Writings by Barri Cae MallinSuperglueTuesday 25 November 2003 - 14:52:27"The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Ps 34:18 A few years ago, a young boy was at a sleep-over at his friend's home. That evening, the electricity went out, and the family resorted to using candles to light the home. As young boys do, they stayed up late, had fun, and completely forgot about extinguishing the candles. That was their last night together here on earth. The visiting boy died in the housefire. World-wide prayers and laments went up to God, for Him to remedy this situation. A tragedy. Then the young boy's mother experienced another death in her family. Soon afterwards, I learned that she had been having heart problems, and it was as if she was suffering a broken heart. Grief, loss, tragedy, 'suddenly's', death, sorrow - all can cause what the Bible calls brokenheartedness - in Hebrew - neesh-b-ray lave. The Hebrew word for broken is Shabar (shah-bar) and it can include meanings as break, destroy, break in pieces, break down, hurt, torn, rupture, crush etc. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted (neesh-b-ray lave) and saves those who are crushed in spirit - Ps 34:18. What is interesting in this is the tense used, in Hebrew is the Niphal tense, which is the passive tense. Passive describes action that is done to the subject (active means the subject is doing the action). All of us have had our hearts broken by others - a child away from the LORD, away from parents a mate's unfaithfulness being left at the altar parents who shirked responsibility to raise you being passed over for a job promotion being fired from a job Mephibosheth was the child of Jonathan (2 Samuel 4:4). At age 5, his nurse dropped him and he was lame in both feet. Yet in David's kindness of his friend Jonathan, he helped restore to Mephibosheth all the land of his grandfather Saul, and he ate regularly at the king's table. All that Job had was taken away from him in one day, "yet through all this, Job did not sin nor did he blame God." Job 1:22. And in His faithfulness, the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning Job 42:12. God never despises broken hearts, as He has endless chesed (lovingkindness) and rachameem (mercies) for all who are crushed to pieces by satan's powers. In the 1950's, a unique product was invented - cyanoacrylate, first known as liquid locknut, now better known as Superglue. It first captured public attention when I 1958, on television, one drop was used to lift a man up off the floor. Superglue is now used in machinery, the NASCAR race circuit, the Space Shuttle, even a tortoise who fell two stories had his shell glued back together with Superglue. Now, it is even used for post-operative incisions. Yeshua Jesus is the Supreme Superglue in all of life's brokenness. He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds (Ps 147:3) You need reconciling with a family member? Healing from the past? Strength for today? Desperate for help? Trust in the LORD with all your heart Trust in Hebrew is batach (bah-tach) which means to attach oneself, cling to, rely on in the LORD with all your heart all is the word kol in Hebrew, which is all, every, the whole megillah, everything. We all have a lot to trust God to do in our lives. Rather than talking to God about how big the mountain is, why not just tell the mountain how big your God is? B'tach El Adonai b'khol Le'bekha Trust in the LORD with all your heart Proverbs 3:5 |
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Copyright © Barri Cae Mallin. |
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