Category: devotional

Sometimes we hear a truth proclaimed so often that we forget how amazing and glorious it is. I wonder if that is the case with the concept of God saving a people by grace through the vehicle of faith alone. Do we forget how amazing it is that God would save us, not based on doing good things, but on belief?

 

Consider the story of Abram—later Abraham. Abram had been selected by God to carry the blessing of God. In Genesis 12, God promised Abram that it would be through Abram’s family line that the entire world would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Of course, if you read the remainder of chapter 12, you see that Abram immediately doubted the goodness of God so much that he allowed Pharaoh to think that Sarai was his sister instead of his wife, and she was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Thus, we can see that Abram was not a good enough guy to have earned any favor from God. His failure in chapter 12 amounts to a level of spousal abuse that many of us could not imagine.

 

But then comes chapter 15 of Genesis. After things are back to normal for Abram and his wife, God promises Abram that he will have offspring, an entire nation of offspring. There are hints that it will be through Abram’s family line that God will keep his promise to send the ultimate Savior of humanity.

 

Genesis 15:5-6 – 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

 

God took Abram outside one evening, and told Abram to count the stars if he could. Then God told Abram that he would have an uncountable number of offspring from his family line.

 

Now, here is the amazing thing. Feel the strangeness. Abram believed God. That should not amaze you. God is able to do anything. But what is amazing is this: God counted that belief as righteousness.

 

Slow down and consider. Abram was a guilty sinner. He did not deserve goodness from God. He was guilty of at least one thing we would consider vile. Yet, when Abram believed God, simply trusted that God’s promise was true, God treated Abram as if he had been a righteous man. Although Abram was not righteous in himself, God counted his faith as righteousness, and treated him according to the righteousness that God had credited to Abram’s account.

 

Such a crediting of righteousness is amazing, and it is at the core of Christianity. We are not righteous. We have never been righteous. We could never live out righteousness, at least not in a way that would match the standards of God. But God has chosen to credit righteousness to the account of all who will genuinely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Stop, today, and allow yourself to be amazed at the concept of God crediting righteousness to your account if you have come to Jesus in faith. God looks at you, a sinner who has earned his wrath, and sees all the sin in your record. Were our lives handled in accounting terms, we have nothing but negative numbers in our ledger. God, however, looks at those he has drawn to faith in Jesus Christ. And he counts it as if our accounts are all positive numbers, the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He does this, not because we have ever lived out any positives, but because of his grace through faith in Christ. He sees faith and counts it as righteousness.

 

Of course, we need to recognize that none of us come to faith without the saving work of God done in our dead hearts; thus God gets all the glory for being the cause of our salvation. And, we recognize that, once we have saving faith and life in Christ, our lives will change and our lives will begin to be marked by obedience to Christ and his commands. But, the truth must be seen, we should be amazed; God receives faith as if it were lives of righteousness lived out. This is the only way that sinners like us could ever be saved. And it should give us great joy and hope.

Years ago, I read a devotional post by John Piper called “The Great Work of God: Rain” (you should read that post more than this one). In that post, Piper took time to think in depth about how wonderful it is that God designed rain. It is an amazing thing when we consider the great weight of water that is moved from place to place as the Lord cares for the land.

 

Truly, we do not give God the glory he deserves for the weather. We like to fuss about the weather when it is too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too foggy, or whatever. But we seldom remember that God tells us that these things are reminders of his power and glory.

 

Psalm 147:15-18

 

15 He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16 He gives snow like wool;

he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;

who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

 

 

God sends out things that we take for granted. Why do we do so? Perhaps we ignore the glory of God in weather because we see it so often. Perhaps we ignore the glory of God because we think we can explain it. But, should it be true that, if we know how the work is done, it is somehow less miraculous? While we might understand evaporation or coalescence, does that mean we have the ability to make it happen at our will? While we may grasp the crystallization process that makes snow, does that make snow not wonderful and beautiful? While we may be able, with time and resources, to build homes that keep us warm, does that make the cold any less sobering?

 

In Psalm 147, God clearly wanted the simple elements of the weather, snow and wind and rain and the like, to call us to praise him. Sun and clouds, snow and ice, water falling from the sky, all of these are reminders that we live in a world that is bigger than us, stronger than us, greater than us. All of these are a testimony to the greatness of the God who made us. Let us give him proper praise as we see his glory in the weather.

Let’s talk about influence. What influences you? What do you influence? What do you need to allow yourself to experience in order to be able to influence people around you? What is wise?

