Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

A BATH

August 4, 2010

When I went to elementary school a lifetime ago, at the end of the day, the teacher would ask one of the boys to wash the blackboards. We'd get a little pail of water, and a sponge, and wipe the blackboards of all the chalk dust so they'd be clean for tomorrow. We gave them a bath.

Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there.
- Numbers 19:18 TNIV

 "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7) When King David was confronted by his pastor, Nathan, regarding his adultery and murder, David knew he was dirty, guilty, a sinner. Yet he hoped for God's forgiveness, and he prayed the famous Psalm 51. The truth of his sin led David to repentance; he knew he needed a bath. Being a faithful person of God, he remembered the cleansing ritual of Numbers 19. "I need to be washed with hyssop. I need a bath."

The good news for us all begins with the bad news that we all need a bath. Yet the good news triumphs--the finished work of Christ has washed us whiter than snow. Rejoice, in Christ, we are forgiven!
Joyfully,
Dale Patterson