“Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the LORD is at hand, For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice. . . ” Zephaniah 1:7

What is the difference between Christianity and the false religions of the world?  Is it the doctrine of the trinity? No.  Is it the doctrine of the divine/human nature of the Son? No.  Is is that God is a Spirit?  No.  Is it the fact that our souls will live somewhere forever? No.  Is it our offering ourselves as sacrifices to God?  No.  All of these things can be found, in some form, in other religions and regions of the world.  But there is one thing which is only found in Christianity. Every other worship or religion show men offering to God; but in Christ we have the amazing truth of God offering to man.  The prophet here tells us that the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. That is something completely and totally novel in the faiths of the world.  All of the nations have taught the bringing of their sacrifices to their gods, but here the One True God brings His sacrifice to them.

Imagine a state or nation in which the law of the land requires the injured to pay.  Imagine a society in which the man who has been assaulted has to make restitution for any damages done – to in essence make a sacrifice for the fault of another.  You say, “That’s not right!”  And yet that is the way it is in God’s economy.

Indeed, with all of our talk about the sacrifice that waits on sin, we find that it is the sinless who pay.  It’s not on the guilty party that the deepest sacrifice falls, even where the guilty are punished.  It is always the innocent who suffer the most.  One of the Psalmists cries out, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” It is the cry of every good father at the moment his son’s disgrace.  It says, “I am the real victim; it’s on me that the actual penalty falls.” Sin’s victim is ever the purest. It’s the lamb without spot that suffers.  When you pierce the guilty, it is another heart that bleeds.  When you smite the sinner, it is another voice that weeps.  When you sentence the man of crime, it is another soul that is burdened with sorrow.  The sins against love are carried by the loving.

“Lord, if there had been another love like yours, then there would have been another suffering like You; but there was none – could be none; that’s why you have walked through the winepress alone.  Mine was the guilt – yours was the pain.  You bled where I didn’t even blush. You grieved when I didn’t even groan.  You sorrowed where I haven’t sighed. Works that didn’t break my rest broke Your heart.  Memories that have caused me no care, brought You the cross.  You paid it all – and are paying it still.  You pay the price for our sins.  You heal those we hurt.  You cleanse those we stain.  You give light to those we have darkened.  You receive those we shun.  You use those we have rejected.  Mine is the sin, but Yours is the sacrifice.  Thank you so very much.”

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God,4  rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5  After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”  John 13:3-5

Over my years in Baptist churches and around Baptist universities and seminaries, I have heard this verse explained in the following way: “Even though Jesus was conscious of His divine nature from His birth and realized that He had come for a specific and special purpose, He submitted Himself to  performing this act of humiliating service.”

I never have liked that explanation because it makes this public act of service out to be something that is foreign to His nature and His purpose.  The way that I understand  this passage is just the opposite.  I make it to be that since Jesus came from a land of love and returned to a land of love, felt that there was so sacrifice or act of service that would actually be to him and act of humiliation.  He didn’t feel that He was stooping below His nature when He washed those disciples’ dirty feet.  He didn’t see it as an act unworthy of His divinity or royalty.  This simple act didn’t denigrate His claim to be the Son of God.  To Him there was dignity in what we would consider to be His humility.  This is who He is, where He came from, what He came to do.  This is the essence of who He is.

This gives us something entirely different to think about when we consider our acts of sacrifice or service. We are not commanded to be humble in order to serve, but we are to serve in order to keep us from becoming too humble – and proud of it.  It’s because service is  such a “god” thing that He calls us to it.  We are not called to work in the vineyard so that we will be humiliated.  We are called to serve there to keep from being humiliated.

In our  Father’s house the servants are the leaders.  It is the followers who are waited upon. Their lamps have gone out.  Doesn’t the Bible teach that He will carry the lambs in His arms?  Those who are the weak?  Why would you always want to be a lamb? Lower and weaker?  Wouldn’t you rather hear the call to come up higher?  Then obey His voice.  Put on your work clothes because the higher into heaven that we climb the more menial our apparel will become.  By the way, even the wedding garment is stained.

We will know the souls in front by the way that they’re dressed.  They are wearing the clothes of service.  They are carrying the tools of sacrifice.  Men may ask, “Who are these people who look like they work day and night? Who are these whose clothes are stained and dirty? Whose robes are dyed?  And the answer will return from heaven, “These are they who are dressed in the robes of Heaven; these are they in front of the throne.”

“Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.” Genesis 1:9

“Let the dry land appear.”  I had never noticed that before, but it was there all along.  The dry land had just been concealed, but at God’s command the waters were removed, revealing to all that it had been there since the beginning.

This statement isn’t just true in creation, it is true in our lives as well.  A lot of the Spirit’s creating work is simply the revelation of qualities that had once been hidden.  There are many people who, when we look at them, seem to be as shifting as the sea, and yet within them there is the element of solid land.  This is easily illustrated by looking at a silly, frivolous teenage girl.  There is a time when there is nothing that she takes seriously and only thinks of herself and what she wants, and yet over time, and as the waters are removed, she is revealed to be a devoted wife and dedicated mother.  What caused her to become such a wonderful woman?  Was it her frivolity or silliness? No, that is simply what hid it.  The devoted wife and dedicated mother was there all along, waiting for the waters to be removed so that she could be revealed.

What is it that makes the dry land appear?   It’s not the giving of something new, it is the removal of something that is old.  It is the taking away of something that is in the way -  “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place. . .”

It’s not really inability to see that prevents me from getting a glimpse of the future and possibilities that the Lord has for me; it is the fact that there is something between me and the Sun – my own shadow.  If only there was a way in which I could get rid of my own self-absorption then the hidden heaps of gold that God placed within me would be revealed.

Here is the hinge.  We can not remove our shadow from our selves, it must be removed by God.  He alone can release the imprisoned land that lies within our heart! It is only though His power that we can actually see what is there before us and within us.  How many marvelous things will we see when for the first time our own obstruction is removed?

Or , imagine it this way.  We go up the mountain early in the morning with a burdened soul.  There is within our heart the realization that we can not escape putting Isaac on the altar.  But when we arrive at the summit – the place of sacrifice – we purpose in our heart to do what the Lord has commanded.  All of a sudden we see that the sacrifice is not required.  We see what we had not seen even moments before – a ram caught in a thicket.  The substitute for our sacrifice was there all along.  It was placed there by God Himself, even before our soul cried out from within us to Him.  However, it is not until we died to everything near and dear to us that we were able to see it.  The shadow of our selfishness and fear hid it from our eyes.

Or, picture it this way. We go out into the desert and find no water.  We cry out to Him and suddenly there is a promise of hope and that hope allows us to see what we had never seen before.  There in the desert of our daily life there has always been a well of living water waiting there for us.

“Father, even in the seasons of despair and doubt, please lift all of my shadows.  Clear away the mist that cover Mt. Moriah; disperse the darkness from my desert.  Let the waters of my troubled past be gathered from my soul; let the stone of my old grave be rolled away from the door!  Let Christ arise from that hollow, hidden place within, and in the scene of waves and graves redemption will be revealed. Amen.”

“So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Matthew 8:27

The marvelous thing about the influence of Jesus is found in the very nature of the things that He influenced.  Here in Matthew we find Jesus speaking to, and exercising authority over the wayward forces of the winds and the sea.  These are elements of nature that, by their very nature, cannot be counted on or controlled.  So, surely if One could rule these then He must have the root of royalty – deity even – in Him.

We marvel at the authority He exercised over these erratic elements in the same way that those men on the Sea of Galilee did that day.  To see the winds and sea obey Him says so much about who He is.  That’s why it is not the number of His followers that is so startling, for Mohammad and Buddha had more followers than Jesus.  No, it is not the quantity of His followers, but rather the quality of His followers that is seen as so amazing.  For, they are drawn from the winds and the sea, the wayward forces.  The followers of Mohammad and Buddha lived in a stagnant place.  They didn’t stand by the shore of the sea, but by the side of a dead pool.  They heard no waves, felt no wind, they listened to no murmur of the storm.  The ruled with a rod of iron over an empire whose minds were only half awake.

Jesus’ mission is not to the mindless multitude.  His is a mission by the sea.  His message was delivered in front of the winds.  He spoke to minds which were already “on the wing.”  You see, at the time of the coming of Christ, Europe had already come over into Asia and society was forever being changed.  Men had ceased to be uniform; they had begun to think independently.  Opposite tastes were emerging and opposing schools of thought were rising, and He took representatives from each school of thought.  He conquered men in the midst of their various worldviews.  He did not first ask them to give up their individuality.  He took them in to the ark just as they were – “of every kind.”  He did not ask them first to become of one mind, one nature.  He let them keep their unique personalities, different tastes, specific likings.  He allowed the winds to blow as before and the sea to roll as it had.  He only required one thing from each of them – complete and total obedience to Him.  No wonder the men of Galilee were amazed!

