The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Hosea 2:8,
"She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal."
As the Lord speaks of the judgment he is going to bring to Israel because of her abandonment of him to chase after the false idols of the surrounding nations, the Lord points out that the very things they used to pursue their sin was provided them by the Lord himself.
The two great aspects of God's nature are told to us by God himself in Jeremiah 9:24, "let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight". This speaks to his loving kindness and his justice. Although our God is loving, merciful and kind, particularly demonstrated by his sending of his Son to pay the penalty for our sins, he will nevertheless judge all those who reject him by casting them in a fiery lake of burning sulfur on a terrible day, "the day of the Lord."
From time to time I hear someone say that they simply refuse to accept any god who would condemn anyone to an eternity of torment. The notion of a god of judgment who represents a "religion of blood" as portrayed in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ is rejected out of hand as repugnant and beneath all sensibility.
Perhaps what is forgotten is that the very One who provided the Son of his love to take our punishment on himself is the very One who has provided all we have, all we are, our very existence itself. He is the One who provided our bodies, with which we sin against him. He is the One who has blessed us with so much with which some indulge themselves as they abandon their acknowledgment of him. He is the One who has given life itself, life with which so many reject their Creator to go their own way to satisfy their own sinful desires.
Just as Israel used what their loving God blessed them with to sin against him, so the people of our day do likewise. I find it helpful to think of such things to bring to my mind the appropriateness of God's rightful judgment against those who turn their backs on him. May each receive the gospel message and find his forgiveness!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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