Dispelling Darkness

In the shroud of winter’s darkest night, before the first peek of sun’s light filters through the drape of day, hope seems to have been washed out and uncertainty appears to blanket wishful dreams. Fears and nightmares assault the mind causing body to tighten with anticipation of what it cannot fathom. Yet nothing is new under sun or moon when life’s final embers crackle, fizzle, and scar. The last grasping at what once was, the last scrabbling for lost life, gives way to submission and abandon as reality assaults the senses. Time nears its end; mortality awaits all men. A hush falls upon the whole self, a sense of unreality and disbelief.

The fighting and feinting from recent past years now ends as understanding and forlornness rise to reign in whole being. The grudging acceptance of inevitable passing of time, of heartbeat, of breath reveals the new reality. The dust of this one’s future began its last steps, its last breaths, its last thoughts.

Around the corner lies the creeping certain ceaseless canceling of creation – corporeal collapse.

The mental assault of its reality never more real than in the darkest moment of winter’s night. The hope of last sun’s rays rupturing the drapes of life soon drifts dizzily down when mind assaults that hope with the certainty of eternality’s nearness. With sudden gasp, this new and imminent reality rears its intention and nothingness makes its inevitability understood; this one’s time soon ends. Grasping and scrabbling ends. Acceptance begins to dawn within.

Still, silently biding its time comes a knowledge beyond all knowledge, beyond all reason. An understanding hard to acknowledge and accept by many until this time of nebulous in-between-ness becomes the inevitability. This oft pushed-aside reality, knowledge, and belief eases itself forward from the recesses of memory. This memory reminds of power, knowingness, and ever-presence. As it advances forward from mind’s recessive memory, a glimmer of hope, a glimpse of future, a gasping of possibility captures the remnants of corporeal body’s spirit and brightly shines hope, anticipation, and expectation. “Oh, what was that?” this one so near to winter’s eternal darkness asks? “What was that news told to me during Spring’s bright and hope-filled dawning?”

The grinding of old, unoiled wheels turns recalling from memory what someone said. The feeling of possibility springs forward giving last glimpses of hope before life’s final dawn fades away. “What was that news?” the spirit begs mind to recall. Picking through worthless words, actions, and thoughts, “There, move that detritus; I see a glorious shining!” Scrambling through stacks of senseless moments and memories, the unheard, unheeded, and unknown shines brighter until that Word is revealed in the bank of life’s detritus. The one Hope disregarded in the dizzying dance of life still shone dazzlingly even amidst forgotten goals, games, and gambits. Gazing upon this unheeded memory, this long-forgotten message, hope springs, heart sings, head soars with the light of possibility of new dawn.

This Hope, this Message, this Word unheeded still, but recognized as the One not to be missed parts the winter’s darkness giving glimpses at possible eternal gazing upon the Light during the non-time of eternity. Grasping, listening, learning, accepting, hope eternal rises as the sun of summer in the heart. Belief beats breath-takingly as winter’s dark night fades into gray as the Light of the world breaks into the midst of time’s sway bringing brilliance and wondrous joy.

Where once inevitable ending reigned in heart, mind, and body, now hope and life unending spring forth bringing bounteous joy and eternal life with the One Who is beyond all constraints, Who loves unrestrainedly, and gives life eternally because of His faithful love.

Who wants the misery and despair of winter’s shroud? Who chooses that option when Hope and Light from the eternal Spring is available? Hear the message. Believe the Truth. Walk in the way. Accept the gift of love given so that all who believe can have eternal life. No winter’s dark night ever casts its shroud upon it. No nothingness ever penetrates this glorious eternal kingdom of God. Hear. Believe. Be saved from the darkness of eternal death.

Come see and believe in the hope of the Gentiles.

Come believe and receive the God of hope.

