6/18/2018 What Is Good To God? An OT prophet summarizes the life God expects from his people, condensing it down to three essential qualities. Micah 6:8, NIV He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 1
6/18/2018 Good Grief! To “walk humbly with your God” includes a genuine sorrow for your sin. Isaiah 66:2, NIV These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. Why “Ash” Wednesday? In the culture of Bible times, putting ashes on yourself was a humble sign of grief. It was often accompanied by the wearing of sackcloth. “Sackcloth and ashes” demonstrated your desire to feel as uncomfortable on the outside as you do on the inside! “Sackcloth And Ashes” One of the OT prophets expressed his good grief this way. Daniel 9:2-4, NIV …I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed… 2
6/18/2018 “Sackcloth And Ashes” God, through another OT prophet, endorsed and encouraged this practice! Jeremiah 6:26, NIV Put on sackcloth, my people, and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing… Merely Going Through The Motions God doesn’t want just an external show of religious rituals. Isaiah 58:3-5, NIV “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?...” You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high…Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” Don’t Compartmentalize! God watches your entire life, not just your rituals! Isaiah 58: 6-7, NIV “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Fasting in sackcloth and ashes impresses the Lord only if you are acting justly and loving mercy. 3
6/18/2018 Good Grief: From The Inside Out! You are walking humbly with your God when the ashes on your body represent an “ashen” spirit. Isaiah 57:15, NIV “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Good News For Those With Good Grief! Jesus came to comfort those who mourn over their sin. He replaces the ashes with a crown of beauty! Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV (see also Luke 4:14-21) The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted…to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. More Than A Crown Of Beauty And A Garment Of Praise! We are fit for eternal life because we’ve been outfitted with the Lord’s righteousness! Isaiah 61:10, NIV I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness… 4
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