Beauty for Ashes: A Divine Exchange

“. . . And provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” Isaiah 61:3.

According to this verse, the Lord gives a crown in place of ashes. To read the whole chapter to gain context, click here. I’m sure this means more than one thing.

But I think one meaning is this: when we give God our ashes, He gives us a crown of beauty in their place. Under the old covenant, ashes were what was left when an animal sacrifice was offered to the Lord.

We Must Have Ashes to Get Beauty

As Christians under the new covenant, we are to “offer our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is our spiritual service or worship” Romans 12:1. What’s left after the offering of ourselves to God as a sacrifice is ashes (figuratively speaking). But He gives us a crown of beauty for those ashes.

The New Testament speaks of the saints receiving an “incorruptible crown”, a “crown of righteousness”, “a crown of life”, and “a crown of glory.” We receive a crown of beauty if we have ashes to exchange for it. In other words, if we’ve offered our bodies a living sacrifice.

We get a crown in exchange for the ashes that are left from the sacrifice of our lives to God. But we don’t get it unless we first present Him with the ashes. I think this principle holds for whatever area we completely give to God as a sacrifice.

No Frou Frou Binger

For example, many years ago, I gave God my eating habits when I had an eating disorder. I don’t know if it was technically bulimia nervosa since it was never formally diagnosed. But it did have similar features. I would binge and starve myself on a regular basis.

And I was no froufrou binger either. Oh no. I scarfed down cookies and rolls and donuts by the dozen, by the pound and by the bag. In fact, sometimes I would eat so much that I would moan and groan in agony and could barely breathe.

Not sure why I found this to be a pleasurable experience, but I must’ve gotten something out of it, besides extra pounds.

But, by His grace I stopped bingeing and starving. He used my sister-in-law to give me a plan for managing my meals. The plan was simply to eat three meals a day and no snacks. I followed this advice, but in order to not binge, I had to eat very large meals.

I worked at a restaurant at the time and after my shift I would order a large dinner and dessert. Or I would consume an 8-pack of cinnamon rolls as a meal. Because I loved sweets, this did the trick. And I was able to make it to the next meal without bingeing.

I gained probably 30 pounds, but, because I had gotten to the point where I was more concerned about pleasing the Lord than how I looked, I didn’t care. I was just thrilled to be delivered of the compulsive behavior and growing in my relationship with Jesus.

Saved Not Just from Hell: Beauty for Ashes Meaning

Another important component of my deliverance was prayer. I was often tempted to binge after work. And because I didn’t have a driver’s license at the time, I walked home, which took about 15 minutes. I knew I didn’t want to binge.

But this compulsion was so strong, and I was so lacking in self-control that I also knew I probably would anyway.

But in my Bible reading one day Romans 10:13 caught my attention: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It occurred to me that this salvation could apply not just to eternal deliverance from hell, but also to day-to-day salvation from my temptation to eat too much.

Salvation in the Here and Now

I began doing this every time I was tempted in this way, and it worked every time. I had learned from firsthand experience that calling on the name of the Lord would save me not just from hell in the hereafter, but from my compulsion to eat too much in the here and now.

After a while, I became very disciplined in my eating habits. And eventually, I lost the extra weight as I was able to scale down the size of my meals to more normal portions. Ultimately, I gained total freedom in this area.

I now get to eat what I want, and I thoroughly enjoy my meals. I don’t have any guilt or negative feelings attached to it. And I have stayed at a weight I’m comfortable with.

So, after work one day, I had decided I was going to binge when I got home. But on the walk home I started to pray that the Lord would save me from this temptation. Well, by the time I got home in 15 minutes, I was so filled with peace and joy in the Lord’s presence that the temptation was gone!

Freedom and Balance and Health and Pleasure

In short, the Lord has taken the ashes of the sacrifice of my eating habits and has given me a crown of beauty in exchange. The truth is, I really couldn’t be any happier with this area of my life now. I gave it to Him as a sacrifice.

He took the ashes of that offering and has given me freedom and balance and health and pleasure in return. Now that’s the meaning of beauty for ashes to me!

But the offering we present must be a complete offering. He won’t exchange it for a crown of beauty unless it’s completely burned and reduced to ashes.

We only get a crown of beauty for ashes. If we put the fire out before the offering is completely consumed and reduced to ashes, we don’t get a crown of beauty for the part left unburned and unconsumed.

The “oil of gladness instead of mourning” presents this same idea. When we give our lives as a sacrifice to God, initially, it hurts, it’s painful. It sometimes involves death to sin.

This means death to trying to meet our own needs which in turn means death to trying to take care of ourselves. Sin is always an illegitimate way to meet a legitimate need.

When we have unmet needs that we refuse to try to meet by sinning, we will experience pain and mourning over the loss or our life. When we refuse to meet our needs by sinning we are in essence, refusing to try to take care of ourselves.

This is, in effect laying down our life. The loss of our life as a sacrifice to God will produce mourning. But in exchange for the mourning God gives us the Holy Spirit which is the oil of gladness.

Praise in Exchange for Despair

So, we offer our lives to God as a sacrifice. Our life is then reduced to ashes, figuratively speaking, which we give to God in exchange for a crown of beauty. But the sacrifice of our life produces mourning for which He gives us the oil of gladness in exchange.

Similarly, when we give Him despair over our sacrificed life, He gives us a garment of praise in return.

When you have unmet needs because you’re refusing to try to meet them with sin, you will experience pain. And when you’re refusing to take care of yourself by meeting your needs independently of God by sinning, you will experience pain, even despair. But as we give God our despair, He replaces it with a garment of praise.

It wasn’t easy for me to give up my dysfunctional eating habits. I have always had an addictive personality and this compulsion was meeting a need for me. Food essentially did the same thing for me as alcohol or drugs do for the alcoholic or drug addict.

It was a way to medicate and numb out my pain. But I am here to testify to this one fact: He is faithful to exchange your ashes of sacrifice for a glorious crown of beauty if you let Him!

To read a post with a similar meaning/idea/thought to Ashes for Beauty for Ashes: A Divine Exchange, click here.

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