Be Afflicted.

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Submit…  to GOD.

Resist…  the DEVIL.

Draw nigh… to GOD.

Cleanse… your hands.

Purify… your hearts.

Be… afflicted.

Mourn.

Weep.

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

HE- the LORD- will lift us up!

What do we think about affliction, mourning, weeping?  These are all very negative things, right? We shun affliction at all costs and weeping is a sign of something being wrong so the patent response to weeping is 'Please, don't cry. It will be all right. Don't cry.'  We want the crying to stop because crying means there is something wrong, something making you cry. Mourning? We say, sure mourn as you need to, but we then offer drugs and therapy to help stop the mourning.  Why are we told TO mourn, to weep, to be afflicted?  Where is the benefit from such things?  When we are told to let our laughter turn to mourning and our joy to heaviness this does NOT sound like a prescription for the calm, peaceful state we imagine we should be in as Christians.

The truth is… well, the truth is this…

When the people of God were readying themselves for their yearly day of atonement, the were to do this--

Lev_16:29  And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls…

YE SHALL AFFLICT YOUR SOULS.

We know the sacrificial system was done away with at the cross, but we also know the sacrificial system was an example. The lamb was symbolic for the sacrifice of Christ in every sacrifice for sin. The whole ritual process was for a purpose.  What did the afflicting of their souls represent?  They wanted to be a part of the day of atonement because they wanted that atonement.  They wanted all their sins that had been accumulated over the course of the year, washed with the blood of the sacrifices over the altar, staining the sanctuary, to be cleansed completely- gone forever. They knew how important it was for their sins to be cleanses away, they couldn't be pure if they weren't cleansed, they couldn't be God's. This ceremony was one of cleansing, a dual atonement. This ceremony was the most sacred of all the Jewish holy days for a reason. 

The final cleansing of ALL sin is going to take place BEFORE our Savior returns is there any wonder why need to do be afflicted?

I'm NOT talking about going about moaning and groaning, oh, woe is me and the world is ending moan, moan, moan. I'm talking about a heart affliction, the deep sense of sin in ourselves and the world. A deep sense of our unworthiness, of our need to be saved because we CANNOT save ourselves!  We can recognize our need for a Savior, but we cannot save ourselves, it's impossible to do anything other than submit to the ONE who can save us.  If that is saving ourselves, then that is what is necessary- submission, realization of our need of saving.

We must mourn, we must weep, we must be afflicted because we know the horrors of sin and the cost of sin.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever! 

AMEN.