When I go to a gun range, I’m asked if I brought “eyes and ears.” There they are in the picture. My senses — our senses — are vulnerable and fragile. They need protecting.
As Paul reflected on the Exodus, he recognized that our senses become vectors for sin. He wrote, Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did… (1 Corinthians 10:7-8)
But God’s senses are perfect and indestructible. Scripture portrays God’s senses as perceptive of our worst stuff, alerting Him to come to our help. Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them… (Exodus 3:7-8)
Psalm 103 says that God feels our fragility — For he knows whereof we are made; he remembers that we are but dust. And so the merciful goodness of the Lord endures for ever and ever upon those who fear him… Those who heard Him say, Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return on Ash Wednesday.
Paul tells the Corinthians that God can sniff out our hidden weaknesses and with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) And with this comes God’s fondness for “pleasing aromas” (Exodus 29) of sacrifices and incense. He can smell the pleasing offering of our good choices in obedience to his will.
Jesus tells us that God can taste the good fruit that our dry, undernourished souls are witholding and he comes to tend us back into bloom. He gives us another season to bear the good fruit of repentance and new life in the Holy Spirit. (Luke 13:6-9) By the way, this extra season of care might be a good way to understand Lent and all the seasons of the church year, annual opportunities for the Lord to tend and renew us.
But don’t miss God’s warnings: Don’t be like the Israelites who took God’s help lightly and turned away to wallow in their own weak senses. Don’t ignore Jesus’s help and remain a fruitless tree. taking up space and waiting to become firewood.
Instead, worship the Lord who knows you and loves you. Devote yourself to Him by feeding your spirit with Scripture, subordinating your senses to His by fasting, and letting Him hear you through prayer.
Worship is a “6th sense” that goes beyond our bodily senses, gets us out of ourselves and our idols and lifts us toward the living God who is leading us to life everlasting.
Worship the one who sees, hears, smells, feels and tastes you in and at your worst stuff, and loves you and comes to your help. Let us bless the Lord…
Thanks for sharing today at church!
Thanks for sharing this wisdom.