In 2 Samuel 14:7 we find these words as the Tekoa woman conspires with Joab to convince King David to pardon Absolom, "They want to extinguish the only coal I have left..." The technological conveniences of our modern world eclipse our efforts at understanding the precariousness of life in ancient times. Fire. We push a button, strike a match, flip, pull, point... effortless and on demand. In the ancient world, an ember was saved from the previous fire, especially when traveling, wrapped in husks and green leaves from a plant to protect, to preserve, to perpetuate the very thing that was essential for survival, fire. For sustenance, for heat, for light, for comfort, even for battle...the ember was sacred.
So as the woman from Tekoa draws on this imagery as a metaphor for her only remaining son, King David is deeply moved. He understands. He lives in an era when the concept of scarcity is an ever present reality, unlike the excess of our today.
"Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips...Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged." Isaiah 6:5-7
Jesus is our ember, the fire of forgiveness in the world. On this Good Friday, the day of His atoning death, the day the ember was passed from Heaven to earth, may we not just remember, but ask ourselves if we hold an ember from that fire...and if we do, to whom have we shared such a burning coal, that they too might partake, that they too might join the scores of us who having been "undone" as Isaiah, live purged because of Him, our cherished ember.
Good Friday. The ember Christ created, may we hold it sacred forevermore.
Pastor Fred
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