But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
| Not Having by Cathy Vinson |
Can there be any more agonizing situation in all existence than to be empty-handed before a Holy God when He is settling His accounts? "Tekel: you have been weighed in the scales and been found wanting" (Dan 5:27), "cover your shameful nakedness" (Rev 3:18). What do you do when you have nothing to cover with? Surely it is then that this panicked expression finds accuracy: "They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him...!'" (Rev 6:16). Do we know what shame feels like? Do we see our nakedness? When we do, we will desperately cry out for mercy (Mt 18:26). Only because He is the compassionate King will Jesus cancel the debt and add upon our shame His robe of righteousness. We then turn to the brother who has missed the mark with us and sinned directly against us. What are we doing with their nakedness, realized or not? Do we revel for a time in it? Does it give us the needed edge of dominance we enjoy when another is indebted to us? But they are naked, too, shamefully. What will we do with their vulnerability? Will we see their nakedness and go outside to tell our 2 brothers (Gen 9:22)? We must let it slip away without hesitation, we must "turn the other way" (see Gen 9:23), without viewing their dishonor, and cover their plight with our release. We have nothing to pay our debt to the Master, not even with our own soul. Neither does the brother who offends. "'Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had with you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers until he should pay back all he owed. 'This is how My Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart'" (Mt 18:33-35). |
|
"brought to him one debtor of ten thousand talents, not having..." (Matthew 18:25)
|
||
|
Send a note to Cathy Vinson , the writer of this devotion.
Other Whispers from the Wilderness Devotions are found HERE
Return to the Daily Miscellany