Draw Near to God

Zephaniah 3:2 - "She heeded no voice, she accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the Lord, she did not draw near to her God."

The fourth and final indictment that the Lord gives against Jerusalem in this verse is that she did not draw near to her God. This intrigues me, because when I think of the Old Testament system of worship, nearness is not a word that comes to mind. In the Tabernacle and later in the Temple the Lord dwelt in the midst of His people, but there was still a separation. The veil always said "Stay back!" There was an inability to personally come into God's presence. Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and he could only enter once a year in order to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. So in what sense did the people fail to draw near?

While the religious system failed to grant access into the presence of God it's clear that there were people in the Old Testament who drew near to God, not in some outward, external way, but they drew near to Him in their hearts. And that's really what God is looking for. In First Samuel chapter 16 we read that - "man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord says against His people - "This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." They had the outward form of religion but they were still failing to draw near to God. God isn't looking for an outward show of religion, He is looking for the inward reality of a relationship with Him.

In the early chapters of Genesis we see this relationship pictured as God walking together with man. "Enoch walked with God... Noah walked with God..." In Genesis chapter 3 the Lord came to walk with Adam and Eve in the midst of the garden but they failed to draw near to Him. Instead they hid themselves from His presence. Why? Because of sin. Isaiah says in chapter 59 and verse 2 - "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God." We have been created for an intimate relationship with our Creator but when Adam sinned it caused him to run away from God rather than draw near to Him. And sin is still having the same effect today. God desires that we would draw near to Him, but when we have sin in our lives it will cause us to shrink back from Him rather than drawing near. But even with the problem of sin in the world, we still have examples of men and women who, though not sinless, drew near to God rather than shrinking back from Him.

So we come to the book of Zephaniah and we learn that Jerusalem as a whole failed to draw near to God. This book was written during the reign of Josiah the king, and he was actually one of the better kings of Judah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. During his reign he really cleaned up the nation. He removed all the false gods and idols from the land and put to death those who were leading the nation into idolatry. He also gave orders to repair the house of the Lord which had been neglected by previous generations and had fallen into disrepair. It was during this process that the book of the Law was discovered in the house of the Lord, and Josiah gathered all the people of the nation together to read it in their hearing. At this time he made a covenant before the Lord to do all that was commanded in the book. Josiah led the nation in a national revival, but that revival was only superficial. We read in 2 Chronicles 34:33 - "Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the Lord God of their fathers." The peoples spiritual performance was motivated by a national decree, not by an inward change of heart. The people were content to follow the Lord as long as their king led the way, but once Josiah died the people turned away from the Lord once again. The drew near to God with their words and gave Him lip service, but their hearts were far from Him. They failed to truly draw near to God.
And lest we think more highly of ourselves than we ought, we need to recognize that we're not immune to this problem today. We can very easily fall into a religious pattern and look very good outwardly without really drawing near to God. If God expected them to draw near to Him as limited as their access was, how much more do you think He expects it from us? Think about it, they had a few of the books of the Old Testament, but by no means all of it. And they didn't have their own individual copies of the books that they did have. If they were going to hear the Word of God it was going to be read aloud to them in a public assembly. They couldn't come into Gods presence, even to offer sacrifices and offerings. They had to bring their offerings to a priest who would then turn and present it to God. The very thought of entering into the presence of God was a foreign concept to the Jewish people in the Old Testament. But we are privileged to have God's Word in our own language, and many copies of it for our own individual use. We have access into God's presence through a new High Priest, Jesus Christ. And unlike the old priests, Christs doesn't simply take our offerings and present them to God, but He presented Himself as our once for all sacrifice to God and then allowed us to come into God's very presence through Him. He is the superior sacrifice, the superior priesthood, the superior tabernacle, He is the fulfillment of all that these Old Testament things were pointing to. This is what the book of Hebrews is all about. And after going through several chapters explaining how Christ is better then the whole Old Testament system, the writer climaxes in Hebrews 10:19-22 where he says - "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Christ has made it possible for us to draw near to God and He has issued the invitation for us to do so.But what does it really mean to draw near? What does this look like practically? In Psalm 91:1 we read - "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." This Psalm begins by speaking about the secret place of the Most High, and we're told that the one who dwells there will abide, or remain, in the shadow of the Almighty. What is being talked about here seems to be something permanent, something constant. The words "Dwell" and "Abide" give us the sense that this is something continual. So what does it mean to draw near and dwell in the secret place of the Most High? What does it mean to live continually in Gods presence, or as one Christian put it, to "practice the presence of God?"

