaning revealing the following: 

Yahweh will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection, Yahweh will illuminate the wholeness of his being toward you bringing order and he will beautify you, Yahweh will lift up his wholeness of being and look upon you and he will set in place all you need to be whole and complete.

Reading the next two chapters of 2 Chronicles shows how this blessing was practically worked out for the nation in Hezekiah’s day: abundant provision for people and priesthood (chapter 31), supernatural protection from military threats, and Hezekiah’s miraculous healing (chapter 32). Truly Yahweh was illuminating the wholeness of his being towards Israel and beautifying her.

Just as there was a restoration of the priesthood in Hezekiah’s day, so there is in this hour in the Body of Christ, a restoration of our identity as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Though we will have apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists “until” we attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13), we will forever be a kingdom of priests (Revelations 5:10) just as Jesus is a priest forever (Psalm 110:4). That’s why the author of Hebrews can say “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus”: because His heavenly calling is our calling. So what does priesting entail? Much more than I have time to unpack here. But, as demonstrated in the above verse, it involves sanctifying ourselves that we might minister to the Lord first, praising the Lord day by day, and then blessing the people. That’s why every prayer the apostle Paul prays is positive in nature, for he knew what it was to be a priest before God and before men. The whole world will be blessed when those who have been called as priests cause the face of Christ to shine on all who would seek his face with all of their hearts.

Day 71: Pardon for Pilgrims

Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel… Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people. (2 Chronicles 30:1,18-20)

Yesterday my family welcomed several international students into our home to celebrate Thanksgiving. It seemed a fitting way to commemorate the cross cultural dimension of the original meal at Plymouth Rock. It helped to have a guest in attendance from Massachusetts who was familiar with the actual story to instruct us who were a bit fuzzy on the reasons why we were gorging ourselves on this traditional feast. We heard about the story of Squanto or Tisquantum, a Native American from the Patuxet tribe who resided in what became the colony of New England. Squanto was kidnapped in 1614 by an Englishman, taken to Europe, sold into slavery in Spain, and then redeemed at a price from the auction block by some friars who did so to set him free and to instruct him in the Christian faith. But Squanto desired to get back to his people, and eventually joined an expedition in 1619 back to New England only to find that his whole tribe had been wiped out entirely by small pox. When the Mayflower arrived in 1620 with the Pilgrims seeking to practice their faith free from persecution, they were greeted by Squanto, who they were surprised to find spoke beautiful English.  Squanto adopted these settlers (who had just lost half of their group from the arduous journey) as his tribe and settled with them at Plymouth, where he had grown up. He helped them survive in this new land by teaching them the Native method of Maize cultivation and how to catch herring which were used to fertilize the crop. He would help broker a peace treaty between the settlers and the Pokanoket, a neighboring tribe – a treaty that lasted for fifty years. So after that first bountiful crop, Squanto brought the Pokanoket to join with the Pilgrims for an elaborate feast that lasted three days in order to give thanks to God for all He had done: for His protection from their persecutors, for brokering peace between between warring parties and for His abundant provision.

Squanto’s story of redemption and the feast he celebrated with these pilgrims is not unlike what Passover is about. God instituted a meal of remembrance so that Israel could remember YHWH’s mighty act in setting them free from slavery. But over the years Israel fell away from her roots and into idolatry, and this tradition by which to remember how they had been established as God’s people had been lost. When we fail to reflect on God’s merciful dealings, we begin to act mercilessly towards those around us. That’s what happened when this meal at Plymouth Rock lost it’s significance on the next generation: the European settlers would seek to subjugate and eradicate this nation’s first peoples from the land. In the years before Hezekiah came to reign, his father Ahaz was engaging in child sacrifice with his own sons (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chronicles 28:3) choosing to walk away from God to serve lifeless idols and the demonic principalities behind them.

So when Hezekiah came and tore down the idols in the land, cleansing the temple, re-established priestly worship as David prescribed and then decides to hosts this meal of remembrance for the first time in hundreds of years, it was a true breath of fresh air! 2 Chronicles 30 tells the story of how he sent letters throughout all Israel and Judah and summoned the people to keep the Passover. Some mocked him, but many others came, making this the first time in hundreds of years that the divided Kingdom, Judah and Israel had come together on anything, much like that first Thanksgiving meal brought native and settler into one accord.

