BEAUTY for ASHES

In Bible times, ashes were a sign of grief and mourning.

When Tamar was defiled by her brother Abasalom, she put ashes on her head and tore her robe in anguish. (2 Samuel 13:19)

Job sat in ashes as a sign of his desperate plight (Job 2:8), and when God confronted him, Job said, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:6)

When Abraham dared to intercede in behalf of the wicked city of Sodom, he said to God, "I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord." (Genesis 18:27)

Now comes the promised Servant predicted by Isaiah - Jesus the Lord!

He sees people in ashes, people uncertain about God, devoid of hope, oppressed by the realization of their own imperfection and weakness. What a desolate picture . . . how unlovely we all are without the Messiah!

BUT - whisper the word expectantly - BUT His love and mercy offer the perfect sin offering on the altar of God, and from the ashes of His offering a marvelous transformation affects the souls and the faces of those who accept it.

The inner beauty of Christ Himself begins to shine.

Forgiven, their pinched and anguished faces relax in God's peace. Loved, their countenances glow. Caught up in praise, they worship in "the beauty of holiness." In the world's most marvelous miracle, they - indeed, we!-have been given beauty in the place of ashes.

written by Jack W. Hayford, The Heart of Praise, Regal Books, 1992