Well, like I said, this seems to be something that is constant. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." If the word "Dwell" wasn't strong enough it's reinforced by the word "Abide." Usually when we think about the concept of dwelling we think of it in the context of our houses. My house is where I live, it's my dwelling place. But the fact that I dwell there does not mean that I'm there all the time, or even most of the time. I dwell in a house, but I spend a great deal of my time somewhere else. Is this what is meant by dwelling in the secret place of the Most High? Many things may occupy my time and my thinking, but at the end of the day I always come back to Gods presence, is that what this means? No, that's not what this is saying. Instead of thinking of a house we need to have in our minds the picture of a branch on a grapevine. The two are constantly connected to one another. The branch doesn't simply call the vine home and spend most of it's time somewhere else, but it remains in the vine. This is the picture that the Lord Jesus used in John chapter 15 when He was teaching His disciples the importance of abiding in Him. John 15:4-5 - "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." This is a helpful picture. What is our relationship with God to be like? It's to be like the relationship between a vine and a branch. The relationship between the vine and a branch is constant. The branch doesn't spend an hour each day connected to the vine and then detach itself and go on with it's day. It has a constant connection or else it dies. And this is to be characteristic of our lives. God wants us to draw near to Him, not periodically, but as the tenor of our lives. Does this mean we all need to separate ourselves from the world and become nuns or monks? No, of course not. A life lived in the presence of God is to be lived out in the environment in which the Lord has placed us. In other words, It is possible to dwell in the Lords presence, to abide in Him, to draw near to God while working at the office, or on the job site. It's possible to dwell in Gods presence while carrying out the daily tasks that seem mundane and trivial.

So to draw near to God is to live in a constant awareness of God, and not merely a passive awareness, but an active awareness. Am I to constantly think about Christ? Yes, in a manner of speaking. While it is impossible to hold two thoughts in your mind at one time and do them both justice, the Lord has given us a heart as well as a mind. And our hearts can dwell on Christ while our minds are engaged in our daily work. This is at least a part of what it means to draw near to God.

The second part of Psalm 91:1 talks about abiding in the shadow of the Almighty. Think about your shadow for a minute. As you walk in the light the closest thing to you is always your shadow. So if someone is going to abide in your shadow they'll have to draw near to you. And not only that, but as you move so does your shadow, so if someone is going to remain in your shadow they'll have to walk in step with you. This is a helpful picture when thinking of our relationship with God. We don't simply draw near once and then stay there in His shadow automatically. We must draw near and then walk in step with the Lord. It's possible for us to drift, to go our own way or to simply stop following. So the goal of our lives should be to draw near to God, and this is not some passive one time thing, but to draw near to God is an active, constant pursuit.

In Psalm 27:4 David writes - "One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple." David talks about dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. It's important to note that he is not talking about dwelling in Gods house when he dies, but dwelling in Gods house here, in this life. And the house of the Lord from Davids perspective would be the tabernacle. This was the dwelling place of God. But we know from the book of Hebrews that this earthly tabernacle was simply a picture of something more real in the heavens. The earthly tabernacle is a picture of the heavenly tabernacle. The things we can see are merely the shadows, the substance belongs to the unseen. David longed to dwell constantly and perpetually in Gods presence. And this is not something ethereal, this is not something theoretical or beyond us. This is not something impractical, this is something real. Something possible. And beyond that, this is actually our greatest potential in life. To draw near to God and dwell continually in His presence.