2 Chronicles 30:26 compares this celebration with the time of Solomon, a parallel that carries through the whole passage. This Passover follows a rededication of the temple (2 Chronicles 29) that echoed Solomon’s own dedication (2 Chronicles 5-7) where both had tremendous joy (2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:6, 10; 30:21-23, 26) and huge sacrificial offerings (2 Chronicles 5:6-7; 7:1, 4-5; 30:15-16, 22, 24). Hezekiah’s invitation (2 Chronicles 30;6-9) and prayer (2 Chronicles 30:18b-19) reflect Solomonic language from his own prayer (2 Chronicles 6) and God’s response (2 Chronicles 7:14). Solomon’s plea that foreigners be permitted to seek God at this temple (2 Chronicles 6:32-33) is fulfilled in Hezekiah’s Passover when aliens are part of the celebration (2 Chronicles 30:25).*

And while the parallels are easy to see, the contrast is not to be overlooked. That they finally reinstituted the Passover was a big deal, but the fact is, they did it all wrong. The timing was wrong (a month late and twice as long) and the method was off. Some will quote the exception to the usual timing in Numbers 9:2-14 as the rationale for celebrating on the second instead of the first month. But that exception was for unclean and traveling individuals so that they might get clean by the next month, according to the laws of ritual purity laid out in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23, not for a whole nation to bypass the proper time only to have many who were unclean and therefore unprepared to enter into this holy convocation. The delay was allowed by Hezekiah because “not enough priests had consecrated themselves” and the people had not yet assembled in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:3) . In addition, many of the people had not consecrated themselves (2 Chronicles 30:18) requiring the Levites to step in to do the job. This demonstrates the Chronicler’s concern for ritualistic purity but at the same time notes that this was no conventional Passover meal. And the fact that God forgives this motley crew from their imperfect efforts demonstrates that God desires mercy more than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13; 12:7) and that He is after a heart that truly is seeking Him far more than outward conformity to rituals.

Again the parallels with the passage I examined in the last entry abound. Just as God promised Solomon in response to his prayer (2 Chronicles 7:14), if Israel will “humble” ( 2 Chronicles 30:11), “pray” (2 Chronicles 30:18), “seek” (2 Chronicles 30:19), and “turn” (2 Chronicles 30:9), God will “hear” (2 Chronicles 30:20) and “heal” (2 Chronicles 30:20). The text explicitly records, as if to emphasize the legitimacy of Hezekiah’s request, that “the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (cf. 2 Chronicles 7:14).*

The use of the word “heal” begets the question, is this figurative or literal? Were they actually sick because of failing to obey the written prescription in the law or is this a preemptive healing from the plague that was looming over them for their lack of consecration? Does this speak of an inner or outer healing? Individual or national? Honestly I do not know, but I am inclined to say “all of the above”, and that the Hebrew word “rapha” is most likely used to bring us back to the book’s theme in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

James exhorts us to “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:16) As the old pentecostal hymn goes, “There is a power, power, wonder working power, in the blood of the Lamb.” That’s what Passover is a reminder of. That’s what the Lord’s Supper is about. God’s power to heal, forgive and deliver by means of the blood of the Lamb who was slain that we might know freedom from bondage. How fitting that this meal Hezekiah re-instituted, celebrating the mercy of God, imperfectly adhered to, ends with a fresh experience of God’s mercy? And the proper response? That we should give God thanks for what He has done, is doing and will do (1 Thesalonians 5:18). On that first Thanksgiving meal, as Squanto reflected  on all that God had done for him, I’m sure the costly redemption those friars purchased for him was top on his list of reasons to enter into gratitude. How much more we, who have been purchased at such a great cost, that we might be forgiven, that we might be delivered, that we might be healed?

*taken from http://johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/hezekiahs-passover-exegetical-considerations/

Day 70: humble seeking turning prayer

“… will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…”

Four actions are prescribed here.

