Monthly Archives: March 2015

THE WAW FACTOR! …Exodus 1:1, Leviticus 1:1 and Numbers 1:1

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I’ve titled this devotional the Waw Factor.  Now you think I can’t even spell!  Who sez I cant spel?!   Shouldn’t it be the Wow Factor?   Not really.  Let’s have a little biblical Hebrew language lesson.  Okay?  Here we go… anyway!  The letter ‘W’ in Hebrew language is pronounced waw.  Just like our ‘W’ but sometimes with a certain vowel-marking it may be pronounced like our letter ‘U’.  Let’s not get too complicated!  After all, in Seminary at Princeton,  I did not turn the world upside down with super grades in Hebrew language!  Remember, Fischer is spelled with a C… and let that be a hint for you!  Now this may surprise you–for the past 5 years I study Hebrew and Greek every day.  Still have to!

I’ve learned that the letter ‘waw’ is also the word ‘and’ in Hebrew.  Looking at the first 5 books of the Old Testament, we discover that the middle three books all begin with the letter Waw , which of course means ‘and’.  Exodus–‘AND these are the names of the sons of Israel…’  Leviticus–‘AND the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting…’ Numbers–‘AND the Lord spoke to Moses…’

Genesis tells of God’s marvelous creation, the Fall of mankind, and those stories of the earliest patriarchs of the faith.  But the middle three books all begin with the word ‘and’–as if there’s more and more to tell.  More of the life stories of His people.  Some good, some not so.

I was thinking about this Waw Factor.  It reminds me that we can never comprehend all there is of God.  He’s too big…and wide…and deep.  Waw!  And too amazing!  When you imagine that He’s fed up with you, maybe even done with you,  that’s when you discover that there is more forgiveness ahead.  Ask Him.  Come to Him, kneeling at His feet,  saying  you’re sorry.

His love is always more.  Never runs dry.  Never the bottom of the barrel with not one drop left.  No floor…and no ceiling.   With our Lord, there is always more. ‘AND!’  Need more understanding because of the terrible traumas that have come your way?   You wonder if maybe He’s heard the same-old-things from you one too many times?  No!  He always has more time and compassion for us.  Always more…  Even in heaven,  we’ll be eternally discovering more and more of our wonderful God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   That will be the Waw Factor of Eternity.  When you and I reach that last chapter of our lives on earth,  that’s when the Lord will say “you’re only half-way through letter  ‘A’ in My encyclopedia of eternity”!  We’ve barely gotten to ‘AND’!   Waw… and Wow!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for all you add to our lives.  Never ending really, and we are so grateful.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

MORE ABOUT MERCY, ALWAYS MORE…Matthew 9: 9-13 and Hosea 6: 4-6 and Amos 4

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Matthew’s Gospel.  We see that Jesus goes out of His way to ‘stir the pot’,  causing trouble that seems unnecessary.  He calls a tax-collector to be one of His disciples.  A tax-collector!  Are you kidding me?   Tax-collectors weren’t the most sterling characters in Jesus’ day.  Crooks… or worse.   Of all the people He could reach out to and call as one of His disciples, a tax-collector?     Why not a Rabbi or a Temple official?  Nicodemus came at night.  Why not call him by day?  No, not Jesus.  No!  He calls a tax-collector!

The Pharisees are disgusted.  Fed up.  He even goes to dinner with tax-collectors.  You can feel the Pharisee’s  dripping arrogance and self-righteousness.  That’s when Jesus lowers-the-boom!  He quotes from Hosea in the Old Testament.  Remember him?   Hosea was God’s prophet,  commanded to take an unfaithful woman as his wife.  He was to show forgiveness in addition to that big word, mercy.  Nothing about ‘throwing the book’ at her or standing on his right principles with his righteous indignation.   In the book of Hosea,  we discover that our Lord ‘…desires mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings'(Hosea 6:6).    More mercy and less judgement is the desire of our Lord.

