He sent out His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. (Ps. 107:20)
“For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the [east] side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
When we heard it, our hearts melted, neither did spirit or courage remain any more in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now then, I pray you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my fathers house, and give me a sure sign, and save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all they have, and deliver us from death.” (Joshua 2:10-13)
Commentary notes that Rahab’s use of God’s personal name Yahweh, translated here as Lord, indicates that she had come to faith in the living God (v. 11). God had graciously opened the heart and mind of a foreign prostitute to accept Him as Lord. the terror of you has fallen on us: Israel’s reputation went before them. God already had dramatically delivered the Israelites in many ways, and the report had been spread throughout the nations. Rahab mentioned two miraculous deliverances: the crossing of the Red Sea and the victories over two kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og (v. 10; see Ex. 14; Num. 21:21–35). [1]
Rahab had heard of the powerful actions of the Lord and believed in Him. She proclaimed when 'we' heard of it, 'our' hearts melted. Being the local harlot, she probably knew this through her relations with local men and leadership. She was judged not on her previous acts of harlotry but on her willingness to believe in God. She bound a scarlet cord in her window and her and her whole household were saved.
Hebrews 11:31 says, “[Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace [without enmity].”
Rehab was not only totally forgiven for her sin, she was given a place of honor. She was in the lineage of Jesus. She was the mother of Boaz. Matthew 1:5 says, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth (another foreigner, a Moabitess, who came to receive God, Ruth 1:16), Obed the father of Jesse...”
Those who would not believe and turn to God when they knew of His miraculous acts were destroyed. Joshua 6:17 says, “And the city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord [for destruction]; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.”
It was because of their unrepented wickedness they were destroyed. Deuteronomy 9:4 says, “Do not say in your [mind and] heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out from before you, It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land -whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.”
Whenever anyone repented and turned to God, no matter their sin, they were spared judgment. God spared the entire city of Nineveh even though the people were acting 'exceedingly wicked' when Jonah walked through the city and proclaimed that God would destroy it in forty days and the people repented. Jonah 2:5 says, “So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest of them even to the least of them." God saw they turned from their evil and spared the entire city (Jonah 3:10).
Later, Nineveh was destroyed because they failed to trust in God but instead turned against Him to other gods. Nahum 1:7-9 says, “The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understand) those who take refuge and trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make a full end of [Nineveh's very] site and pursue His enemies into darkness. What do you devise and [how mad is your attempt to] plot against the Lord? He will make a full end [of Nineveh]; affliction [which My people shall suffer from Assyria] shall not rise up the second time.”
Nahum 3:4 goes on to say that judgment was all because of their turning away from God. It says, “All because of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays and sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and people through her enchantments."
Over and over in the Bible the Lord has made it clear that He judges man not based upon their past history of sinfulness or the extent of their sin, but based upon their heart towards Him and their belief in Him.
In 1 Samuel 16:7 when Samuel was looking for who God would anoint the next king, the Lord tells Samuel that while man looks at outward appearances, the Lord looks at the heart. He passed by all the ones who would fit the role by man's standards and instead picked David, a man after God's own heart.
When Jesus was on the earth, He showed incredible forbearance and grace to those who had a reputation for a sinful past. Rather than judge them like the rest of the world and cast them aside, He paid particular attention to them. He treated them with respect. He met them in their place of sin with forgiveness and grace.
As an example, Jesus sat down by a well to rest in Samaria. The Samaritan’s were treated less than Jews. They were considered beneath them and filthy. A Jew would never ask a Samaritan for something to drink or even notice them.
Jesus not only made it clear that He noticed this woman, He asked her for something to drink. She was taken back and asked, “How is it that You, being a Jew, as me, a Samaritan [and a] woman, for a drink? For the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans” (John 4:9).
He goes on to become vulnerable with her as He offers Her living water. He then lets her know that He already knows she has had five husbands and the man she is living with is not her husband (John 4:18).
And in Luke 7:37 a woman who was “an especially wicked sinner” saw He was reclining at the table in the Pharisees house and she took an alabaster flask of perfume and broke it at His feet, washing them with her tears and wiping them with her feet.
