...you shall say, The Lord has need of then; and immediately he will send them.
Matthew 21:3

Tell them, "The Lord has need of them...." It has amazed me to see how the Lord, CREATOR of the UNIVERSE, has tied Himself to need His willful creation.
"The Lord has need of them." He doesn't harden His heart or protect Himself from our rejection. He baldly exposes His heart to need us.

Oh, it touches me so that He has need of us! The creator of the universe confines Himself to my fulfilling a need in His life. Why would He do that? Because that is the humility of our God. It is beyond Love. More than amazing, it is staggering! That a God with all power, all might, and all knowing would surrender His own fulfillment into the hands of errant children, those that He has created, formed and fashioned. That the Inventor puts Himself at risk to the thing He invented!

It's His vulnerability in His sovereignty. He's completely vulnerable in His heart but absolutely sovereign over the entire situation. He knows the outcome. He knows your final choice. He still splays His heart without any alternative that protects Him from our breaking his heart, willfully choosing against His fulfillment and choosing our own. Choosing my self-absorbed kingdom over His reign. It's so amazing that He would do it.

I don't know why the God of the universe would subject Himself to my choice. He lays in my hands and underneath my will, the key that opens the door to His own fulfillment. Within my mind, will and emotion, like a treasure chest locked, the Lord deposits His throbbing need in my spirit, need of all that would satisfy His yearning heart. What is in the treasure chest is HIS heart's desire but it is not static. It is not a thing, a project. It may possess properties that are material but that material thing is not the end, only the means to the end: His fulfillment in the birth of what He desires. What Jesus wants overflows with the passion, all the exuberance, the raw wrenching need of His desire and hunger, the whole thing. And that holy desire is charged, full of energy, not a need He is dispassionate about. Not something He is disconnected from. His need radiates with the passion from His heart.

We are capable of sending our desires off and detach ourselves from them to protect ourselves, from being disappointed, rather than embracing them with the hope and the exuberance and joy of possible fulfillment. We detach ourselves and send our desires away like an unwanted child. But Jesus embraces fully with bare breasted passion, the desires of His own heart. He gives you the control and gives you the power. You have in your hands the power to leave Him wanting or to meet His desire. How can He be that open handed with something that is so close to His heart's fire?

That deposit in us brings forth His kingdom. And He does not exert force on us to unlock and give what He needs. He sovereignly leaves it to our choice, knowing that He could go lacking, knowing full well we're free to say NO.

If we humanly were in the same position, we would probably prop up our own fulfillment through manipulation and by soulish exertion of force, though demands or threats. Any treasure that was that precious to us we would cater its fulfillment, its completion not trusting anyone to be holder of the key. Absolutely not releasing the key. I might as well use you as a puppet on a string, dictating each of your moves to make my treasure come forth. God cuts the string and lets it totally go, knowing that some are not going to choose Him. Instead of exerting force on us, He would rather go lacking Himself. He is so unlike us. He makes Himself fair game for our rejection. At any moment He could call forth legions of angels to force our hand. He could command the earth to open up and swallow all the distractions and hindrances to His fulfillment. With one whiff of His force, kings would bow, armies would crumble but He chooses not to exert that force.

Gently, He hands the key and the choice to His children and simply says,

    "I have need of them..." 

 Copyright ©  John Enslow