All Christians do not occupy the same position in regard to our relationship with Christ. All believers are saved by the same precious blood of the Lord Jesus, but that decision, that stepping into the family of God, is only the beginning. There's is so much more to our relationship with Christ than simply "getting saved." That's just the first step. Once that relationship has been initiated we begin to grow closer to Him and come to know Him in ways we never did before. Our relationship with God is a pursuit. As we draw near to Him we come to know Him more and more. And as we come to know Him we grow in our love for Him. God is infinite, so knowing Him is a pursuit that will last all of eternity.

In some sense all believers look toward the inner sanctuary and the mercy seat, but all do not dwell there. We run there occasionally, in crises moments, and catch a glimpse of Him who sits enthroned above the cherubim, but we do not continually abide in His presence. And yet He has made this possible for everyone. He has not only granted the access, but He has issued us the invitation to draw near and abide in His presence.

God is just as present in the world today as He was in the days of Enoch. He is just as present as in the days of Noah. God is still just as present in our world as He was when He used to speak to Moses face to face. That closeness, that nearness is not something for only a select few. This is the closeness that the Lord desires to have with each of us, and yet so few seem to enter in and lay hold of this. Why? Certainly there were many in the days of Enoch, and yet this one man enjoyed such closeness with the Lord that one day he simply ceased to exist on this earth because God took Him. Can it be that we have become so blinded by the world around us that we fail to draw near to God? He Himself has surely said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." But are we constantly living in the light of His presence? There are so many things which seek to crowd into our lives and rob us of our nearness to God, but this need not be the case. The problem is not that God is distant, the problem, rather, lies with us. We're keeping God at arms length. We're putting things in between us and God. God's love for us is so great that He came to earth and died in our place in order to make it possible for us to draw near and know Him, but it seems that we have become so dull and calloused that it has become a light thing to us to neglect Him, to fail to draw near. He wants us to dwell in His presence, to constantly draw near to Him, but many of us are content to look at Him from a distance and draw near only in crises moments. I fear that the Word of the Lord to Jerusalem fits us far too well, "she did not draw near to her God." And many of us aptly fit into the Lords description of the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love." To fail to draw near to God is a sin. And we need to repent of it and ask God to give us a desire to know Him more and to draw us unto Himself.
I must confess that there is something here that I know very little about. As close as these Old Testament saints were to the Lord, the book of Hebrews seems to suggest that we have before us the opportunity of something deeper, something closer. Through the Lord Jesus Christ we have access into the very presence of God and the invitation to draw near. So why don't we? What is stopping us? I read about people like George Mueller, D.L. Moody, F.B. Meyer, A.W. Tozer, and others from a previous generation who seemed to have entered in to this closeness and we can see the evidence of that closeness expressed in the record of their lives and in their writings. I recently read Corrie Ten Boom's, the hiding place, and I was struck by the depth of her and her sister's relationship with Christ. Even in the midst of a Nazi concentration camp these women exhibited a faith in God that blew me away. I wish I knew God like they did. But perhaps the reason I don't is because I don't need God like they did, or at least I don't recognize that I do. They physically had everything taken away from them so that they could rely and depend on nothing and no one but Christ alone. I wonder if I'm bold enough to pray, "Father, remove everything from my life that is keeping me from drawing near to You."
These men and women seemed to know God in a deep and intimate way. A way that I've only heard of but never really experienced. And yet it's open to me. The Lord has issued the invitation to draw near. We need to pray with the bride in Song of Solomon, "Draw me after You and let us run together!"

Trust in the Lord

Zephaniah 3:2 - "She heeded no voice, She accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the Lord, She did not draw near to her God."

The third indictment that the Lord has against Jerusalem is that she did not trust in Him. At first this may not seem like such a huge deal, but this is actually a very significant problem and it's one that Israel has struggled with all throughout her history. Trust is an issue that God takes personally. And that shouldn't surprise us because trust is an issue that most people take personally. We're bound to get offended if we find out that someone doesn't trust us, and yet we're not completely trustworthy. We're not perfect. We have hidden motives and agendas, limited knowledge and resources. God, on the other hand, is the only one who is completely trustworthy and absolutely perfect, but how often to we fail to trust Him?