 

Living in a fallen world is hard. The people of God are supposed to be a holy people, living pure in a fallen world. But, we cannot be a people who run and hide in the mountains, ignoring the culture around us.

 

Sometimes, however, if we are not careful, we will get the mistaken impression that, if we place ourselves in a particular situation, our good intensions will rub off on others more than their negative actions will rub off on us. Have you not ever found yourself more impacted by the world around you then you impact the world?

 

Consider this odd little passage in Haggai 2 about what catches more easily:

 

Haggai 2:11-13 – 11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.”

 

Notice what transfers by touch. If an unclean thing touches a holy vessel, the unclean thing is not made holy. However, if a clean person touches something unclean, they become unclean. Now, I’m quite glad that we are not living in a  world of ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness any longer. I am glad that God, for example, has declared all foods to be clean. But, there is most certainly something for us to learn here from that clean and unclean language.

 

Sinfulness catches easier than holiness. Sickness catches where health does not. Lowering standards spread far easier than raising standards. Houses get dirty naturally and making them clean takes work.

 

As we live, Christians, let us remember that we have to work to not allow ourselves to slide backward. We have to take part in spiritual disciplines to protect ourselves from our natural tendencies to turn away from God. We have to be guarded so as not to adopt the values of a world opposed to the word of the Lord.

 

Now, I’m not recommending a monastic life. Nor am I suggesting a tightness or prudishness in yourself. But, you have to be wise enough to grasp that, if your life is surrounded by the uncleanness of worldly thought, your life will be impacted. If you are passively in the world, you will be influenced far more than you influence.

 

So, may we guard our hearts and our lives. May we watch our minds. May we see to it that we do not allow our lives to be reshaped by the world around us. Instead, may we love the word of God. May we surround ourselves with the people of God. May we be influenced by the things of God. No, we will not hide from the world around us. But, we must be wise enough to love people and understand the world without allowing ourselves to be changed by it. This requires the Spirit of God and a heart that is aware that sin spreads easier than holiness. 

When John the Baptist ministered in Israel, he gained a great deal of popularity. It is hard to say exactly what drew the people to him other than the mysterious work of the Spirit of God. John was not rich. He was not socially slick. He simply told people to repent of their sins and to prepare to meet the Lord’s Messiah.

 

When people came to John, they were making themselves ready, or at least declaring that they were making themselves ready, to meet the promised Savior. It reminds me of Genesis 19, where God commanded the Israelites to wash on the days before he appeared to them on the mountain and delivered the Ten Commandments. The washing was a reminder to the people that they needed to turn from their sins and be cleansed in order to meet the Lord.

 

Keeping all that in mind, it is fascinating to see, in Matthew 3, the two times that John the Baptist objects to baptizing someone. Those objections are very different, and they are very telling.

 

Matthew 3:7 – But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

 

When the religious leaders of John’s day started joining the crowds, John objected. Perhaps John saw that these men were using his baptism as a way to identify with the people and to gain political popularity rather than as a genuine repentance. Certainly John calls them to show genuine repentance before he was in any way ready to baptize them.

 

But then came Jesus. Again John objected. But this time, the objection is far different.

 

Matthew 3:13-14 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

 

This time, John does not call names or find himself offended that an unrepentant sinner is asking for baptism. Instead, John sees Jesus as so very different than all the religious leaders of his time. John actually believes that Jesus is of such a holiness that Jesus should baptize John for repentance, not the other way round.

 

We should learn two things from these two objections of John. From John’s words toward the religious leaders, we need to remember that we are sinners, that we need grace, and that God calls us to repent. God is not at all impressed with a person who refuses to turn from his or her sin and be humble before the Lord.

 

At the same time, we learn from John’s objection to Jesus that Jesus is far greater than any person we have ever met. Whereas the best religious thinkers of John’s day needed to repent, and whereas John—himself a genuine prophet from God—needed to repent, Jesus is holy and perfect. Jesus is God in flesh. He is the perfect Son of God. He lived out perfection and is our only hope to have a right record before the Lord. This objection from John is just one more call for us to turn from our sin and worship the Lord Jesus.

God is good at bringing something glorious out of something that is terribly disappointing. It happens in the lives of his people. It happened in the history of his temple.

 

Haggai 2:9 – The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”

 

During the days of Haggai, the people of Judah were working on finishing the rebuilding of the temple. Under the Babylonian Empire, the temple dedicated by King Solomon was destroyed. After the captured people returned, they were to rebuild that glorious place of worship.

