Once Broken, Now Beautiful * Dutch Sheets * GiveHIM15 * 12/19/2023

[ronscarpa]

• • 6 min read        https://www.givehim15.com/post/december-19-2023

December 19, 2023

Once Broken, Now Beautiful

 

  

Our Review

 

Proverbs 13:12 (NASB): “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

 

 

A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. Knowing this, God sculpted and shaped a vivid picture of failure, loss, heartbreak, disappointment, etc., in the form of a mountain - Horeb. The very name means "desolation, a waste place, barrenness, dryness" - all, not coincidentally, are also results of unchecked hope deferred. Then He placed Moses, whose life now pictured all of the above, on this mountain to live out his hope-deferred years. Or so it seemed.

 

 

Moses worked and lived on and around Horeb during his forty-year exile, tending sheep and shoveling dung, instead of bathing in royal hot tubs (Exodus 3:1). There can be no more severe case of hope-deferred-heart-disease than what Moses experienced, having lost his royal inheritance and his destiny. I realize "it ain't over 'til it's over," but let’s face it, after being dead and buried for forty years, a dream can be considered over.

 

 

Left unchecked, hope deferred produces heart disease, as the opening verse tells us. And just as physical heart disease kills the body, spiritual and emotional heart disease kills the soul. Hope evaporates, faith is lost, we no longer dream, and in many ways, our lives become sterile. We exist, but don’t really live.

 

 

Our faith in God can help us overcome life’s disappointments before they lead to this state. But even if you have already progressed to the level of emotional heart disease, as Moses had, He can heal - and yes, if necessary, even resurrect - your spiritual and emotional heart. Christ, the great heart specialist, actually included this as part of His mission statement: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18 KJV).

 

 

After all those seemingly barren years, Moses discovered that Horeb had become something else. This barren piece of rock that pictured his exile-induced heart disease began morphing into something much different. Could this really be? It could … and it was.

 

 

God began revealing the diamonds he had formed from the coal of Horeb: character, authority, scepters, rivers, even pictures of Christ. When He was finished, it had become a glorious example of conquered hope deferred and healed heart disease. In fact, the transformation of Horeb became so complete for Moses and Israel, its power so harnessed by the hand of God, that this mountain became known as "the mountain of God" (Exodus 3:1) - Sinai!!

 

 

His plans are for your complete victory: "I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope,"' (Jeremiah 29:11 NASB).

 

 

A Holy Place

 

God actually began calling this mountain a holy place, just as the inner sanctum of the Temple would one day be called, and as the presence of the Holy One is always referenced. Why did He do so? Because He had made it His! At Mount Horeb, Moses was told (my translation): “I've been transforming this horrible, dead place, Moses, forming scepters out of tree branches, rocks into rivers, and the greatest leader the world will ever know. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground," (Exodus 3:5).

 

 

Later, the Lord told Moses this mountain - now flashing and shaking from His power - was so infused with His holy presence that if any person or animal touched it, they would have to be destroyed. Not wanting that to occur, He said:

 

 

“You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death…whether beast or man, he shall not live.’” (Exodus 19:12-13)

 

 

The "Horeb-ble" place became the holy place. God had assured Moses that he would come back to this very mountain and worship (Exod. 3:12). Not, "this awful place," not, "You shall come back to this mountain and curse it." No. Horeb was now conquered and transformed. God’s goodness had leeched into it like leaven in flour, overcoming its power of desolation and barrenness. It would now picture the never-ending, ever-increasing Kingdom Daniel saw (Daniel 7:13-14), the leavening Kingdom of God Jesus preached of (Matthew 13:33), and “Kingdom Mountain” spoken of in Hebrews (12:25-29), the one that can never be shaken.

 

 

Yes, God now called it His mountain, “the mountain of God" (1 Kings 19:8). And Moses would indeed lead the entire nation of Israel back to this holy place and worship. Worship aligns us with Him…and His mountain. It enables us to conquer our mountain and bring it under His dominion.

 

 

Beauty Out of Brokenness

 

I know that in the dark night of the soul, hope can seem impossible. But God wins over the impossible. He takes the difficult events that brought about your hope deferred, and through His incredible wisdom and power, makes them produce something good. So good, in fact, that when your memory returns to them later, you’ll worship Him: "God, I don't know how, but in that difficult place, You proved Yourself faithful, bringing me new strength, renewed life, and restored destiny. I worship You."

 

 

Moses must have thought, "For forty years, I thought this place was horrible. Now I realize it is holy." Some of the most dramatic encounters and visitations ever experienced with God occurred on this mountain once called "Desolation."

 

 

God will do this for you. Out of your brokenness, your place of pain, He knows how to bring healing and make your Horeb season a holy place of worship.

 

 

“At the Royal Palace of Tehran, in Iran, you can see one of the most beautiful mosaic works in the world. The ceilings and walls flash like diamonds in multifaceted reflections.

 

 

“Originally, when the palace was designed, the architect specified huge sheets of mirrors on the walls. When the first shipment arrived from Paris, they found - to their horror - that the mirrors were shattered. The contractor threw them in the trash and brought the sad news to the architect.

 

 

“Amazingly, the architect ordered all of the broken pieces collected, then smashed them into tiny pieces and glued them to the walls, creating a mosaic of silvery, shimmering, mirrored bits of glass.

 

 

“Broken… to become beautiful!

 

 

“It's possible to turn your shattered image into a shimmering testimony of beauty. It is possible to be better because of yesterday’s brokenness. It is extremely rare to find in the great museums of the world objects of antiquity that are unbroken. Indeed, some of the most precious items in the world are only broken pieces -  broken, but beautiful.”(1)

 

 

You may feel that your life has been hopelessly destroyed, but God, the great architect of heaven, knows better. He knows He can form the broken pieces of your soul into something exquisitely wonderful. Never underestimate His power to repair and restore. Don't run from Horeb. Stare it in the face and tell it you will win. Tell it your God will prevail, and the two of you will commune together on top of it - not under it.

 

 

Then start hoping. Hope again. Believe again. Dream again. Live again.

 

 

I know you can; I believe you will.

 

 

Pray with me:

 

Father, what a reason for hope You have provided. You gave us Yeshua: the seed of the woman, the crusher of the serpent’s head, the wave over Pharaoh’s army. He’s Horeb’s conqueror, Sinai’s fire, the rock of ages, the river in the desert, and Canaan’s milk and honey. He was the widow’s oil, Elijah’s rain, David’s giant-killing stone, and Isaiah’s Wonderful Counselor. Then He became Lazarus’ resurrection, Bartimaeus’ eyes, the leper’s new skin, and our hope within the veil.

 

When life throws us a curve, You make it straight. When it gives us rain You give us water to drink. And when it brings a storm, You cause us to soar on the wings of the wind. Through Christ, You brought life from death, blessings from the curse, and restored purpose to lost humanity.

 

Bring another wave of the Redeemer’s salvation. Do so here in America and around the world. Do it for young and old, poor and rich, every race and creed. We call forth Your life and power into our world, in Yeshua’s name. Amen.

 

 

 

Our decree:

 

We decree that every Horeb in our lives will be conquered and transformed, serving God’s redemptive purpose.

 

 

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Click on the link below to watch the full video.

 

 

 

 

 

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1. Alice Gray, More Stories for the Heart (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 1997), p. 220.