We come now to a very sublime topic. During these 100 days, I’m aiming to give you both milk and meat. Milk, in Scripture, represents the more basic teachings that newer and undeveloped Christians need, and that all Christians need to be reminded of. As we advance in our relationship with God we begin to, just like children growing up, eat solid food. Paul said this to the Corinthian believers:
I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, —1 Corinthians 3:2
I’m going to trust that If you’ve come this far in the 100 Day Pursuit then you are ready for some solid food. I want to talk to you about what the old saints called the “burden of the Lord.” It is a certain touch from God whereby the Lord imparts a measure of His divine compassion to enable us to intercede and to labor to advance the kingdom of God. It is a glimpse of His glory and a glimpse of the condition of things from God’s perspective.
Weeping prophet
So many of the men and women of the Bible had this burden upon them, but perhaps the greatest example was Jeremiah. He has been called the “weeping prophet” because of his extraordinary loving anguish over the sinful condition of God’s people.
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! —Jeremiah 9:1
If you aren’t a person who expresses a lot of emotion, just stay with me. The burden of the Lord is much more than tears. It’s ultimately a way of thinking. It’s having the mind of Christ. It’s thinking and feeling like God does—because God shares His thoughts and feelings with us. It’s really not about the tears. A lot of people cry about a lot of things and it doesn’t make them spiritual.
Ruined
When the burden of the Lord is upon someone—it ruins them for normal living. They can no longer do what others do. They’ve seen something they cannot unsee, and the vision alters them permanently. All the glitter and glamor, material things and money, lose their appeal. They become obsessed, consumed with knowing God and doing His perfect will. They become married to the will of the Father, bound to it, as though they cannot do anything else.
This burden has caused people to “spend themselves and be spent” in service to Christ. The burden has caused many to pledge their heads to heaven in martyrdom. Or be poured out in obscurity on the mission field. Some have sold themselves into slavery to reach others. They’ve prayed with blood, sweat and tears, like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. It has caused some to stand up against entire societies and the powers that be, to expose sin. It has led some to rebuke kings and rulers, knowing it could cost them their lives. I think of Esther who was so burdened that she said, “If I perish, I perish.” She just didn’t care about her life. Doing the will of God was more important to her than staying alive. Paul put it this way—
The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. —Acts 20:23-24
Anything but crazy
This burden of the Lord makes people seem a little crazy, at least relative to “normal” society. The irony is that they are anything but crazy. They are, in fact, seeing reality more clearly than anyone. They are seeing from God’s vantage point. The masses of people around Jeremiah—including the priests—thought Jeremiah was a madman. That he was overreacting to the condition of things. Jeremiah testified—
Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.—Jeremiah 23:9-10
The majority of the people thought God was blessing them. They even had prophets (false prophets) who would “say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you'" (Jer 23). But Jeremiah had the burden of the Lord upon him, and He knew that God was judging His people with fierce judgments. He couldn’t turn this reality off. He saw it, and there was no turning back.
Vision of glory
The burden of the Lord comes from a vision of the glory of God. When people in the Bible beheld the glory of God it wasn’t just a nice little sweet experience chatting with God. They were terrified. Daniel trembled. Isaiah was overwhelmed. Job crumbled in dust and ashes. John fell down as though dead. The result was a deep abiding fear of God. Sometimes we are quick to say, “Oh, but it’s not like … fear fear. It just means reverence.” But listen. It doesn’t. Fear means fear. The holiest people who ever walked the earth had a vision of God that imparted into them a deep dread and trembling at the blinding holiness of the Eternal God.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. —Hebrews 10:31
They also had deep intimacy with God. Yeah, I know, it’s a paradox. Add it to the paradox pile.
Two things
Those who have the burden of the Lord see the hand of God behind present or coming judgments. And they see the condition of people around them—that they aren’t ready! Seeing these two things will undo us.
My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. —Lamentations 2:11
"My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. —Lamentations 3:49-51
Those who have had this burden of the Lord upon them have clearly been used as the Lord’s instruments to impact their generations. They are burning and shining lights. Think of John the Baptist, for example. He appeared as a madman to the masses. He wore camel skins and ate locusts. He lived in the wild and preached with fire. He rebuked the elite religious teachers of his day in front of everyone saying, “Snakes! Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He didn’t exactly fit in well with society. He was beheaded at about 33 years of age. But Jesus said he was the greatest man ever born of a woman. He was the forerunner of the Savior of the world.
Oh for the burden!
I’m convinced that nothing would change the spiritual climate in this generation as much as a fresh breed of men and women who possess the burden of the Lord. It would be better than more concerts, more church plants, more Bible camps, more marketing expertise, more clever ministries and creative presentations of the Gospel. All of that is good, of course, but men and women who have the burden of the Lord turn the world upside down.
There is never a day when the obituary page is blank. People die daily, even in my tiny state of Rhode Island. People who are alive right this moment will be dead tomorrow. Many are not ready. I know it’s not pleasant to think about, but it’s hard not to think about. And the more we see it, the more difficult it is to forget about it. It breaks us. It marks us. We can’t escape it. It becomes us. It drives us to pray and work with vigor because the time is short.
Side note: This kind of engrossing in the condition of people around us must be tempered by the joy of worship. The Lord does not want us to be in anguish all day every day. We have one eye on the state of things but the other eye is on the God of Joy who is preparing an eternal city that we will enjoy forever.
Welcome it
I believe this burden of the Lord is something that God will impart to any who want it. Getting to a place of wanting it is perhaps the challenge. But let’s pray for it. Let’s ask God to show us His glory and to allow us to see things as they really are.
The Lord gives His burden to those who will seek after it. It doesn’t come quickly, but it will come. It doesn’t come all at once but comes in layers. It begins when the Lord, for a brief moment, or an hour, or hours, imparts His compassion into you. Even if we are generally very compassionate we find this compassion seems like 1000 x greater. It’s overwhelming but welcomed because we know something very sacred is being shared with us. In those times it’s hard to form words. The Lord does not speak audibly. He just puts His hand on your hand, and puts His heart in your heart. For those few moments our heart beats as one with God’s. We feel what He feels. These touches leave an impression so deep that it stays with us for life. It drives us even during the dryest times.
May we lift our hands in surrender and let the Lord put His burden upon our lives! That we would be burning and shining lights in our generation. Selah.