In his writing, the prophet Isaiah alternates between warnings of the coming judgments of Israel for their sin followed by promises of the Lord ’s restoration of the nation. Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity . . . Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire (Isa 1:4, 7). Among the many promises, Isaiah prophesied what Messiah would do for the nation. He will bind up the brokenhearted, comfort all who mourn and give them a garland instead of ashes, etc. (Isa 61:1-3). Jesus quoted the first two verses at the beginning of His ministry declaring His purpose. These directly address Israel, but also proclaim what He can do for believers today. This lesson will focus on the phrase a garland instead of ashes (NASV). Other versions offer various translations: giving them a turban, instead of ashes (NET); bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes (NIV); give them beauty for ashes (NKJV); give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes (MSG).
Ashes had a significant meaning to the Jews. Putting ashes on one’s head or sitting in ashes was a symbol of grief, mourning, humiliation, or penitence. Job took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes (Job 2:8). Because of coming judgment, Jeremiah wrote, O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth And roll in ashes (6:26). Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes (Jonah 3:6). Peter used ashes to symbolize the results of God’s judgment. He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes (2 Pet 2:6).
Today the dictionary defines ashes as the powdery residue left after the burning of a substance or the remains after destruction. Although less symbolic compared to biblical use, we still use it in figurative applications: rising from the ashes, the ashes of love, or the ashes of your innocence. While writing this, I keep thinking about the Great Smoky Mountains wildfire in 2016, a place I’ve visited my entire life. The fire left two thousands buildings including homes damaged or destroyed. People returned only to find piles of ashes where their homes and belongings stood only a few days prior. Some victims expressed joy for being alive and said, “We can replace all that.” Others cried over the devastation, “I don’t know what we’ll do”, and some had given up declaring they would relocate. Apply this figuratively to people’s spiritual destruction when all that’s left of their life is a pile of ashes. I’ve recently ministered to a well-educated man in his late fifties who had been a successful investment broker on Wall Street. He owned a beautiful home and had a loving family. He came to a local drug recovery facility in our state with only a pile of ashes.
Ashes are the remains of something that used to be. Every resemblance of what it had been is gone, even a person’s DNA. No known way exists to restore it to its original state. But God offers an exchange program. You give Him your ashes and He will give you a crown of beauty, a garland, or bouquets of roses. Job cried out, I am reduced to dust and ashes (Job 30:10 NIV). God took his ashes. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job . . . and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning (Job 42:10, 12).
This lesson is not just for those who haven’t received Christ as their Savior. Living in this sinful world can sometimes leave faithful believers in devastated situations. Christians can also drift or fall away from God and find their lives again reduced to a pile of ashes. Everyone whose life has turned into an ash pile, regardless of how they got there, have a choice. Non-believers can repent, receive Christ, and watch God turn their ashes of sin into a well-watered garden. Believers who have drifted or fallen away can return to the Father with their ashes and exchange them for a new life. Yet, some will stay in their ashes, convinced no hope exists. However, those who find themselves standing in ashes can be like the wild fire victims who were thankful they were still alive, exchange their ashes for a beautiful crown, and watch God make their latter days more blessed than the beginning.
Israel fell far, far away from the Lord God. But no sin is beyond His forgiveness, no wound so great He cannot heal, or no place that His grace cannot reach. Isaiah gave this promise. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing (Isa 51:3 NIV). If He can do this for an entire nation, how much more can He do this for anyone left with only a pile of ashes?
Sustaining Word for the Week: If you are standing in the ashes of your life, but you are alive—you have hope.