Month: August 2024

The Relentless Will of God

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1 These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, 2 the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; 3 the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; 4 six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. 5 These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel; 6 then Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, 7 Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, 8 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine. 9 All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.

10 The son of Solomon was Rehoboam, Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, 11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, 12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, 13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, 14 Amon his son, Josiah his son. 15 The sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. 16 The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son; 17 and the sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son, 18 Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah; 19 and the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei; and the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister; 20 and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed, five. 21 The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, his son Rephaiah, his son Arnan, his son Obadiah, his son Shecaniah. 22 The son of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. And the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat, six. 23 The sons of Neariah: Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three. 24 The sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani, seven. – 1 Chronicles 3:1-24 ESV

At this point, the chronicler picks up his genealogical record with the line of David and takes it all through way through the post-exilic period. This chapter provides important details concerning God’s miraculous preservation of the Davidic line despite the nation’s seven-decades-long exile in Babylon. God had made a covenant promise to David and nothing, including the fall of the kingdom of Judah and the deportation of its people to Babylon, would prevent Him from keeping His word.

“‘Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline him with the rod, like any father would do. But my favor will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’” – 2 Samuel 7:11-16 NLT

After the people of Israel returned to Judah under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, they had to wonder whether God was going to be able to keep David’s line alive. As they assessed their situation, it was not difficult to see that they had no king, Davidic or otherwise. God’s promise to secure David’s throne forever seems to have come to an abrupt and ignominious end when Zedekiah was dethroned and blinded by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The Book of 2 Kings provides the sordid details.

So on January 15, during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls. Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign. – 2 Kings 25:1-12 NLT

They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. – 2 Kings 25:6-7 NLT

Yet, the chronicler wanted his readers to know that God had not forgotten His promise and had preserved the line of David all throughout their years in exile. Verses 17-24 of 1 Chronicles contain the David line as traced through Jehoiachin. His reign preceded that of Zedekiah and was short-lived. Ascending the throne of David at the age of 18, Jehoiachin reigned for only three months and “did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father had done” (2 Kings 24:9 NLT). It was during Jehoiachin’s reign that Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem and it didn’t take long for the young king to lose hope and surrender.

Nebuchadnezzar led King Jehoiachin away as a captive to Babylon, along with the queen mother, his wives and officials, and all Jerusalem’s elite. He also exiled 7,000 of the best troops and 1,000 craftsmen and artisans, all of whom were strong and fit for war. Then the king of Babylon installed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, as the next king, and he changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah. – 2 Kings 24:15-17 NLT

It’s interesting to note that Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah and Coniah) had received a prophecy from Jeremiah that detailed his eventual capture by Nebuchadnezzar.

“As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “I will abandon you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off. I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you, those you so desperately fear—to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the mighty Babylonian army. I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land. You will never again return to the land you yearn for.

“Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar?
    Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
O earth, earth, earth!
    Listen to this message from the Lord!
This is what the Lord says:
‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless.
    He is a failure,
for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David
    to rule over Judah.’” – Jeremiah 22:24-30 NLT

According to Jeremiah, God decreed that Jehoiachin would be childless, yet the chronicler states that seven sons were born to him during his exile in Babylon.

The sons of Jehoiachin, who was taken prisoner by the Babylonians, were Shealtiel, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. – 1 Chronicles 3:17-18 NLT

This isn’t a typo or a so-called contradiction in Scripture, it was God’s way of saying that none of Jehoiachin’s sons would become heirs to his throne. Jeremiah makes that point quite clear when he writes that “none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David to rule over Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30 NLT). Yet, the chronicler states that Pedaiah, one of Jehoiachin’s sons, fathered two boys named Zerubbabel and Shimei. The first of these sons would end up playing an important role in the return of the exiles to Judah.

Here is the list of the Jewish exiles of the provinces who returned from their captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had deported them to Babylon, but now they returned to Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah where they originally lived. Their leaders were Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. – Ezra 2:1-2 NLT

According to the prophet Haggai, Zerubbabel went on to become the governor of Judah (Haggai 2:21). So, while he did not inherit his grandfather’s throne, he did play an important role in providing leadership within the restored kingdom of Judah. More importantly, Zerubbabel’s name appears in the lineage of Jesus.

After the Babylonian exile:
Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Akim.
Akim was the father of Eliud.
Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah. – Matthew 1:12-16 NLT

Of course, this passage presents another seeming contradiction. It lists Zerubbabel as the son of Shealtiel, while the chronicler states that Pedaiah was his father. The books of Haggai, Nehemiah, Ezra, Matthew, and Luke also list Shealtiel as the father. So, was the chronicler mistaken? While it would be easy to write this off as a scribal error, it makes more sense to consider the possibility that Zerubbabel was the byproduct of levirate marriage. If Shealtiel died without having a son, his brother Pedaiah would have been obligated by law to take Shealtiel’s widow as his wife so that she could bear an heir to her deceased husband’s line. Shealthiel would have been Zerubbabel’s legal father, while Pedaiah was his biological father. During their exile in Babylon, Shealtiel served as the second Exilarch (or king-in-exile). With the return to Judah, Zerubbabel assumed his father’s leadership role, serving as governor.

