By Ife J. Ibitayo
For Part 1, “Exile Mentality”, click here.
I’m still a young man, yet I’m already haunted by some of my past mistakes. I was a horrible roommate back in college. I’ve had so many snafus with my little brother that it’s a wonder he still (sort of) likes me. And I’ve failed as a leader so many times that I’ve lost count. But while I was mulling over my mistakes, a little-known story from the Bible came to my mind.
Terrible Testimony
After the Israelites returned from exile, a prophet named Zechariah began to receive visions from God. In one of these, he saw Joshua, their high priest, standing before the LORD. He was covered with feces, and Satan stood right beside him, prosecuting him in God’s courtroom (Zechariah 3:1).
Just like Satan, our haters cut us down with hurtful words. A father glowers at his son and mutters, “You really are useless.” A coach snipes at one of her bench players, “You’re always going to be sitting there, so why don’t you just quit?” And that’s just the voices without. The voices within tell us far nastier things. Every voice we hear seams to have a worse message than the last.
Transformative Testimony
But there is one voice that has a far better testimony. God verbally backhanded Satan, declaring, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you” (Zechariah 3:2)! God silences all the voices that speak against us because He speaks for us. As Apostle Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31)! If God, the righteous Judge of all creation, doesn’t condemn us even Satan himself can’t!
Secondly, God doesn’t just silence our enemies, He speaks kind words of encouragement over us. Note that God is the “Lord who has chosen Jerusalem.” Just like God chose Jerusalem as His holy city, He’s chosen us too. We are His adopted children (1 John 3:1) and His beloved bride (Revelation 19:7-8). We are His prized possession and the apple of His eye.
And there’s still more. God doesn’t just change what we’re called, He transforms who we are. God told the heavenly beings standing by the excrement-covered high priest, “Take away his filthy garments and clothe him in pure vestments (Zechariah 3:4).” He trades our rags for riches. He grabs us off the bench and thrusts us into the game. He changes our story.
Conclusion
But in spite of our new identity in Christ, we are free to return to our filthy rags. We’re like dogs licking up their own vomit when we torment ourselves with memories of our past mistakes. Just as God cast our sins and mistakes as far away from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), we must fling away the labels that others put on us. We must remember, daily, who God’s called us to be. We must encourage ourselves with the better word God speaks over us: “my friend, my child, my beloved.”
“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
(Romans 8:15-16)