'Seek' is a very interesting word for me. Think about it...children play the game 'hide-and-go-seek' and have great fun. People set out with great endeavor to seek fame or their fortune. The good Shepherd went to seek his 1/100 lost sheep, the woman sought her lost coin and the lost son went to seek his own independant agenda squandering his inheritance only to realize what he sought he'd already had at home - his father's love and forgveness (Luke 15).
I like the internet dictionary.com definiton of 'seek'. It explains,
"seek - is to go in search of or quest of...truth, solution...or to convince a person of something".
A quest or to convince is what Isaiah is imploring the people of Judah to do. He said,
"Seek the LORD while He may be found..." (Isaiah 55:6 NIV).
Like, do it now! Now's the time. Go on a quest to find the LORD - sounds like 'hide-and-go-seek' but the Lord was not hiding nor is He today either. He was in plain sight and they were blind to it. They had needed only to seek Him.
Last night my husband and I watched the historical movie called Against the Ice, which is based on a true story about two Danish men, and disproving the USA's claim to the northern part of Greenland. Captain Ejanar Mikkelsen and Iver Iverson were depicted in this drama of the Artic expedition of 1909. The Captain was on a quest seeking the evidence an explorer friend of his had left for the whoever would find it. You see, the friend had been on a former quest and had not returned.
These two others took up the baton to continue the quest. They had been seeking to disprove the American's claim in an area of uninhabitable ice, snow, mountains and extremely harsh Artic conditions for their country of Denmark. To them, or at least, to the Captain, it was worth it despite the dangers and very likely likelihood that they too, may not return.
There had been a recce earlier to this all out expedition and the Captain had found his friend frozen in the ice clutching a map of where he'd put his evidence of claim, hidden in a stack of rocks. The Captain now asked for a volunteer to accompany him on what, to most, would seem a foolhardy mission to find and retrieve this evidence. Seasoned fellow Artic go-ers steadfastly declined.
In the end, Iver the mechanic, who wasn't even supposed to have been aboard the ship, but was tasked last minute to sail along with them due to the need of his mechanic's skills volunteered to go. He was very inexperienced, clumsy and otherwise incompetant; throw in some cockiness and there you have quite a dubious mix. I'm not sure if he actually volunteered as a lark, but I do believe he felt inklings of the seriousness especially since the seasoned Artic-going men would not volunteer. Yet, Iver volunteered and the Captain hesitantly accepted his company on the quest.
Eventually they found the pile of rocks after traversing a vast expanse of ice, snow and mountains for weeks and weeks, losing one mush dog after another, all for a few pieces of paper of proof of "I got here first!" Iver murmured, "we came for a pile of rocks!" He added, "...like walking from Rome to Russia, for what?" BUT...but for the Captain - it was everything.
Pause here cuz the quest wasn't yet over...they still had to make it back to base camp and ship before the seaway froze over, bringing the evidence of claim with them all the way back to civilisation.
By this time, there was very little tail wagging behind them, food supplies were at all time low, a polar bear had sniffed them out, there was only one mush dog left which soon expired most likely of exhaustion. The Captain decided to build another pile of rocks and protect the evidence there. They were still about 200 miles from camp and the needed to proceed on foot with the barest of essentials on their backs. Who knew if they would reach camp or not!
Oh boy, were they ever glad to see the mast of their ship one fine day! Oh, NO!!! It was only the mast! Whatever happened to the ship and shipmates? The ship had been turned into a hut which they found stocked with about a year's worth of food. The others had given up most of the hope of these two ever returning and had sailed home on a passing ship.
After resting up, the Captian determined to go back and recoup that evidence. They did. In the meantime, another ship had come and finding the shanty empty of people, left a note and sailed away. Imagine the despair upon their return - hope deflated faster than a popped balloon. They had fulfilled the purpose of their treks but what was the good of it now?
The Danish government was reluctant to send more men and ships in search of the dedicated men but one of the first lot of men pursued the issue and somehow got another ship and crew of sailors to go to see what they could find.* At last, after about a two year hiatus, with the Captain and Iver about going out of their minds in despair, they were rescued.
The politicians, of course, took the credit upon themselves. The point is though, that the Captain was willing to go all out in seeking what was important to him, out of personal enthusiasm for such explorations and for patriotism, for his country and especially to honor the frozen friend who'd gone before him.
Do we seek the Lord Jesus who went all out for us to seek us, the lost (Luke 19:10)? Maybe it doesn't make much sense to us, like the whole Artic quest didn't make much sense to Iver. God is BIGGER than us.
"His thoughts are not [our] thoughts, neither are [our] thoughts His; [so] declares the LORD" wrote Isaiah (55:8).
Jesus came from Heaven to Earth in search of souls to reconcile back to God. It was DANGEROUS! None of His friends wanted to go the last mile with Him - they all forsook Him and fled (Matthew 26:56/Mark 14:50)! Ah-h-h, we human beings: you, yes, you and me, we were that "pearl of great price" for whom Jesus was willing to go all out for (Matthew 13:45-46).
He was buried under the rock of the tomb. Praise the Lord, He didn't stay there. He came forth triumphant - the stone rolled away - He'd conquered sin and death and claimed us back from Satan's kingdom for the Kingdom of God, in and through faith in Christ! What an amazing God we have! We may not always understand His why's and wherefore's but praise God, He is BIGGER than our thoughts! He's got it under control; we'll survive.
God did acknowledge Jesus' quest too. In Acts we read a couple of times of folks being 'added to the church". He is still adding many to His church pearl today. Remember that!
Brothers and sisters-in-Christ, this Lord's Day, as we remember what Jesus has done for us and as we pass and partake of the bread and drink from the cup of wine, remember - we are precious in His sight. Remember all He had to go through to secure us on His seeking and salvation expedition, to Earth. He sought and found us even before we ever thought to seek Him. Wise men and women still seek this wonderfully BIG God whose thoughts and ways are VASTLY & INFINITELY BIGGER than any of ours. He accomplished what He desired and we can remember with satisfying joy!
~ERC March 2022~
Based on Isaiah 55 especially verses 6, 8-9 NIV.
Sing, Our God is an Awesome God and From Greenlands Icy Mountains.
*Reference: Against the Ice
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