But the most important detail to consider is that Zerubbabel is included in the line of Jesus, the Messiah. God would use this descendant of David and the grandson of the discredited Jehoiachin to bring about the birth of the Messiah. Not only that, Zerubbabel would be used by God to rebuild the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

“This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’” – Zechariah 4:6-7 NLT

Zechariah went on to say, “Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand” (Zechariah 4:9-10 NLT).

The Temple would be rebuilt and the sacrificial system would be reinstituted. God had taken His rebellious people and restored them to the land and graciously allowed them to renew their relationship with Him. But He was far from done. From those small beginnings, God would accomplish greater things than they could ever imagine. Even while they were in exile, God spoke to His people through the prophet Jeremiah, assuring them of His unwavering love and unstoppable plans for them.

“You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” – Jeremiah 29:10-14 NLT

Little did the returned exiles know the extent of the plans God had in store for them. They had no way of knowing that their temporary governor, who happened to be the grandson of the evil and discredited Jehoiachin, would be used by God to bring about their long-awaited Messiah. Zerubbabel would be instrumental in rebuilding the Temple so that the people of Israel could enjoy a restored relationship with God. But it would be Zerubbabel’s descendant, Jesus, who would become the living Temple and provide the final sacrifice needed to restore sinful men to a right relationship with the Father. Jesus alluded to this in His message to the religious leaders of His day.

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. – John 2:18-22 NLT

From this lengthy and somewhat boring list of names comes a stunning reminder that God is sovereign over all things. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and in complete control over the affairs of men. Wicked kings cannot thwart His plans. The deportation of an entire nation cannot alter His will or derail His intentions. His will will be done. And as the Book of Revelation reminds us, the Messiah, the descendant of Zerubbabel, will one day become the true and everlasting Temple of God on earth.

I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. – Revelation 21:22-27 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Inexplicable Ways of God

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1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, 2 Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 3 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan and Shelah; these three Bath-shua the Canaanite bore to him. Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death. 4 His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.

5 The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. 6 The sons of Zerah: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara, five in all. 7 The son of Carmi: Achan, the troubler of Israel, who broke faith in the matter of the devoted thing; 8 and Ethan’s son was Azariah.

9 The sons of Hezron that were born to him: Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai. 10 Ram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, prince of the sons of Judah. 11 Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, 12 Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse. 13 Jesse fathered Eliab his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimea the third, 14 Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, 15 Ozem the sixth, David the seventh. 16 And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. The sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, three. 17 Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.

18 Caleb the son of Hezron fathered children by his wife Azubah, and by Jerioth; and these were her sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon. 19 When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur. 20 Hur fathered Uri, and Uri fathered Bezalel.

21 Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub. 22 And Segub fathered Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead. 23 But Geshur and Aram took from them Havvoth-jair, Kenath, and its villages, sixty towns. All these were descendants of Machir, the father of Gilead. 24 After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.

25 The sons of Jerahmeel, the firstborn of Hezron: Ram, his firstborn, Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. 26 Jerahmeel also had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam. 27 The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel: Maaz, Jamin, and Eker. 28 The sons of Onam: Shammai and Jada. The sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur. 29 The name of Abishur’s wife was Abihail, and she bore him Ahban and Molid. 30 The sons of Nadab: Seled and Appaim; and Seled died childless. 31 The son of Appaim: Ishi. The son of Ishi: Sheshan. The son of Sheshan: Ahlai. 32 The sons of Jada, Shammai’s brother: Jether and Jonathan; and Jether died childless. 33 The sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were the descendants of Jerahmeel. 34 Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters, but Sheshan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. 35 So Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his slave, and she bore him Attai. 36 Attai fathered Nathan, and Nathan fathered Zabad. 37 Zabad fathered Ephlal, and Ephlal fathered Obed. 38 Obed fathered Jehu, and Jehu fathered Azariah. 39 Azariah fathered Helez, and Helez fathered Eleasah. 40 Eleasah fathered Sismai, and Sismai fathered Shallum. 41 Shallum fathered Jekamiah, and Jekamiah fathered Elishama.

