Yesterday was a pretty prayerful day. They were short prayers. There was somebody I love and am trying to help through an illness, and I cried about the prognosis and the direction the illness is taking. A family that’s dear to me had their whole worlds rocked by the actions of one of their children. Another dear friend has come right up to finding out there’s adultery in her marriage. My crown popped off my tooth and had to be replaced yesterday and I visited the chiropractor yesterday, as well, because I have a lingering “crick” in my left neck and shoulder. I took one of the grands with me and another one cried and cried because I could not take her, too.
It sounds crazy, but I’m so thankful it was podcast day! In between all the big and little challenges, there was a faith-building theme going through my mind and before me on the pages in the waiting spaces. It was the theme of a Holy God. It was that I’m going to a throne room that is Holy, in which the title Holy, in triplicate, was shouted, in vision, to Isaiah, as one seraphim cried to another “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts and the whole earth is full of His glory!”(Isaiah 6:3ff).
It was the knowledge that He shakes out from His garment those who fail to keep covenant and trample His courts (Is. 1:12-15) but that He has saved His ultimate Holy place, the church, for me today through the One whose lips knew no guile (Is. 53); that Holiness, personified and incarnate, dwelled among men and became the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. It was that He sees the tears of every person with whom I spoke yesterday and, if he can move the sundial, He can move the things in my world that are obstructing His glory (Is. 38).
It is also that, as late 2009, the bulla (seals) of someone named Hezekiah, the king, and someone named Isaiah, prophet, were found only 10-15 feet from each other just off the temple mount in Jerusalem. Throughout the day, I just kept thinking about this Holy God and how the external evidence just keeps coming in—that His Word is authentic, preserved and potent.
It was thinking about the rigorous details of dress and washing and service of the high priests of history from passages like Leviticus 16, when the animals were offered for cleansing and the scapegoat was sent away for atonement; and then suddenly realizing that it was Caiaphas, the high priest, who handed them over to those who spat on the Lamb, mocked Him and slapped His face. They slapped the face of the Holy One. It was the high priest who facilitated the suffering and death of THE lamb of God.
What would I do without Digging Deep? On days like yesterday, I’d probably lose the focus that keeps me going through the challenging stuff. Oh, I know I could dig into the Word without the organization and accountability that the study gives me, but would I? And would I remember that I am undone and of unclean lips before His holiness? Digging Deep constantly makes me see my need before Him.
I didn’t intentionally launch the Digging Deep study, but I’m so glad God has let me be a little part of the applications of His holiness through the wonderful blessing that is Digging Deep. I hope you will joins as the brand new study begins on September 1st. I hope you will invite someone else who needs the Word. (That’s any woman you know who is not intentionally in it, already!)
We’re doing a lot of things better in our country during this strange Corona spring. There’s no late-night clubbing because the bars are closed. More moms are home with their children, which has always been God’s ideal. We’re not driven by sports and entertainment to the extreme degree that’s typical. Casinos are closed, too. There’s more prayer and less revel. We’re checking on our elderly family members more frequently, pulling together in communities and finding ways to connect with church family. Innovation may be at an all time high in our country.
So here’s the list, given to Judah, of rewards for being righteous from Isaiah 58. (It’s the answer to the first part of number four in our study this month, if you’re digging. See if you can find these.)
53–Grace