Saturday, November 5, 2016

"And Thy footprints may not be known" (Ps. 77:19 NAS)

When your heart is heavy with the footprints of your past, be encouraged that those steps do not have to define who you are. God can literally "cut a new path," into the waters of your "Red Sea" that can transform your identity as you embrace His gospel. (1 Cor 10:2 allegorically relates baptism to the parting of the Red Sea). 

God sent His Son as a man so He could set His "heel"  עָקֵבÁ(aqib)  into the soil of humanity in order to join us in our journey towards death so that we might be able to choose life. The above Hebrew word is translated both as "heel"  in Gen 3:15, and "footprint" in Ps 77:19. It is in this context of our sinful humanity it was prophesied that Jesus' heel would be struck by the serpent  as He crushed the serpent's head (Gen 3:15 NIV).  When we choose to set our heel behind His footsteps, we will be lead to share in His death and resurrection that will bring us to a position to live in His Eternal presence (2 Cor. 5:21). It is in this shared experience, that through His wounds... His death... we are healed and set free (Is 53:5, 2 Cor 3:17). We are set free to walk with Him and in so doing, we enter His presence. (Not that he is not all-present in space and time, but there is a relational presence that enables a shared fellowship or a sense of intimacy or closeness that transforms our heart. Theologically we call this process sanctification, which is simply the process of becoming holy or of spiritual transformation). 

So the next time you feel distant from God, remember that He may not leave many footprints in the sand. Rather, look for Him in the results of His work on the cross, which attest to His active presence in the lives of those who have set their "heel" in His death and resurrection (Gal 2:20), and if you cannot see Him,  follow others who can, they will lead you to Him. Jesus himself said that when we set our heel towards making disciples and teaching others to follow us in our obedience to Him, that He will be there with us (Mt 28:20)! 

Below is an Abridged insight from Keil and Delitzch OT commentary on Psalm 77:19
"Amidst such commotions in nature above and below Yahweh strode along through the sea, and made a passage for His redeemed. His person and His working were invisible, but the result which attested His active presence was visible. He took His way through the sea, and cut His path through the great waters (or according to Habakkuk, cause His horses to go through), without the footprints of Him who passes and passed through being left behind to show it." (Emphasis and abridgment mine). 

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