The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Joel 3:9-11,
"Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, 'I am strong!' Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord!"
Here is a call for the Lord to bring his warriors. What is the Lord's response? The following verses tell us, "'Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!' Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble." Joel 3:12-16.
Some have a misguided notion of what the Lord is like. Notions they hold to their own peril and the peril of those who may listen to them. They imagine the Lord as a kind and benevolent fatherly figure of temperate thoughts, feelings and emotions whose greatest and highest goal is to see that all of life here on planet earth lives in a peaceful and well-balanced harmony. He might appear to us as having a soft and pleasant disposition, showing up in pastels with strains of Peter, Paul and Mary harmonizing to "If I had a hammer" wafting softly in the background.
We call the Bible God's "revelation". We refer to it in that term because within its pages we find the Lord revealing himself: what he is like, what he does and has done, what his intentions are. Even, astonishingly enough, what he thinks and feels! What he has revealed of himself is a far cry from the caricature of the God of pastels I describe above. What do we read in Joel? "The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, the earth and the sky will tremble." as the Lord brings down his warriors in a devastating judgment of the world.
Yes, the Lord blesses the peacemakers, those who subordinate their own desires in deference to others. And, yes, the angels did proclaim "peace on earth" at the arrival of Jesus Christ, God's Son to planet earth. But the "peace on earth" proclaimed by the angels was a peace that would be experienced by those who would embrace Jesus Christ in faith and experienced by them with their God on the day of judgment. Jesus' observation of the blessed estate of those who are peacemakers in his sermon on the mount speaks to the changed condition of those who embrace him in faith and shouldn't be viewed as a comment on God's priorities. Their blessedness isn't due to them promoting a misguided notion that God eschews conflict with sin and sinners but that they manifest the Holy Spirit within them expressing his presence in their lives.
The Scriptures would have us perceive God, not in pastels, but in bright and vivid bold colors. Far from temperate thoughts, feelings and emotions, God loves with a love that would see his Son die a horrific and miserable death to pay for the sins of the world. This is unbridled passion! His anger is furious and frightful. His judgment is horrific. His love is breathtaking and overwhelming.
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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