 

Sadly, the house that was rebuilt was far smaller and far less grand than was the original. People wept at the sad little sight when compared to the splendor of Solomon’s temple. And, I am sure, people wondered if things would ever be right for the people of God again.

 

Then God made the promise of verse 9 above. He promised that the glory to come to the temple was greater than anything that the temple had ever seen before. Think of the depth of that promise. When Solomon dedicated the temple, a cloud of the glory of God settled on it. How could this smaller, less beautiful, less magnificent temple experience a greater glory than the cloud?

 

The answer comes in the New Testament. You see, there is a glorious day when the Lord Jesus enters the temple that was dedicated during the days of Haggai. It is nearly five-and-a-half centuries later. King Herod had modified the structure of the temple and the hillside on which it rested. Herod added treasure, but not glory to the temple. But, when the Lord Jesus walked into the temple, the new temple saw something that had never before been experienced. God in flesh, the God-man, walked into the temple. He displayed the glory of God in a new way, an unexpected way. He showed that God had come to rescue his people and to open his family to all nations.

 

What situation do you face that seems irredeemable? Where do you look at a world that is smaller than it should be, less beautiful than it should be, and more hopeless than it should be? Perhaps you can learn from the promise to Haggai fulfilled. God said that he would bring greater glory to that new temple even though it looked impossible. God does that, you know. He fulfills his promises. And, when Jesus enters a life, there is greater glory than you could have ever imagined.

How clear was God’s plan and intent when he sent the Son of God to earth? Did Jesus come to offer a general possibility of salvation, or did he come to save a particular people for himself?

 

Those topics popped up in my mind when reading through Matthew 1 at the beginning of my Bible-in-a-year plan. It’s funny how, even in reading the most familiar passages, sometimes a single word will leap off the page. This time, it was the word “his.”

 

Matthew 1:21 – She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

 

Whom will Jesus save? From what will he save them? Notice that the Scripture is plain. Jesus came to save “his people.” He did not come simply to save a potential people. He did not come to save some people maybe. He came to save his people, people he was already claiming. He came to save them from their sins, not merely to provide a covering for sin in general.

 

O, I know that lots of people have had big theological arguments on this topic, and it’s far from my desire that we have such a fight about it here. However, I do think, for those who see the significance of “his” here, we can rejoice in the glorious plan of God. Jesus came with a specific purpose. He came knowing what he would do. He came intending to save his people, not just people. He had his children in mind. He lived, died, and rose from the grave to rescue, not a faceless mob of those who might come, but individuals like you and like me.

 

I believe that there is glory to be seen in the fact that the Savior came to rescue his people and not just folks in general. I think it is beautiful to know that Jesus took on flesh with a particular purpose that could not be thwarted. He did not fail. He did rescue his people from their sins. And he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

I also would argue that this passage should put fire in our evangelism. There are people out there who will come to Jesus. There are people whose sins are covered by the Savior. We must, absolutely must, present the gospel to people with honesty and clarity. We must call all people to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus for salvation. And, all who turn will find that they were already included in the “his people” for whom the Savior came to die.

Heath Lambert. Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 176 pp. $9.31.

 

Every pastor should have in his library a book or two to help a person who is fighting against the temptation of pornography. Sadly, very few of the books out there are actually helpful. Some books strive so hard to be real and down-to-earth that they actually describe far too much and become salacious. Other books give into modern psychological explanations of addiction and fail to address the deep sin issue at the heart of porn. Still others are so simplistic as not to be useful.

 

In Finally Free, I believe that Heath Lambert has found a solid balance of truth, Scripture, and righteousness that will truly be helpful to someone desiring to repent of watching porn. This book is not given to all the porn horror stories. Nor is it a detailed luck at the harm that the porn industry does. Instead, it is a faithful and honest look at what tools are available to the Christian who desires to live a holy life.

 

Let me share with you a few examples of the kind of wise counsel present in Finally Free. In the first chapter, Lambert challenges people not to become so self-focused in their struggle as to miss that so much of the sin of watching porn is that very self-focus. Lambert writes:

 

“Meditating on how miserable and pathetic you are only perpetuates the sinful self-centeredness that led you to look at pornography in the first place. Condemning self-talk still has you standing center stage as you reflect on what you think about what you have done, and as you describe what you think you deserve because of what you did. It’s all about you. The problem is there is too much you in all this. You need Christ. And the only way to break the vicious cycle is to get outside of yourself to Jesus.”

