BEAUTY FOR ASHES
Luke 4:18,19
1 Samuel 30:6
If I serve you well from this pulpit–-if I achieve the goal I have set–-my message today will be filled with hope and encouragement. First, we will hear what Jesus said when He stood in the synagogue at his hometown of Nazareth and read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Second, we will draw out three encouraging concepts from the Isaiah passage and make some practical applications to our lives. And, finally, for the purpose of practical application we will turn to a
true-life story relating to David that is found in the book of 1 Samuel 30:6.
Luke 4:18 and 19 are two of the most popular verses in all the bible. They are made popular, and are thus oft quoted, because Jesus used them one day in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. It was on the occasion of His introduction into full time ministry.
The interesting thing here lies in the fact that He did not choose to read the entire portion of the
prophet’s words. Here is the entire quotation.
"The Spirit of the LORD God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified" (Isa. 61:1-3).
These verses are ripe with the richness of encouragement, hope and joy. However, as rich as they
are as a whole in encouragement I want only to lift out three themes, because they have a direct bearing upon our subject. In these verses God promises:
1. To “give them beauty for ashes.”
2. To give them the “oil of joy for mourning.”
3. To give them “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
What we need now is a dramatic true-life story that will serve to illustrate the fact that some times our hopes and dreams burn down and nothing is left but ashes of disappointment. At such a time and such a place we are faced with the challenge:
1. Do I sit on the ashes and complain of all that went wrong?
2. Do I eat the ashes and choke on remorse and bitterness?
3. Do I move beyond the ashes to find God’s plan and purpose leading to victory?
Our Old Testament story is found in 1 Samuel 30 but not necessarily in the exact words I will use to tell it.
Imagine, if you will, that you’ve been away from home for several weeks; not because you wanted to but because of urgent matters that involve your friends, your family’s well-being and,in no small way, your very future. How you’ve missed your family! At times you’ve ached with loneliness and desire to be with them. You’ve been looking forward with eager anticipation for the day when you can begin the journey back. At long last that day has come. You’re heading home. Joining you in the trek back home are six-hundred men who have shared your dreams,your mission. They are as eager as you to get started. For the most part they have been very loyal companions. Everyone is happy, laughing and talking about how it’s going to be, what they’ll do first, how they’ll try to make up for the lost time spent away from the family.
The road home winds through desolate areas of treeless wilderness, along dry stream beds, through narrow gorges. Sometimes the path is nothing more than a goat’s trail leading up, down and around hills. After several days and nights you see the final hill to climb. On the other side, in a little valley, is your village. Your home is there. Your loved ones are waiting--the wife and kids you’ve missed so much. This thought pumps extra energy into your tired, aching muscles, so you pick up the pace. Your friends, just as eager, follow suit.
Before you crest the hill you wonder why there are none of the usual signs that home is nearby. Where is the smoke of kitchen fires and the sounds of happy children. The stillness in the air nibbles at the edge of you mind. It’s a quietness that stirs a feeling of uneasiness. Even before you know, you know something isn’t right. But what? Once you reach the top of the hill the answer is clear. You stop dead in your tracks and stare in stunned disbelief. No wonder there are
not welcoming sounds. The village is burned to the ground! Not a person is in sight. All livestock and other animals are gone too. A horrible reality crashes down upon your mind. Your heart feels it will be squeezed from your chest. By now the rest of your party has crested the hill. Everyone races down into what is now only charred remains of once happy home sites. Tell-tale signs let you know what has happened. While you were away, a marauding band of fierce,
almost animal-like Amalekites has overrun the village burning everything that can’t be transported. They have carried away every living thing, especially the women and children. The high shrieks and wailing of dozens of voices now drown out your own. Everyone stumbles around among the blackened rubble, blinded by their coursing tears, looking for familiar things but seeing nothing . . . nothing but ashes.
It’s not long before things turn from bad to worse. There’s a growing feeling that someone must be held responsible. You are the leader. You should have anticipated this. Was it your negligence, lack of strategic planning skills, or just plain old immaturity that has created this unthinkable disaster that is now tearing the heart out of every man? It isn’t long before you begin to hear angry words. A mutiny is under foot. As moments pass, the situation grows more intense. A voice murmurs that someone’s got to pay. The whispering swells into clearly audible calls for swift retribution. Eyes, red-rimmed and tear-swollen, turn in your direction. There’s no question
of who they have in mind. A growing agreement emerges that they should take up stones with the intention to bury you under them.
You are as heartbroken as any. Your family is just as missing as any other’s. Everyone else has a friend, or friends, to share their grief. You find yourself more isolated, alone. Later you will write: “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psa. 142:4).
What do you do when you face a calamity of this magnitude? Right now you are standing on the brink of the greatest disaster in your whole young life. The hounds of death are heard baying in the distance. A scent of death is rising in the air. Here and there a few men are seen picking up stones, tossing them from one hand to the other as if weighing them, then dropping them. They move about from one grieving cluster to another urging their companions to join. “Let’s do something. Let’s get it over with. NOW! Why wait? He’s brought this on us, hasn’t he? Let’s kill him!” But the momentum just isn’t quite there–yet. No one is willing, yet, to cast the first stone.