The Pharisee who invited Him, said to himself, “If this Man were a prophet, He would surely know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him -for she is a notorious sinner (a social outcast, devoted to sin)” (Luke 7:39). Jesus responded by telling the Pharisee a parable to help him to understand that those who are forgiven much will love much while those who have been forgiven little, will love little. (Luke 7:47)
It wasn't that the woman needed more forgiveness than this Pharisee because of her past, but that she all the more realized her need and received forgiveness in brokenness in her sin. Often when we feel self righteous, we don't see how blind, poor and naked we are.
Many years ago when I was in college and a single mom, I was talking to a classmate and comparing notes as we were both interviewing. He had asked me who all I was interviewing with. I had received an invitation to interview with a few of the highly noted firms because of my high GPA. As it turned out, this classmate was turned down to interview with these companies. When he heard I had been given an interview, he became indignant and said to me, “I can't believe these companies would consider someone like you.”
It wasn't that this man was really better than me or more righteous than me. However, being a single mom and hearing the comments continually about it, there was no hiding that I was a sinner under the rug for me. Because of my troubled past, it was probably a lot easier to realize my need for grace and forgiveness, being genuinely grateful when I came to the Lord and was forgiven and cleansed from my past.
Those who the world would look up to and honor while they looked down on everyone else, He called to repent and turn from their self-righteous hypocritical pretending.
In Matthew 23:25-28 Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and plate, so that the outside might be clean also.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been white-washed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure. Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity.”
While Jesus confronted the hard-hearted self-righteous Pharisee, He gave dignity to those the world would look down on and judge. He was drawn to their areas of need and brokenness rather than offended by it.
Jesus looked at the heart, not at actions. David says in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Jesus hears and answers the cry of the poor and needy. Isaiah 41:17 says, “The poor and needy are seeking water when there is none; there tongues are parched with thirst. I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.'
“You have new mercy for me everyday, Your love never fails” sings in the background.
God meets us in our brokenness with mercy and loving-kindness rather than judgment. He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:14). David proclaims in Psalm 103:1-13, “Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits-
Who forgives [every on of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each on of] all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy; Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle's [strong, overcoming, soaring]!
The Lord executes righteousness and justice [not for me only, but] for all who are oppressed. He made know His ways [or righteousness and justice] to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.
He will not always chide or be contending, neither will He keep His anger forever or hold a grudge. He has not deal with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His Mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him {with reverence, worship, and awe].”
However, God does not 'overlook ' sin. He forgives sin as we repent and turn back to Him. And while He is longsuffering, He eventually brings His judgment through consequences to our places of unrepented sin so that we will turn to Him, repent, and cry out in our distress and trouble.
Psalm 107,27-28 says, “They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits' end [all their wisdom has come to nothing]. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.”
Sometimes He gives us over to our sin when we continue along in it without repenting. We taste the full consequences and emptiness of a life filled with sin. Paul says in Romans 1:28-29, “And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or descent but loathsome, until they were filled (permeated and saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice.”
He does not allow us to find contentment or what we really need in places of sin. We find them empty and barren. Psalm 107:33-34 says to praise Him because, “He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into a thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a barren, salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.”
He meets sinners in their places of need. He restores us and brings 'beauty for ashes' in our places of brokenness. The good news of the gospel is for the meek, poor and afflicted (Is. 61:1a). Jesus was sent to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and the eyes of those who are bound (Is. 61:1b).
Rather than being covered with shame for our sins, He came “To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion -to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit -that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:3)
Not only does He take our broken mess and shame and turn us into 'oaks of righteousness,' but He then calls us to restore others. Isaiah 61:4 says, “And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations."
“Show us Your face, pour Your love down and cover me” sings.
He not only has mercy on us, bringing us healing and restoration in our places of shame, but then He calls us to do the same for others. Isaiah 61:6 goes on to say, “But you shall be called the priest of the Lord; people will speak of you as the ministers of our God.”
As 'ministers of our God,' just like Jesus, we are to bring good news to the meek, poor and afflicted. Through the Spirit of God, we are sent to 'bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and the yes of those who are bound.” (Is. 61:1)
Isaiah 61:7 goes on to say, “Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall posses double [what they had forfeited] everlasting joy shall be theirs.”
And just as our shame has been covered over and we have been given what we need -forgiveness and grace, we are to do the same for others. Rather than shame others for their sin, we are to set the captives free. Proverbs 29:7 says, “The righteous understands the cause of the poor, but the wicked is unconcerned.”
