For God's Sake!

It seems like this is a line from a British drama.

And if a lot of us had said this as children, our mom's would have washed our mouths out with soap.

But, it's actually quite a biblical phrase. One that is used often. Often in the Psalms. Often in prayers. 

It's a phrase that should be in our vocabulary and in our thoughts.

The prophet Daniel read the book of Jeremiah and discovered that the Babylonian captivity would last seventy years. Daniel's response was to break out in a prayer of national confession.

His prayer ended with a request.

It was not, "Lord, we have suffered enough. Please restore us to Jerusalem."

Or, "Lord, we can't take this anymore. Please show us your mercy and relieve the pressure."

Or, "Lord, we have humbled ourselves. Now reward us with prosperity."

Listen to this:

"Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name" (v 17-19).

Daniel's plea was for restoration. But not to make his life better.

His plea was for restoration for God's sake.

The purpose of his prayer was that God's name would be made glorious.

That God's promises would be fulfilled.

That God's city would be rebuilt.

That God's temple would be restored.

That God's people would be returned.

What does your prayer life look like?

Are you praying for your sake?

Or maybe for the sake of someone else?

Or are you praying for God's sake?

God's Grace in Restoration

In Leviticus 8 the account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood is recorded.

They were set apart. Special garments were placed on Aaron as high priest. Anointed with oil. Animal sacrifices. Blood on the altar. Blood on the right ear lobes, right thumbs and right big toes.

All this was to signify the importance and uniqueness of this ministry.

It's a familiar account.

But this is the same Aaron, who, less than a few months earlier at the foot of the same mountain where this ordination was taking place, made the golden calf (Exodus 32).

He called the people to give him their gold. He fashioned it into a calf and said, "Here are your gods that brought you out of Egypt!"

And now he's being set apart as THE high priest over all of Israel? The primary connection between God and His people was leading them in idolatry a few months earlier?

Really?

What was God thinking? Didn't Aaron need to go through some kind of ministry rehab?

Start him back down at the bottom of the totem pole until he proved himself faithful in small tasks?

I suppose by now, some of you have started to think of a New Testament parallel.

Peter denied that he knew Christ in the hours before the crucifixion.

Not once. But three times.

After the resurrection and before the ascension of Christ, Jesus came to Peter and commanded him, "Feed My sheep."

Not once. But three times.

And we see in Acts, which continues the account less than two months after the crucifixion, that Peter is the leader in the church. 

He's the one who stands up and explains what is happening on the day of Pentecost. 

He's the one who preaches and gets thrown in jail. 

He's the one who heals a lame man. 

He's the one who stands before the Jews and says, "We must obey God rather than man."

Aren't those two men, Aaron and Peter, amazing accounts of God's grace at restoring to ministry?

They still made mistakes after getting back into the saddle. But God didn't leave them on the bleachers because of their horrific sins.

He picked them up and used them for His glory.

And He can do the same with those of us who have fallen. 

"Fallen" is not the end of the story.

Forsaken and Forgiven

We've all experienced the feeling of being forsaken. Someone has left us.

Maybe it was after a parent died.

Maybe it was when the last child left the nest.

Maybe it was after a spouse walked out the door for good.

Maybe it was when a close friend stopped calling.

Those events happen in real life. The pain, the discouragement, the loneliness and even the fear that are experienced are real feelings as we grieve the loss.

But when we think of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, even our closest relationships don't measure up to that intensity.  All of eternity. Always united. Never an argument. Never a time of separation. Working together perfectly. Communication and fellowship without any hindrances for all of eternity. We've never had a relationship like that.

And that relationship was broken.

Jesus said on the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34).

The holy God who cannot look on sin, turned His back on His own Son as He bore the sins of the world. He forsook His own Son as He hung on the cross with your sins and mine (Col 2:13-14; 2 Cor 5:21).

