Note: I am on vacation for a week. I'll see you all when I get back!
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 Proverbs 16:7,
"When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them."
I'm a bit of a slow learner and so at times it takes repeated effort on my part to see what is going on. I experienced this just last winter as I was spending time in the book of Judges. Reading and re-reading Judges, I was continually struck, as I have always been, about a cycle that repeats itself a number of times in the relationship of Israel with God. The cycle begins with Israel experiencing peace among her neighbors and a level of prosperity. Inevitably, in this wonderful posture, Israel would stray from God and pursue the "gods" and wicked ways of her neighbors. This would always, without fail, bring God's wrath upon Israel, almost always expressed in the aggressive actions of her neighboring nations and Israel would succumb to her enemies. After a period of suffering in this way, they would always cry out to God for deliverance and God would do just that. He would bring them deliverance, freedom from their enemies. At that point Israel would experience the wonderful tranquility, peace and prosperity God himself provided. Then, the cycle would repeat all over again, Israel would begin to stray while in this peace and prosperity... and the cycle would repeat itself.
In the past I had always viewed this cycle as something to teach us that if we misbehave, God will punish us. If we behave he will reward us. While this is essentially true, it dawned on me that something much greater than this simple axiom was on display. Here it is in a nutshell:
God loves the whole world, everyone in it. This life is all about God's attempt to save as many folks as he can in this lost and fallen world at rebellion with her God and bring them into his family. His plan was to send his own Son to satisfy his god-sized sense of justice to pay the penalty for all the sins of everyone. He then set in motion the mission of the gospel: as many as would choose him in faith, he brings into his own family, paid for at the cost of Jesus Christ on that miserable cross. All that preceded the coming of Jesus Christ was to prepare the world for him and all that has followed the coming of Jesus Christ is the effort to bring as many into his family through the gospel message. It is just that simple. The purest expression of love is to meet some one's need at uncompensated cost to you. God has done this by providing for mankind in his greatest need: salvation from his horrific judgment for our sins.
Since sin is such a debilitating force in our lives, keeping us from seeing the most obvious things in the spiritual realm, God, in his great love for us, aids us in reaching out to him. I believe he does this in various ways, but Judges illustrates one key way: at times he will bring difficulties, trials and, at times, misery, in the hope we may reach out to him in desperation. When we do, as Israel did in Judges, God is there, waiting for us with open arms and expresses his love to us through his many blessings. This is spoken to in a couple of passages by Paul. In one, as he speaks to the Aeropagus in Athens he tells his listeners, "From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." Acts 17:26-27. Had God not made the nations, nations would not exist to find enemies in other nations. In Romans 8:20-21, "The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." This is not to say that God does not bring judgment against sin for the sake of his justice. But it does point to a strategy God engages in. He certainly did so with Israel and I believe he still does so today.
In musing on it, it seems to me that in tough love, God, at times, may bring us misery that we might reach out to him for deliverance. When we do so, he is there to provide us relief and reward us with the riches of his grace. As we read in Proverbs 16:7, the man (or nation) who has enemies just may have them by God's design to draw him/them to him. If or when they respond to God, since God's reach is successful, there is now no longer any need for the misery brought by enemies and so God removes them, "he causes their enemies to make peace with them."
Just a thought. What do you think?
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
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