42 The sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel: Mareshah his firstborn, who fathered Ziph. The son of Mareshah: Hebron. 43 The sons of Hebron: Korah, Tappuah, Rekem and Shema. 44 Shema fathered Raham, the father of Jorkeam; and Rekem fathered Shammai. 45 The son of Shammai: Maon; and Maon fathered Beth-zur. 46 Ephah also, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez; and Haran fathered Gazez. 47 The sons of Jahdai: Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah, and Shaaph. 48 Maacah, Caleb’’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah. 49 She also bore Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbenah and the father of Gibea; and the daughter of Caleb was Achsah. 50 These were the descendants of Caleb.

The sons of Hur the firstborn of Ephrathah: Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim, 51 Salma, the father of Bethlehem, and Hareph the father of Beth-gader. 52 Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim had other sons: Haroeh, half of the Menuhoth. 53 And the clans of Kiriath-jearim: the Ithrites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; from these came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites. 54 The sons of Salma: Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab and half of the Manahathites, the Zorites. 55 The clans also of the scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites and the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab. – 1 Chronicles 2:1-55 ESV

Once again, the chronicler provides us with another lengthy genealogical record filled with meaningless names and mind-numbing details about who beget who. Yet, this list contains more than a few names that should be familiar even to a contemporary reader. He begins with the sons of Isaac: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. From these men came the 12 tribes of Israel, and their descendants were the ones to who this book was written. Every individual to whom this genealogical record was read would have been a proud member of one of the tribes of Israel and an heir of the promise that God had made to their forefather, Jacob.

God blessed him, saying, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. From now on your name will be Israel.” So God renamed him Israel.

Then God said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Be fruitful and multiply. You will become a great nation, even many nations. Kings will be among your descendants! And I will give you the land I once gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and your descendants after you.” – Genesis 35:10-12 NLT

As this motley group of Israelites stood in the land of Israel, faced with the prospect of trying to rebuild their former nation and reestablish their ownership of the land, they needed a reminder of their covenant relationship with God. But there is something even more important that the author wants his readers to know. In detailing the lineage of Israel (Jacob), he begins with Judah rather than Reuben, the firstborn. Then he brings up a rather unflattering episode in the life of Judah by reminding his readers that Judah had a son named Er, who “was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death” (1 Chronicles 2:3 ESV).

Why would the author begin with this less-than-encouraging recounting of Er’s death? If we turn to the Genesis account of this story, we get little in the way of details regarding Er’s sin.

In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. – Genesis 38:6-7 NLT

It seems likely that this brief aside was intended to emphasize God’s disdain for wickedness of any kind. He hated evil and was quick to purge it from among His people. The original audience of this book would have had firsthand experience with God’s hatred for sin because they had spent 70 years living in exile as a result of their rebellion against Him. So, this one-line note was probably intended as a not-so-subtle reminder to the Israelites that if they wanted to experience God’s blessings in the land,  they would need to avoid wickedness and live in obedience to God’s commands.

After briefly recognizing Er’s sin, the author describes the births of Perez and Zerah, the twin sons born to Isaac and Tamar. But even this more uplifting historical note comes with its own set of uncomfortable and unflattering baggage and is tied directly to the death of Er.

Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.”

But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too. – Genesis 38:8-10 NLT

 Tamar, the wife of Er, found herself a grieving widow for the second time. Jacob, who had lost two sons, was at a loss as to what to do with Tamar. According to the Genesis account, he was afraid that Tamar might be cursed. He was obligated to care for his daughter-in-law and the practice of levirate marriage was common in his day. This ancient code of conduct required the unmarried brother of a deceased man to take his widow as a bride. This would provide an heir for the deceased brother, keeping his lineage alive and assuring the widow and her offspring of an inheritance.

But, fearing the loss of yet another son, Jacob came up with a plan to send Tamar away with the promise that he would reward her with marriage to his son, Shelah.

“Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home. – Genesis 38:11 NLT

Jacob had no intention of following through with his commitment. Instead, he hoped that Tamar would return home and allow her family to provide for her needs. But as the story goes, Tamar did not forget Jacob’s promise and grew impatient with the constant delays. When Shelah came of age, no marriage arrangements were made. So, she took matters into her own hands and came up with a plan to rectify the injustice Jacob had done to her. To make a long story short, Tamar got even with Jacob.

Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but no arrangements had been made for her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law. – Genesis 38:14-16 NLT

Through a series of convoluted events, Jacob unwittingly slept with Tamar and she became pregnant. When he became aware that he had committed incest with his own daughter-in-law, he exclaimed, “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah” (Genesis 38:26 NLT). He took Tamar as his wife but never had sexual relations with her again. He also adopted her two sons as his own. But the story doesn’t end there. Perez went on to have a son named Hezron (verse 5). Hezron would grow up and father three sons, one of whom was named Ram.

The sons of Hezron were Jerahmeel, Ram, and Caleb.

Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, a leader of Judah.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz.
Boaz was the father of Obed.
Obed was the father of Jesse. – 1 Chronicles 2:9-12 NLT

Jesse would go on to sire seven sons, the last of whom was David. The Book of Ruth includes a very similar genealogical record that outlines the line from Perez to David.

This is the genealogical record of their ancestor Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram.
Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz.
Boaz was the father of Obed.
Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David. – Ruth 4:18-22 NLT

The stories of Er, Onan, Ruth, and Tamar are meant to remind the people of Israel that their existence was not the byproduct of fate or blind luck. They are part of a long legacy that was the result of divine oversight and sovereign planning. They weren’t just any nation, they were the chosen people of God and the heirs of His promises. Their return to the land had been God’s doing, just as their exile to Babylon had been part of His overall will for their lives. And He was not yet done.

“One of the major themes of Chronicles is that the Davidic dynasty would be the instrument through which God promised that salvation and blessing would come to Israel and through Israel to the whole world. The final Davidic king, Jesus Christ, was the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) as well as the Person who would fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants completely.” – Thomas L. Constable, Study Notes of 1 Chronicles

The rest of the chapter traces the other sons born to Hezron. This lengthy list of unknown individuals provides a more in-depth description of the sons of Judah born through the line of Perez.

“These obscure names connected with the tribe of Judah are listed for an important general reason. Most of the returning exiles in the general time Chronicles was written were connected to the tribe of Judah.” – David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary of 1 Chronicles

According to Ezra 1:5, those who returned from exile in Babylon were primarily members of the tribe of Judah.

Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. – Ezra 1:5 NLT

That is why the chronicler spends so much time unpacking the lineage of the tribe of Judah. He wants his readers to understand that they are part of a rich heritage that goes all the way back to Perez. Despite the dark blots on their family tree, God has blessed them and returned them to the land. He has sovereignly arranged for their release from captivity and their safe travel back to the land of Judah. This ragtag group of former slaves will be used to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem. They will reinstate the sacrificial system and repopulate the land with more of their kind. This was going to be a new beginning and God had plans in store for them that were far beyond anything they could imagine.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

When We Lose Our Identity

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28 The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. 29 These are their genealogies: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 30 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, 31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael. 32 The sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan. 33 The sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the descendants of Keturah.

34 Abraham fathered Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel. 35 The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. 36 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz, and of Timna, Amalek. 37 The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

38 The sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. 39 The sons of Lotan: Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. 40 The sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. 41 The son of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. 42 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

43 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the people of Israel: Bela the son of Beor, the name of his city being Dinhabah. 44 Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place. 45 Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place. 46 Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place, the name of his city being Avith. 47 Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. 48 Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates reigned in his place. 49 Shaul died, and Baal-hanan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his place. 50 Baal-hanan died, and Hadad reigned in his place, the name of his city being Pai; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 51 And Hadad died.

The chiefs of Edom were: chiefs Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, 52 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, 53 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, 54 Magdiel, and Iram; these are the chiefs of Edom. – 1 Chronicles 1:28-54 ESV

Paul wrote the following words of encouragement to his young protégé, Timothy:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. – 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT

Little did he know at the time that his own words would eventually be included in the canon of Scripture and considered to be the inspired words of God. But when Paul wrote to Timothy and referenced the trustworthiness and God-inspired power of the Scriptures, he had the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible in mind, what we now refer to as the Old Testament.

Paul’s wholehearted commendation of the Hebrew Bible should give us pause when encountering the lengthy genealogies in 1 Chronicles. Most modern readers find these extended lists of unfamiliar names difficult to read and far from inspiring or helpful to their faith journey. But Paul would beg to differ. He believed that all Scripture was penned under the inspiration of God’s Spirit and intended for the edification and spiritual advancement of His people. Each word and every sentence was recorded and preserved by God as part of His divine revelation to mankind.

But the nine chapters of unrecognizable and unpronounceable names found in the Book of 1 Chronicles test our belief in Paul’s assessment. These genealogies tend to make no sense to us and they seem to serve no purpose. But to the chronicler’s original audience, they provided a lifeline back to their heritage as God’s chosen people. They had returned to the land of promise after 70 years of forced exile in Babylon. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple itself. But they were a ragtag remnant living in a city that still showed the signs of the Babylonian destruction and the years of neglect as the people languished in captivity.

When these chapters were penned, the Israelites were worshiping in a recently rebuilt Temple that was a mere shadow of its former glory. The once-powerful nation of Israel was weak, impoverished, and virtually defenseless. They had no king or army. They were surrounded by powerful enemies and faced the insurmountable task of reestablishing themselves in the land. Most of them had not been alive when David and Solomon had reigned over Israel. They had never seen the magnificent Temple that Solomon constructed. When they walked back into the land of Judah, their eyes were met by scenes of destruction and devastation. After seven decades of living as slaves in a foreign land, these disenfranchised people were more Babylonian than Jewish. They had lost their bearings and forgotten their rich heritage as the sons and daughters of Abraham.

