Ash

In Genesis 3:19 the Lord God says, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." You see back in Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."


The Lord God personally created Adam out of dust and he reminds him that although he personally created out of the dust of the ground, he is mortal and will return back to being dust. I picture the proverbial Mom warning her child with "I brought you into this world, I will take you out." with no intention of actually doing so.

Ash Wednesday is a special day that marks the beginning of Lent. Why Ashes? For one, the marks on our forehead with a cross is to physically remind us that we have been called by God and to repent and humble ourselves before a Holy God. Repeatedly throughout the Bible are references to ashes and sackcloth to humble oneself to God.

When speaking with the Lord, Abraham reminded him he was nothing but dust and ashes. "Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” Genesis 18:27-28 And because he humbled himself, the Lord granted Abraham's desire.

In Esther 4:1-4, Mordecai and all the Jews "put on sackcloth with ashes" and grieved. They cried out to the Lord and the Lord delivered the Jews from the hands of a man who King Xeres put in charge and this man's whole drive in life was to crush the Jews out of existence. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He hears our cries.

Job, when speaking to his friends and family when he became afflicted reminded them in 13:12 "Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay." And then when Job speaks to the Lord directly in 42:6, Job again humbles himself to the Lord: "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

In Daniel 9:3, Daniel prayed "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes".

Jesus gives this stern warning to the unrepentant in both Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes."

Finally, in 2 Peter 2:6 another warning is given to these that remain unrepentant and do not humble themselves to the Lord, "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly"

This Ash Wednesday, more than giving up something, I pray that you give into the Lord, humbling yourself before him by repenting and relinquishing your ungodly ways, seeking the Lord's strength to overcome that which has an ungodly hold upon you through this Lenten season.