“Lord, You have overseen an empire of the West, an empire of the winds and the sea.  Others may have mastered the Eastern mind, but they have simply ruled with a scepter over sleeping souls and passionless hearts.  But You have ruled where passion reigns.  Your flag has flown in the middle of the storms of the spirit.  You have been most loved and adored where the heartbeats of life are strongest.  Yours is not an abusive authority over a bruised and broken people.   Yours is not the deadly dominion over the valley and the shadow of death.  Your Kingdom not only have the power, but the glory.  Your subjects are free souls, living hearts.  You are King, not where Buddha is king – in the middle of a graveyard; not as Mohammad is king – wearing grave clothes.  You are King where the streams flow, where the rivers run, where the torrents sweep, there the breezes dance and play.  Your people are willing in the day of Your power- the winds and the sea obey You!”

“People shall worship Him, Each one from his place. . .” Zephaniah 2:11

The prophet says that there is coming a time when there will no longer be a distinction drawn between the secular and the sacred.  This was not the case during His day.  During the Jewish dispensation it was forbidden for men to worship God “each one from his place” – from the spot on which he was standing.  In fact, there was only one place where everyone was commanded to worship – Jerusalem. This was the place where the tribes were told to go up.  It was from within her gates that the smoke of the incense was to rise.  But Zephaniah says that there is a new day dawning, one in which every man will have within his own gates a Temple to worship God.  There is coming a day, Zephaniah explains, where there will be no need of things or beasts that will carry us from things that are temporal to things that are eternal.  It will be done simply by the breath of the Spirit, by a simple movement of the heart.

“In that day,” Zechariah declares, “I won’t need to leave where I am to go where I must.  I will worship from my place – no matter where “my place” may be.  It will become my Temple.”  In that day every service to man will be called a service to God.  No longer will it be said, “Go up to the House of the Lord,” we will worship from our place.  The mother will worship from her place – her altar of sacrifice will be the nursery.  The daughter will worship from her place – her offering to God will be her obedience and devotion to her family.  The manual laborer will worship from his or her place – the simple, menial tasks will be viewed as sacrificial service to God.  The businessman will worship from his place – his profits will be a gathering for his God.  Every song will be a sacred song.  All musis will have a miraculous melody.  Every gift will be garland for Him.  My praises will reverberate with His name.  My hand will serve in His sanctuary.  My feet will follow in His steps.  My special grace will minister to His spiritual glory.  I won’t need to stand beside the cross, for I will bear in my own body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

The great thing about this prophetic statement given so long ago by Zephaniah is that the day he saw coming is today!  We no longer have to go to Jerusalem, or some other “holy place,” to worship God.  We can worship, we can serve Him from wherever we are.

To be sure, there are not normally as many witnesses of our worship in our private places.  But neither were there many witnesses when Abraham climbed Mt. Moriah to offer everything that He had in obedience to the command of his God. No doubt, Mt. Moriah was a lonely as any hospital room.  It was a solitary battle with the thoughts of his own mind and the desires of his own will.  No doubt, he thought that he was being passed over, forgotten, when in actuality he was making history.  He was laying the foundation stone for the coming Kingdom of God.

The same is true for you.  God’s place for you has been Mt. Moriah.  It has been a place of solitary sacrifice.  He may have called you, just like He did Abraham, to climb the mountain “early in the morning.”  He may have come over you while you were still in the Spring of life.  Will you then say, “What’s the purpose behind all of this?  This is nothing but a waste.”  Is God’s shadow a “waste?”  When the Spirit hovers over the face of the waters and blocks out the sun, is that a waste?  What I am hid in the secret of God’s holy place, is that a waste? Is not one hour in God’s private classroom worth a whole day in His public school?  How glorious His eclipse. How marvelous His hiding.  How splendid His obscurity.  His shadow proclaims His light and we dare not ask earth’s broken ones to find a better place than in Him.

“ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.¹⁶ And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:15-16)

Let’s be realistic – many times many people ( and yes, sadly, many of “us”) all start off by making Christianity into “a house of merchandise.”  In other words, when people begin to think seriously about “religion,” the first way that it presents itself is as a present penance for the sake of future gain.  A man says, “I am told that Christian people do better in the world, God blesses their business and their bank account. Now, I don’t really get anything out of going to church, but going to church means that I’ll be blessed in my life.  If I serve God, He’ll smile on me.   If I seek Him on Sunday, He’ll remember me in my business ventures on Monday.”

This is what Jesus calls buying and selling in the Temple of God.  You show your face in the church house on Sunday for the chance that He will pay you back by giving you material blessings.  And to be honest, God puts up with this for a little while.  He lets you think that you can bring your “merchandise” into “the Temple,” because perhaps it’s better to come for the wrong reason than to not come at all.  But, there comes a time when He says, “Enough! It’s time to cleanse the Temple.”  And He takes a scourge of small cords and He begins to drive out the sheep and the oxen.

What is the scourge?  It is a form of experience.  What drives our this “mercantile” view of Christianity?  Its the discovery that the “good” are not physically rewarded.  You see, nothing drives out the merchandise like remembering the experience of Job.  One day he’s living the good life, and the next day his sheep and oxen are taken from him just like they are from “bad people.”

Why is that in the Bible?  Becuase it is meant to show him, and us, that true Christianity is not some sort of a business deal where we give our time or talents and God gives us sheep and oxen.  That’s why Jesus says to each and every one of us, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

I like what one pastor pondered, “Why aren’t the white robes of fortune were not reserved for the whitest souls?”  I think that I’m beginning to understand why.  It’s like what Jesus said of His return, “No man knows the day or the hour,” because if we knew, there would be a mob rushing and pushing to get to the front, just like shoppers at the start of the Christmas sales.  We would go up to His house in multitudes, pushing and poking to get to the front; to see who could get in first.  There would be a struggle – a survival of the fitness, if you will. The problem is that the “fittest” would be the most selfish.  It would be a struggle for the glory of the flesh.

Think of the story of the Prodigal Son.

Most people aren’t looking for the prodigal’s repentance – they’re living for the prodigal’s ring.

That’s why many times while we’re there in the Far Country, the ring is hid.  The music and dancing that wait for us in the Father’s House is hid from us as well.  When the Father comes to meet us, oftentimes He doesn’t come with the robe – just the song of welcome.

He uses a scourge of small cords to drive out the sheep and oxen from our lives.

Many times, there in the Far Country, He overturns the table of our achievements and accomplishments.  You say, ”Well, if He loved me, He wouldn’t turn over my tables.”  Oh no, He does that exactly because He loves you.

He prepares a table before us in the wilderness so we’ll seek Him and not just His blessings.

He makes us to sit down in the presence of our enemies so we won’t follow Him just for earthly relationships or the favor of men.

He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death so that we won’t be comforted by any other rod or staff than His.

Make this your prayer today – “Oh, Lord, cleanse out the “merchandise” of my soul.”

“But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” Luke 16:31

Over the years I’ve heard many, many sermons preached from this text, and all of them have failed to answer to my satisfaction the question that’s inherent in this particular verse.  None of them succeeded in presenting a plausible answer to why somebody rising from the dead wouldn’t persuade an unbeliever.  But did Jesus in fact say that somebody rising from the dead would not persuade an unbeliever.  The answer, to that question is “no.”  The sin of this rich man, whom some have name “Dives,” and his five brothers was not that of unbelief like some have suggested.  His sin, rather, was the sin of selfishness – greediness – and was at its heart a lack of love.

Notice what Jesus tells us about this man.  He allowed a beggar to live and sleep just outside his gate, to feed on the scraps, the crumbs, that were wiped off of his table.  He watched as his sores “ministered” to by the dogs that roamed those ancient streets.  It’s interesting that much of the description of this man’s condition would be similar to that of the stray dogs of our day – he was kept outside, fed table scraps, and his body left to fend and tend to itself.

It seems to have been a family trait.  The sin of this family seems to have been that of greed and the inability to give, and no greedy man is going to become less greedy by somebody rising from the dead.  It’s the only sin that would be unaffected by such an appearance.  If one were to rise from the dead, an unbeliever would no doubt lose his unbelief.  An atheist would forsake his atheism.  The one who denies the supernatural would have to cry out, “There is a Spirit after all.”   But somebody rising from the dead is not going to suddenly transform a selfish man into a selfless man.  Now, it might make him take food to a hungry man or give shelter to somebody who was homeless, but it would not be because of love.  He would only be forced by fear.