And so it is written that, “David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him . . .
But David strengthened (encouraged, KJV) himself in the LORD his God” (1 Sam. 30:6).
I want you to focus on David’s response to this tense situation. He strengthened or encouraged himself in the Lord. How did he do this? How did he encourage himself in the Lord?
We don’t know with absolute certainty, but what we know about David’s character, and his faith, will help us understand. In understanding how David handled this difficulty we will gain a new perspective when our personal Ziklag burns to the ground and we suddenly stand friendless and threatened as he did.
A verse found in the Book of Hebrews provides a clue. The author exhorts and encourages those persecuted New Testament saints saying, “But call to remembrance the former days, in which (or when) you endured a great struggle with suffering . . . “ (Heb. 10:32).
The word remembrance is the key. How many times have we played the “Remember When” game?
–Remember when you were 10-years-old.
–Remember your first day at school.
–Remember when you gave or received your first kiss.
–Remember when you got your first job.
–Remember when you got your first car.
–Remember when your first child came.
–Remember when and how you first became a Christian.
--Remember when God answered a prayer and gave you a blessing like you had never before experienced.
–Remember when you thought the last trial was the absolute worst; surely nothing worse could happen. But guess what . . . ? Remember?
All of us have some “precious memories.” These memories are a treasure trove. They are God’s gifts. He reserves them for us, to be used when encouragement is needed. Let’s use them! I believe this ability to “remember”provides us with a key to David’s “encouraging himself in the Lord.”
David does not succumb to feelings of defeat because he drew from the same resource that is available to anyone, at all times, in every situation or circumstance. It lies in the careful, deliberate, use of memory. I want us to see the Scriptural foundation that underlies this vital resource when one needs encouragement. Consider:
* “I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high” (Ps. 77:10).
* “I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember thy wonders of old” Ps. 77:11).
* “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’” Lam. 3:21,22).
* “Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth” (1 Chr. 16:12).
* “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Ps. 20:7).
* “O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar” (Psa. 42:6).
* “And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High” (Ps. 77:10).
* “Remember his marvelous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth” (Ps. 105:5).
* “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands” (Ps. 143:5).
The scripture says David encouraged himself in the Lord. We are wondering how he did it. Here are some suggestions:
1. He encouraged himself by remembering past victories.
2. He encouraged himself by remembering the Lord’s mercies.
3. He encouraged himself by focusing upon God’s faithfulness.
4. He encouraged himself by affirming God’s goodness.
5. He encouraged himself by praising God’s greatness.
6. He encouraged himself by deliberately turning away from discouragement.
7. He encouraged himself by altering his attitude and outlook; seeing beyond the difficulty to focus on the solution.
8. He encouraged himself by embracing his strong friends.
9. He encouraged himself by seeking the Lord’s will by using the resources available to him.
Permit me now to call a meeting of all past and present Ziklag dwellers. You know who you are.
Some have just recently discovered their Ziklag has gone up in smoke. The Ziklag they once enjoyed has turned into a heap of ashes with all its attendant feelings of anger, resentment, discouragement, sorrow, guilt, pain, grief, hand wringing, floor walking, sleepless nights, loss of appetite, blaming yourself, blaming others, and perhaps even blaming God, characteristics.
Past and present Ziklag dwellers have only one thing to say about their experience. There’s really only one honest way to put it: Ziklag stinks! Ashes stink. Sitting in the ashes of one’s disappointments is the pits. There’s nothing beautiful in ashes. However, not only do some choose to sit in the ashes of their defeat, they (as incredible as it is to contemplate) actually feed on the ashes. We know David didn’t do this and we know the reasons why. However, a burned
down Ziklag provides one an opportunity to do this.
I have used the phrase “feeding on ashes” because it is a concept found in Isaiah 44:20. Reading the context of the verse we learn that the theme grows out of the stupidity of cutting down a tree and then using part to build a fire to warm onself, part to cook breakfast, and the rest of the wood to carve into an idol to bow before and pray for health and prosperity. “Shall I bow down before a block of wood” (vs. 19), is the question God is asking people to think about. That’s a good question! And, of course, to our enlightened eyes and understanding it is about the dumbest thing one can imagine an intelligent person doing. We say, “I’d never do such a stupid thing!” Maybe we wouldn’t. But they did. And God says, “He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has
turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’”
It is beyond ludicrous to think one would eat ashes. As far as I know, there is no actual food value in ashes; no vitamins or minerals, hence, no nourishment. They are good for nothing. And this is precisely the point the Lord is making in His metaphorical use of the term, “he feeds on ashes.”
He isn’t accusing them of literally eating ashes. He is saying that their embracing idols, which is a work of their own creation, is futile, empty, worthless. This is because, “A deceived heart has turned him aside.” The result is, “he cannot deliver his soul,” neither can he see the fallacy or admit to the truth that, “there is a lie in my right hand.” In other words, he is holding his just-carved god in his own right hand. He just doesn’t get it. Maybe, sometimes, we don’t get it either.