So the chronicler began his book by giving his readers an extended history lesson designed to reestablish their identity as God’s chosen people. He takes them all the way back to Adam, the first man, as a reminder that they too were created in the image of God. As human beings, they represented the apex of God’s creation. But the descendants of Adam sinned against God and brought down His judgment. This led to God to choose Noah and his three sons as the means by which He would repopulate the earth with a new generation of men and women made in His image.

For the sake of his Hebrew audience, the author fast-forwarded to the life of Abraham, their patriarch and the father of their people. From this one man came the nation of the Israelites and every man and woman who read these genealogical lists could find his or her lineage outlined somewhere in the opening chapters of this book. They were part of the ongoing story of God’s people.

But more than that, they shared a heritage with David, the great king of Israel, to whom God had promised to give a long-lasting dynasty. One of David’s descendants was to sit on the throne of Israel again. But at the time of the writing of 1 Chronicles, the people of God were living in Jerusalem and worshiping at the Temple, but they had no king. They were weak, defenseless, and surrounded by enemies who were less-than-ecstatic that they had returned to the land. But the chronicler wanted them to understand their unique status as God’s chosen people. Much of what he wrote in this book was designed to show them who they were, how they got to be in the state they were in, and what they needed to do to see their circumstances change. Their current situation was the direct result of their own unfaithfulness and disobedience. They were reaping the results of their failure to seek God. So the chronicler wants them to understand that, as God’s people, they must return to Him, and live as the true heirs of Israel.

God’s hand had been on Israel from the very beginning. The lists of genealogies start with Adam and clearly reveal God’s sovereign choice of Abraham and His divine selection of David. He had been active all along the way, orchestrating events in such a way that the nation of Israel would be His chosen people. And despite what would be a lengthy track record of disobedience and rebellion against His will and authority, God eventually restored His disobedient children to the land He had promised to give them as their inheritance. While they had failed to live up to His expectations and commands, He had kept His promises to them. He had miraculously provided the means by which the Temple could be rebuilt and the sacrificial system restored. He used a pagan king to make possible the return of His people to the land and the funding of the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem and the reconstruction of the Temple itself. The Temple was a symbol of God’s divine presence and a reminder of God’s willingness to provide forgiveness for sin and restoration to a right relationship to Him through the sacrificial system. But as the people of God, they would have to live in obedience to His commands, faithfully seeking His face and worshiping according to His standards, not their own.

After 70 years in exile, it would have been easy for the people of God to forget their identity. Most of those who returned to the land of Israel had probably been born in Babylon, and were seeing the land of promise for the first time. They had no recollection of how things used to be and no concept of the former glory of Jerusalem or the magnificence of the original Temple. They had long forgotten their unique status as the children of God. Theirs had been a life of slavery, servitude, and suffering, and while they were now living back in the land, they were doing so as a weakened, impoverished, and powerless people who had no king, no army, and no apparent hope for the future. But the chronicler takes time to remind them of their heritage. He wants them to understand the significance of who they are and the reality of their relationship with God.

Paul does a similar thing when writing to the believers in Ephesus. He reminds them, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV). Then he adds those two powerful words, “But God…”

Amid our former position as sin-ravaged, spiritually lifeless, flesh-driven dead men, God showered us with His mercy and grace, providing us with salvation through Christ “even when we were dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4 ESV). He gave us new life. He provided us with new hope. As a result, Paul exhorts his readers to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1 ESV). He challenges them to live up to their new status as God’s chosen people. Their lives were to be marked by humility, gentleness, patience, forebearance, love, unity, and a mutual commitment to spiritual growth and maturity. Their conduct and speech were to be different. Their lifestyle was to emulate that of Christ. They bore the name of Christ and shared His status as children of God. So they were to live accordingly, putting off their old nature and putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24 ESV).

As a child of God, I am to live differently. I must recognize my position as His son and walk in a manner worthy of my calling as His adopted child. My unique status should be apparent in my behavior. Paul told his readers to put away falsehood, speak the truth, not let their anger turn to sin, resist Satan, stop stealing, work honestly, talk righteously, extend grace, and stop grieving the Holy Spirit. He was very specific and it was likely because his readers had been used to living in such a way that their lives had been marked by behavior that was unChrist-like and unflattering to their role as God’s chosen people. As God’s sons and daughters, our behavior must reflect our beliefs. Our comportment must match our confession. We must live or walk in a manner worthy of our calling and in honor of the name of Christ.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Heirs of the Promise

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1 Adam, Seth, Enosh; 2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; 4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

5 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 6 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 7 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.

