Sustained By Love

“We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there any among us that knows how long…” –Asaph, Psalms 74:9

The aroma of the evening sacrifice wafted throughout the city as dusk began to fall every day – but it wasn’t the aroma alone that was special.  The priests with their beautiful linen garments would perform the services of the temple in the eyes of the people, and the high priest would pass the golden entrance through the purple, blue, and scarlet veil engraved with angelic figures – but alone it was just a tradition.  Deep within his soul Asaph mourned, knowing that there were few people left who remembered how it used to be.  It wasn’t so much the traditions and the performance of ceremonial rites that made Israel so special among the nations – but it was an intangible factor.  You couldn’t really touch it, but you could feel it in the air – an atmosphere that always accompanied these events.  The feeling that it evoked was like the tingling sensation in the flesh after bathing – crisp, refreshing, and renewing.  An indescribable Joy seemed to hang in the air among the people as a sense of childlike innocence settled on them.  You could hear it in their voices, the laughter and upbeat conversation.

It wasn’t like that anymore – the ceremonies that had been in place for generations remained, but that certain quality was gone.  Now they were just tasks – duties that had to be performed in the name of tradition only.  The tears Asaph shed were not for himself, but for the younger generation who didn’t truly know the LORD God of Israel.  Now the Spirit of the LORD was a rare treasure almost completely absent from God’s people – and Asaph cried knowing that most of the people didn’t know that they had lost their true inheritance.  What remained was a hollow shell of what used to be, and all the children knew was that empty shell.  From the people’s perspective, everything was as it was since Moses gave the commandments – the same words, knowledge, and traditions.

What had happened?  Israel was born a nation of slaves – the lowest of all people on the earth.  Disregarded and despised by all people, the God of Heaven however took notice of them.  Never before in the history of the world did God make Himself so plainly known to a people, who shook the ancient world with plagues and mighty wonders in delivering them.  He brought them into a wilderness and audibly spoke to them through thick clouds hovering over Mt. Sinai.  The God of all creation entered into an intimate relationship with the lowest people of the earth, and gave them statutes and ordinances to maintain that relationship.  Who could imagine having a relationship with the God of Heaven?  And what wouldn’t you be willing to do to maintain that relationship?  Like a marriage, that relationship began with a people in love with their God – who loved them when they were at their lowest point.

But the people didn’t understand that the core of any relationship is love.  There are certain duties and obligations that married people share, but those are performed always and only because of love.  The rites and ceremonies of a married couple may involve Friday night dates, or always being home by a certain time, or even washing dishes together – but without love these become empty gestures.  A married couple can grow distant, and their love grows cold, even though there has been no adultery or abuse in that relationship.  This is what happened to Israel’s relationship with God – even though all the rites and ceremonies remained intact, the love had grown cold.  Like a marriage where there is no longer any intimacy, all that remained in Israel was an empty shell of a relationship.

Like Israel, many people in the church today have lost the intimacy with God that was once far more common.  While we still attend church, take communion, give in offerings, and do all of those things people associate with ‘Christianity’ – most people only know an empty shell of what it was intended to be.  There is nothing that compares to knowing the intimacy of God through the Holy Spirit, and without it Christianity amounts to no more than empty ideas and routines.  The apostle John spoke to the church of his day saying, “Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” -1 John 4:13 The Holy Spirit is the substance of our relationship with God, and He was meant to be with us continually – filling us with joy, peace, and gladness.  There is nothing that we can do to deserve Him, but believe in the One who loved us at our lowest point.  JESUS died and rose again so that we could enter into an intimate relationship with the God of Heaven, and that relationship is sustained by love.