I say all this and feel like I 'know' this. However, it is easier to 'understand' than it is to put it into action sometimes. An area that it is especially hard for me to give dignity to others and not judge them in their sin and look down on them has to do with prostitution.
When I was young, one of my very close friends ended up going into prostitution for a season of time. It wasn't because she thought it would be a great thing to do with her life or was even making a choice. She was in incredible pain and was running from things she didn't know how to handle. She was drowning in feelings of shame, fear and confusion. In trying to get away from all the pain and brokenness in her life, she ran right into more.
I find that I still have feelings of anger about the injustice of her pain. What makes me most angry is that grown men took advantage of her incredibly painful life and brokenness by using her for their own desires. The took her misery and added more pain to her life for their own benefit.
In the past, I have found it incredibly difficult to give dignity to someone who told me they had been with a prostitute. I have found myself more like the self-righteous Pharisee, looking down my nose at them thinking in disgust that they deserve everything bad that could possibly happen to them as a result.
If I had lived in the time of Jesus and saw Him walking along and going over eat at the house of men who had been involved in using prostitutes, I have no doubt I would be offended. I would probably have walked up to Him and asked Him if He knew whose house it was that He was going to eat dinner at. I would think to myself, If He is really knew what He was doing, He would be hanging around with those men who are terrible sinners.
However, recently I came to discover that men who use prostitutes are also very broken people. In their loneliness and trying to escape from their pain, they are trying to meet their need for love through prostitution. What happens is that they come up incredibly empty. Sometimes even with devastating consequences such as HIV. Nobody wins and everybody is broken.
Mother Teresa writes, “I think it's very difficult to realize what it is to be lonely unless you face it, same thing for people who speak about hunger. Unless they experience in their life, hunger, it is very difficult for them to understand the pain of hunger. Same thing for loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted, unloved, uncared. Like for example our patients that are shunned by everybody, the lepers...” [2]
Just as my friend needed people in her life that would give her dignity, covering her shame despite her past and extending a hand of grace, so do men who use prostitutes. They need God to meet them in their places of brokenness with human dignity, extending God's hand of mercy and healing for their broken past.
Mother Teresa notes that “the greatest injustice done to the poor is not so much that we have deprived them of material things but that we have deprived them of that dignity of the child of God, of the respect we owe to a person who [we] think, “They are good for nothing, they're lazy,'...” [3]
We are not to judge anyone in their sin. We are to leave judgment to God. Mother Teresa writes, “Jesus said very clearly, 'Do not judge. If you do not judge you will not be judged.' But when a sister is doing something wrong you cannot say it is right. The act is wrong but why she is doing that you do not know... the intention you do not know. When we judge we are judging the intention of the sister, of the poor.” [4]
When we give human dignity to a person and do not judge them for their faults or sin, we are not approving of the sin, we are giving them room to repent. It is Christ's kindness that leads people to repentance. When people feel judged, they are quick to cover up their offenses and defend themselves.
When someone sins against us, rather than responding back by judging their intentions and 'punishing' them by our actions, we turn to God and wait on Him for how to deal with it. Hosea 12:6 says "Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually."
Sometimes the ones we fail to see as the poor in need of God's mercy is in our own home, work or places we go regularly. We can give dignity to the homeless man on the street but then come home and fail to give dignity to our spouse in their poverty or weakness. When they are at their worst, we may judge them for it rather than extending grace and meeting them in their place of need. Sometimes we expect them to minister to our needs rather than ministering to their places of poverty.
Mother Teresa writes about Jesus, “He makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted one, and He says, 'You did it to Me.' He is hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find. It may be in our own home.” [5]
Jesus died for all of us in our brokenness. We are all sinners who are in need of a Savior. Isaiah 53:4-7 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”
Lord, forgive me for the so many times I have judged others in their sin. Thank You that You meet us in our places of sin and brokenness with healing and forgiveness rather than judgment or condemnation. Help us to be people who extend this same grace to others, building up their broken places with love and your forgiveness. Let us be a people who truly share the good news of the gospel with all we meet.
1. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. Jos 2:9
2-5. Mother Teresa. "Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others." Random House, Inc., New York. 2010.