8 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 9 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 10 Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man.

11 Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 12 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

13 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, 14 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 15 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 16 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.

17 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. And the sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. 18 Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. 19 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg (for in his days the earth was divided), and his brother’s name was Joktan. 20 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 21 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 22 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 23 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

24 Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah; 25 Eber, Peleg, Reu; 26 Serug, Nahor, Terah; 27 Abram, that is, Abraham. – 1 Chronicles 1:1-27 ESV

I know what you’re thinking. Why in the world did God include this chapter in the Bible? What could possibly be the purpose of this mind-numbing list of hard-to-pronounce names? But we have to keep in mind the original author’s intent and who his original audience would have been.

For us, as modern-day Christians, these names mean next to nothing, except for the occasional reference to Adam, Abraham, and Isaac. But even though we know who these men were, we aren’t exactly sure what they have to do with us. But the Chronicler was writing to a particular audience for whom this list would have had real significance. It is believed that the books of Chronicles were the last books written in the Old Testament. They would have been penned after the people of Israel had returned to the Promised Land from Babylon where they had been exiled by God for their disobedience. Upon their return, they would have been suffering from a kind of identity crisis. Many of them would have been born in exile, having never set foot in the land of Canaan before. Now here they were, living in the land of “promise.” What did that mean to them? Where was the promise? They would have returned weak and powerless to a land that was desolate with the vast majority of its cities decimated and in disrepair.  This would have been a whole new land to them and they would have felt like strangers in their own home. Their collective experience would have been much like that of a prisoner released after 70 years in confinement and allowed to return home. He would feel like an alien even in his own home.

So the writer of Chronicles begins by reminding his readers of their heritage. They needed to remember their rich heritage and their unique relationship to the God of their ancestors. Yahweh had a plan for them.

During their lengthy stay in Babylon, God had sent them a message through Jeremiah the prophet.

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 10-11 NLT

Now that plan had come to fruition. Their detour into captivity had not changed God’s original plan. Beginning with Adam, the author takes them through the genealogy of Adam, Abraham, and Isaac, all the way to David, all the while giving them a history lesson in who they were and what God was doing in their midst. He reminds them that as the descendants of Abraham and Isaac, they were the chosen people of God. He is also going to remind them about the former Temple and the sacrificial system God ordained to take place there. He is going to remind them of their covenant relationship with God as descendants of Abraham. David was their covenant king whom God had placed over them and through his lineage would come the ultimate Shepherd/King, the Messiah.

“The purpose of these two volumes [1 and 2 Chronicles] is to review the history of Israel from the dawn of the human race to the Babylonian captivity and Cyrus’ edict of restoration. This review is composed with a very definite purpose in mind, to give to the Jews of the Second Commonwealth the true spiritual foundations of their theocracy as the covenant people of Jehovah. This historian’s purpose is to show that the true glory of the Hebrew nation was found in its covenant relationship to God, as safeguarded by the prescribed forms of worship in the temple and administered by the divinely ordained priesthood under the protection of the divinely authorized dynasty of David. Always the emphasis is upon that which is sound and valid in Israel’s past as furnishing a reliable basis for the task of reconstruction which lay ahead. Great stress is placed upon the rich heritage of Israel and its unbroken connection with the patriarchal beginnings (hence the prominence accorded to genealogical lists).” – Gleason L. Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction

Having just recently returned from exile in Babylon, the ragtag remnant of Israelites to whom the Chronicler wrote had their work cut out for them. They were facing the daunting task of rebuilding their cities and homes. The land was filled with foreign invaders who had taken advantage of their absence and claimed ownership rights over their inheritance. Their reclamation of the land was going to be long and arduous and the Chronicler knew they were going to need a refresher course in their history and a reminder of their status as God’s chosen people.

For modern readers, the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles can be a tough read because they are essentially one long-running genealogical record. But for the original audience, these lengthy lists of names carried important significance. Each Israelite who had made the long journey from Babylon back to the Land of Promise could trace his heritage back to one of the names contained in these opening chapters. Their roots and rich heritage were on display as a not-so-subtle reminder of their status as heirs of God’s covenant promises.

Their story could be traced all the way back to Adam. That is where God’s unique relationship with mankind began. But sin destroyed that relationship, resulting in God’s judgment and His destruction of humanity.

But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.  So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.” – Genesis 6:5-7 NET

Yet, despite all the wickedness that filled the earth, there was one man who found favor with God. The Genesis account states that “Noah was a godly man; he was blameless among his contemporaries. He walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (Genesis 6:9-10 NET).

