An Outfit this morning

II Kings 22: 14-20


The Bible just pops off the page sometimes. It did this morning as I sat overlooking the lake with coffee near and music on. It is like the veil between this life and that one is breached for a moment as the sounds ring, the trees sway, and the Word moves in power. It is a sweet powerful living book that stuns me with phrases, people, and predictions. It takes me out of this life and into the One that I was born to know fully. This morning I read of a woman I did not know previously. The scripture teems inside with new nuggets and characters just like this lake teems with so much underneath. As this earthly wind blows over me it is a picture of His breath through the Word blowing into me.

Huldah was her name. She was a prophetess and a wife. Powerful combination! Even more is that she was the wife of, believe it or not, the “wardrobe keeper for the king”. Seriously!? She was married to a man who had the eye for fashion over the royalty of the kingdom. Oh for that title in the line up of “king’s men”. Not only was she probably dressed to the nines with a keen eye but also that of a keen heart. She was a prophetess of God. Separated and sold out to the King of Israel! Men sought her out to hear her impression not her opinions. An impression is so different than an opinion. Often we all give opinions but rarely do we offer impressions. One who kneels before the Lord is given a keen sense of His opinion into the situation. As we lean into Christ, an impression can be His opinion into the situation. His opinion is all I want to hear and follow.

God had given a harsh dictation to the people of Judah in this passage and some had hardened their hearts because of it. Has God ever spoken a harsh word, direction, or truth to you? Oh He has to me, many a time. What posture does our heart turn to when the King speaks this way? Do we forsake and fret or do we believe and lean in still?

Some of the men as listed in the passage turned their hearts away from the Lord and provoked Him even more. Others were in the habit of bowing low with tender hearts to the God of “harsh words”. Though the word spoken was hard to palate they had nowhere else to turn but into the One who spoke. The one who fell into the Lord after this word was the king of Judah by sending these men out to listen to Huldah, the woman of God. Oh to be such a leader when a harsh direction or prediction of God is made that I look up and into Him regardless!

She told them that because they had turned towards the Lord with a tender humbled heart that He would truly hear them. What a thought? God truly hears and moves when we are broken and contrite with tenderness before Him. Lord, when You say something harsh, let me still, in humility, turn my heart towards you with tenderness just like they did. You ride in on the desperate cries of your people Lord! Awesome promise and posture. That is the best wardrobe to wear, a desperate bent heart towards the Living Lord Jesus.