When we heard it, our hearts melted, neither did spirit or courage remain any more in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now then, I pray you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my fathers house, and give me a sure sign, and save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all they have, and deliver us from death.” (Joshua 2:10-13)
Commentary notes that Rahab’s use of God’s personal name Yahweh, translated here as Lord, indicates that she had come to faith in the living God (v. 11). God had graciously opened the heart and mind of a foreign prostitute to accept Him as Lord. the terror of you has fallen on us: Israel’s reputation went before them. God already had dramatically delivered the Israelites in many ways, and the report had been spread throughout the nations. Rahab mentioned two miraculous deliverances: the crossing of the Red Sea and the victories over two kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og (v. 10; see Ex. 14; Num. 21:21–35). [1]
Rahab had heard of the powerful actions of the Lord and believed in Him. She proclaimed when 'we' heard of it, 'our' hearts melted. Being the local harlot, she probably knew this through her relations with local men and leadership. She was judged not on her previous acts of harlotry but on her willingness to believe in God. She bound a scarlet cord in her window and her and her whole household were saved.
Hebrews 11:31 says, “[Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace [without enmity].”
Rehab was not only totally forgiven for her sin, she was given a place of honor. She was in the lineage of Jesus. She was the mother of Boaz. Matthew 1:5 says, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth (another foreigner, a Moabitess, who came to receive God, Ruth 1:16), Obed the father of Jesse...”
Those who would not believe and turn to God when they knew of His miraculous acts were destroyed. Joshua 6:17 says, “And the city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord [for destruction]; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.”
It was because of their unrepented wickedness they were destroyed. Deuteronomy 9:4 says, “Do not say in your [mind and] heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out from before you, It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land -whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.”
Whenever anyone repented and turned to God, no matter their sin, they were spared judgment. God spared the entire city of Nineveh even though the people were acting 'exceedingly wicked' when Jonah walked through the city and proclaimed that God would destroy it in forty days and the people repented. Jonah 2:5 says, “So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest of them even to the least of them." God saw they turned from their evil and spared the entire city (Jonah 3:10).
Later, Nineveh was destroyed because they failed to trust in God but instead turned against Him to other gods. Nahum 1:7-9 says, “The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understand) those who take refuge and trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make a full end of [Nineveh's very] site and pursue His enemies into darkness. What do you devise and [how mad is your attempt to] plot against the Lord? He will make a full end [of Nineveh]; affliction [which My people shall suffer from Assyria] shall not rise up the second time.”
Nahum 3:4 goes on to say that judgment was all because of their turning away from God. It says, “All because of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays and sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and people through her enchantments."
Over and over in the Bible the Lord has made it clear that He judges man not based upon their past history of sinfulness or the extent of their sin, but based upon their heart towards Him and their belief in Him.
In 1 Samuel 16:7 when Samuel was looking for who God would anoint the next king, the Lord tells Samuel that while man looks at outward appearances, the Lord looks at the heart. He passed by all the ones who would fit the role by man's standards and instead picked David, a man after God's own heart.
When Jesus was on the earth, He showed incredible forbearance and grace to those who had a reputation for a sinful past. Rather than judge them like the rest of the world and cast them aside, He paid particular attention to them. He treated them with respect. He met them in their place of sin with forgiveness and grace.
As an example, Jesus sat down by a well to rest in Samaria. The Samaritan’s were treated less than Jews. They were considered beneath them and filthy. A Jew would never ask a Samaritan for something to drink or even notice them.
Jesus not only made it clear that He noticed this woman, He asked her for something to drink. She was taken back and asked, “How is it that You, being a Jew, as me, a Samaritan [and a] woman, for a drink? For the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans” (John 4:9).
He goes on to become vulnerable with her as He offers Her living water. He then lets her know that He already knows she has had five husbands and the man she is living with is not her husband (John 4:18).
And in Luke 7:37 a woman who was “an especially wicked sinner” saw He was reclining at the table in the Pharisees house and she took an alabaster flask of perfume and broke it at His feet, washing them with her tears and wiping them with her feet.
