i am about 4&1/2 hours into our flight from washington DC to Doha, Qatar! just finished watching Creed II and journaling/listening to worship music-heart won’t stop by john and sarah mcmillan-my word, GOOOOD. STUFF.
the song talks about the extent of how far God will go in pursuit of us. it says
“i could lay my head in sheol
i could make my bed in the bottom of the darkness deep
still your heart won’t stop coming after me.”
sheol is hell.
it’s saying
“i could literally lay my head in hell.
make my bed in hell.
and still Your heart won’t stop coming after me.”
STILL. that’s insane.
by saying the “extent” of how far God will go in pursuit of us, actually what He’s saying is there’s not an extent. there is nothing we can do to make God not want us.
that blows my mind.
the Lord put it on my heart to study David. (like i’ve said before, my bible and i are learning to love each other) so we are just cruising real low in this. like a verse a day, maybe a passage, rarely an entire chapter. but hey we’ll get there i believe it.
anyways i was reading in Judges 6
(David isn’t even alive yet. why i started so early??idk but we’re committed and learning a lot so we’re gonna stick with it)
so, the israelites, at this point, are acting like israelites.
a.k.a, God tells them “don’t do this, this, and this because those things will lead you into sin. and destruction. so, long story short, the israelites partake wholeheartedly in the “this’s” God said to flee from(their evil human desires.)
and so because the israelites, led by Gideon at this point, choose their fleshly desires over Gods instruction, they start being taken over by the Mideanites.
Gideon is now wrapped up in destruction and violence and so much shame in realizing he’s disobeyed God.
in this shame, Gideon goes to a wine press underneath some tree and begins threshing wheat.
threshing wheat at the wine press.
Gideon is hiding from the enemy, disguising bread(life) so that the Mideanites(enemy) can’t take it over.
Gideon ventured real deep into his sin pattern and came to a point where He didn’t know what to do other than hide and try to protect the little good he had left.
then God’s response.
first, the Lord responded with a reminder of His previous warning against this, an i-told-you-so, so to speak. then reminded them of His goodness and how He had delivered them from SOOO much. hinting at “He can do it again.”
then while Gideon was threshing wheat at the wine press, God sends His angel to Gideon at the tree and simply says, “the Lord your God is with You.”
God sits with Gideon at the tree of shame and reminds Gideon that there is nothing he can do that will make God want to not be near to him.
but in this: yes, the Lord allowed the enemy to creep in a little, but He never left. yes the isrealites were figuratively laying their heads in sheol, making their beds in darkness, but still God chased after their hearts.
the character of God isn’t pushy. no, of course He didn’t want the israelites to turn from Him, but He allows us freewill. we get to choose where we lay our heads, in sheol or Heaven, our choice.
but the wild things is, is that He never leaves, no matter where we lay our heads, His love for us never changes. He never runs out of compassion for us.
God, when i’m threshing wheat in the wine press under the tree of shame, please remind me that You’re with me.
Praise be that we serve such a God that He’d be with us through our hard times. our shameful times. our confusing times. our times where we’d rather just give everything up and say screw it. praise God that He doesn’t even consider leaving. i could choose hell over Him and He’d still chase after my heart. that’s just crazy
