The Encourager Newsletter
Toward Knowing God and Walking With Him
A FREE WEEKLY PUBLICATION with a BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW –
Volume 5 Issue 1 – January 28, 2011 Dan Carr, Editor
The Snow
Ava Holcomb is enjoying the snow at her home in Flat Rock, Alabama. Lots of snow this year: seven inches, nine inches, one inch. Ava is our grand-niece and lives on the very edge of Sand Mountain.
The Bible mentions snow 24 times. One of King David's "Mighty Men" was Benaiah who slew a lion in a pit in the time of snow (2Samuel 23:20).
After King David sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed to cover it up, he was a miserable wretch. After God sent His prophet, Nathan to confront David, he wrote Psalm 51 which contains this:Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7). How dirty and despicable David was. He prayed for God to apply the blood of atonement to him with the aid of a sprig of hyssop.
The Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Job commented about how he could possibly be clean in the sight of God. He said, "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. (Job 9:30-31)
To Job, the cleanest thing he could think of was to wash himself with snow water. But he knew that his own righteousness was as dirty and foul as the water in a ditch which would make him smell terrible. This was not a declaration that God would throw him in a ditch but was a figurative picture of the trouble he was in. He was as dirty as a stinking ditch and even washing himself with snow water would not make him clean.
Isaiah had observed himself and all the people around him and realized that none of them were in any condition to stand before a Holy God. He confessed:
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:6-7)
Isaiah had thought it over and concluded that the filthy things people avoided touching were a picture of how they were inside themselves. This figure of speech used by Isaiah under the anointing of the Spirit of God is offensive. Several commentators, who dare go the whole distance to tell the truth, can only say one thing: they are "menstruous rags." Matthew Henry says we are like the rags that have been used to wrap the oozing sores of lepers. No one is as holy as God but are we that bad? It all comes down to whether we want to know what the Prophet Isaiah said about us.
The Apostle Paul takes up the theme of righteousness before God. He says his personal righteousness is as dung. The vilest thing imaginable, fit only to be thrown to wild dogs; the worst dregs purged from silver; excrement of the worst sort. Paul counted his personal righteousness as fit only to flush down the toilet.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians3:8-9)
A mother worked all morning scrubbing the family's white shirts, blouses, underwear and sheets. She used her best homemade soap and added some bleach to make sure they were clean. It was really rough on her hands. She wet-wiped the clothesline to make sure it was clean.
She wrung the clothes out of the second rinse water as good as she could with her hands and hung them on the clothesline in the back yard by the kitchen window. At last the clothes were on the line to dry. She went into the house and took one last look through the kitchen window at her morning's work. She could be proud of herself and proud of the clothes that would be ready for her family.
She fixed herself a snack, poured some coffee and retired to the living room to put up her tired feet to rest. She ate her sandwich and drank her coffee and laid her head back—and dozed off. After a couple of hours she awakened and hurried to the kitchen window. Looking out the kitchen window, she opened her mouth wide in disbelief at what she saw! Snow had covered the ground and she looking at her clean sheets and shirts against the background of pure white snow. Her clean clothes now looked dingy and yellow compared to the snow. Then she understood why the Bible and the church hymnal talked about "whiter than snow."
The Woman I Want To Be—Barbara Carr
"There is a woman I want to be, Lord . . .
She never doubts your existence or strays from your ways. She never fails people or herself, or you. She is an ideal wife; A perfect mother; A neighbor and friend everyone loves and respects. Yet she is all this without sacrificing her own dreams.
I keep thinking this woman will turn up some day, God—wearing my clothes—wearing my face. But somehow she eludes me. I catch only glimpses of her. I see just enough of her now and then so that I don't despair entirely. Lord, dear patient Lord—thank you for showing me at least these fragments of the woman I want to be!" (From the book Hold Me Up A Little Longer Lord by Marjorie Holmes)
The woman I want to be is showcased by four women in the Bible.
Naomi was a faithful witness and godly mother-in-law. It is true that she joined her husband in leaving Israel during a time of famine. But, look at what she went through in the loss of her husband and two sons and her courageous decision to go back home and face familiar people and the ruins of her deserted farm and home. Naomi had lost face with her kin people who had stayed in their homeland and toughed out the famine.
She drew Ruth to cling to her in loyalty and love and to accept her God (Jehovah) over the Moabite god, Chemosh. Naomi did not brow-beat her daughter-in-law to follow her or her God. Naomi never lost sight of the Lord Jehovah and faithfully spoke of Him and reflected the law of God in her daily living. Naomi is the kind of woman I want to be.
Ruth was willing to go with Naomi to live with people who believed in Johovah. Ruth was blessed in her decision by giving birth to Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth cheerfully abandoned her own country. She was determined to cling to the one true God even to death; to trust totally in Him and worship Him. Ruth is the kind of woman I want to be.
"And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:" (Ruth 1:16)
Esther was not only a Persian queen but has proven to be a queen of influence on millions of women around the world through many centuries. A book of the Bible bears her name. I hope you will read it.
"And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter."(Esther 2:7) (Hadassah was her Hebrew name, which means Star. Esther was her Persian name.)
Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, so she would have been Mordecai's cousin. Under the instructions of her Cousin Mordecai, Esther showed her loyalty to God and her people, the Jews. More than once, she risked her life by advising the King in making the right decisions. She was afraid at times, but continued to sway the King's favor to her people.
The book of Esther doesn't mention God, prayer or religion. However, you can feel the strong faith of Mordecai and Esther. As you read, you can see God working behind the scenes and keeping His chosen people safe.
Esther obeyed in faith and was rewarded. Esther is the kind of woman I want to be.
"And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." (Luke 1:38)
Mary, a virgin, was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. The Bible says she was "highly favored and blessed among women." (Luke 1:28, 42) She knew the Jewish law and understood at least some of the rejection and persecution she would receive. Yet, her answer was "be it unto me according to thy word."
Later, the prophet Simeon told her: "… Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34) These words were not lost on Mary.
Jesus grew into manhood and began his ministry with the disciples he had chosen. Rumors spread about Jesus, how he was a threat to the Jewish priesthood and perhaps against the government of Rome: Insurrection! Punishable by death! Mary and her sons went to seek out Jesus. Maybe, she could get Him to come home with her—to a safe haven.
Jesus' answer must have crushed her. Or, did she realize His answer was not a rebuke, but to show the people His love was the same to all believers? Mary was a person who "pondered all these things in her heart" from the time the shepherds visited them in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. No doubt, she still pondered things in her heart.
"While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!" (Matthew 12:46-49)
Mary was very brave and obedient from a child of about fifteen to Jesus death on the cross. I don't read in the Bible of her blaming God or losing faith. Mary is the kind of woman I want to be. Ω
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