1) “… will humble themselves…”  Peter exhorts us to “clothe yourselves with humility for ‘God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5,6) In essence, the lower we go, the higher we will get. But what does it mean to humble ourselves? It means to recognize that God is Creator and we are the created. ‘Let God be true but every man a liar.’ (Romans 3:4) It is to look squarely at truth and ourselves and admit wrong doing. It is the opposite of arrogance, and it always seeks to prefer others. But one meaning of this word as it is used in the Bible but overlooked by most today, is that to humble oneself is an expression that is often used synonymously with fasting (Deuteronomy 8:2,3; 1 Kings 21:27-29; Ezra 8:21; Psalm 69:10; Daniel 10:12). While it is not the only meaning of the verb to “humble” ourselves, it certainly is a much neglected one today. Jesus did not say “if” you fast, in the Sermon on the Mount, he said “when” you fast. The assumption was that it would be a regular part of the life of a disciple. For a nation so given to gluttony like I live in, to humble ourselves will certainly involve going without food on occasion. The examples of David, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Jehoshaphat and even King Ahab show that sometimes if you want to be heard in heaven, our appetite for God will have to surpass our appetite for food. Everyone of my revivalist heroes had healthy lifestyles of prayer and fasting (Charles Finney, John Wesley, David Brainerd, John G. Lake….) If the thought of fasting causes you to recoil, I would ask: how desperate are you to see your nation turn around? For the best council on how to keep the right motive and agenda while fasting I recommend chewing on the exhortations and promises in Isaiah 58, as well as Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:14,15 if this is something you feel the Lord stirring you towards. I also recommend The Rewards of Fasting, by Mike Bickle, The Hidden Power of Prayer and Fasting, by Mahesh Chavda, How to Fast Successfully, and Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting, both by Derek Prince.

2) “…and pray…” – It is not enough to deny ourselves food. We must talk to God. Grumbling about our circumstances is not enough. Gossiping about our plight will not do. If we want God to release breakthrough in our lives and in our nation, we will actually have to talk to Him about doing so. God, release to your bride the revelation of the essentialness of prayer! We must talk to God about men more than we talk to men about God. But the heart of this prayer is not that we would pray about other people, but that we would start with ourselves, and own up to our own shortcomings.

3) “…and seek my face…” –  We must do more than just seek His hand or His arm, we must seek His face. It’s not enough to seek for a healing in prayer. We must seek the face of the Healer. It’s not enough to seek for provision in prayer. We must seek the face of the Provider.  The same could be said whether it is forgiveness, deliverance, revelation, guidance, wisdom, peace, joy etc. God is after an intimate relationship. We are often content playing with His gifts whilst losing sight of the Giver, preferring to stay at a distance with minimal contact, texting if communicating at all, when He is wanting us to look into His eyes and understand His heart. When God told David to seek His face, his heart said “Your face, Lord, I will seek “ (Psalm 27:7-9). David would go on to exhort us to seek his face evermore (Palm 105:4; 1 Chronicles 16:11)!

The topic of the face of God is an interesting one. In the same chapter we are told that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face (Exodus 33:9, see also Numbers 12:8; Deuteronomy 34:10) but a few verses later, after Moses asks to see God’s glory, God says to him “but you cannot see My face for no man shall see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). This idea is confirmed in that the gospel of John tells us that “No one has seen God at any time…” (John 1:18). And yet Jacob, Gideon and Samson’s parents all marveled that they had seen God face to face and not died from the experience (Genesis 32:30; Judges 6:22,23; 13:22). So did Moses see God or not? And Jacob, Gideon and Samsons folks? Who were they beholding? The only way I know to make sense of this is by way of Stephen’s accounting of who Moses actually saw. Acts 7:30,35,38 all point to his encounter with an angel in the burning bush and on Mount Sinai. We know from other encounters with the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament that a strong case can be made for these speaking of pre-incarnation appearances of Jesus. I think that when the Bible describes Moses’ face to face relationship with God, it is a figure of speech connoting an intimacy, a friendship that was rare compared to how most related to God. When God tells us to seek His face, He is pleading for friends who will take the time to understand His heart.

I love that God tells us to seek His face before turning from our wicked ways. I think the order is crucial. If we only ever try to turn from our wicked ways without something, or Someone rather, more captivating then we are entering an exercise in futility. As A.W. Tozer put it so well in his classic, The Pursuit of God: “The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.” The reason Tozer can say this and the reason God prescribes this order of action is because  we become like that which we behold. Psalm 115 and 135 speak about the lifeless idols and how those who worship them become like them. But the same is true with God. Those beings who are closest in proximity to God are called the “living” creatures. This would ordinarily be a redundant thing to say, for all creatures by definition are living. But these creatures are really L-I-V-I-N-G because they are staring at the very source of life and they are fully alive! Paul breaks this phenomenon down in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he states: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So it is true, no one can look directly into the face of the Father in an unregenerate mortal body and live. But if we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father (John 14:9), for he is the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3) the image of the invisible  God (Colosians 1:15), and as we behold Him in between the lines of scripture with the eyes of our heart, we shall be transformed into his image from glory to glory. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6).