Then in that day, the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to Him, and the land where He lives will be a glorious place. (Isaiah 11:10 [NLT])

Isaiah said, ‘The heir to David’s throne will come, and He will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on Him.’ I pray that the God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:12-13 [NLT])

Hardened Heart, God Revealed

“So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’” Exodus 4:23 [NASB]

In earlier studies of God’s “I am” (anoki/ani) statements in the Old Testament, we learned God told Abram He is his shield (his Protector and King). He told Abimelech, a non-Hebrew, He knew and restrained him (all-knowing and all-powerful). God told Isaac and Jacob He is faithful to His covenant with their ancestor Abraham; He is loving, Blesser, Protector, Keeper, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent, Provider, and Restorer. He told Moses He would always be with Him, is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is faithful, and deserves worship. In Exodus 3:14-15, God revealed His name for the first time. God told Moses His name is “I AM WHO I AM” (ehyeh asher ehyeh or Hayah or Yahweh). He said He is the self-existent One. God is the eternal God who was, is, and forevermore will be. He is the unchanging, eternal, self-existent One. God continued to speak to Moses in Exodus 4:11-15 by calling him to be His mouthpiece, though Moses felt and expressed his fear of being unable to be His spokesman. He doubted his ability, forgetting God prepares those whom He calls for His service. He reminded Moses He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator who gives people their mouths and makes one able to speak or not. God commanded Moses to go and speak, and He would guide His mouth; He would be His Teacher. Still Moses feared his inability, then God provided a mouthpiece for Moses through his brother Aaron.

The next time God said I AM using anoki or ani was in Exodus 4:23, immediately after He told Moses he would be His mouth and speak to the Israelites. In Exodus 4:21-23, the LORD, Yahweh, told Moses he would perform His wonders before Pharaoh, but He would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden and not let the Hebrews go. It seems odd that God would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden against His command to let His people go. Why would God do that? We need to notice, when Moses would speak with Pharaoh, it would be the second time recorded in the Old Testament that God said “I am” to a non-Hebrew. Why is this significant? It shows God is God over all people, not just the Hebrews. He is over all other gods, those that humans create. It shows His care and love for every person. Because God is Creator of all people and things, God cares about everyone and wants them to know (yada) Him and be in a loving, saving relationship with Him. Most importantly, we learn from this passage, God can cause or allow things to happen that seem negative to show His might. He might cause or allow a person to have a hardened heart against Him to show His might over a situation, like the Hebrews’ release when He convinced Pharaoh through the many plagues that He is stronger than him so let His people go. God is greater than any person and created thing.

When a person hardens his/her heart against God that person chooses to be his/her lord over his/her own life. He/she effectively states, “I will do what I want to do no matter what You say, God. Though I hear You, I will ignore You.” Pharaoh considered himself, as his ancestors did, a god of the Egyptians. He felt his word was final, and he was almighty, nothing could go against him. Isn’t that the way we each feel when we choose to do what we want even though we know or sense God prompting us to do something else? In this passage, even before Moses confronted Pharaoh, God told him Pharaoh would say no each time he told him God says, “Let My people go.”

God knew Pharaoh’s heart. He foretold to Moses what would happen. God prepared Moses for Pharaoh’s stubbornness even though He realized it might cause Moses to balk again at speaking to Pharaoh. In this passage, God showed He is all-knowing, faithful, covenant-keeper, all-mighty, and Yahweh. God knows when each of us will be stubborn. He knows us and is prepared to show us Who is Yahweh. God allows us to make our own decisions; that’s free will. Still He doesn’t give up on us but keeps showing Himself to us.

God wants each of us to know and love Him, to be in a saving relationship with Him. He wants us to turn back to Him, to accept His gift of salvation from our sins, and have eternal life with Him. Without God’s saving us from our sins, we would receive the judgment of eternal separation from Him our sins deserve. Every one of us do wrong things in our lives. We each deserve judgment for those sins. God offers us grace from our sins through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who died on the cross.

God knows you. He knows about your hardened heart against Him. Still He calls to you telling you He loves you, wants to forgive you, and wants to have an eternal relationship with you. Will you harden your heart to Him and keep being your own god? There’s no future in that path.

Solomon said in Proverbs 28:13-14:

“The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. Happy is the one who is always reverent (to Yahweh), but the one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” [HCSB]

The writer of Hebrews implored people in Hebrews 4:7 when he said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” [HCSB]

Lord God, I know You are real, though I try to ignore that knowledge at times. I choose to do what I want so many times and often those go against Your moral laws. That makes me my own god. Lord, please forgive me for turning my back on You and ignoring You. Forgive me my stubbornness. Lead me to desire a relationship with You and make me aware of Your glory so that I am overwhelmed and realize you truly are Yahweh. Help me to realize I am just a finite, feeble, created human, but You are Almighty Creator and Savior. Amen.

