FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

From Last Lesson: Have you noticed how quick we are to blame God for things He has nothing to do with?

But what about the crack addict himself? Can’t we blame him? Some will be quick to say that he isn’t to blame for his actions, after all, he has a disease. His addiction is a medical problem, not a moral one. But wasn’t the first time he took crack a moral choice, not as a result of an addiction?

What about Satan? Shouldn’t he deserve some of the blame? The Word tells us, “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God” (Ephesians 2:2 NLT).

Satan is active, working in the hearts of those who are disobedient to God. His intent is evil and destructive.

God has chosen to allow evil and good to grow next to one another. People choose which path they take, either they follow God, or they follow Satan. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells the parable of the “wheat and the tares,” in which He told the disciples, “but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn” ’ ” (Matthew 13:25-30). In this world, good and evil will co-exist.

So where was God’s love in the examples I gave?

God’s love was in the prayers and the presence of the Chaplain. His love was in the arms of the nurse. His love is in the girl’s ability to forgive and to heal. God’s love is in the likelihood that this little girl will one day be a “wounded healer” and help others.

According to the story, this wasn’t the first wounded child Jeannie, the nurse supervisor had taken in her arms. A year before this incident it was her own son. Chaplain Burkes said, “She placed her arms around that child in much the same way I’d seen her place her arms around her own son who was paralyzed in an auto accident the year before.”

You can ask, you have a right to ask, where is God’s love? However, the answer is no, He doesn’t keep evil from happening, but He makes sure that evil doesn’t stand alone, it doesn’t get the final say. He sends His people, and His Spirit to comfort the afflicted and heal the wounded.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

Where was God’s love for the little girl from yesterday’s story?

Shouldn’t His love have stopped this man from ravaging her family? Shouldn’t His love have stopped this man from becoming addicted to crack? Shouldn’t His love have stopped the drug pushers from selling drugs to this man?

But you see, that’s the rub. When we analyze what we expect of God’s love, have you noticed that it always goes back to limiting man’s choice or to negating the consequences for choices? Because of man’s free will, the man had a choice to kill or not to kill, to buy drugs or not buy drugs, to use drugs or not use drugs. Is it God’s fault that he chose to sin? Is it God’s fault that the man’s sin carried consequences?

Can a just God negate the consequences for man’s choices? Do you think God is obligated by love to give you the answers at a test that you didn’t study for? Is God constrained by His love to keep a person healthy and strong that never exercises? If God loves you, will He place an umbrella of protection over you and keep bad things from happening to you, but not everyone else? Does it word tell us that Jesus Himself said, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

To describe God as a loving God and stop at that description is a great injustice to our understanding of who He is. Not only is He loving, but His love causes Him to also be just. He must punish sin and He must allow society to suffer the consequences of sin.

Your personal sin doesn’t just affect you, it affects the people all around you also. Robin Reid, the father of Richard Reid, the alleged “shoe bomber” admitted his personal culpability in his son’s crime in a 2002, Newsweek magazine article. He said:

“Look at the terrible childhood he had . . . Look at the father he had. I have spent 18 years in total behind bars. That can’t have helped him, can it? Every time he needed me I was nowhere to be found.”

Think of the domino effect of Robin Reid’s sin and the impact it could have had on the American psyche if his son had been successful in blowing up that plane.

Here is another question we need to consider: would God be a loving God if He didn’t allow us to exercise our free will? Wouldn’t that make Him a tyrant-controlling, overbearing God, in essence, a dictator, instead of a loving God?

Besides, it wasn’t God that got the man hooked on crack and it wasn’t God that stabbed the family members in the story above. Have you noticed how quick we are to blame God for things He has nothing to do with?

Some will blame God. Some will blame the knife maker, and others will blame society as a whole.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

It is remarkable, in view of Israel’s sin, that God’s first message to them in this book is that He loves them. His love is a historical love that goes back to their ancestor Jacob, who received his father’s and God’s blessing rather than his older brother Esau.

They may have felt unloved because of the suffering of the captivity, the shape of Jerusalem when they returned, the drought and economic instability, but God reminds them that they will recover. If He was against them, they wouldn’t be able to bounce back. Edom may rebuild, God said, but He will destroy what they rebuild. His activity will cause all who see to say, “Great is the Lord!”

Israel’s situation is far different from Edom’s, for Israel will bounce back. They will rebuild. God didn’t stop bad things from happening to them, but He did give them the opportunity to improve their lives.

The objection of Israel in this text causes us to ask a universal question: How can a loving God allow bad things to happen? Since He is all powerful, can’t He stop evil’s reign?

The following is a story I once read and kept:

Hospital Chaplain Norris Burkes went on full alert when he heard that a family of stab victims would arrive at the emergency room in a few minutes. Chaplains deal with tragedy and death on a daily basis, but it never becomes routine. They are a special breed of minister who prefer to spend their time immersed in the suffering of others, and representing God and His people to hurting traumatized people. They extend grace & hope in hopeless situations every day of their life-this was one of those occasions.

The family was entertaining a friend in their home who had a dark secret-he was a crack addict. The tranquil visit turned into a nightmare when he ran out of crack and lost his sanity. He demanded money from his hosts, and when they wouldn’t comply with his request, he began stabbing them.

It was horrible. Blood was everywhere.

The father died. The baby was critical. Mom was stable.

Big sister was in the best shape physically, but emotionally she’d entered the twilight zone. As the doctors worked with those needing medical attention, Chaplain Burkes took the ten year old girl into the chapel to pray.

Her prayers began very innocent, like you’d expect to hear from a little girl. She asked God to help her family recover and that everything would be OK. Then her prayers lost their innocence, as she had that night, and became brutally honest. “She demanded to know why God let her father die,” Chaplain Burkes said, and “she had a few choice words for her houseguest as well.”