And yet that abandonment did not last. There's no record of how long it was that God turned His back on Jesus. But we know that it didn't last forever. It was limited to a certain length of time.

The end of Eph 4:32 says, "...forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."

We read that and think of the great forgiveness that we have received through the death of Christ on the cross. But I think that is just a part of the story.

God, in His eternal, holy love for His Son, could not turn away from His Son forever. As Jesus hung on the cross, with the weight of the sins of the world, God's love moved Him to forgive us, so that the relationship between Himself and His Son could be restored.

Jesus was bearing the guilt of all of our sins. In order for God to be able to return to a loving relationship with His Son, He had to forgive us.

Rather than making us the center of the redemption story, that perspective puts us as recipients of a side benefit. Redemption did bring about the possibility of a relationship between sinful mankind and a holy God.

But even greater than that: Redemption restored the relationship that was broken between God the Father and God the Son.

Wow.

A Mundane Monday Morning

"So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never pass through it again" (Joel 3:17).

In other prophets we read that the people would "know that I am the LORD your God" when judgement came.

This passage talks about the restoration of Jerusalem and Judah as the sign.

When there is peace and prosperity in Jerusalem, the people would know tha tthe LORD is their God.

When the enemies of Israel have been subdued, the people would know that the LORD is God.

So in restoration or judgement, God is working to make Himself known.

God's ultimate goal in all of His acts is to make Himself known.

In good times and bad, we can seek to discover God's attributes.

How has He revealed Himself in this event?

What does God want me to learn about Himself through this?

And I don't think it's reserved for spectacular events of judgement or restoration.

How will God reveal Himself to me today, on this mundane Monday morning?

Repentance does not mean Restoration

We've heard the stories. Some of us have lived them.

Life is a mess and we realize it's because of sin. I mean, really a mess. We've hit bottom and we know why.

So we get to the point where we confess our sins.

Forgiveness from God flows as He has promised (1 John 1:9).

We begin a path of repentance.

Drawing closer to God and further from sin, we begin to walk a new life.

Surely, God will put all the pieces back together.

But He doesn't.

Does that mean that the repentance wasn't genuine?

Does that mean that there are more skeletons in the closet that need to be brought into the light?

Those may be valid questions to ask ourselves. But the Word of God doesn't teach that repentance leads to restoration.

Consider the account of Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 12.

Rehoboam was Solomon's son, the first king of the Judah in the divided Israel.

After the establishment of idolatry in the northern kingdom, the priests and Levites who had lived there came to Jerusalem in order to worship the LORD in the temple and in the right way (2 Chronicles 11:13-16).

Rehoboam's reign was secured "...for three years...for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon" (v 17).

But when the kingdom was secure, Rehoboam "abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him" (12:1).

Because of this, the LORD sent Shishak, the king of Egypt with his mighty army against Judah, storming the fortified cities along the way and heading to Jerusalem.

However, Rehoboam and the princes listened to the words of the prophet Shemaiah, who declared, "Thus says the LORD, 'You abandoned Me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak'" (v 5).

The leaders humbled themselves, declaring, "The LORD is righteous" (v 6).

God saw their humility and sent a new message through His prophet. They were to be granted SOME deliverance. Shishak would not be allowed to destroy them. 

But they would become servants of Shishak. "...that they may know My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries" (v 9).

God accepted their humility. He acknowledged that they had repented. But they still had something to learn.

He wanted them to learn that it was better to serve the Almighty King than to serve an earthly king.

It wasn't for further punishment.

It wasn't because God didn't believe that their repentance was genuine.

God wasn't trying to pressure further confession out of them.

He wanted to use the time of their humility to teach them.

Lessons for me:

1. Just because life hasn't been restored, doesn't mean that God is punishing me.
2. Just because life hasn't been restored, doesn't mean that God is displeased with me.
3. Just because life hasn't been restored, doesn't mean that God is waiting on acts of penance.

God still has lessons to teach me and He is using this time to do it!