Knowing Protector

“Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore, I did not let you touch her.’” (Genesis 20:6 [NASB])

With God’s “I am” statements of the Old Testament and Jesus’ “I am” statements in the New Testament, especially in the gospel of John, God teaches us about Himself, about His nature. When people speak of themselves using “I” statements, they tell us about themselves, too. In Genesis 15:1, God told Abram He is his shield. He used the Hebrew word anoki for “I am.”  Bible writers used the word anoki three hundred fifty-nine times in the Old Testament to tell people about God and other people. In Genesis 15:1, the shield God equates to Himself, as in Ephesians, is Abram’s faith. It, by metaphorical connection, is Abram’s protection offensively and defensively. By God saying He is Abram’s shield, He meant He is his King, too. By telling Abram He is his King, Protector, and faith, Abram could have confidence and faith that what God said would happen, i.e. His promise of Abram having a host of descendants, would occur.

In Genesis 20, God tells us, and Abimelech, more about Himself and His nature. What did God tell Abimelech, Abraham, Sarah, and us about Himself with the two “I am” (anoki) statements in this chapter? Let’s recap this story quickly then look at God’s anoki statements in verse six.

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was very beautiful. Abraham felt any man would kill him to have her for his wife and/or in his harem, so he told Sarah to tell whoever asked that she was his sister. In fact, Sarah was both his wife and sister. She had the same father as Abraham, but a different mother, so they would not have lied by saying she was his sister. It was not the whole truth though. The truth was that God gave them a joint promise to have many descendants through their marriage union, so in His eyes, they were husband and wife. Sarah was dutiful, and several times she and Abraham told kings and other men she was his sister. On this occasion in Genesis 20, they told this partial truth to Abimelech, the King of the Philistines in Gerar. Abimelech felt, since Sarah was Abraham’s sister, he could take her and put her in his harem. God had something to say about that. He did not say it to Abraham and Sarah directly. God spoke to Abimelech in a dream telling him He would judge him to death for stealing another man’s wife. Abimelech protested in his dream he had not touched Sarah and pleaded for himself and his nation by appealing to God’s justness. God explained He knew what Abimelech said was true. He explained He had kept him from touching Sarah, but now he had to do what He said and return Sarah to Abraham. Abimelech confronted Abraham the next day about his relationship to Sarah and his causing him to sin against Sarah, him, and God. He returned Sarah to Abraham along with gifts to appease his conscience, prove his innocence, and vindicate himself before people.

This story is interesting in several ways. God spoke to a person not of Abraham’s line. He spoke through a dream. God revealed Himself and His nature to people. He set a standard of obedience even to people who came not from Abraham’s line. Consider closer God’s “I am” (anoki) statements in this chapter.

God used anoki twice in verse six. He said to Abimelech in a dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore, I did not let you touch her.” First, note God spoke to the king in a dream, a way common to the people of the area. God speaks even to people who do not believe in Him. He is Creator of all things, people included, and wants a relationship with each person, not just Jews and Christians. God knocks on the heart’s door of each person. This passage shows that even before Paul spoke about Christ coming for the uncircumcised and circumcised God seeks a personal relationship with every person.

The “I am” statements God used in verse six speak volumes. He said, “I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this.” This word “know” comes from the Hebrew word yada. Yada is an experiential knowing. First you see a person, then you hear about that person. Next you learn of the person then personally speak with him or her. Finally, you begin to seek the person as part of your every day life and get to know him or her very closely. This kind of knowing is most often experienced in our relationships in getting to know a person who becomes our husband or wife, or our best friend(s). It equates to our relationship with Jesus Christ, too. God used the word yada when He told Abimelech “I know the integrity of your heart.” God knows each person; He knows their heart. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. We can hide nothing from God. God knew Abimelech had not yet slept with Sarah even before he protested he had not touched her. He knew Abimelech’s integrity would not let him sleep with another man’s wife. God’s statement to Abimelech meant He knew Abimelech-his heart, his spirit, his mind, and his strength. God knew Abimelech intimately even though he was not of the line of Abraham. He created Abimelech and had kept up with him daily because God is intimate; He is imminent. God is right here with our next breath. He is not just out there somewhere watching over all things in a big intangible way. God is transcendent; He orders and cares for the world on a macro level because He cares for His creation. God is both immanent and transcendent. He knows people intimately, and He keeps things orderly. With God’s first “I am” statement, He told Abimelech He is all-knowing. He knew Abimelech intimately, and He knew the situations of the world around him.