 

Lambert is so correct there. Too often we will fail in an area of sin, and then spend time attempting to mentally punish ourselves for our failure. While we must not accept and tolerate sinfulness in ourselves, to think that our self-punishment will help us is to deny the gospel and sin further by continuing to place ourselves at the center of our universe.

 

In chapter 7, Lambert addresses the dangerous myopia that can arise as a person struggles against an obvious sin like porn. He shows us that, if we are not careful, we will develop an arrogance in other areas of life as we measure our righteousness or sinfulness against our watching or not watching of porn.   Lambert says:

 

“If you want to cut the root of porn with the ax of humility, you must consider the other sins in your life as well. You are sinful in more ways than one. You have other problems besides the desire to see pornographic images. It will be good for your soul and for your growth in Christ to consider other sins besides the one that has you reading this book. It is humbling to consider other sins for which you need the forgiving and transforming grace of Jesus.”

 

One real piece of wisdom Lambert offers in chapter 6 of this book addresses the role that a man’s wife plays in helping him battle his sin. The author tells us that it is unwise and unhelpful for a wife to attempt to be her husband’s accountability partner, especially in an area like pornography. He is not arguing that a man should not have a solid and challenging accountability partner, but simply that a man’s wife has another role to play. Lambert writes:

 

“You may have noticed that this chapter didn’t address the topic of having your wife be an accountability partner. That’s intentional. I don’t think your wife should fill that role. You should treat your wife as your wife. She should be free to treat you as her husband. It is a deadly poison for a marriage when a wife becomes a cop policing her husband’s activity, asking him all kinds of questions, and examining his Internet reports. Your wife needs to know you have a faithful accountability partner doing those things so she can have peace of mind as she focuses her energy on being married to you.”

 

In chapter 8, Lambert demonstrates to us the connection between gratitude and holiness. One of the failings of the man or woman watching porn is that he or she has stopped being grateful to God for all of the good things that God has given. Instead, the person giving into the desire to see what is not right to see has decided that God’s good gifts are not good enough. Lambert says it this way:

 

“Porn is only consumed by thankless people. The desire for porn is a desire to escape from what the Lord has given you into a fake universe full of things you do not have and will never have. Porn is the trading of gratitude for greed. Porn trades joy in the reality God has graced you with for greed in the counterfeit world he has not. Defeating porn requires a grateful consideration of God’s good gifts to you.”

 

Finally, in the conclusion of the book, Lambert brings the arguments of the nine solid chapters to bear. Christians are called by God to fight the good fight against sin with the tools God has given us. Those tools include grace, sorrow, accountability, confession, your spouse or singleness, humility, gratitude, and a dynamic relationship with Christ. Of course, there are still other tools we can use, but God has given us enough to battle and defeat this sin through the power of his word, his holy Spirit, and our local church. As Lambert says to us:

 

“Christian, hear the Word of God: the impurity of pornography stands in direct opposition to who you are in Christ. The blood of Jesus beckons you to holiness. You are summoned to look like Jesus. Therefore you must flee from living like an unbeliever and inflicting sexual harm on others. You must run passionately away from porn and toward holiness, love, self-control, and grace.”

    

I hope that the above insights will be enough to help my readers to see that I believe Finally Free to be a solid, go-to work to help men and women in the battle against pornography. Pastors, men’s groups, accountability groups, youth groups, biblical counselors, husbands, and wives all may find ways for this book to be useful. It is biblically faithful and strong. It is also helpful for more than those who struggle with porn, as its principles of repentance and accountability are genuinely helpful for a variety of our struggles. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

If you are a Christian, consider your salvation. Consider when it occurred. Consider when it was determined that you would be rescued by God. Consider these two verses in the book of Revelation:

 

Revelation 13:8 – AND all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

 

Revelation 17:8 – The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

 

Twice in Revelation, we see the concept of God writing the names of people in the book of life from before the foundation of the world. At the same time, we see that there are those whose names were not written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. Clearly, we must grasp that something happened before creation that has to do with our salvation.

 

Did you think that your salvation came about as God’s plan B? Did you think that God, after the fall of man, looked down and chose to make a rescue plan? Such would be false, very false. God planned salvation history before creation.

 

How about taking some personal credit for your salvation? After all, you were smart enough to believe and turn to Jesus while so many others are too rebellious to do so? Such an opinion is drastically unbiblical (see Ephesians 2:8-9). No, we are not saved because we were smart enough or good enough. If we take Revelation seriously, we will see that, if we are saved, we are saved because God wrote our names in his book before all of history began. God chose a people for himself before he set the planets spinning.