Let’s bring this vivid picture into our David-in-Ziklag metaphor and make some practical applications.
* David could have chosen to feed on the ashes of Ziklag by spending time blaming himself or blaming others for what happened.
* David could have chosen to feed on the ashes of Ziklag by indulging himself in self-pity; by becoming depressed; by shutting out concerned and caring friends; by refusing to avail himself of the resources available to him at this time of great trial.
* David chose not to settle down in the ashes of Ziklag. He only spent enough time to “encourage himself in the Lord,” seek God’s guidance for his next step and move on, past the tragedy.
* We feed on the ashes of our Ziklag when we believe the loss spells the end of our hopes and dreams for a good and happy life.
* We feed on the ashes of our Ziklag when we believe (wrongly) that we have no choice but to embrace defeat and sentence ourselves to a life of depression.
* The “deceived heart” (Isa. 44:20) turns us aside from the powerful truths in God’s promises. It is the deceived heart that says all hope is gone; there is no need to pray; there is no way out, “no man cares for my soul.”
* Feeding on the ashes of such negativity, including hopelessness, bitterness, anger and any number of other life-numbing, truth-blocking emotions, makes it impossible to “deliver the soul” (vs. 20) when our Ziklag has gone up in smoke.
Are you feeding on the ashes of broken promises, unrealized hopes and dreams, plans that have failed to materialize? Is there yet a “lie in my right hand?’ The lie that says in my own right hand is the strength and power to manage my life in my own way and on my own terms? Such thoughts are exactly opposite of the truth. Relief and assistance, which God offers by trusting Him, lies not in the fallacy of what is in my (or your own) right hand, but in the truth that He is
at this moment holding my (and your) right hand.
David wrote, “because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Ps. 16:8). Later, he declares, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11). Finally, “For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee” (Isa. 41:13), and other passages too numerous to mention.
Anything else is vanity and falsehood. This act makes what I want you now to contemplate even more encouraging. Let me begin by making a statement of absolute fact:
You need not spend any more time feeding on ashes.
You can rise from your ashes.
You can choose to sing a new song.
You can live again.
Borrowing a phrase from ancient literature, David rose phoenix-like from the ashes of defeat at Ziklag, moved from defeat to the restoration of all he had lost, plus more. Now that you are facing the prospect of facing the music of your worst trial, you can as David did, begin to sing a new song of your choosing. It can be a song of hope. Here’s why.
There’s an ancient myth about a fabulous bird that periodically regenerated itself that is used in
literature as a symbol of death and resurrection. According to legend, the phoenix lived in Arabia; when it reached the end of its life (500 years),it burned itself on a pyre of flames, and from the ashes a new phoenix arose.
Modern-day storytellers use this ancient legend when they tell of a person who triumphs over tragedy. They will say, “So-and-so, after being counted out,
defeated, and deemed as destroyed, rose phoenix-like from the ashes of their defeat.” Although only a myth, nevertheless, it is a powerful illustration of one’s ability to rise triumphantly over difficulties. For the believer, something else is even more powerful than the phoenix rising from the ashes of extermination. It is the promise of our sovereign God to lift us from the ash heap of our defeat into realms of glory and victory. This is no myth:
He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes–with the princes of His people (Ps. 113:7 NIV).
Do you feel you are poor?
Do you feel that you are in the dust?
Do you feel needy?
Do you feel you are on the ash heap?
This promise is tailor-made for you. God promises to lift you out of the dust, lift you out of the
ash heap to seat you as one of His princes. From ash heap to sitting as a prince among princes! Princes don’t feed on ashes. That’s an exchange worth singing about.
I will close by going back to the beginning of this message and recalling the words Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah.
"The Spirit of the LORD God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified" (Isa. 61:1-3).
The ministry of Jesus today, to each of us through the Holy Spirit, is
–to comfort
–to console
–to give beauty for ashes
–to give the oil of joy for mourning
–to give the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
–to make life rich and productive
–to glorify the name of Jesus
In conclusion:
I close with the words of a song by Milton Bourgeois (1972). The chorus gives us direction today if we want to move past our Ziklag of ashes. It says:
Rise and be healed in the name of Je - sus;
Let faith a - rise in your soul!
Rise and be healed in the name of Je - sus;
He will make you ev- ‘ry whit whole!
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, we thank you that it isn’t every day that we have a Ziklag experience; that we find ourselves in a place of burned-up hopes, dreams and aspirations. But for those who may have been there and done that we pray that the Holy Spirit will help them, like David, to find strength in Your faithfulness, goodness, and mercy; to arise from the ashes of disappointment, ashes of loss and come forth in resurrection life. Comfort those who mourn. Give beauty for their ashes.
Give them the garment of praise for their spirit of heaviness and make their life rich and productive for Your glory. Amen
Charles W. Holt
Orange, TX
email: cholt@gt.rr.com
