The times I have been through the letter to the Hebrews, I have not reached the conclusion Chambers derives from verse 10:19. Part of the reason why is an assumption on my part that I’m not supposed to intercede for others as if I know what God should do. I save that ridiculous attitude for when I pray for myself. Perhaps I used to pray for others that way. I remember having a rather emotional discussion with a Korean student in my community college days about that issue. She was very upset with God for allowing a woman to die, a friend of hers, who had a young daughter, a husband, and was herself very young. Her question was why would God allow that? I didn’t have an answer since the question is unanswerable on this side of heaven. But I did have enough sense to encourage her to believe that whatever this circumstance may look like to her, God is still God, and His character remains intact. She didn’t consider that much of an answer.
But there are other elements to a response that I did not have at the time. For instance, as the latter part of verse 10:19 of Hebrews points out, the boldness to enter before our Master comes by means of the blood of Jesus! So, after that, at what point am I justified in imputing a character flaw to my Master? Where is the sense in complaining about a particular desire or idea of mine when I am conscious of what He has already done for me? How can anything I want or think is important compare to what I already have through my Master? Seriously, the perspective of anything viewed through the lens of the Cross and Empty Grave seems small and insignificant. The irony is that, because of my Master’s interest in my life, He considers those things anyway. He just considers my right relationship with Him to be more important. When the relationship with Him is where it needs to be, then my desires match His anyway.
The necessity of a submissive aspect when interceding I would think is obvious. I would expect that anyone approaching the Master of the Universe would do so in a penitent fashion. If someone does not, they are not approaching the Master of the Universe, but rather some image they have invented in their mind. The entrance to the Master of the Universe “loosens the bowels” to put it mildly. It is the stuff of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1, it frightens, it shocks, it silences, it shows the paltriness of my holiness compared to His glory, it reveals the true meaning of “shock and awe”. It is not possible to enter with a “-tude” and “be like all” anything. The presence of my Master crushes the spirit, and as He bids me stand, my spirit is rebuilt without the props and pretenses. The boldness I have before my Master is as a Knight of the Realm and Servant of the King, a status I hold because it was given, not because it was earned in anyway.
How is it that Moses was required to be hidden and see only the trailing filaments of the glory of the Master, but some who claim to be believers feel free to defiantly dictate terms to Him? That baffles me. Who are they talking to anyway? It’s not the Master, Creator, Sustainer, and King of all Creation. It can’t be. It has to be some propped-up, straw-filled, empty-headed effigy of some weak and simple… I can’t even call it a god. Even the pagans following other gods have some sense of reverence for them. I have no idea what people talk to without a reverence that shatters the very soul. I don’t even know what to call it.
To my Master I do complain of my circumstances. I do plead for what I want selfishly. I do seek my own interests rather than His. But I do so on my knees. Sure I’m stupid, but I know Who I speak to. It is in these times of my complaint that He begins the transformation (or continues it – I don’t always cooperate very well) from self-focused to Jesus-focused. He asks me to stand on the outside of the cave because He is about to pass by. He seeks to draw me with a bush that is not consumed by fire. He visits me as I rest beneath a tree, or thresh wheat in a wine press, or as I sleep. He leads me somewhere else where He wants me to work with Him. Sometimes I follow, sometimes I miss my queue, overshoot my mark, and end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I do not forget Who I am supposed to be serving. I may struggle with my belief or faith, but I do not forget in Whom that belief and faith are supposed to be.
I know exactly why I don’t understand my Master completely and can’t explain Him adequately. I know precisely why I am trapped on this planet, a slave to gravity, yet able to gaze at the universe in wonder. I get that part. I am created, and so is the universe I view. And there is no possible way I can fully comprehend the entirety of this creation, and therefore fully the Person responsible for it. That make perfect sense to me. I would think that any contact with such a Person would be a dramatic and possibly traumatic assault on my senses. If there is no such drama or trauma, I would then wonder who I address instead.
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