Washing Away Our Sins

 

Friday, March 4, 2022

“Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.’  Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai.  And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us.  “But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses.  They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.  They told Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’  So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made.  Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods!  In the book of the prophets it is written, ‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?  Acts 7:37-42

At our house there are two kitchens.  The house was smaller when we originally moved in, but an apartment was added when my parents came to live with us.  The second kitchen is near where I study, so the dog sleeps there too.  (I know, I know, the preacher studies in the doghouse…let’s get past that).

Being near where I study, the coffee pot also resides in that kitchen.  And so, I wash the coffee cup there.  Occasionally I make a mistake with what is stored where.  I discovered one of those faux pas  this week.  The discovery was because I was confused as to why the dish soap wasn’t working well.  It was weaker and too fragrant for dish soap.  I investigated the label and realized my goof. 

Ever since I gave Mr. Wellie a quick bath a few weeks ago, I’ve been washing my coffee cup with doggie soap.  I can only guess I absent-mindedly (imagine that) replaced the dish soap with doggie soap.  For Wellie’s sake I hope he isn’t allergic to dish soap.

So, how does that help us with Paul’s message about Israel’s sins, and how God dealt with them?

Well, can you imagine needing to wash your pet elephant, and you get everything ready….forty bath towels, several gallons of elephant soap (you can get it on Amazon), and the scrub brush…that tiny red toothbrush you got from the dentist visit?  A toothbrush to scrub an elephant?  Pretty ridiculous, eh?  But there’s the (ahem) rub; just as you wouldn’t use a tiny toothbrush for the huge job of cleaning an elephant, you don’t bring watered-down personal philosophy to scrubbing the stain of sin from your soul.

That was the main issue in Exodus…Moses was given life-giving words from God, and the Israelites were rejecting the message.  Their homegrown philosophy took over when they asked Aaron to make them a gold idol to do the work that only divine blood could accomplish.  Paul said God turned away from them, shunned his deeply-loved people, abandoned them to the astrological gods they’d chosen over the one who had parted the waters and fed them in the wilderness.  They had replaced their faith in the one, true, living God, for a gold statue they could see, but could never save them.

For You Today

Just like you don’t bring a fly-swatter if you’re going to hunt monster dragons, or doggie soap to  wash your coffee cup, there is only one genuine way to deal with washing away sin in human beings – faith in Jesus Christ who died for you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Russell Brownworth (own work)   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©