Saturday, January 6, 2018

Just a Groan Will Reach God's Throne: Hezekiah and the New Covenant

"And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore." (Isaiah 38:3)

I wanted to share something else about the above verse.

After Hezekiah attests to his heart of peace, he "wept sore." In the original Hebrew, he "cried crying", or "cried cried." It's the intensive, superlative for crying.

He had immense pain, and released all to God, not holding back.

God is not angry or upset when we cry out to Him.

All it takes is our groans to reach God's throne:

"And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." (Exodus 2:24)

The Septuagint reading of the above passage provides the word "groan", and it also means "speaking in tongues":

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26)

Whether we cry out to God in our pain, or whether we pray in the Spirit, we can trust that God is hearing us.

He will remember the New Covenant which He cut for us through His on Jesus:

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

In our times of great pain, remember to rest in a peaceful heart, cry out to God, and He will heart you!

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