4) “… and turn from their wicked ways…”  All the fasting, seeking and praying will not amount to much if we refuse to let go of the darkness that got us into the mess this passage is seeking to alleviate us from. No amount of sacrifice can replace simple obedience. Leonard Ravenhill once noted that “a praying man will stop sinning and a sinning man will stop praying.” Sin puts a distance between us and God. To truly seek God and not let go of that which grieves His heart is not to truly seek God at all.

When the people of God begin to take this prescription for a nation in crisis seriously, we will know what it means to have our land healed. To see an example of what it looks like for  a land to be literally healed by God, see this video clip about what God did for Almolonga, Guatemala from the documentary Transformations by George Otis Jr.

God, may we, Your people, learn to rend our hearts so that You might rend the heavens and come down! Let there be a great humility movement unleashed in this hour! Let the growing prayer movement produce a generation that seeks your face O God of Jacob (Psalm 24:6)! Let their be widespread repentance that sweeps across the heart of every professing believer, a true turning from our wicked ways that you might hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land! Amen and amen!

Day 69: If My People…

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13,14)

This is one of the more frequently quoted promises in the bible, but perhaps one of the least obeyed. The first thing that offends the average reader who takes this promise in it’s context is what proceeds the if/then proposition. God purposefully withholds rain, sends devouring locusts and plagues among his people? Can a God of love do that? Depends on your definition of love. Is it love to allow a people who are meant to represent the character and nature of God to shed innocent blood, to deprive the poor, the orphan and the widow of justice, to charade as righteous when oppressing the weak for the sake of greed and pleasure, failing to seek God’s counsel in all of their endeavors but rather relying on their own wisdom and strength and not bring them to account? God disciplines those he loves (Proverbs 3:11,12; Hebrews 12:5-11; Revelation 3:19).

Unfortunately, the prescribed remedy spelled out so clearly in this passage so rarely happens when the above scenarios are experienced by God’s people. In days of old, pagan fertility deities were often sought instead of YHWH as a means of currying favor on crops. Today if there is drought or locusts we will blame “climate change” before we blame ourselves and our wicked ways. If plagues break out we will concoct new vaccines and seek new medical discoveries before we seek the face of God. Why is the above promise so quoted yet so little heeded? I think it comes from an identity crisis that stems from a love of comfort and a lack of willingness to look at and love the truth. The fact is, people really like their wicked ways.

“If my people who are called by name” – This promise, in it’s context, is given to those who had been called out of slavery to become a nation when God spoke to Moses through a burning bush declaring His name to be YHWH, “I am that I am.” God would declare the deeper meaning of this name to Moses as pointing to God’s character  in Exodus 34:5,6:

“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children tot he third and fourth generation.” 

This is the God they were to display by their words and deeds to the nations around them. When Jesus arrived, mercy was not triumphing over judgment, grace and truth had been obscured by the traditions of men, and iniquity was cleverly cloaked by religious ritual but still very much alive and well. For more ruminations on God’s name, see my earlier entry, Day 53: What’s in a name? But the point I want to make here is that as God’s people we are to represent his heart, character and ways to those searching for the One who put the breath in their lungs.

In context, God’s people, called by His name are the people of Israel. The meaning of “Israel”, the name which Jacob received after wrestling all night with God (Genesis 32)  is much debated. “Prince with God” or “Struggles with God” or “Overcomer” are all possible ways to understand this patriarch’s new appellation. Any of the above would be fitting litmus tests of the nations spiritual condition. The echoes from the story of Jacob’s sweaty sleepless night to God’s promise to Solomon in this passage are many. Jacob would not let go until he received the blessing. He encountered God face to face and named the place “Peniel” meaning  “the face of God.” He would be humbled in the process and would walk with a limp. When God gives the conditional promise to Solomon at night, he is in essence saying, “Do the Genesis 32 thing and you will have my blessing”

As Christians, we even more overtly bear his name as the word “Christian”  literally means “little Christ”s.  Do we live up to what we call ourselves? “Christ” means anointed one. Are we anointed with God’s power to preach good news to the poor, to set the captives free, to heal broken hearts, open blind eyes and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor? (Luke 4:18) Do we have a form of godliness but deny it’s power (2 Timothy 3:5)? When the world looks at our lives do they get a taste of our Messiah? If not, then it is time to either change our name or change our ways. My prayer is that we all choose the latter.

[…stay tuned for day 70, in which I will break down the rest of this verse…]