The Pharisee who invited Him, said to himself, “If this Man were a prophet, He would surely know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him -for she is a notorious sinner (a social outcast, devoted to sin)” (Luke 7:39). Jesus responded by telling the Pharisee a parable to help him to understand that those who are forgiven much will love much while those who have been forgiven little, will love little. (Luke 7:47)
It wasn't that the woman needed more forgiveness than this Pharisee because of her past, but that she all the more realized her need and received forgiveness in brokenness in her sin. Often when we feel self righteous, we don't see how blind, poor and naked we are.
Many years ago when I was in college and a single mom, I was talking to a classmate and comparing notes as we were both interviewing. He had asked me who all I was interviewing with. I had received an invitation to interview with a few of the highly noted firms because of my high GPA. As it turned out, this classmate was turned down to interview with these companies. When he heard I had been given an interview, he became indignant and said to me, “I can't believe these companies would consider someone like you.”
It wasn't that this man was really better than me or more righteous than me. However, being a single mom and hearing the comments continually about it, there was no hiding that I was a sinner under the rug for me. Because of my troubled past, it was probably a lot easier to realize my need for grace and forgiveness, being genuinely grateful when I came to the Lord and was forgiven and cleansed from my past.
Those who the world would look up to and honor while they looked down on everyone else, He called to repent and turn from their self-righteous hypocritical pretending.
In Matthew 23:25-28 Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and plate, so that the outside might be clean also.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been white-washed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure. Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity.”
While Jesus confronted the hard-hearted self-righteous Pharisee, He gave dignity to those the world would look down on and judge. He was drawn to their areas of need and brokenness rather than offended by it.
Jesus looked at the heart, not at actions. David says in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Jesus hears and answers the cry of the poor and needy. Isaiah 41:17 says, “The poor and needy are seeking water when there is none; there tongues are parched with thirst. I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.'
“You have new mercy for me everyday, Your love never fails” sings in the background.
God meets us in our brokenness with mercy and loving-kindness rather than judgment. He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:14). David proclaims in Psalm 103:1-13, “Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits-
Who forgives [every on of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each on of] all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy; Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle's [strong, overcoming, soaring]!
The Lord executes righteousness and justice [not for me only, but] for all who are oppressed. He made know His ways [or righteousness and justice] to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.
He will not always chide or be contending, neither will He keep His anger forever or hold a grudge. He has not deal with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His Mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him {with reverence, worship, and awe].”
However, God does not 'overlook ' sin. He forgives sin as we repent and turn back to Him. And while He is longsuffering, He eventually brings His judgment through consequences to our places of unrepented sin so that we will turn to Him, repent, and cry out in our distress and trouble.
Psalm 107,27-28 says, “They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits' end [all their wisdom has come to nothing]. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.”
Sometimes He gives us over to our sin when we continue along in it without repenting. We taste the full consequences and emptiness of a life filled with sin. Paul says in Romans 1:28-29, “And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or descent but loathsome, until they were filled (permeated and saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice.”
He does not allow us to find contentment or what we really need in places of sin. We find them empty and barren. Psalm 107:33-34 says to praise Him because, “He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into a thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a barren, salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.”
He meets sinners in their places of need. He restores us and brings 'beauty for ashes' in our places of brokenness. The good news of the gospel is for the meek, poor and afflicted (Is. 61:1a). Jesus was sent to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and the eyes of those who are bound (Is. 61:1b).
Rather than being covered with shame for our sins, He came “To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion -to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit -that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:3)
Not only does He take our broken mess and shame and turn us into 'oaks of righteousness,' but He then calls us to restore others. Isaiah 61:4 says, “And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations."
“Show us Your face, pour Your love down and cover me” sings.
He not only has mercy on us, bringing us healing and restoration in our places of shame, but then He calls us to do the same for others. Isaiah 61:6 goes on to say, “But you shall be called the priest of the Lord; people will speak of you as the ministers of our God.”
As 'ministers of our God,' just like Jesus, we are to bring good news to the meek, poor and afflicted. Through the Spirit of God, we are sent to 'bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and the yes of those who are bound.” (Is. 61:1)
Isaiah 61:7 goes on to say, “Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall posses double [what they had forfeited] everlasting joy shall be theirs.”
And just as our shame has been covered over and we have been given what we need -forgiveness and grace, we are to do the same for others. Rather than shame others for their sin, we are to set the captives free. Proverbs 29:7 says, “The righteous understands the cause of the poor, but the wicked is unconcerned.”
