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He Remembers We Are But Flesh

In Job, often considered the first book written in the Bible, we are introduced to the accuser. In the introduction to the book, it is the accuser who accuses Job of being righteous and faithful to God only because of the blessings that God has given Job. We find the accuser again in Zechariah 3. The High Priest Joshua is standing in front of the Lord in filthy clothes, and the accuser is making accusations. The Lord rebukes the accuser and then says that he will cleanse Joshua. 

Then in the New Testament, we see the appearance of the Advocate. The Spirit, we are told, is sent to walk beside us, to be a witness, to be an advocate for us. The accuser challenges us, questions our faithfulness, and questions our integrity as people who are supposed to follow God as His people, His disciples. This is an entre for being blamed and shamed. But God comes alongside us and advocates for us. We are told too that Jesus is our mediator with God. Jesus defends us and explains us to God so that we are granted mercy out of the graciousness of God. 


We have another hint of the goodness and grace of God in the Psalms. In the 78th Psalm, we are presented with a rehearsal of how bad un-Godlike Israel has been. In the middle of this litany, we read this phrase: "He remembered they were but flesh." The God of the universe, the Creator of all that is, He who could wipe out all of creation in a moment and then create it all over again. This God who is rehearsing His frustration with Israel stops and seemingly takes a breath, remembering that they are but flesh. They're just humans, creatures He has made. In this phrase we see an attitude of advocacy. The Father becomes our advocate with Himself.


And so we find one accuser, but each member of the Godhead—and them all together—is our advocate. The accuser is hoping we fall, hoping we fail, hoping that instead of blessing, God delivers wrath on us. He does this—now get this—to shame God. The accuser tells God that the only reason Job is faithful is because God pays him to be. Can you see the attempt at shame here?


The accuser wants us to give up, and he uses shame to achieve our defeat. Shame for God and shame for us in our mercenary and unstable faithfulness. But God remembers that we are but flesh.


In discussing the double sacrifice on Yom Kippur, Jonathan Sacks makes this observation: One sheep is sacrificed to atone for guilt. Guilt, Sacks says, must be atoned, and so the sheep is killed. The second sheep is not killed outright. Instead, the high priest puts the sin of the people on the sheep's head and sends the sheep outside the camp. The application Sacks makes at this point is this second sheep, which is a cleansing. The first sheep is an atonement for guilt. The second is a cleansing of shame. When we are guilty of something, we can't change the guilt, and so it must be atoned. Shame, though, is something assigned to us either by others or ourselves. Our guilt is part of us; our shame is not. Shame is like dirt or a stain or a sticky mess that weighs us down, makes our legs and feet drag, and makes us avoid others' eyes. This stain, this shame, is cleansed from the people so they can be lifted up—He lifts our face and tells us to look into His. God takes our shame from us so that we can fully live into the life he offers us.


When we are told that the blood of Jesus cleanses us, it means that our shame is taken from us. Yes, His death atones our guilt. But His blood cleanses us white as snow as it removes our shame as He turns His face toward ours as He lifts our eyes to see Him. He is not ashamed to look at us, to see us as we are, and He invites us to let the shame that is no longer there drop away from us. We can approach God with full faces as His beloved children. We don't need to worry about what the accuser says about us because the entire Godhead advocates for us, takes us by the hand, and lifts our face toward their own.


Rest in peace that both your guilt and your shame have been removed, and God is pleased to look into your face and draw you close.

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