 

What does this thought do to our pride and what does it do to our evangelism? It should crush any vestige of pride in us. We are saved, if we are saved, because of God’s mighty and sovereign will. That is not to say that we did not make a choice; we did. But, it is to say that we could not have made a choice that was right without God first moving us. If we have to ask whose will is ultimate in our salvation, we should recognize that it is God’s will that is ultimate, which is what makes grace gracious.

 

What does this do to our evangelism? It should actually make our evangelism more joyful and confident. You see, there are people in the world whose names are already in the book of life. We need to go and find them. WE need to tell them the truth. We need to call them to repentance. Since we do not know whose names are in the book, we tell everybody. And we make an honest offer: If you will turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, you will be saved. That offer is absolutely genuine, as all who turn from their sins and trust in Jesus will be saved. Such people will find that their names have been in God’s book of life from eternity past. Yet, their choice to trust in Jesus and turn from their sin will be completely authentic, a true decision, even if God was sovereign over it.

 

There are so many questions that people raise in this discussion, and that is not the point of my post. So, let’s not have any arguments that start with, “But you haven’t thought about…” Here is what I know. All whose names are in the book of life from before the foundation of the world will be saved. Thus, if I am saved, I owe all gratitude to the God who chose to write my name in his book before I ever existed. And, I share the gospel with others all around me because I know that those who turn to Jesus for salvation will be rescued by God in just the same way.

What a strange world we live in. I thought things were weird on election day as the results rolled in and the left was shocked—not to mention many on the right. A man was elected president who, it must be said, is at best a flawed candidate. At worst, many people believe that the world is collapsing around us.

 

Now, consider the pattern. We cry out that we do not like the world the way that it is. We fuss and fight and scheme and plot and cry and protest and press and argue and write post after post after post on what is wrong. Some demand justice. Some demand a recount. Some demand that the media stop being so dishonest. Some demand that the media take the president-elect down another peg. Some demand that people give the president-elect a fair chance. Some demand that people stop buying into the lies of the news media with its liberal slant. Some demand that people stop listening to backward-minded people who could elect such a person. We ask God to intervene. We hope the Russians have not already intervened. We cry out, “How can this be?”

 

Now, consider the story of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was a prophet who saw around him an unjust and corrupt world. In chapters 1 and 2 of his little Old Testament book, he decried the lack of justice. He wanted God to step in and take action. He asked God where the justice was. And God answered. God told him that he was about to use the Chaldeans, the Babylonian Empire, to judge the cruel people whose sinfulness had so offended Habakkuk. But the prophet couldn’t believe it. “What! The Chaldeans,” he might have said, “they’re worse than us. How could you use them?” And God made it clear that he would also judge the Chaldeans for their wickedness after using them to judge the people of the land.

 

At the end of the day, Habakkuk found himself in a position of wonder. How could God do what he had planned? How could God not? Habakkuk knew that judgment needed to come. He knew that God’s righteousness needed to be shown. He knew that such would cause hardship on the people. Then he found out that God would use a radically unrighteous people to bring about his plan. At the end of the day, all Habakkuk could do is tremble all the while expressing a genuine confidence in the goodness of God to get things right in a seemingly irredeemable situation.

 

Hear the words that close Habakkuk’s prophecy: 

 

Habakkuk 3:16-19

 

16 I hear, and my body trembles;

my lips quiver at the sound;

rottenness enters into my bones;

my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

to come upon people who invade us.

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

19 God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer’s;

he makes me tread on my high places.

 

What did Habakkuk do in the face of his political nightmare? He trusted the Lord. He admitted his fear. Then he declared that, no matter how hard things Got, he would trust that God is good and God is in control. Even in hardships and frustrations, Habakkuk would rejoice in the goodness and perfection and character of God.

 

Shall we learn from the prophet? I hope so. Do we, as a nation deserve the judgment of God because of our sinfulness? Absolutely. Are we crying out to God to change our situation? Without question. Is it feasible that a rotten political leader might be exactly the tool God will use to reshape our country? Of course. Is it possible that God will radically reshape the political leader to make him different than many expect. You bet. Can we know what God will do for sure? Not at all. Should we tolerate evil activity from our leaders? No way. Should we oppose the flaws in our president-elect’s character that are clear for all to see? Yep. But, should that keep us from praying for his good, asking God to change him, and pleading with the Lord for mercy on him and on our nation? Nope.