He doesn’t want to throw salt on our wounds.  He wants to heal them.  With mercy.   He really loves us,  and wants us to come back to Him.  Have you read that portion of the prophet Amos yet?  My, oh my, just dripping with sarcasm!   ‘Go to Bethel and sin…Bring sacrifices every morning,  your tithes…brag about your freewill offerings–boast about them…for this is what you love to do…'(Amos 4: 4-5).    Reading the rest of Amos 4, we discover the heart of the Lord,  who says over-and-over again–‘…yet you have not returned to Me.’  Five times God says this in chapter 4.   He cries out:  to come home… to Him.  Waiting for us at home is His mercy… like a mighty river flowing and flowing with  great force.

How could we ever stay away?  But we do.  I have at times, and I don’t recommend it.    So, come home.   Open arms will greet you.    He promises to forgive and forget.  Unlike you and me,  He really means it.  Forgives…AND forgets.  That’s mercy, I’d say. Like choosing a tax-collector or receiving an unfaithful woman.   Even greeting me and you, not with the back of His hand, but with open arms.    Empty rituals will never cut it with our Lord.  Never.  Only hearts and souls that passionately desire Him.  Only if we come home to Him.  Only then…

Are you home yet?  You’ll know it when you’re there!  He’s left the light on and the door is open!  Welcome home!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all your kindness to us in Jesus.  In His name.  Amen.

HAVE MERCY! … Exodus 37: 1-9

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The end of the book of Exodus seems rather tedious.  All those instructions about the tabernacle and its furnishings. Does it really matter?   Well,  look again.  I found an amazing verse–Exodus 37: 9.  Moses was remembering how the gifted artisan Bezalel had made the Ark, and overlaid it with precious gold.  There were rings on the Ark’s side where wooden poles,  also overlaid with gold,  would fit through so the Ark could be carried without ever having to be touched by human hands.  Tightly covering the Ark was a solid gold lid called the ‘mercy seat’.  On top of the mercy seat were two golden angels,  the cherubim,  spreading their wings over the mercy seat.  Their faces look directly at each other.

What impresses me most is the mercy seat.  Mercy covers all the glory of the Ark.  Mercy covers it all.  Mercy and His holiness go hand-in-hand.  Angels look over and protect God’s mercy.  Angels are created guardians offering shade from the heat that blazes down upon God’s people.  The terrible heat emanating from anxiety,  worry and overwork.  Angels shading us.  Acting on behalf of God Himself.

What is His mercy anyway?  Some have said that His grace is receiving what we don’t deserve.  God is so generous.  None of us deserve one smidgeon of His grace.  It’s truly God’s ‘amazing grace’.  I depend on God’s grace… and am thankful for all He gives me, when I bother to think about it.  When I stop taking Him for granted.

Mercy?…That’s NOT receiving what I DO deserve. Think about that for a moment.  God not giving us what we deserve.  I love grace, receiving from the Lord.   Who doesn’t?   But mercy, sounds pretty good to me and in light of how I am, maybe even a better deal!   Imagine if God gave me all that I deserve.  I know how brutal that would be.  I know myself.  I know what a sinner I am.

It’s mercy I need.   Somewhere, way down deep in my emotions, I know how little I deserve anything good from God.  How right He would be to write me off.  But the Gospel  is not about me or my fragile, fractured emotions.  It’s about the Lord and all His mercy sealed tightly over the most precious item in the Tabernacle.  His mercy we can count on.  His mercy trumps all our sin.  His mercy is everlasting,  new every morning and night.  I’m glad!  So glad!  You too?

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for all your mercy.  For covering us when we feel so exposed by our sins.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS… Proverbs 18: 10

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One verse for today!  But a good one to memorize and carry around with you for a long, long time.  The Bible says that the Lord is our ‘strong tower’.   Christians today are under great pressure, even for their lives,  because they name the name of Jesus Christ.  Wherever you may be, to say you’re a Christian is to open yourself up to unbelievable scorn, ridicule and ostracism.  Some safe tower, you may say.  What does this mean?   What gives?  What about the ‘strong tower’?

