- Ruminating in the Word of God

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 Psalm 80:3,

"Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that
we may be saved."

Here is a refrain Asaph repeats three times in this psalm. Israel, as
a nation is languishing in the judgment of God for her sins. Asaph
calls out to the Lord to seek his favor resulting in a restoration of
the nation.

So much of Israel's history is a "type" or pattern of all mankind in
her dealings with God. It is not difficult to see the plight of all
mankind in the world's lost and fallen condition before its Creator
portrayed in the history of Israel. Just as Israel strayed from her
God, so the world has turned its collective back on the Lord and gone
its own way. Struggling in sin, sin's consequences and God's judgment,
we can relate to Asaph's cry for restoration with God.

One theme runs consistently throughout all mankind: something isn't
right about us, something needs to be fixed.

The Wikipedia article on Buddhism states, "The Buddha lived and taught
in the eastern part of Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th
and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or
enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings
end suffering (dukkha) through eliminating ignorance (avidyā) and
craving (taṇhā), by way of understanding and seeing dependent
origination (pratītyasamutpāda) and non-self (anātman), and thus
attain the highest happiness, nirvāņa (nirvana)." My synopsis:
Buddhists believe we have a problem and Buddha can fix it.

The Wikipedia article on Hinduism states "Most Hindus believe that the
spirit or soul — the true "self" of every person, called the ātman —
is eternal. According to the monistic/pantheistic theologies of
Hinduism (such as Advaita Vedanta school), this Atman is ultimately
indistinct from Brahman, the supreme spirit. Hence, these schools are
called non-dualist. The goal of life, according to the Advaita school,
is to realize that one's ātman is identical to Brahman, the supreme
soul. The Upanishads state that whoever becomes fully aware of the
ātman as the innermost core of one's own self realizes an identity
with Brahman and thereby reaches moksha (liberation or freedom)." Even
when a religion such as this thinks man is "indistinct" from the
"supreme spirit", man still needs "liberation or freedom." Again, my
synopsis: Hindus believe we have a problem and they can fix it.

The Wikipedia article on Confucianism states, "The core of
Confucianism is humanism, the belief that human beings are teachable,
improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour
especially including self-cultivation and self-creation." The article
goes on to say that "Confucianism as an ideology is humanistic and
non-theistic, and does not involve a belief in the supernatural or in
a personal god." Nonetheless, if mankind is "teachable, improvable and
perfectible" then it is an admission that man needs to be taught
something, man needs to be improved and man needs to be perfected. My
synopsis: Confucianism believes we have a problem and they can fix it.

You get my point. We all know we have a problem and something needs to
be fixed. Charitable organizations know we have a problem. The United
Nations is founded on the understanding mankind has a problem.
Political parties believe we have a problem... everybody acknowledges
something isn't right about us, something needs to be fixed. It may be
visualized in injustice, in racism, in lawlessness and crime. It may
be visualized in the more base impulses of mankind: the elbowing out
of others to get one's own, narcissism, exploitation of the weak,
selfishness, arrogance, greed.

The Scriptures are straightforward about this, blunt and to the point.
In a string of quotations from the Old Testament (Psalms,
Ecclesiastes, Isaiah) Paul says, "'There is no one righteous, not even
one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no
one who does good, not even one.' 'Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.' 'The poison of vipers is on their
lips.' 'Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' 'Their feet
are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way
of peace they do not know.' 'There is no fear of God before their
eyes.'" Romans 3:10-18.

Here is his summary, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God." Romans 3:23. Hence all the religions and all the organizations
to rehabilitate us, all the effort to alleviate the problems we have
in our estrangement with God. Just as with Asaph calling on God's
restoration of Israel through reconciliation with him, all mankind
needs reconciliation with God, God's favor and God's restoration of
us.

While none of mankind's religions will do the job, God has
accomplished this very thing himself for us, "For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the
name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18.

What an amazing thing! The very God mankind has turned his collective
back on is the One who provides reconciliation with himself and a
restoration for us of all he intended for us before the fall of
mankind! All he asks is that we embrace him in faith. Jesus said,
"Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life
and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very
truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as
the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have
life in himself." John 5:24-26.

Wow!!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com