A skeptic who rejects Moses and the prophets might be motivated by seeing a spirit. But a selfish man who was not softened by by Moses and the prophets wouldn’t be softened by seeing a spirit.  If his heart wasn’t moved by a baby all alone in the Nile river or by all of the abandoned and neglected children since then; if he is not burdened by the suffering slaves in Egypt and those who slave just to barely scrape by today; if his spirit is not humbled by the Man of Sorrows and by all of the sorrowful souls of which He is a type, then the opening of a tomb would be in vain, and appearance of one from the dead would be nothing more than a waste of time.  He would still not be persuaded.

How many times have I wondered in the midst of my own trouble why He didn’t appear to me and allow me to see Him solve my problems?  The reason, I find from this account, is that my doubts are not the primary focus of His concern.  His primary purpose is to deal with my heart.  He sees that my real shortcoming is not found in my deep sense of mystery but in my shallow sense of mercy. If my sin was simply the sense of mystery, then He could easily eradicate that through a thousand voices shouting from the sky.  But my sin, like that of so many, is so often selfishness – a lack of love.   What could a cry from the sky do for that?  The voice that speaks to my selfish soul must be as one crying in the wilderness.

“Lord, how I need to hear those wilderness cries. How my soul could benefit by feeling the burden of Moses as he hears the masses crying for manna; to see the crying crowd beside those bitter waters. Lord, give me a picture of the people stricken by the plague, and allow me to sense the depression of those whose life is nothing but desert. Let me know the weariness of worry and waiting, the torture of protracted time, the pain of a promised land that never comes, the murmurings of mornings that never change, for there is no voice from the sky that will ever equal these.”

“Whoever abides in Him does not sin.” 1 John 3:6

As a pastor I’m often asked the same question, just with different words.  The heart of the concern being raised is this, “Is is possible for a Christian to live in victory over sin?”

Now, surely if we were to read and heed the songs that we’ve sung since childhood, the answer would be a hearty “yes!” We love to bellow out the words to that great hymn (no matter what arrangement your style of worship dictates), “Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!” And we even sing with greater gusto when we come to that victorious verse, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free!”

It’s something so simple to sing. Yet it is something so hard to see realized in the midst of the daily battles of this present life. This is because every day we face a terrible trinity of evil in our fiercest foes: the world, the flesh and the devil. One pastor described this terrible trinity in this way. We face “the world with all of its allurements, the flesh with all of its subtelty and the devil with all of his experience.”

When one realizes that we face these formidable forces, the Christian is forced to say, “There’s no hope in daily defeating these fierce foes and living in victory over sin.”  But wait a minute.  The Bible teaches that we can live in victory over sin. Jesus Himself said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”  He added, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul put it this way, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” John writes at the beginning of his first letter, “These things I write to you, so that you may not sin.”

So, if the answer to the question, “Can a Christian live in victory over sin?” is “no,” it must be a qualified “no.” The Christian can not live in daily, perfect victory over sin – but Christ can! As the words of a long forgotten song say, “On the victory side, on the victory side, with Christ within, the fight we’ll win on the victory side.” Who is the “we” in “we’ll?” It’s Jesus and me.  What I can’t do, Jesus can- and He will win the war over sin within if I will simply let Him.

Now, to be clear, this is not some sort of sinless perfection.  The Bible clearly states, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” No, this is not sinless perfection, but it is perfect deliverance.

The great Methodist preacher of a past generation, W E Sangster stated it so well: “Any Christian can safely say at any time, I need not sin now.” Why? Because Christ is victorious over the world, the flesh and devil and what I can’t do, He can!

“Thank you Jesus for giving me the freedom to live for You and the power to live in daily victory over sin. Amen.”

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

This has long been one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, for in this one verse we find that two very different men draw one quality from the same source.  They both became bold by being with Jesus.  However, the boldness they shared was not the same kind of boldness.  Peter and John were both courageous, but Peter’s courage was a very different kind of courage from John’s.  It was as different as the sun is from the moon.