I say all this and feel like I 'know' this. However, it is easier to 'understand' than it is to put it into action sometimes. An area that it is especially hard for me to give dignity to others and not judge them in their sin and look down on them has to do with prostitution.
When I was young, one of my very close friends ended up going into prostitution for a season of time. It wasn't because she thought it would be a great thing to do with her life or was even making a choice. She was in incredible pain and was running from things she didn't know how to handle. She was drowning in feelings of shame, fear and confusion. In trying to get away from all the pain and brokenness in her life, she ran right into more.
I find that I still have feelings of anger about the injustice of her pain. What makes me most angry is that grown men took advantage of her incredibly painful life and brokenness by using her for their own desires. The took her misery and added more pain to her life for their own benefit.
In the past, I have found it incredibly difficult to give dignity to someone who told me they had been with a prostitute. I have found myself more like the self-righteous Pharisee, looking down my nose at them thinking in disgust that they deserve everything bad that could possibly happen to them as a result.
If I had lived in the time of Jesus and saw Him walking along and going over eat at the house of men who had been involved in using prostitutes, I have no doubt I would be offended. I would probably have walked up to Him and asked Him if He knew whose house it was that He was going to eat dinner at. I would think to myself, If He is really knew what He was doing, He would be hanging around with those men who are terrible sinners.
However, recently I came to discover that men who use prostitutes are also very broken people. In their loneliness and trying to escape from their pain, they are trying to meet their need for love through prostitution. What happens is that they come up incredibly empty. Sometimes even with devastating consequences such as HIV. Nobody wins and everybody is broken.
Mother Teresa writes, “I think it's very difficult to realize what it is to be lonely unless you face it, same thing for people who speak about hunger. Unless they experience in their life, hunger, it is very difficult for them to understand the pain of hunger. Same thing for loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted, unloved, uncared. Like for example our patients that are shunned by everybody, the lepers...” [2]
Just as my friend needed people in her life that would give her dignity, covering her shame despite her past and extending a hand of grace, so do men who use prostitutes. They need God to meet them in their places of brokenness with human dignity, extending God's hand of mercy and healing for their broken past.
Mother Teresa notes that “the greatest injustice done to the poor is not so much that we have deprived them of material things but that we have deprived them of that dignity of the child of God, of the respect we owe to a person who [we] think, “They are good for nothing, they're lazy,'...” [3]
We are not to judge anyone in their sin. We are to leave judgment to God. Mother Teresa writes, “Jesus said very clearly, 'Do not judge. If you do not judge you will not be judged.' But when a sister is doing something wrong you cannot say it is right. The act is wrong but why she is doing that you do not know... the intention you do not know. When we judge we are judging the intention of the sister, of the poor.” [4]
When we give human dignity to a person and do not judge them for their faults or sin, we are not approving of the sin, we are giving them room to repent. It is Christ's kindness that leads people to repentance. When people feel judged, they are quick to cover up their offenses and defend themselves.
When someone sins against us, rather than responding back by judging their intentions and 'punishing' them by our actions, we turn to God and wait on Him for how to deal with it. Hosea 12:6 says "Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually."
Sometimes the ones we fail to see as the poor in need of God's mercy is in our own home, work or places we go regularly. We can give dignity to the homeless man on the street but then come home and fail to give dignity to our spouse in their poverty or weakness. When they are at their worst, we may judge them for it rather than extending grace and meeting them in their place of need. Sometimes we expect them to minister to our needs rather than ministering to their places of poverty.
Mother Teresa writes about Jesus, “He makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted one, and He says, 'You did it to Me.' He is hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find. It may be in our own home.” [5]
Jesus died for all of us in our brokenness. We are all sinners who are in need of a Savior. Isaiah 53:4-7 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”
Lord, forgive me for the so many times I have judged others in their sin. Thank You that You meet us in our places of sin and brokenness with healing and forgiveness rather than judgment or condemnation. Help us to be people who extend this same grace to others, building up their broken places with love and your forgiveness. Let us be a people who truly share the good news of the gospel with all we meet.
1. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. Jos 2:9
2-5. Mother Teresa. "Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others." Random House, Inc., New York. 2010.
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