March 2, 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:

“But you will not leave in haste or go in flight.” The exiles were ordered to leave in an orderly fashion. There was no riot. There was no parade. There was not jeering nor cheering. They went as a people of peace and humility to stand in contradistinction to the chaos which still ruled the world in which they had been living. Consider, they had been taken from a world that had been reduced to chaos. That world was Jerusalem and the nation which surrounded and the nation it represented. What is more important than that was it was a city that was intended to represent God. Reading through the prophets and the history of Israel reveals blatantly the scope of chaos which was Israel spiritually, politically and as a people. If they were to be a people of God called by His name and fashioned by His identity (again it began on the sixth day), then what is it they thought of God? Was He holy and profound? Or was He sinful and profane? They were a people defined by their actions and woeful intentions. They were defining God to meet their needs. They were not a people defined by God who promised to meet their needs. They manipulated the system instead of allowing the system by which God had delivered them to shape and form them. Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s house reveals this truth of God extending grace working with the people to reform and fashion them back into useful vessels of righteousness.

Our God is a God of order, structure, mission, purpose and a great and grand design. What our God desires is for there to be balance in life promoted by faith and obedience. What our God desires is to silence the chaos not by removing it but by redeeming it. Only God in “spirit and in truth” is able to accomplish it. Not by our might or power are we able to accomplish it. We may move in the right direction, but we are not able to complete the journey on our own. God spoke through Zechariah (4.6), “Not by might nor by power shall this be accomplished, but by My Spirit.” Perhaps we may best understand the teaching of Jesus at the well where He transformed the Samaritan woman there by declaring “True worship does not happen because it is in a certain place; it happens when it is that which rises out of SPIRIT and TRUTH.” There is no question that the “spirit” aspect being referred to is the Holy Spirit. What then of “the truth”? Is He not referring to Himself who is “the way, the truth and the life“? He does not claim to be the Holy Spirit. We know that He is filled with the Holy Spirit. He is empowered by the Holy Spirit. He and the Holy Spirit are under the command of God and they obey His commands to bring about the fulfillment of order which transformed and transforms the chaos.

If this is the identity, nature and character of God evidenced “in spirit and in truth,” then shouldn’t this be our identity, nature and character as well? Why would we choose to be “out of character” and embrace chaos as our way of life? Where there is disorder and chaos there is death, pain and suffering. Such elements are the evidence of sin. Sin is the disruption of the order which God purposed to bring light out of the darkness, life out of death and structure for building communities for the good of all out of tearing down of such communities for the good of some. It makes sense then, doesn’t it, that the image and promise of the Messiah, who must suffer greatly to bring “the way, the truth and the life” back into order and visible for all to see is what is revealed to Isaiah and through him to the nation of Israel and through them to the world (the nations, communities and people) which surrounded them. It is time we get a hold of ourselves by grasping on to God. Why choose any other to lead, guide and direct our lives. As we enter into this season of Lent (as it is called by some), let us settle ourselves down and let the Spirit move us closer to the Truth.

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.