This morning as I was reading in Jeremiah I was struck by a verse that painted a picture for me that was in sharp contrast to the one that was painted for one of Israel’s greatest enemies… Moab. The picture that flashed across my mind was at once both related to me personally and corporately to the bride. I don’t know anything about wine-making but the part of the process that Jeremiah referred to certainly underlined one of the important steps necessary to ultimately result in a perfect wine… Removing the Lees.
Lees are the deposits of dead yeast and other particles that precipitate as a result of the refining action in the wine-making process that are carried to the bottom of the wine vat during fermentation and aging. Here in Jeremiah a key element in that process is pointed out in relation to Moab…
Jer 48:11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
To get rid of the lees during the process wine is transferred from vat to vat in order to leave the lees behind and continue the process of allowing the wine to perfect the taste. With regard to Moab, the process of “correction” (emptied from vessel to vessel) had not taken place and as a result there had been no change and God was going to judge the nation.
So what does that have to do with us? That’s where that strange picture flashed before me this morning. God does not let us settle on our lees!
Have you ever noticed when you let the world around you begin to take center stage that things seem to happen that tend to grab your attention? Things that seem to come up out of nowhere that you may not have an answer for? Yeah, happens to me all the time. So, I think the picture I saw this morning was to remind me that from time-to-time God picks me up off the shelf and pours me into another vessel, just to get rid of some more of the “lees” that have settled down inside.
And that’s a good thing… if we don’t fight it!
I constantly need to remember to ask God the reason for what is occurring in my life. If I ignore Him and attempt to address the challenge on my own it never works. And the more that I do that the more difficult the purification process is going to be. God knows just when we need to be poured out and just how much the process is going to challenge us. And we can be assured that the challenge will always be more than we can handle on our own. It will always require the help of the Holy Spirit.
And why does He do it?
Perhaps to avoid the situation that Moab found itself in… therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
If we are to be transformed into the image of Jesus, then we are going to have to have the lees drawn out of our life. And that means the Lord is going to have to “tip” us over from time to time. The purification process (in this case the sweetening of the product) requires that the dregs get removed from time-to-time.
I’ve always told you that God speaks to me in strange ways, but I didn’t see the wine bottle coming!