Throughout the Scriptures we see God's people constantly turning and placing their trust in someone or something other than God Himself. In Psalm chapter 78 the psalmist is recounting the history of Israel, and in speaking of their wilderness wanderings he says in verses 21-22 - "Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also mounted against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation." In Isaiah chapter 30 the Lord pronounces woe on His people because instead of trusting Him they flee to Egypt and trust in Pharaoh. And He concludes in chapter 31 - "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!" In Jeremiah chapter 7 we find out that the people had placed their trust in the temple itself rather than in God Himself. In verse 4 the prophet says - "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’" The people thought that just because Gods house was in their midst no one would be able to come against them. They had a confidence in an outward show of religion but their hearts did not trust in the Lord. And so the Lord declares that this temple in which the people trust would be destroyed, and the people would be taken away captive. They fell into the same error that their fathers had back in First Samuel when they trusted in the ark of the covenant to deliver them rather than in the God who dwelt above it. Time and again Jerusalem turned away from Lord and trusted in their own devices. She  trusted in her own resources, she trusted in foreign aid, calling other nations to fight on her behalf, she trusted in false gods and idols, she even trusted in the temple itself. It seems that the people of Judah were willing to put their trust in almost anything except the Almighty God, and He condemns them for it. "She did not trust in the Lord."

But this isn't a problem that we can isolate to the nation of Israel B.C. It's a problem that many believers struggle with today. Why is that? Throughout God's Word we're given one exhortation after another to trust in the Lord, and many of these are very familiar to us. Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." This is one of the most well known and memorized passages in the Bible, and I think the reason that we cling to these verses and need them so much is because this is an issue that many of us struggle with more than we would care to admit. We need the constant reminder to trust God because we struggle with worry and anxiety and we're tempted to trust in our own resources and abilities. Another well known passage is Psalm 56:3-4 where the psalmist writes - "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" It seems like the psalmist is going back and forth between talking to God and talking to himself, and he is pretty redundant, especially since he says again in verse 11 - "In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" It sounds as though the writer is trying to convince himself that what he is saying is actually true. That he can really trust God. But that isn't all that strange, is it? We often find ourselves doing the same thing. We quote these Scriptures to ourselves, we remind ourselves of Gods faithfulness, we look back in our lives at how God has led us in the past, and what we're actually doing is we're trying to get our mind to convince our heart that God is trustworthy. We're restless or anxious deep inside of us and so we bring to mind what we know to be true of God in order that we might convince our hearts of what our minds already know, namely that we can really trust God.
I heard a good message recently on belief, faith and trust, and the preacher pointed out that though these three are similar in meaning, belief is most often connected with the mind, faith is most often connected with the will, and trust is most often connected with the heart. Belief, by and large as spoken about in the Bible, takes the usage of the mind to understand a certain truth, whether it be the creation account, the claims of Christ, the gospel message, an so on. To believe something is to be convinced of it in your own mind. Faith is the action word of belief. Faith is a voluntary act of the will that takes what you believe and gives it feet. This is a big part of the book of James, genuine saving faith produces works. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us example after example of people who lived lives of faith. Time and again we read "By faith..." and then we're told of an action that someone took because they believed God. "By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. By faith Noah prepared an ark. By faith Abraham offered up Isaac his son on the alter. By faith Moses chose to endure ill treatment with the people of God..." And so on it goes. So God says something and you're fully convinced in your own mind that what He says is true, that's belief. God says something and you're fully convinced in your own mind that what He says is true, so you go out and begin to take action based on what God said, that's faith.

But trust is a deeper and more intimate word than either belief or faith. To trust in the Lord is to unquestionably and wholeheartedly rely and depend on Him. Trust is the complete assurance of the heart in God knowing that He will be true to who He is, and as a result, true trust will cause a person to throw the full weight of their life on Him. Trust is not angry or resentful or anxious or fearful, it's the hearts surrender to God. Casting on Him all the affections and emotions of the inner being. Even when there is no evidence of God being for us, when we don't see anything good in our circumstances, trust throws us on Him anyway. Trust is based on more than intellectual ascent, it's based on an intimate knowledge of and relationship with God.

