My daughter Becky stopped over this week and while we were talking she mentioned that she liked the poem from my last post. After I told her what was going on in my mind she said it might be a good idea to post those thoughts as well. So here it is.
Sometimes things churn around in my brain, an idea pops out, and then it becomes a poem. This is what was going on leading to my last post - The Next Great Awakening
Some of the first books I read after my conversion were by M.R.D. DeHaan, M.D., a medical doctor and a minister who for 27 years had a half hour radio program. His - The Chemistry of the Blood - and - Portraits of Christ in Genesis - helped provide for me a terrific scriptural foundation showing that the Bible, from the very beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation talks about Jesus and God's plan of salvation.
One of my favorite books by DeHaan was - The Tabernacle. It shows that each detail of the tabernacle, the material, the colors, the furniture and their placement, the names and position of the encamped tribes, every dimension points to the person and the work of Jesus as well as to who we are as a believer and how all that fits into what salvation is.
In church Sunday I saw a pastor who was broken. He had to work hard to keep from crying as he was preaching. It was the 3rd anniversary of his father's death but there seemed to me that more was going on in his heart. He has been preaching for a couple of months from the Book of Exodus and Sunday's theme had to do with God giving the plans for the wilderness tabernacle to Moses as well as how God had etched His commandments on tablets of stone and as soon as those tablets were brought to the people they became broken because the people were in the process of violating the very first one.
He talked a little about the most holy place in the tabernacle. Outside is where the sacrifices are offered. Just inside the tent is an area called the holy place where sits the candlestick, the table of shewbread and the altar of incense. There is a thick veil that separates the holy place from a second room which is called the most holy place, or the holy of holies.
In the most holy place is the ark of the covenant which has on top of it a gold lid. This is called the mercy seat. On each side of the mercy seat which covered the ark, inside of which were the broken tablets of the law given to Moses, were the golden cherubim. Above the ark, above the mercy seat, above the cherubim in this wilderness tabernacle resided the cloud of the Presence, the shekina glory of God. It was into this place, into the cloud of glory but only once a year, that the high priest would enter to make sacrifice for the sins of the nation.
Our pastor was broken and I believe he was broken for souls. When you talk about the awesome glory of God and you realize just a portion of who He is and what He has planned and what He has done it can be overwhelming. When you realize that through Jesus death on the cross the veil in the tabernacle that separated mankind from the awesome glory was torn in two one can feel anxious and in despair for those that remain blinded by this world.
There are so many that need to know Jesus, whose lives could be brought into the glory and the presence and yet are deceived by unbelief, or the world or even by religious works. The numbers are so large and we are so weak. I myself often want to grab people by the shoulders, shake them and yell, "Forget your stupid arguments and excuses. Even though I have seen only just a little of the presence of the glory of God I have experienced it and can testify that you have no idea what you are talking about and what you are missing!"
When I woke up and showered Tuesday morning a song started running through my brain (that's happens quite often) and the song was about an angel bringing a burning coal to touch my lips. I am currently in Isaiah and a few days before I had read the verse in chapter 6 which talks about an angel bringing a burning coal to touch Isaiah's mouth.
So that night I thought it might be a good theme for a poem but I felt I needed to do a little research about Isaiah 6:7. Here it is beginning with verse 1:
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven."
Other readings for that day were some articles about it being the 20th anniversary of the Toronto Airport revival which continues on even to today and an account from Dutch Sheets about visiting the location of the Cane Ridge revival which led to the second great awakening and then getting on an airplane and being part of a dedication for a bible school and church in Wales that was recently restored.
The church was where Evan Roberts preached and from which began the great Welsh revival and the bible school was where Roberts and then his son had a prayer room which went on for years interceding for the church and against the forces of darkness active in the world
A similar comment was made about ministers from both Toronto and Wales. They were men broken before the Lord who realized they could do nothing in their own power.
There were interesting things I noticed about Isaiah from the commentaries. Isaiah was looking into the heavenly tabernacle which was the pattern for the earthly tabernacle. The work of the cheribum was the same, to guard the presence and the holiness of the Lord. The burning coal would have come from the altar of incense, incense representing the prayers of the people placed on the burning coal.
One commentary brought this all forward to the account in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit first descended upon the church. In what form did He come? It was not a burning coal placed on the lips but it was pretty close - tongues of fire! What was the immediate result? The disciples who had gathered there waiting for the promise spoke out in other languages, speaking of the mighty deeds of God. And then Peter, who only weeks before had denied Christ 3 times stood up and addressed the large crowd that had gathered and with great boldness proclaimed to them what was written by the prophet Joel.
What was the result? The Holy Spirit used both the testimony and the praise of those gathered. That day 3 thousand souls were added to the kingdom.
When the seraphim spoke "the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke." May we see a great shaking!
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