Brown's Daily Word 2-8-10

Good Morning.

Praise the Lord for this new day. Jessica flew back to Philly Friday night as the heavy snow was starting in earnest there, but she got back to Philly safely. Praise the Lord for His protective hand upon her. Their church was canceled yesterday due to snow. Sunita and Andy both came to their home Friday at about noon, as Washington closed at noon Friday because of blizzard force snow. Their church was also closed yesterday because of snow. Their street, which received over 36 inches snow for the weekend, was not plowed Sunday. Sunita shared with me that they made a big breakfast yesterday and invited their neighbors to share it with them. They 11 for a pancake breakfast and for a prayer meeting. Laureen drove down to Lancaster Saturday afternoon to see some for her friends. She got semi-stuck when she left the highway, but finally got to her friends much later. Janice and Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon, were safe in Boston wishing for enough snow to take the kids out to do some sledding. My wife, Alice, was envious that all the snow fell in Washington and Philly. We had a snowless and semi-sunny weekend.

It was wonderful to be in the House of the Lord yesterday. The Old Testament reading was taken from Isaiah 6, and Isaiah was in the temple. Isaiah’s temple scene sounds a little bit like a courtroom scene as the Lord, exalted on his throne, and vested in a grand robe, was surrounded by angels at his service. Isaiah used the Hebrew word for Lord (verse 1) that emphasizes his power and authority. In fact, in Isaiah's account, even the holy angels were so humbled in the presence of God that they could not bear to look at him. With faces hidden, they called him three-times holy. The Hebrew word “holy” in the Old Testament has the idea of something that is set apart and divinely unique. Put all the details together, and we have the picture of an almighty, transcendent, majestic God.

His majesty is accentuated by his holiness. Angels call to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’”

Isaiah knew that this was the holy God on his righteous throne—and Isaiah realized that he did not belong there. “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

At this point in Isaiah’s vision, something else comes to our attention: the altar. This was one of the chief items a person would see in the temple. The altar had sacrifices burning on it constantly—all pointing forward to the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ to end all sacrifices. The altar suddenly became a focal point in Isaiah’s vision, and Isaiah received a personal object lesson connected to that altar. “One of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’” Think about what that altar meant. The continual sacrifices were a symbol of the great Sacrifice which was yet to come in Jesus Christ. For now that picture of the great Sacrifice to come is carried to Isaiah and touched to his lips—the same lips that he had just called “unclean.” The coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ would take his guilt away, remove his sin from the record, and make him at one again with God.

Of all the characteristics of God, could there be any characteristic greater than God’s forgiving nature? Could there be any greater news for souls to hear? You and I come before God with unclean lips and hearts and lives, and yet God comes to us in the person of his pure and sinless Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus not only becomes one of us but he even becomes sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This same Jesus now comes to us with the very forgiveness accomplished by his death on Calvary’s cross. His Word touches our hearts with that forgiveness, and Jesus seals it all with a permanent promise of forgiveness sealed by his resurrection that has opened the gate to everlasting life.

In Christ,

Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iK0Miq2xNo