Life Matters - May 25, 2022
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8) The “heart” of man is generally understood to be the inner place where affection, where love, resides. It is the “soul” where emotions, whether right or wrong, affect our lives and the way we live them. These emotions, a vital part of who we are, need always be filtered by the Word of God. This is the trial by fire that God allows through the wisdom of His chastisement. That we may come through as gold, tried in the fire. (Rev. 3:18)
Fire, the most ancient means to purify gold, is one of the word-pictures God employed to describe whatever trials we may face in life. But not just any fire. Not a destructive fire. Not an indiscriminate fire to no purpose. A very purposeful fire. A directed fire. A fire directed by the force of destruction, but which God allows for our betterment. For our purification. To make us stronger. To strengthen our faith as we trust and sense God in the hard times as well as in the good times.
God purifies from the inside out. He purifies the vessel. He puts his laws in our hearts and writes them in our minds. He puts new life in us, infuses us with life, with courage from His throne of grace. He sustains that life and that courage with manna, with sustenance, from heaven.
God is an expert with word-pictures and gave a word-picture of this people-vessel and its contents to the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to Canaan. He gave them detailed instructions on how to build an “Ark of the Covenant,” and instructions on what to put inside this gold-plated box. The gold was to be pure, as God made very clear in His construction plans. The words “pure gold” appear eight times in Exodus Ch. 25 with those plans.
It was to be a clean vessel, but not a vessel to be left empty. We are to be a vessel purified by the grace and love of God through Jesus Christ. A vessel purified by fire. But not left in the fire to be ruined. But a vessel lifted. A vessel anointed. Healed with the balm of Gilead. Through the comfort of the Holy Spirit. A vessel filled. A vessel filled with the grace of God by His Holy Spirit.
Jesus warned against leaving our vessels (our inner life) empty, even though swept and garnished. It is not enough to be clean and empty. Clean and garnished. (Matt. Ch. 12) Other devils, more wicked than the first, took up residence in the emptied out soul then, “And the last state of the man was worse than the first.”
God gave the Israelites a Word-picture (The Ark of the Covenant) of a clean vessel and then also what to put in it. This ark vessel, overlaid with pure gold, was to have in it the Law of God, written on tables of stone by God on Mt. Sinai. The law that was to bring us to Christ. (Gal. 3:24) but after faith is come we are all the children of God in Christ Jesus. Nor are we left without law, for God tells us through the prophet as recorded in Heb. Ch. 10 v. 16, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them.”
The word-picture continues with Aaron’s rod (branch) that budded and not only budded, but by morning, had almonds on it! This branch that had been cut off from its tree – had life in itself! Zechariah, the prophet, speaks of one coming whom he refers to as the Branch. Jesus Christ is the one who has eternal life in Himself, an eternal life we can be partakers of if we have the Spirit of Christ in us. The Spirit of keeping that Life of Christ pure and alive in us.
Then comes to pass the scripture that is written; (Titus 1:15) “Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” Life Matters!