When the Lord gives the same quality to two different men, He doesn’t in effect make them the same kind of man.  The light that shines on a rock comes from the same source as the light that shines on the river, but nobody would mistake the light on the river with the light on the rock.  The same goes for Peter and John.  Even though they both possessed a certain courage, it was a different kind of courage.  In fact, they weren’t just different, in some ways they were complete opposites.  Peter’s courage was the kind that strikes; John’s one that waits.  Peter possessed a force of action; John one of enduring.  Peter pulled his sword; John rested on His Master’s chest.  Peter jumped out and crossed the sea to meet Jesus; John waited til He came.  Peter went rushing into the grave to see where Jesus body had laid; John simply looked in – keeping the image of His suffering and sorrow in His heart.

Sometimes our personalities will naturally gravitate toward the nature that most closely resembles our own, but the truth is that Christ needs both.  There are times when the courage of the hand is needed and there are times when His Kingdom calls for the courage of the heart.  This is the kind of courage that has the power to wait when nothing can be done.  To keep the spirit up when the hand must be held down.

Life has both its Galilees and its Patmoses; it’s places where work is required and those where waiting is called for, and both places call for courage.  But upon personal reflection, I believe that my soul would need Patmos’ courage more than Galilee’s.  John’s courage is certainly not as flashy or flamboyant as Peter’s, but I believe it is more difficult because there are those who could be bold in dusty Galilee who couldn’t be so on rocky Patmos.

It is hard to keep hope in sight when you’re all by yourself on an island.  In comparison, it’s rather easy to be bold before the battle when the many are inspiring and encouraging you – cheering you on, but to have courage in isolation, to be bold when nobody is watching, when your only company are your own thoughts is a very difficult thing indeed.  You see, the most desperate moments of life are not normally found in Galilee, but on Patmos.  The deepest struggles are always in the wilderness. The greatest call of courage is the one to endure, not to look at the mountain and say, “Move out of the way!”  It is a far greater thing to have that mountain on your chest  and not lose heart. Yes, the courage of faith may be able to cast it into the sea, but the courage of heart can hold up under its weight.  There are certainly brave soldiers who meet Jesus in Galilee, but I have come to believe that the greatest honors of Heaven are reserved for the patient people of Patmos.

“Lord, may my soul meet You at Patmos. Amen.”

“And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.” Genesis 4:26

“Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.” Why not before? Why did the prayer hour only begin the days of Enoch? Obviously, Enoch’s days were degenerate and depraved days. To use Milton, they were days of “Paradise Lost.” So, why was it “then” that “men began to call on the name of the LORD”? Why didn’t prayer begin in Paradise?  Surely God was nearer to man before the Fall than after. Surely the presence of the LORD enveloped Eden.  It did.  That’s why in Eden there was the presence of praise and the absence of prayer.  That’s always the way that it is.  You can only see the stars at night.  To be sure you can see a great many gorgeous sights in the light of day, but it is only against the black backdrop of night that the shimmer and sparkle of the stars may be seen.

It is the same way with the soul.  Eden was a day in which the fullness of God was felt, the enjoyment of God was experienced and the person of God was seen.  It is for these very reasons that prayer was not needed.  Prayer only came with the night of need.  You see, prayer is incompatible with His fullness, His enjoyment and His presence.  It needs something of the shadow to make it shimmer and sparkle.  It’s night’s silence that brings its singing – its need that brings its cry.  Remember God set the rainbow in a cloud – He could set it nowhere else.

Thus, there is a certain compensation for the dark night of the soul.  Yes, we have been driven out of Eden into a wicked wasteland.  But there in the swamps of our sinful state we have found something never seen in Eden – the gate of prayer.  Eden had no such gate – there was no need for it.  Eden was open all around. There were no prisons to break out of, no shackles to be let loose from. But in this land outside of Eden we have been given a gate because we have also been given a wall.  Sin has separated us from Him.  There is now a barrier between us.  It has caused us to miss Him, to want Him, to cry out for Him.  Our Lord has gone into a far country and we reach out for Him.  There is beauty – the stretching of our hands, the calling of His name in the middle of the night.  It is the beauty of starlight. Yet there is a beauty to this starlight that cannot be seen or sensed in the light of day. It is one thing to see Him when He passes, but the cry for Him when He has already past has a music all of its own.  It is love lost – the absence of Eden.  It is the refusal of the soul to be separated from Him by disaster or distance.  It is the Prodigal’s protest against the slop of the pig pen.  That is why we ought to be thankful that the absence of Eden has given to us the hour of prayer.

“God thank you for the privilege of prayer. Thank you that even here in the wasteland my own wickedness you have given me a gate in which to come into your presence.  Help me to linger more and more by this gate every day. Amen.”