In the second “I am” statement of verse six, God told Abimelech, “I also kept you from sinning against Me.” This verb “kept” comes from the Hebrew word chasak and means to hold back, restrain, and withhold. Without Abimelech knowing Yahweh God as his God, God knew Abimelech and cared intimately about him, so He restrained him from sinning against Him, Abraham, Sarah, and himself-his integrity. Sinning is not just harming the person whom you go against. It affects each relationship a person has. Besides this, any sin is an act of unrighteousness and unrighteousness is an action against God who is righteous. This was not the main message God had for Abimelech in this part of verse six though. God explained to Abimelech He is all-mighty and able to keep him from sinning even though he did not know God intimately or recognize Him as his God. God cared enough about Abimelech that He did not want him to wreck his relationship with Abraham and Sarah before it began. He did not want him to cause confusion within himself and undermine his own integrity. God also did not want Abimelech to sin against Him even though he did not know Him as his God.

In these two “I am” statements, God revealed to Abimelech, Abraham, Sarah, and later Bible readers, including us, that He is all-knowing (omniscient). He knows us intimately because He created us and has been with us closely (imminently) every day of our lives. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God also revealed He is all-powerful (omnipotent). He can stop us from harming ourselves and other people, and our relationship within our self, with other people, and with Him without us even knowing Him intimately. He is God over all things and people. When we know, yada, God, He gives us His power not to fall to temptation and sin. He also gives us the knowledge we need for each situation. God is the fount of knowledge and power.

These two “I am” statements do not end this story. God reveals Himself to us, relates to us, and gives us power over temptation, but we must act upon it. In verse seven, God commanded Abimelech to act upon what He revealed to him. Because God gives each person freewill to obey Him or not, Abimelech did not have to obey God’s command. What did God command Abimelech to do? “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” God explained He knew Abimelech’s heart of integrity. He told Abimelech He gave him the power to keep his hand from Sarah. God explained who He is with this dream. He acknowledged and appealed to Abimelech’s integrity. God then commanded Him to act upon that integrity with His power and do righteousness by restoring Sarah to her God-given husband. Abimelech could have said, “No.” Still his integrity and God’s stated judgment of him and his household if he did not obey led him to obey God. Abimelech acted obeyed God with God’s power. He went beyond what God required and gave to Abraham a vindication payment to prove his integrity and prove he had not touched Sarah. Abimelech gave Abraham any land in his kingdom he wanted and invited him to be a part of his nation.

God is all-knowing. He knows more about us than we do and even knows those parts we think we have kept hidden from Him. God is all-powerful. He can keep us from sinning even when we do not have a close relationship with Him. God wants to have a relationship with each person, not just with the Jews or the people from Abraham’s line. God created every person. He wants a relationship with every person. God wants to give us His power to overcome temptation and sin to keep us righteous. In being made righteous, our relationships with people, with ourselves, and with Him remain faithful and pure. God keeps our hands and hearts from sinning if we will accept and use His power to withstand temptations.

We each have a choice like Abimelech. God has revealed Himself to us today. He has shown us His power and makes it available to us to fight temptation. Will we be obedient to Him, accept His power, and be in a righteous relationship with Him?

God provides the way to a right relationship with Him through the salvation He offers by His Son, Jesus Christ’s, death and resurrection.

Will you accept God’s gift of salvation from your sins and have an intimate relationship with Him?

God, I have tried to live a good life. I know I haven’t always done the right thing because I want to take care of myself. Please forgive me for choosing myself and my ways over You and Your ways. Help me realize and live knowing You love and know me intimately, so I can trust in You implicitly. Help me accept Your gift of salvation and live with Your power each day so I can remain in a right relationship with You, other people, and myself. Amen.