With this one godly man and his three sons, God started over again. After saving them from the devastating effects of the flood, God gave them the same mandate He had given to Adam and Eve.

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power.” – Genesis 9:1-2 NLT

The sons of Noah would become the patriarchs of all the nations of the earth, including the Israelites.

The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth. – Genesis 9:18-19 NLT

And that is where the author of 1 Chronicles picks up the story. In the first four verses, he collapses the timeline and moves from Adam to Noah and his three sons. Then he begins to unpack the lineage of each of Noah’s sons until he reaches the one name that resonated with his Israelite audience: Abraham.

Abraham was the revered patriarch of the Israelite people, the father of their nation and the original recipient of God’s covenant promises. It was to Abraham that God made the promise to multiply his seed and produce a great nation, and the genealogical record contained in the first nine chapters of this book provides proof that God kept that promise. The very fact that the Israelites were still in existence was evidence that Yahweh was a covenant-keeping God. Despite their disobedience and God’s judgment, they had been allowed to return to the land of promise and begin again. Yahweh had promised to restore them and He had kept His word.

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again…I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” – Jeremiah 29:10, 14 NLT

They were home but nothing was familiar. The land was desolated. Many of their cities were occupied by foreign invaders. They had no king or standing army. They were powerless, leaderless, and facing an uphill battle to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. But the Chronicler wanted them to know they were sons and daughters of the one true God. They had Yahweh on their side. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not only their advocate, He was their protector and provider.

Sometimes we can forget who we are. As we live in this fallen world, surrounded by sin and bombarded by the false lies of the enemy, we can too often lose sight of who we are and forget the promises of God. Like the Israelites, we are children of the promise. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We have been chosen by God and He has a plan for our lives.

While our circumstances may not be the best and we may sometimes feel as if we are anything but saints, we must constantly remind ourselves of the truth of God’s Word and His promises found in it. While this first chapter may be hard to read, and even harder to find something spiritually life-changing to pull out of it, we can walk away knowing that we too are children of Abraham, with access to all the promises made to him.

So that’s why faith is the key! God’s promise is given to us as a free gift. And we are certain to receive it, whether or not we follow Jewish customs, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. – Romans 4:16 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Greatness of God

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We serve a great God who is worthy of our praise, worship, devotion, and obedience. He is the one true God whose character is flawless and whose interactions with mankind are always just and righteous. In our efforts to define and understand God, we tend to minimize His greatness by making Him more approachable and manageable. We domesticate Him by fashioning Him in an image that makes Him more “human” and, therefore, more tolerable and relatable. But in our attempt to transform God into our own likeness, we end up worshiping an idol of our own making.

“The god of American popular culture is an indulgent heavenly spirit who is little threat to our lifestyles and luxuries – a god consistent with a consumer culture and rampant immorality. This god might wish that human beings would behave, but he is powerless when they do not.

“A vast majority of American claims to believe in God, but most believe in an idol of their own imaginations. This deity is always there to be called upon in times of trouble, but he would never intrude upon our own personal space, judge our sins, or hinder our happiness.” – R. Albert Mohler, Foreward to Made in Our Image by Steven J. Lawson

The sad reality is that many evangelical Christians have bought into the devastatingly dangerous God-rehabilitation plan without even knowing it. Slowly and subtly, we have ended up with an emasculated and virtually impotent deity who looks very little like the God of the Bible. We have turned Shaddai, the Almighty who permeates the pages of Scripture into a “user-friendly” god who is little more than a slightly improved version of ourselves. And this downsized god exists for our glory rather than the other way around. But this is not the God that David, Moses, Abraham, and the prophets worshiped. Isaiah understood the immensity and incomparability of God.

Who else has held the oceans in his hand?
    Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
    or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
    Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
    Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right
    or show him the path of justice? – Isaiah 40:12-14 NLT

God sits above the circle of the earth.
    The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
He spreads out the heavens like a curtain
    and makes his tent from them.
He judges the great people of the world
    and brings them all to nothing.
They hardly get started, barely taking root,
    when he blows on them and they wither.
    The wind carries them off like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me?
    Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. – Isaiah 40:22-25 NLT

God has no equal. He is incomparable and incapable of being domesticated, downsized, or diminished in any way. We can attempt to recreate Him in our own image, but it will only produce a false god who offers false hope. We don’t need a slightly improved version of us; we need the God of the Bible. Our world doesn’t need a politically correct and socially relevant God; it needs the fear-inducing, holiness-demanding, universe-creating God whom the prophets and apostles worshiped. 

The apostle Paul also grasped the greatness of God and refused to allow his fellow believers to minimize Him in any way.

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
    Who knows enough to give him advice?
And who has given him so much
    that he needs to pay it back?

