Made a Mistake

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Hebrews 3:15-16

Nor could there be found any other who spoke half as comfortably as this to the people. Some of you may well know how good some comfort food is for the soul especially when you’ve been dealt a good blow and are well on your way to being upset. Yet of him these paths are not to be found. Judah’s issue then concerned the lack of God’s care for the people in a time when these had no longer sought him at all. How often does Scripture say that he may be sought while he is found of the Lord. You know how you do seeking after the wrong things from the needs of the body to so much more. Quite possibly like the disciples on the sea of Galilee you too are in a spiritual storm of much your own making. Notice these too with all their rowing, lost stuck, and going nowhere in their conscience had found. So too it seems these were quite far from the Lord. How many of you know though that even when from him some have strayed and so often have fled, their remains in all that the breath of the Lord. Nor is this merely a breath coming out as some great exasperated sigh but rather as at Pentecost, a mighty rushing wind. So too is it a wind of some change. How the Spirit of God is ever ready to come rushing in of the Lord. Is he not a quick and powerful Spirit awakening even the dead. As Paul found he too quickened whom he will. See, that little word quickened refers to the work of the Lord how that his power stands ever ready to change our hearts and our lives. Without him then, this indwelling the Lord, there is nothing that you or I cannnot do. For with him is there life and health and breath then indeed and at his right hand blessings forevermore await to be found. Indeed in him do we move and live and have our being as … so often said. See too what a funny little word without this thing is. Does it not form an image, a picture too if you will, of the type of friend in 1 Samuel 14:3 from which Jonathan came. How many of you have heard of our Saviour and guide, our very best friend. Nor in him does this world ever end. My, it is just like us is it not as mortality puts on its’ clothes and so immortality becomes. Here can be found the getting dressed of the Lord. It might not seem of Very much importance to you at the first. Yet it must be seen that where we are going has some bearing on where too we end up.

And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD's priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.

Notice that with Jonathan’s leaving everything changed had become. Indeed, his presence matters but very little right now on the scene. I would have forgotten too in the greater mystery as this of the Lord. Yet it is important that just as those of his house who are not missing or broken or gone for long that we neglect not to search for the Lord. For then in the continual seeking his presence we find. It is pursuit that speaks very much of a greater keeping to be seen of the fold that harkens back to times of old when Enoch still walked with the Lord. So by nature the extension of his walk such was thus that when it was his time to go there was none around. It was not for nothing then that his family probably searched in vain for the will. With life in the Father how many know it is right there all contained in his Word. So too might you have heard of what happened when Shiloh was lost to them that served only themselves were they were Eli’s children slain or otherwise taken by the strange gods facedown on the stone as daybreak soon found. Herein is there comparison with some of us as those lost or having strayed far off from the fold. Sure, we might not intend it at first. Yet somewhere between having lost the Shiloh of God and no longer missing your very best friend does the danger creep in softly with that whisper of wind. Yet it comes not alone for it changes things that you would not otherwise think. Look with me if you will at who has now entered in place of the true Shepherd crept into the fold. My, it seems that our God indeed will not suffer such of his house, not without some way to redeem it all as at first. It is to this scene of some such disorder that Ahiah brother to desolation and the son of the judgement has come. He is very much the son of the third and fourth generations of the hatred of God, is he not. Notice though his manner of dress. It is clothed with an ephod, with the sound of anointing, and the mantle of service, that this scene now appears. God sure has dressed this thing up, this having left all to follow the Lord. It is not to your ancestry, your identity, or your chosen profession in which is there a mighty rushing wind. Rather, with new life is it only found of his Son. He is the doorway through which all these enter, the frame, and the whole house put now together. So too it matters not what all has come be it war, famine, or pestilence which stalks still in the land. See, Christ our Redeemer yet stands looking out over the city arms stretched open wide waiting for all who would receive him thereby to enter and so to abide.