Rage got the best of her, she swept the candles off of the altar and began overturning chairs in the chapel. The Chaplain called for Jeannie, the nurse supervisor, who held the child in her arms and took her back into the ER to give her a sedative.

Where was God’s love for this little girl?

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Psalm 19

From Last Lesson: Creation reveals the glory of God; God’s Word reveals the way to God. How?

The “testimony of the Lord,” all of what God has told his people, is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the one who needs it (verse 7). It reveals the danger of being out of God’s will even when one is unaware of it. God’s “statutes” are entirely right, not a burden but a source of joy for those who obey them. The “commandment of the Lord,” the entirety of His revealed Word, cleanses one’s eyes, giving one a clear perspective of life. It lights up the eyes revealing the inner joy God’s Word brings (verse 8).

The “fear of the Lord” gives instruction on what it means to reverence Yahweh in awe. It is pure and eternal. The “judgements,” God’s decrees, His commands, on matters, inform us of what is appropriate conduct. Therefore, they are “true and righteous altogether” (verse 9). Nothing compares to the value of God’s Word. The wise will desire it more than anything else in life. True satisfaction and delight comes from the sweetness of knowing God’s Word and faithfully living in accordance to it. Moreover, God’s Word both warns one of dangers that would ruin one’s life and rewards one for listening to it and obeying (verses 10-11).

David displays the proper response to having witnessed God’s revelation of Himself in both His creation and His Word, a prayer for cleansing and purity. David’s concern is not only for the willful sin he is aware of in his life, but he is also troubled by the unknown sin in his life. Our sin nature has such a grip on us that we often sin unintentionally and unknowingly. The Law of Moses recognizes this truth and provides the Sin Offering as a means of atonement for unintentional sins and the sins one commits unknowingly (Leviticus 4:1-5:13). David’s desire is to live completely devoted to Yahweh in every way. He wants the Lord, not his sin, to rule his life. He realizes he cannot keep from ever sinning, but he is asking the Lord to help him be godly and blameless (verse 13). His prayer is for everything he says and thinks to be acceptable to Yahweh. He is offering himself as a living sacrifice to the Lord, His rock, His strength and foundation in life, His Redeemer, His protector, provider, and Savior (verse 14).

Psalm 19 demonstrates that God wants us to know Him, intimately, not just know about Him. He has demonstrated this in creation, by His Word, and ultimately through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4). Like David, we should praise God as we witness the splendor of God’s handiwork. However, as wonderful as God’s creation is, even more magnificent is His written Word. For it is God’s Word, His Logos, that shows us how to know our Creator. We need to be in God’s Word because it is what revives us, guides us, and sustains us. It is also what leads us to Jesus Christ, the living Word, the living Logos, who became flesh according to the apostle John in his epistle (John 1:14). It is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ that we can be cleansed of our sin and made right with God. Therefore, let us seek to know our Lord who graciously invites us to know Him intimately, as a true and glorious Father.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Psalm 19

In Psalm 19, David contemplates how creation proclaims the glory of God and then considers the riches of the Lord’s instruction in the Scriptures. He recognizes that, unlike the gods of the nations who are aloof and silent, Yahweh is a God who graciously makes Himself known through the revelation of creation (verses 1-6) and the revelation of His Word (verses 7-11). David understands that just as all of physical life is dependent on the sun, one’s spiritual life is dependent on the Word of God. David uses the beautiful parallelism of Hebrew poetry to convey these truths. David also realizes such wonderful revelation and communication from God necessitates a response. So, his request is for the cleansing of his sin so that what he does, says, and thinks will be pleasing to God (verses 12-14).

In verses 1-6, David looks to the heavenly host in wonder at how they declare the glory and knowledge of God. First, he focuses on the heavens in general, and then he narrows his focus to the sun. Verse 1 uses synonymous parallelism with three words in the second line matching the three words in the first. The pairs are “heavens” and the “firmament,” “declare” and “shows [proclaims],” and “the glory of God” and “His handiwork [work of His Hands].” The “heavens” and “firmament” both refer to the skies and everything in space beyond. The words “declare” and “shows” are participles in Hebrew, meaning the heavens and firmament are continually declaring and showing as verse 2 also asserts. By recognizing the first two pairs as synonyms, it reveals that the third pair are synonyms too.

So, David is saying that “His handiwork” witnesses to “the glory of God.” “His handiwork” means all of the skies and space above are God’s creation. The word “glory” in the original language means heaviness or weightiness. So, David is saying God’s creation of the heavens gives weight to who God is. He is transcendent, above the highest reaches of space. He is of ultimate importance; there is none like Him, anywhere. Without words, the heavens pour out this knowledge of God’s omnipotence, His wisdom, and splendor for everyone to see.

Most notable of all the heavenly hosts is the sun. David uses similes to describe its splendor. The heavens stand over it like a tent. Like a bridegroom and an athlete, the sun is brilliant and strong. It provides warmth and sustenance for the entire Earth (verses 4-6). The sun is central to life on the earth. It affects the oceans and the weather, providing energy for the plants to grow which in turn provide oxygen and nourishment for life on Earth. Without the sun, we could not survive. The sun not only reveals the power and beauty of God but also the wisdom and goodness of God to provide for all of physical life on Earth.

Likewise, God has provided for our spiritual lives by the revelation of His Word. Once again, employing the beauty of Hebrew parallelism, David expounds the blessing and centrality of God’s Word to all of life. Without God’s Word, we could not survive. Creation reveals the glory of God; God’s Word reveals the way to God. How? The “law [meaning instruction]” of God restores vitality to the spiritually infirmed and life to the spiritually dead (verse 7).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.