I think you know the answer.  We were made for paradise…and this ain’t it!!  Not after what sin has done.  This promise of the strong tower must be for somewhere else, someplace different than ‘this old world’.  Yes, of course, it’s for where God is,  where He keeps us safe. It’s for heaven.   Keep looking up where heaven is, where God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give us their strong tower to safely run to.

Cherish the safety of your relationship with the Lord here and now as a foretaste of things to come.   Remember when Jesus said that if we had the faith of a tiny mustard seed,  we could approach mountains saying to them  ‘be tossed into the sea’, and they would?  That’s found in Mark 11: 25.  We know what Jesus obviously doesn’t mean.  Mountains, wherever you live, are still there even though some well-meaning person prayed and wanted them in ‘Davy Jones Locker’!

Something else is going on.  At the Christian Church I served for 14 years, we always ended the worship service by singing the chorus to the old hymn ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’–‘look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace’.

Look up to Jesus, who is way above any mountains you and I may face.   Looking to Him fully,  you notice that our mountains of trouble don’t seem as evident.  Maybe you don’t notice them at all.  It’s as if when we fully concentrate on Him, that mountains move aside…and, in a sense,  disappear!

That’s what the’ strong tower’ image means.  Not for here completely…but especially for there and then.  In heaven with our Lord, who opens the tower doors and gates and welcomes us home, safe and sound.  You know what?   I don’t even see those mountains anymore!  Only the One who made them and can move them aside… for you and for me.  ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus…’

Prayer:  Oh Lord, thank you that no matter what happens to me in this life, I am safe and secure in Your arms.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

OFF ON MY OWN!… Exodus 25: 1-22, Matthew 6: 5-6

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When I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute many of the original buildings, from the 1880’s,  were still in use.  Evangelist D. L. Moody’s office and first classroom building, 153 Institute Place, was still standing.  My favorite hang-out was the SweetShoppe,  manned ably by Pop Mitchell.  His cheese omelettes were the very gooiest best!  I spent way too much time…and money there as a student.  Those were happy days for me. Over a thousand students on one city block in downtown Chicago!

But I had a secret place on campus that I cherished.  I’ve never told anyone about it.  Until now.  It was on the second floor of Crowell Hall, where old classrooms were empty as empty could be.  No one ever around after noon.  But me.  I would take the back stairs, avoiding the elevators, and walk the empty halls until I came to a large classroom with the highest ceilings and biggest blackboards you’ve ever seen.  I just loved that place.  It had those old student desks made of wood with a flat surface.

A certain musty smell hung in the air.  A scent of a very old building.  I would sit there for upwards of an hour at a time, all by myself… praying and talking with the Lord.  Time with Him.   No one would bother me.

I’ve never forgotten that special place.  I was reading about the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament, where only the High Priest would enter once a year to offer atonement and prayers for all the people of Israel.  It was the inner sanctum of the Tabernacle, with very little furniture.  It was a simple place.  Gold…a wooden box that contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments,  Aaron’s rod that budded and a jar containing a bit of the food they called  ‘manna’.  That was it.

Simple.  Not all 613 commandments but only 10.  Ten was enough to guide God’s people on how to live for Him and with each other.  Not complicated.  No code to break.  No hidden messages to trip us up.  Just 10 commandments.  On top of the golden Ark were two angels that had been hammered out of the same piece of pure gold,  reminding God’s people that He’s watching over for us.   His angels cover us,  and while we never see them in action yet they are there.  Covering the Ark.  Below them is the Mercy Seat, the solid-gold covering that fits exactly over the wooden box.

10 commandments–the best way to live.  Words of God.    A rod that budded–miracles abound with Him.  A jar of manna–His provision.   Angels watching over us.

Let me recommend that somehow, somewhere, sometime you get away with the Lord.  Spend time with Him.  Pray.  Read your Bible.  Jesus and you.  Together.  Nothing formal or forced.  Cherished moments…previews of things to come on a much larger scale!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for times alone, you and me.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.