The Woman God Sees:Surrendered Mirrors

The Woman God Sees:Surrendered Mirrors

Have you ever wondered if God sees you….if He even knows you and sees what is going on in your life? Today we will see in Scripture what God desires to see in us. (All women should have a mirror)

In the book of Genesis 16:1-16 we read the story about Hagar, who was purchased in Egypt to serve Abraham’s wife, Sarah. She is also the one that Sarah gave to Abraham to have a child for her since she was barren. When Hagar became pregnant she flaunted it before Sarah, so Sarah treated her so harshly that she fled into the wilderness. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. The angel of the Lord told her to return to her mistress and submit herself to her authority. He also told her that He would multiply her descendants exceedingly.  Then the angel of the Lord told her she was pregnant and would bear a son and that she would name him Ismael. Now read Gen.16:13 MEV (overhead)

Then she called the name of the Lord that spoke to her “You are the God who sees,” for she said, “Have I now looked on Him who sees me?”

Now visualize with your imagination what the wilderness tabernacle looked like. I know we have a picture but visual this was a huge tent in the desert. On the overhead we see the picture of the tabernacle. There is an altar of incense, a lamp stand, altar of burnt offering and a bronze laver.  Show pics

The bronze laver was a giant basin made of bronze and filled with water. Show pic of bronze laver

All the furnishings had specific measurements and details given except for the laver.  God did not communicate the laver size.

We read in the OT that priests could not enter into the tent without first washing at the laver. God specifically placed it at the entrance of the Holy Place to keep the priests from going in with dirt from the desert and to keep the priests from going in with dirt from the desert and from the sin in their own lives. The soil wasn’t just dirt from the desert but the pollution of their attitudes, thoughts, unkind remarks and so on. Much like ours today…..

In the NT today we don’t have to wash in a laver but Ephesians 5:26 says to be holy and clean, washed by the cleansing water of the Word! God’s Word alone is the detergent for the dirt in our lives. (overhead)

Now let’s focus on the laver itself…. Ex. 38:8 NIV says, “They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who had served at the entrance of meeting.” (overhead)

Now this is interesting…..women served at the entrance to the temple. This is OT…..yes, God used women then in the Tabernacle and He wants to use each of us today. Women throughout the Bible served God in many ways. You are very useful in His kingdom.

The Israelite women that had been set free from Pharaoh, donated their brass mirrors to be used in the making of this brass laver used in the tabernacle. This would have been a special treasure to women to have a mirror that they could see their reflection in, to fix their hair or makeup (yes, they had makeup).

The point to note here is that this laver was made from the “surrendered mirrors” of the women. These mirrors were brought up from Egypt as some to their treasures of redemption.

Redemption=the action of regaining or gaining possession of something (overhead)

What was that something they had regained? FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVERY OF EGYPT

Life Lesson #1 (overhead)

Through their willingness to donate their mirrors…God was teaching the women the necessity of surrendering their images of themselves to Him, in order for Him to remake them into the proper reflection of His image. (overhead)

Usually the thing we treasure is what we see in the mirror, ourselves. We love our flesh, the products of the work of our hand, our clothes, our friends and even our reputation.

But a poor self-image is just as bad!

Now let’s think about these women for a minute…

They were slaves….as a slave, many were probably raped, molested in some way, abused with beatings etc.

Because of this, they more than likely formed an image of themselves that was not God’s image of them.

Maybe some of you have been raped. I believe they say that about 50% of women in the church have been. Maybe you were molested as a child or even older. Maybe you have been abused by beatings, told you were stupid, ugly and other things. Maybe you have had an abortion. The enemy will use ALL these things to cause us to have a distorted image of ourselves.

Question: are you willing to surrender your mirror (the image of yourself to be free from the slavery of that image) (overhead)

Let’s use our imagination for a minute…..

Imagine with me that the priest is up early on a beautiful sunny morning and he is going through his daily routine to perform his priestly duties. As he walks along he thanks God for the day and he enters the tabernacle wall through the colorful gate. (overhead picture of colorful gate)

This gate was made of blue, purple and scarlet fabric woven into the white linen.

This gate is very significant…..it is a wide gate and was the only way into the Court, and represents Jesus who said of Himself,”I am the door, whoever enters through Me, will be saved. John 10:9 NIV (overhead)

Also in John 14:6, Jesus says, “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”(overhead)

Just like they had to enter the gate and go past the brazen altar (where sacrifices were made) which only covered their sin….it represented the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that was to come.

The priest would offer a sacrifice on the altar for his sins and the people’s sin. Then he would move toward the bronze laver to do the ceremonial washing he is required to do. (Remember what the laver is made of)

Imagine the sun is shining brightly as he stands at the laver to wash. He catches a reflection of himself. While he is looking at himself he is probably contemplating his own appearance and assessing his own abilities.

While we are looking at ourselves in the mirror, what is our focus? Ourselves, of course!

Someone once said, “Self is so subtle, so cunning that it would do anything for attention. Self would rather be anything but ignored. It would rather be loved and desires to be noticed.” (overhead)

Let’s go back to the priest as he looks into the laver. As he sees his reflection, God reminds him to cleanse himself.

Life Lesson #2 (overhead) 

I believe God still reminds us today to cleanse ourselves of ourselves and focus on Him and how He sees us.  (overhead)

I would say this would be like denying ourselves so we could enter into the holy place of living with God supernaturally.

 II Corinthians 3:18:

But we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (overhead) 

Isn’t that the goal for all of us, to be changed into His image….to reflect the glory of Jesus in us.

Hopefully, each woman has a mirror that was given as you entered. 

Now look at yourself in the mirror. Many times what we see is only a mask we have hidden behind and not the real you. We can deceive ourselves. By gazing into the laver of God’s Word, your old mask will be washed away. You may groan at the weaknesses when they are revealed, but through the cleansing, the reflection of Jesus can be uncovered. God wants His image to shine through you but your image of yourself, whether poor self-image or proud self-image, will have to be surrendered first.

Tell story of traveling and vision of woman with beautiful face and then pulling off a mask.

(Things are not always as they appear.)

Invitation:

Let’s bow our heads and have a time asking the Lord what image He wants you to be cleansed of today. Allow yourself to be stripped and washed clean. Maybe washed of guilt from something in the past, maybe failure to do or not do something, maybe an addiction to anything, maybe anger, unbelief……whatever it is, even some prideful thing you have clung to for your sense of self-worth…ask God to show you something then open your eyes in FAITH expecting Him to do just that. When you feel you are ready to completely release your image for God’s image, then get up and come to the front and surrender your image.

Pray: Thank You Lord that we do not have to go to the wilderness tabernacle for the priest to offer sacrifices for us but our hearts can be the tabernacle where we offer ourselves to You. May we surrender our image of ourself to you and become the image of Jesus our Savior to the world.