So why did the people of Jerusalem struggle with the issue of trust? Why do many believers struggle in this area today? I think that one of the answers must be that we don't know Him very well. Think about it, you don't trust someone that you don't know. The more you learn about someone and the more you get to know them you begin to discover whether or not they're a trustworthy person. Whether or not you can confide in them, whether or not they're really looking out for the interests of others, whether or not they're dependable and reliable. So the more that we come to know God the more we will trust Him because in His nature and character He is absolutely perfect. Psalm 9:10 says - "Those who know Thy name will put their trust in Thee." Trusting Him is simply a byproduct of knowing Him. The more we know Him the more we will trust Him.
Another reason I think that many fail to trust God is because we've become so independent and self-sufficient. We've made Proverbs 3:5-6 sort of just a pious platitude, and it's not really practical, it's just sort of a nice idea to think about. And this is a big issue in our country especially. The American dream is one of independence and self-sufficiency, and to rely on someone else is seen as a sign of weakness. This is something that the Lord warned His people about as they were preparing to go up and take possession of the land which He has promised them. He warns through Moses in Deuteronomy 8:11-18 - "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth." There is a definite connection between prosperity and failure to trust in the Lord. That does not mean that we automatically fall into this snare, but we're much more likely to trust in ourselves and our stuff than believers in parts of the world where Christianity is a crime. The underground church in North Korea doesn't struggle with this problem because they really have nothing to trust in other than the Lord Himself. We must be intentional about putting our trust in God alone.

Whether or not we recognize it, God is in complete control of our lives. Everything that He does is done out of His perfect wisdom and His perfect love. Does this mean that nothing bad or tragic will ever happen in our lives? Does this mean that we aren't going to face any uncertain or confusing circumstances? No, but it means that when we find ourselves in a situation that we never would have chosen for ourselves we can be sure that it's not an accident. It may in fact be the working of a loving God to draw us closer to Himself. God knows our tendency to trust in our own resources or abilities so He often brings us to the end of ourselves in order that we might cast ourselves fully upon Him. We may still have anxiety in our hearts, we may still be trying to figure things out in our own minds, but He lovingly brings us to the place where we can truly say, "I trust You." And often it's because we have no where else to turn. And that's where He wants us to live our lives, in a state of continual trust.

How was Joseph able to keep from bitterness and resentment when he was sold by his brothers into Egypt? How was he able to look out for the interests of others as he sat in prison due to a false accusation? Because he trusted God. How were Joshua and Caleb able to wander in the wilderness for forty years without giving up hope? Because they trusted God. How was Daniel able to stand firm against the flow of an entire pagan culture? Because he trusted God. What caused the apostles and prophets to endure torture and death? It was their trust in God. In First Peter chapter 2 we read about the sufferings of Christ, that although He was perfect and sinless He was reviled by sinners, He was subjected to torture and He was ultimately crucifed. But in all this suffering we read - "While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously." Christ entrusted Himself fully and continually to His Heavenly Father. And we're called to do the same thing. At the end of chapter 4 Peter writes - "Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right."

Andrew Murray was a nineteenth century preacher and author of several books. It is told that at one point in Murray's life as he was faced with a painful and trying circumstance that he sat quietly with his Lord for a while and then he wrote these words for himself:

'First, He brought me here, it is by His will that I am in this strait place: In that fact I will rest.

Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child.

Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.

Last, in His good time He can bring me out again - how and when He knows.

Let me say I am here,

By Gods appointment,

In His keeping,

Under His training,

For His time.'

That's a great perspective and a great example of a man who trusted God. He chose to trust, and so must we. We need to learn to say with the psalmist, "When I am afraid I will trust in You." And with Job, "Though He slay me yet will I trust Him." Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.