God - Go Before Me

 "The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes," ~ Deuteronomy 1:30

I’d been studying in Leviticus and Numbers and about the old law and the sacrifices required to cover sin. Leviticus and Numbers can be monotonous reading but one cannot come away from such reading without a sense of the exquisite order in those books, often repeated for emphasis … true evidence that the Creator is a God of deliberate order and structure and provision to the finest detail. He is in the farthest reaches of the past, He is here now and in the farthest reaches of the future. He anticipates all things. He goes before all things.

I had been immersed in my study all day recently and that evening my wife and I sat to rest after dinner in our backyard. It’s early spring and the birds are back and up to their mating antics. It’s a cacophony of chirping and ruffling of feathers and pairs whirling about. We’ve lived in our home for 30 years and we recognize the returning Sparrows, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Robins and Mocking Birds (my favorite). They make nests in the same bushes – and leave droppings on our cars in the same places. Heaven knows how many generations of the same family of birds we have seen hatch, grow and return here each year.

We have Red Tailed Hawks now too. Something ominously new. This has added a dimension of drama to our little backyard nature show. Once in a while all the birds, quite suddenly, will take frantic flight and disappear. A scrambling mass evacuation. Moments later the spectre of a soaring hawk will appear; wings spread and rigid, banking and weaving a pattern like a fighter plane just above the canopy of trees - a shark patrolling its reef.

As my wife and I sat in our lawn chairs two Morning Doves flew just above our heads and perched on our stockade fence not ten feet away. They startled us. Then they moved closer and perched atop our back door awning. They seemed completely at ease and tame so close to us. The little couple faced each other, necking and preening. I sensed that their proximity to us gave them a sort of protection from the threats orbiting above. Or maybe they were just curious. Or maybe the were a sign. They had come to rest so naturally and so close.

Doves are a sign of peace and considered by many to be a good omen. Doves, a relative of the pigeon, were also a suitable blood offering to cover the sins of a poor man under the old covenant. A bird, plentiful and easily caught, they were prescribed as an acceptable offering if a ram or other such animal were not procurable due to one's limited means. Imagine seeing these creatures as something to be caught and split in half and burnt – to cover one’s sins. How many would have to be caught over-and-over again and slain to make restitution for my repeated sins?

As I looked at these two beautiful, sweet, gentle, innocent doves and thought about my willful, rebellious sin I could not help but consider my callous disregard for the pollution of my sins on me and the creation all around me. Perhaps the need for the slaughter of innocence every time one sinned might heighten mankind’s conviction and turn him from it. But apparently that didn’t work – the history in the Bible documents that.

So, as with the creation, as with the entire Israelite generation that wandered to their deaths in the wilderness led by a pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day and the new generation who knew nothing of Egypt’s bondage and who strayed nonetheless – He led. As with the victories and the prophesies all promised and fulfilled despite our lack of faith; God went before us, once again, once and for all, as the last blood sacrifice – sparing the animals and the birds and most importantly us. Sparing us so we might have fellowship with Him and acknowledge His glory. The worse we behaved the more graciously He endured His beloved creation and He always led. He always leads. He must lead.

"And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” ~ Deuteronomy 31:8

Seeing those doves not as food and not as an offering is seeing those doves as God created them and intended us to see them – innocent, dependent, beautiful, wonderfully made, loved.

God – go before us. Go before me.

"I will go before you
and make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
and cut the bars of iron."

Isaiah 45:2

Blessings,

Bill