The Jewish expression of deep remorse was to wear sackcloth and to cover their heads with dust and ashes. This was done after a defeat in battle but also as an outward expression of humility before God. When we sin and after God breaks us over it, our response should be that of humility and unworthiness to even approach God for mercy.
Job is a clear example of this. After dealing with his intense ordeal in which he lost his family and possessions and his closest companions kept berating him for a sin he did not commit, God showed up and didn’t even explain Himself to Job. Instead, God showed His sovereignty over all things; who is Job that God should have to answer to him? Job realized who he was dealing with and said, “I have spoken that which I knew not, therefore I repent in dust and ashes.” Job never sinned with his lips and blamed God for anything, but he had taken an unhealthy position of demanding that God give him an explanation.
Why dust and ashes? That goes back to creation. God made Adam from the dust of the earth, and after Adam sinned, God cursed him to return to the dust from whence he came. Adam did not come from a set of humanoids nor evolved from a common ancestor with apes. He was created from the dust of the earth as a special creation. So the Jews, treating this as a historical event, use dust and ashes as a symbol that, “I am made from dust and I am returning to dust and I am as worthy as dust.” Many ended up treating this as tradition and never really grasped the true meaning of it, but that is where it came from.
Dust, as we know, is the tiniest piece of dirt easily picked up by the wind. It is the most broken-down part of the dirt. Without gluing agents like water, it comes and goes with a mere breath. Ashes, as we know, are the remnants of anything that a fire has consumed. Like dust, ash blows away with the wind and is gone. This is also the imagery used to describe the brevity of life here on earth. Just a few decades and we are gone. When we are compared to dust, we are to realize that our lives are short, and we will come and go while the world goes on as though we were never there.
Isaiah takes a slightly different approach but uses the same idea. After pronouncing judgment upon Judah and other nations for their sins, Isaiah got a glimpse of the throne of Heaven. Just that one glimpse and Isaiah shrieked, “Woe is me! I am undone!” This could also be translated as saying, “I am disintegrated. I am dust. I am obliterated.” Isaiah realized that despite being God’s prophet, he was still in need of a Savior; if put in the presence of God, he’d be annihilated. When I’ve written about the holiness of God, I’ve made a point that God cannot let us be in His presence because He will simply destroy us merely with His presence as ice being near a fire melts immediately. We have to recognize that we truly are nothing and worth nothing when next to God. Yes, God loves us and yes, God treasures us, but we have no intrinsic value. Our value only comes from God choosing to love us.
When we sin, we, who are worthless as dust, turn against God. When we sin, we are demanding that our voice and our opinions be heard and that we get to decide what we think is right or wrong. But that is not our decision to make. That is God’s decision. That is why God has to break us, to put us back in our place and show us that we truly are just dust and ashes. Yet, despite that, God chose us. We must remember that when God breaks us, it is always for our benefit, because God had to get to the sin without destroying us. While it will leave us with scars, let us not forget that God is the master surgeon, too. He will break us and then restore us, and our restored state will be better than our first state.
However, there are people who will do anything they can to avoid brokenness before God and repenting in dust and ashes. Brokenness is painful, and we don’t want to go through it. So instead of dealing with the issue, we just mask it up. Instead of coming to the true Doctor, we just “tough it out.” If you haven’t noticed in this series, for every action that God does and calls us to do, there is always a counterfeit. Why does God have to break us? Because the sin in our lives is literally killing us, and God needs to do invasive surgery. But what does sinful man want? Sinful man is in such rebellion and enmity against God that even though we KNOW that what God says truly is best for us, we fight against it just because God said it. Ever notice how so many people have no problems with just about any idea presented in the Bible, as long as it is not the Bible saying it? So, when the Bible says that we need to be broken and mourn over our sin in dust and ashes, man will refuse to do that. But if an AA club says to do it, if a politician says to do it, or if the woke culture says to do it, it’s not a problem.
Instead of recognizing our brokenness and coming before God as though we are nothing but dust or ashes, sinful man will deal with the rock bottom shame of sin by seeking comfort, ease, and anything to dull or take the pain away. Some turn to drugs or alcohol. Some turn to sex or food. Others turn to motivational speakers or psychologists. Anything and everything except bowing the knee to Christ and confessing their sin before Him.
All of this ties into the next step in the proper response to sin: confession of sin, which we’ll look at next week.
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