Ensign: The Book of the Prophetess Sarah

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 4 October 2013

By the time you read this, I'll be back from my first lunch of the year at school with my daughter Sarah. I make it a point to visit them there at least once a semester, and quite a few parents do (and this was a surprise to her today)! Though for a seven-year-old she is remarkably perceptive – though I did have to define infinitely for her when I had a mini-rant this morning – and more than once I've been told that God uses her to speak truth and wonder! Makes me wonder too, if she's one of those people that the saints will write about a thousand years from now …

Monday night I had the kids with me and it was raining. I was on my way to the store to pick up some groceries and there was a man whose car wasn't starting as I was about to make a turn. Normally I don't stop for people when I have others in the car with me, but I wanted to model how Sarah and Jeffrey should behave toward others when they need help – I do, but not nearly enough – so I stopped and asked him if he needed help getting his car going. (And with me not knowing a great deal about cars!) No, he said, but could I give him a lift to his grandparents' (?) house just out of town. I agreed to, and the kids were silent the whole trip.

After we left Sarah chimed in, “That man made the car smell nice.” I told that story to a friend of mine and she replied … roughly in the words of the title today! And that has stuck with me all week, for I want to do the same thing. And all the deodorant in the world won't help me do that! I don't know if there was anything supernatural about this young man we drove to his destination, nor do I expect I will know this side of heaven, but I know that we are better at looking for a reward for doing good than we are at just … doing it.

 

I was thinking about Sarah's comment and something I had done the following day made me comment out of hearing, because I felt so bad afterward, that I want to smell nice too. And that brought to mind the text of an Ensign I'd written some years ago, tying into our sense of smell. I think it bears repeating:

 

In the Bible, the sense of smell is used to give us a picture we wouldn't get through a literal reading of the text. 2 Corinthians 2:15 remarks, "For we are unto God a sweet savour (i.e. smell) of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:" What pleases God smells sweet to Him just as something pleasant smells sweet to us. Perhaps the most telling picture of that in the New Testament is when Jesus visited the home of Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary after Jesus had raised Lazarus had been raised from the dead. Mary, perhaps this one, broke a pound of spikenard, a type of perfume, and anointed Jesus' feet as a mark of devotion. John 12 where this scene is recorded says "the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." (3)

 

This isn't symbolic. Just as it only took a pound of spikenard broken for its aroma to fill the whole house, it only takes a little effort on our parts to do great things for God. But that little effort costs us, maybe our position in the community, maybe our willingness to "go with the flow", maybe others' approval. This act of Mary's certainly wasn't popular with Judas. After all, he asked why the perfume wasn't sold and the money given to the poor. (6) But he missed the point, just like we do sometimes. Jesus referred to his coming burial (and it follows, his coming death) and that "the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always." (8) Humanly speaking, we cannot with any impact help the poor unless we see Jesus in them -- and to do that, He must be present within us. And as the Comforter Jesus promised to send His disciples at the Passover feast in John 14:16, Jesus abides with us forever if we accept Him and turn from our sin. Of course you can be a "good person" and help the poor, but like any help what we do has to have a goal. What we choose our goal to be makes the difference in how we smell, how we are perceived, to others. Amen.

 

So ends the reading, David

 

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager too! If you find that I’m not or you want me to get lost, just let me know, thank you!

We praise You, Lord, for this beautiful day You have given us! Please pray with me for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and for physical and spiritual communities around our world.

Lord, we need Your strength to fight the natural disasters and human ills to ultimately treat the cause and not just the symptoms; until we who have power change, this world You have made us stewards of won’t either.

Thank You, Lord, for all those in leadership and service here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have been given as well as the promise of new life through Your Son. And may we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.