As a classroom teacher, I'm able to sit at our Thankful table and sometimes spend as much as four hours a day in Bible study during the summer months. It's the refreshing my mind needs as I prepare to teach a rigorous Bible curriculum in the following 10 months. And because I spend this much time in God's word, I read so many stories-Old and New Testament-and desperately try to process all of their application. This morning, three of those stories came together in such a unique way. Let me share:
Lately, I've been drawn to the very shape of the cross. God took a tree and placed His Son upon it, with outstretched arms that invited the world inside. And seeing that cross reminds me that I am to open my arms to the world in the very same way today.
In the Book of Exodus, Moses saw a tree burning and not consumed, and he wanted to examine the marvelous sight; why the bush was not burned up. But God stopped him from coming near, until he would remove the dirt. Interesting.
Then I read the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19, and I see a man who also wanted to see something; a man called Jesus. This short man ran ahead of a crowd and climbed into a tree just to get a view of this marvelous sight. And the Son of Man looked at Zaccheus, the tree-climber, and said, "Today salvation comes to you".
Both of these men wanted to see, but one had to remove, and the other was moved towards. Why the difference? I mean, why was Moses stopped but Zaccheus wasn't? Maybe, the answer lies in the pursuit. Moses seemed to draw near in pursuit of something he saw as phenomenal (a bush that burned without its consumption), and not necessarily in pursuit of God. In contrast, Zaccheus drew near with one purpose in mind: he wanted to see who Jesus was.
Later in Exodus (chapter 33), Moses would ask to see God's glory and to know His ways, and over time, God would show him. But Zaccheus seems to have seen all of it in one day-the day of his salvation-and the seeing changed him instantly. His response was: I will give! He didn't ask Jesus for anything. Instead, he just opened his arms up to the world in a promise to give half of all he owned to the poor, because that's what he had learned to do when he chose to draw near and look at Jesus. Zaccheus didn't know about the tree that would one day consume this man, but he saw a Savior with outstretched arms moving towards the house of a sinner. And there's no verse that says that Jesus had to tell Zaccheus to remove something that day, because when Jesus looked into those trees He found someone who was searching for the sight of the same Glory Moses had longed for; the sandals of his heart already removed.
According to text, salvation came to both of these men, but it had nothing to do with their removal of dirt or the amount they gave. Salvation came because one man removed His sandals and opened His arms on a tree so that He could step into every heart and house that would long to see His glory and know His ways.
All these thoughts come together in this final conclusion: the God who made the trees and walked among them searching for the first sinful man, invites me to open my arms in the same way to the world He loves today. Like Moses, I, too, want to see His glory; I too want to know His ways. And like Zaccheus, I want to give what I have to the poor and the hurting. So I choose to open my arms the same way He did all those years before, and I step onto the ground I know is holy for only one reason: a Savior with outstretched arms now lives within my house.
