February 28, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 52.11-12)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

You are familiar with the saying “Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Why do we still validate the Old Testament scriptures though we are a “New Testament” people, or Church? Because the Old Testament is the revelation to each succeeding generation of believer that the maxim above is validated. Israel’s failure as a people of God is the very fact that they were more prone to follow the legacy of Adam and Eve than… more than they were prone to follow the Sabbath day Adam and Eve. The seventh day of creation (and God created the Sabbath day and made it holy, sacred and necessary) was validated in the teaching of Jesus as He said, “Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2.27) Just taking the “story” walk of Adam and Eve, we know that the temptation to question God’s purpose, intention and blessing of them both happened outside of the creative work of God. It happened on the parenthetical “eighth day.” When Satan saw the completed work of creation which culminated on the seventh day, the day of Sabbath rest for God and humanity, he responded with a vengeance. He had been replaced, as well as displaced, on earth as he was in heaven. In Heaven, Satan was named Lucifer. He ministry there was to lead all Heaven in worship of the One True God. We do not know the intrapersonal communication between Lucifer and God about his disposition. Today we might consider that Lucifer was burnt out, overwhelmed, bored, unchallenged and so forth and so on which led him to consider leaving the job and taking disgruntled “workers” with him. What we do know is that he led a rebellion, insurrection, coup against the Godhead identity. He was defeated in his efforts to overtake the throne of Heaven and was sent out, expelled and thrown down to earth. Wait, all of that had to happen after the creation of the heavens (not Heaven) and the earth. Why? It had to happen after because there was no “before” to cast him out of Heaven and down to earth until God created it.

What if, just for the sake of story, the rebellion happened after the first Sabbath day experience? God had declared at the end of the sixth day with the creation of humanity in His own image that “…it was good and very good.” All was right on earth and in Heaven. The seventh day came with the declaration of rest (which makes sense since it started in the evening after a full “day” of work) and then entered into a time of worship and praise as the only “work” to be done on the Sabbath day. All that was needed by Adam and Eve on earth was provided without their asking for it and without the laboring to bring it in. The same would be said for those in Heaven. I am reminded of that beautiful hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” One line goes this way: All I have needed Thy hands hath provided; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!” On that seventh day, Heaven and earth were united. They dwelt together as one in the presence of God, and the godhead. Wait again! Couldn’t this mean that Lucifer then felt the expectation of an added duty and responsibility? Serving God in Heaven as worship leader was one thing. Now, he would be expected to lead worship on earth, too? Do we ever feel overwhelmed, burnt out and put upon? Do we even entertain the idea that God is just expecting too much even when the expectation is just to “walk by faith and not by sight“? So, following this storyline, Lucifer met the expectation…ONCE! Once was enough. He then stepped down out of Heaven and into the world of humanity created in God’s image and sought to “set the record straight.” If we stop for a moment and remember David’s words in Psalm 8, we might have to adjust our listening so we can hear that possible dialogue which we have recorded for us in Genesis 3. David sang, “What is humankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of Your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” Wait! (We are doing a lot of “waiting” which for me in this context means “stop and think about what was being said…perhaps.”) If Adam and Eve were then to be the worship leaders (which is by word and deed; the dual meaning of the word “worship” in both Hebrew and Greek) on earth reflecting the worship that has already been happening in Heaven, then was Lucifer incited to jealousy to share and not get “glory” for himself?

Of course, I am projecting. There is no biblical evidence for such thinking but it brings to my mind that “nothing happens for no reason; everything has a reason and a purpose.” What is our duty as mighty ones of God but to receive that reason and purpose, be discipled in that reason and purpose, fulfill that reason and purpose and thereby create the legacy of discipling others in that reason and purpose. In so doing we create an authentic cycle of life. Did we not see that earlier when God addressed Jerusalem as a mother with no guidance whose offspring were of no help? Do we not see it in the course of righteousness as the call to “love God and love our neighbor” transforms into self-willed obedience to the morals and ethics of God? Is it not obvious in Jesus’ teaching and modeling of being “the way, the truth and the life” as well as “the resurrection” that the meaning and purpose is to engage the meaning and purpose? After all, when Jesus declared “If you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father and that is enough,” it wasn’t to see all you need is to “see Him.” To “see” Him is to believe in Him. To “believe” in Him is to follow Him. To “follow” Him is to walk by faith and not by sight. Wait! If we “see” Him, then we are not walking by sight? What does that mean? It means that we do not need to “see” Him to know His appearance, His looks, His visibility. What we see is what He has given us and walk it out. A failure to do so only brings us back to the beginning of our failure. Only Jesus brings us back to the beginning of our success. And that is what was happening and promised to happen to the exiles of Jerusalem and Israel. God was invoking their beginning of being successful again. When was that beginning? On the seventh day! A long time ago. But we are given that new beginning now. Let us learn and move forward!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.