The Grief of Pleading

Again and again, there have been instances of pleading Christ with others to no response. To reviling, to mockery, once to brief assault, and often to total insensate apathy.

I am reminded, yet, that I err so grievously myself, again and again. As though it makes a difference to the truth of who Christ is that I am a wretch (and very much more than most, apart from God's deliverance). And yet He has had mercy upon me. Even me. He has condescended to allow me the grace of seeing any vital aspect of the horror of my sin and vast, consuming righteousness of His wrath upon it...yet borne by Christ Himself, God incarnate, that I could be redeemed. What a wretched matter it is, then, to ever sin. So, I despair of that, but in light of remembering that His work is not finished.

And all the more to be driven to despair over the plight of many who refuse Him still, for the sake of whatsoever else would seem desirable, besides. Oh, just to remove the blinders for a moment! That some small sliver of realization of the magnitude of who Jesus is and what He has done would get through! In context also of a draught deep of realizing the absolute horror of what it is that we have done by turning even away from the Almighty God, the Great Creator and Sustainer of our every being! Such a One who is love, and who alone is good!

But our hearts are dull.

Even mine so much moreso than ought. Too busy frittering away time in puerile amusements like social media--which, though a minor redemption may be had of studying Biblically founded articles thereby...then still, how much more fulfilling to have given that time to poring over the Word of God, itself?

With commentaries, interlinear translations & lexicons, parallel translations, or what have you...as sides. Yet with the core of focus His very Word?

So much more delightful, on the whole. For a heart more wholly given over to delighting in Him.

Yet the deceitfulness of sin is unto blindness. A heart which is insensate to the glory of God in Christ, preferring its own contractions.

We are all so blind, on this count. Again and again. So wracked with fear and confusion. Deceived and being deceived.

Except for grace.

Were He not long-suffering and merciful, we would all be consumed. For He is a consuming fire, this God of the universe which is the only god.

None other. One creator. One sustainer. One being. And yet...three persons in His one being. Father, Son, Spirit.

Incomprehensible to a degree. Which, if He were able to be grasped by us...then He would be less than beyond us.

His glory is infinite and will endure forever. His Word is purer than all things. And true. And life is in Him. Should we come to Him, at least.

And lay all else aside.

The grief of pleading upon deaf ears is beyond bearing. But He is the strength to continue. He is the strength to yet rejoice. In Him, that is. In knowing He will be glorified. In knowing His ways, though beyond comprehending, are utterly and wholly good. And His will will be fulfilled.

All these things, so much more.

There are not words sufficient to ring His praise. They fall flat in attempt. The highest praise and honor are due Him, and yet they cannot aspire unto Him. For He is so far beyond all, nothing can approach.

Though everything subsists in Him.

To plead of Him, then, is to plead of the resplendent light and joy of warm summer mornings to those who live in dank caves, subterranean, having no taste nor craving for else.

Except that the very One who has breathed the breath of life into our race should bow to again breathe life, by His Spirit, into each one...

...none will come.

And yet, despite the grief of pleading the joy and glory of all Hope, incarnate...unto the perishing, beloved sat beside...insensate and bent on refraining from Him...

...then, still, there is a sweet solace in turning to the One who died to redeem us, knowing that for Him this all is so much more keen. And for Him, nothing is impossible.

The dead do yet hear His voice. When their Shepherd speaks, they rise. They come.

So, as it was written,

7Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
            “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,

      8DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME,
            AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,

      9WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me,
            AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.

      10“THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION,
            AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART,
            AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;

      11AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
            ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

      12Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

15while it is said,
            “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
            DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”

16For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?18And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.