Jars
Today I am thinking about jars. I know what you are thinking, “Steve you are just too weird!” Of course you are right, but hang in there with me. In Judges 6:34 it says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. The literal translation of “came upon” is that the Spirit clothed himself with Gideon. In other words Gideon was inhabited by the Spirit of God. That definitely does not mean that Gideon was simply a suit of clothes for God and therefore he was no longer a free agent. The proof of Gideon’s separateness is seen shortly thereafter when Gideon questions God about Him being with Gideon at all. Most of you will recall that Gideon “tested” God’s involvement with a wool fleece that Gideon put out at night. First the fleece was to be wet in the morning and the next day the fleece was to be dry to “prove” God. Even though the Spirit of God was living inside of Gideon, Gideon was no puppet and he had all of his own doubts and fears. Sound familiar so far?
What I had not noticed before when reading the book of Judges and the story of Gideon defeating of the vast army of the enemies of Israel with a mere 300 men, was the jars. As a part of the plan Gideon had all 300 men put their lit torches in jars so that the fire could not be seen until the time of the battle. Like the fire of the Holy Spirit in Gideon the torch was there present in the jar but the light was not visible. This made me think of the words of Jesus in Luke 8:16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar.” And in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, “we have this treasure [which Paul alternatively describes as; The Light of the Gospel, the Spirit of God and the Light of the Glory of God] in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. I recognize that I am definitely the clay jar in this analogy.
When Gideon wanted the fire to shine out into the night to help defeat the Lord’s enemies he broke the jars. Notice that instead of just pulling the torches out of the jars Gideon showed the men that they should instead break the jars. Sound overly forceful? Well Jesus said “…the kingdom of heaven has been forcibly advancing and forceful men lay ahold of it.” Mt 11:12b. I am not sure that I ever understood that verse in Matthew before, but now I am thinking that the verse is about my volitional and forceful dying to self. My personal clay walls, with the ever present help of the Holy Spirit, must be broken off with forceful self determination. I must do it for the sake of the light of God that is in me, that it might show through my life.
I know this is a process and I am to this day, way too much clay and not near enough light. But isn’t that true of many of us? We take the Holy Spirit into ourselves with great ceremony and then proceed over time to actually thicken our clay walls. In the face of the bothersome leading of the Spirit we seal up our cracks and crevices lest we be forced to look at the battle we should be winning. All the while, at the cost of the light, we spend our time decorating our jars with pretty paint and maybe a “Jesus Saves” bumper sticker on the side.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine de Saint Exupéry …
The summer of 2010 I had the personal revelation that I had never wholly let the Spirit of God in me shine out and direct my life. In repentance I asked the Lord where I should be rather than where my plans would take him, and He said to me, “Go to Africa.” I have to tell you that Africa is a place I said I never wanted to go, but I guess it is time to break open my jar.
How about your jar? Do you dare to let Him shine? Will you, like Gideon be willing to do His impossible feats of daring? Will you decide to forget about yourself and run into the battle holding up only His torch?