 

At the end of the day, may we be like Habakkuk, turning to the Lord, seeking his mercy, and trusting him no matter how weird things around us get. If God used Babylon to accomplish his will, and then brought judgment on Babylon for the way they sinned in the process, we must recognize that he is wiser and greater than any of our plans. So, in the face of the unknown, let us say, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength…”

The modern depiction of God is quite often a depiction of a deity without any form of wrath or judgment. In general, people, when talking about their vision of what God must be like, will describe a character who is strong and giving, kind without interfering, open to all sorts of new ideas and ways, and who would not actually—not really actually—pass judgment on someone who is trying their best, or at least trying a little.

 

Of course, such a picture of God is false and unhelpful, though many do not see it. The picture is unhelpful because it fails to consider the depth of humanity’s cruelty. A wrathless deity has no recourse for the deep evil of humanity. It seems all well and good to deny the judgment of God, but what do you do when faced with a genocidal maniac? What do you do when confronted with a Hitler, a Stalin, a murderous mob boss, a child-kidnapping human trafficker? Obviously, then, our hearts cry for judgment, at least for judgment of a sort.

 

To believe that God is not in control or not able or willing to judge leaves us in a state where the existence of God is an irrelevancy. That, of course, is part of why our world likes to play with spirituality without defining the boundaries of faith, truth, or even justice. We only cry for justice when we see something terrible happen. Then, when we cry for it, humanity often points a finger at what they perceive to be their deity and ask why he did not fix the problem—even though they originally assumed him to be unwilling to judge and unable to participate in human affairs.

 

Yes, the non-judgmental, passive deity of modern imagination is not helpful. But there is something even worse than that being as unsatisfying: He does not exist. The Bible’s picture of God is not one of passivity. The Bible does not give us a picture of a God who is unwilling to judge. Just consider the revelation of God in the Old Testament book of Nahum.

 

Nahum is a prophet who spoke out against the city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. You may know of that city from the adventures of the prophet Jonah, the one who ran away from God only to be turned back to his proper course by being swallowed by a fish. Jonah preached against Nineveh, and, for a time, the people repented of their brutality and cruelty.

 

But, by the time Nahum is on the stage, the empire has gotten back to their unimaginable human cruelty. These people were the worst of the worst in their day, brutally torturing and killing those they conquered.

 

The modern depiction of a wrathless deity has nothing to offer those oppressed by the Assyrian blood lust. But the genuine God of the Bible has something to say.

 

Nahum 1:2-4

 

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

 

As Nahum’s prophecy opens, he calls on the people to realize that God has wrath, real, genuine, city-crushing wrath. God is slow to anger. He is patient. But, when the rubber hits the road, or when the refuse hits the fan, the God of the Bible will judge. His judgment will be strong, swift, irreversible, and unbearable.

 

Nahum 1:7-9

 

7 The Lord is good,

a stronghold in the day of trouble;

he knows those who take refuge in him.

8 But with an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9 What do you plot against the Lord?

He will make a complete end;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

 

God is going to judge. He points out that nobody can plot against him. Nobody can withstand his judgment. It will be like a sweeping flood. Enemies of the Lord will not stand.

 

Notice, however, even in the midst of the prophecy of coming judgment, Nahum highlights the fact that God is good. The wrath of God is no knock on his goodness. No matter what modern folks thing they want in a deity, a truly good God will judge. He must judge. He cannot ignore evil. To ignore evil, to let it go unpunished, would be the opposite of every bit of the character of God as revealed in Scripture. And, to ignore evil would go against what, if we were honest, we know must be true and right.

 

So, what do we take away from these thoughts. First, God is a judge, and this is good. It is both biblical and satisfying, even if it is terrifying to those of us who realize we are sinners. We are not the masters of the universe. We are not little kings and queens of creation who get to make our own rules. We are to be under the rule of a sovereign God. To fail to get under his mercy is to invite his judgment.

 

And, we take from this a joyful hope in the grace of God also presented right here in a passage full of judgment. In verse 7, Nahum told us, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” There is refuge to be found in the Lord. There is mercy for those who are willing, in obedience to his command, to come to him in faith and repentance. God would not be good if he never judged. But God is good when he shows mercy to those who run to him, getting under his authority and seeking his mercy. The judgment deserved by all God forgives was poured out on Jesus on the cross. The judgment for those who refuse God’s grace, who ignore his word, who turn away from him and make up a deity of their own design will fall directly on them as it fell on Nineveh. But the mercy of God is extended to all who will run to him and find grace in Christ. Thus, we can see that there is a genuine wrath in a genuinely good God.