Behold is in at least one translation of the Bible 1,069 times. It is one of those words that is a way of saying, “ look over here! Pay attention!” Two days in a row the Lord has placed the word BEHOLD loudly and abruptly in my mind.
Yesterday, I was in a prayer meeting when the Lord got my attention with BEHOLD! What I heard was so pronounced in my spirit that it almost made me sit up straight. It was followed with Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” As I thought about that, he led me to chapter 44. “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. . . Fear not, nor be afraid;. . . Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” V6,8
The second time was this morning, as I was trying to get back to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I heard it again. BEHOLD! That did not exactly relax me or put me back to sleep. I felt the need to pay attention. This time what followed was ““Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
I lay there awake, meditating on the Lamb of God for a while, when I remembered yesterday morning’s “behold”. What pulled my attention this time was the preceding verse 18. In the translation I know best it says, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” I love that verse, because I do not want to be stuck in the past. I want to go forward.
To fill in my understanding I looked these verses up in another translation. Behold is replaced by “see” and I love how looking forward is captured in this: “But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Is. 43:18-19 NLT
I suspect we can all agree that we live in peculiar times. Tension, and anticipation abound. The undercurrents of fear and frustration are thick. I Thank God for the “beholds” this week. Our Creator is God and there is no other. We are invited to pay attention to what is going on around us spiritually. It helps to step back and above the fear and tension to ask the Lord: what is going on? And even if silence appears to be the response, the truth is, there is no other God. Our Lord is our rock and our Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Therefore, we can trust, and not be afraid.
Abba, I need your help to move beyond the tension, anticipation, fear, and frustration that tries to swallow me whole. I desire to stay focused on You, the one and only immoveable, unchangeable assurance I have. Thank you for your abundant kindnesses to me. Help me focus on those, so I may pass them along to others. Amen
