J16 I was down to two legs and an ear

Basil the Great on salvaging one's life (1)

Amos is probably the earliest of the Minor Prophets, writing around 750 B.C. He warns Israel that God will punish the sins of the people, but offers them this hope in 3:12:

"As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued..."

Basil used this verse to encourage a friend after an apparently deep spiritual failure in his life: "If, then, any hope of salvation is still in you, if any slight remembrance of God...return to your senses...Remember the good Shepherd, how He will pursue and deliver you. Remember the compassion of God, how He heals... Do not despair of salvation....The Lord does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he return and live."

What a powerful image Amos evokes! The shepherd pursues the lion who has taken one of his sheep, and already consumed most of it. Yet from its very jaws the shepherd wrenches away all that is left. Two boney legs and a fragment -- a fragment! -- of an ear. When I first read the scripture, I missed it -- it's a small part of a verse -- but after Basil expounded it to me, I wept when I read it again.

In my youth I was a great sinner. I literally broke all of the 10 commandments before I turned to Jesus. I was an alcoholic and a drug user. I stole from my employer. I urged my girl friend to have an abortion. I had an adulterous affair. My life was a cesspool of my own wicked making.

But Jesus pursued me. In countless ways He steered my life away from destruction and into rebirth in Him. It is now over 50 years since he snatched me and my pitiful wreck of a life from Satan's mouth. God is compassionate. His mercies are made new every morning. I look back on my new life and am amazed at what God was able to do, with just a few remnants of a broken life.

My prayer today:

How endless are your mercies, Oh Lord. How great your compassion. To save even 'a wretch like me.' Like You said to the woman taken in adultery, who is it that condemns you? Only the enemy, and my own grieving conscience. Help me Lord to feel the forgiveness you gave so readily, 50 years ago.

(1) Letter 44, "To a fallen monk," Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, OT Vol xiv,

11/16/2018, 8/30/2024