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 Amos 2:4-5,
"For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, I will send fire upon Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem."
Judah had come to the place where they faced the frightful judgment of God. They had rejected his laws and given themselves over to worshipping the false "gods" of the world around them. Reminds me a lot of folks in our day.
When I was a new believer, passages like the one above brought me the impression that God was a kind of moral entity of the cosmos. Attending this perception was the understanding that we reap what we sow and so I viewed God as the one who required me to behave myself. I didn't really see much past that and I can say that it left little room for developing any kind of a meaningful understanding of him. I don't think it fostered my understanding of the things he wanted me to know about him and about his agenda for all of us. My assumption that it was all there was forced me to focus on my behavior alone. God wanted me to behave and any time, energy and effort I consumed in knowing God was spent on my purposing to behave but always at some point failing both him and myself, and then refocusing my purposing to behave myself. Round and round I went, doing well at times and then screwing it up all over again. I have to admit the process kept me sidelined from engaging in much that was meaningful for God's agenda, other than, of course, behaving myself.
To be sure, the concept of God as a moral entity is straight forward. God is consistent with himself and the way he is defines what is moral. For instance, God is honest. If we are dishonest, it is immoral, sinful, because it us ungodly. God's laws reflect his character and nature and John tells us, "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." 1 John 3:4.
Since that time as a new believer, I have learned that God is much more than simply a cosmic moral principle to whom payment is due when we transgress. God does have a finely tuned sense of justice and righteousness and he has made it clear that all sin will be paid for. But there is more. When I act in an ungodly way, I manifest or demonstrate that I have put some distance between myself and God. I have drawn away from him. This is abundantly clear in Judah's choices we read about in Amos. I have learned that God has an agenda in this life and that agenda is that he is populating his kingdom. The life we live here, what Solomon calls "life under the sun" is merely pre-life. It is a temporary stage from which our eternal disposition will be based upon. It is God's agenda that we embrace him in faith and join his kingdom.
Here is a part of Judah's problem with God. It wasn't just that they were simply misbehaving. Yes, it is true that they were sinful and richly deserved God's judgment, but as his chosen people, the people through whom the Lord intended to speak to the world through, the people through whom the Lord intended to bring his Son into the world through, they had placed themselves at odds with God's agenda of bringing redemption to the world. Their actions were no longer fulfilling God's intended purpose for them. As a result, God brought corrective action against Judah in order to pursue his agenda. God's judgment of them was due to their poor choices in placing themselves outside of his will, his purposes.
I cannot begin to assume I know all of God's purposes. As an example, Ephesians 3:10, "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." I don't begin to understand what that is all about. I can speculate, but I really don't know. Not knowing all that God is doing and how he may be carrying out what he does through us points to the importance of following his will. Well beyond simply behaving, there may be more going on that God is doing when he brings some correctives to my life.
I am reminded that God's purposes are much more broad and deeper than being merely a moral principle to which we are bound. He has his purposes and agendas. Some we know of and some I'm certain we know very little of. I can't assume that if I make choices at odds with God's desires, that it just effects me.
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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