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. – Romans 11:33-36 NLT

We cannot even begin to comprehend the greatness of God, but we should try. While He remains far beyond our capacity to fully understand, He still expects us to desire and pursue an ever-increasing awareness of Himself. The apostle Paul prayed regularly that the Colossian believers would grow in their knowledge of God.

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. – Colossians 1:9-10 NLT

Paul prayed a similar prayer for the believers in Ephesus.

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. – Ephesians 1:16-18 NLT

God is infinite and eternal, having no beginning or end. To attempt a study of God is to attempt the impossible. We will never fully know Him. We will never plumb the depths of His greatness. But that does not make it an exercise in futility. The pursuit of the knowledge of God is the calling of every child of God. The Bible is the Word of God, His revelation of Himself to mankind. Every page contained in the Scriptures provides a glimpse of His glory and goodness. He desires that we read His Word, not as some kind of self-help manual full of tips for living the good life, but as an indispensable resource for discovering Him. But the Bible isn’t just a compendium of helpful insights into God’s character; it’s a divinely inspired roadmap to redemption and restoration. Man was made for God’s glory but sin destroyed that relationship and drove a wedge between the Maker and the masterpiece of His creation. Ever since that fateful day when Adam and Eve sinned against Him, God’s plan for restoring fallen humanity to a right relationship with Himself has been in place, culminating in the arrival of His Son in human flesh. This great, majestic, holy, and transcendent God already had a plan in place to fix the problem that sin created. But God wasn’t interested in restoring man’s knowledge of Him; He wanted to restore man’s broken relationship with Him.

It’s interesting to note what Jesus prayed in the garden on the night He was betrayed. In one of His last moments on earth before His crucifixion and death, Jesus spent time alone with His heavenly Father pouring out His heart.

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” – John 17:1-3 ESV

Jesus came that we might have eternal life. But eternal life is far more than just a promise of a life free from death. While the thought of a place where there will be “no more death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4) sounds very appealing, those things are not what makes eternal life well worth the wait. No, Jesus makes it quite clear. He states that “this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

The essence of eternal life is an intimate knowledge of God and His Son. Heaven will remove the blinders and barriers that prevent us from knowing God well. The presence of sin in our lives prevents us from seeing and knowing God clearly. It is like looking at a beautiful landscape through a dirty window or trying to view a beautiful sunset through a pair of glasses with foggy lenses. The glorious view is obscured and distorted by our flawed vision. The apostle Paul reminds us that the day is coming when those limitations will be removed, leaving us completely free to know God in all His glory.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 NLT

Getting to know God better should be the overarching desire of every child of God – to know the One who made us, saved us, and has an eternity in store for us. This all-knowing, all-powerful God has planned a future for us in which we will enjoy unbroken fellowship with Him. Yes, it will be a place free from pain, sin, sorrow, and death. But the real joy of heaven will be found in our ability to know God intimately and fully.

The truly amazing thing is that God considers us His children right here, right now. Despite our ongoing struggle with sin and our persistent habit of disobeying His will, God calls us His own. He is the forever faithful, always loving, ever gracious, and consistently merciful God who never fails to keep His promises. The apostle John would have us remember that our loving heavenly Father has adopted us into His family and has great things in store for us.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. – 1 John 3:1-13 NLT

So, why wouldn’t we want to know our great God better? The alternative is not attractive because, as Steven J. Lawson points out, it will produce a less-than-powerful God and a far-from-impactful church.

“We need a vision of God who is different from us, someone who is truly worthy to be worshiped and adored. In short, we are in need of a fresh dose of the majesty of God. Only as we return to our principle calling, that of displaying the true greatness of God, will people eagerly return to Him – and to church. Such a fresh vision of God will transform us from the inside out and empower us to fulfill His calling upon our lives. That is what is missing in this day of trendy, low-commitment, user-friendly Christianity. And until we recover the true picture of God, we will languish in spiritual impotence.” – Steven J. Lawson, Made In Our Image

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Immanence of God

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The psalmist declares, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18 ESV). This simple statement is meant to bring encouragement to the suffering as they consider the amazing fact that the transcendent God of the universe chooses to draw near to them in their time of need. The One who created time and space and yet exists outside of both is fully capable of entering into the pain and suffering of His children.

Yet some deny God’s perceivability and accessibility. They view God as a distant and difficult-to-know deity who is disengaged from and disinterested in the affairs of men. This deistic view of God paints Him as an aloof and impersonal absentee owner who manages His creation from the confines of heaven and rarely interacts with mankind. In this rather pessimistic understanding of God, He offers little in the way of guidance, comfort, protection, or personal input.

The God of the deist is too big and far too great to expect Him to interface with His lowly creation. Even King Solomon seemed to believe that God was too immense to be truly immanent. When Solomon completed the construction of the grand Temple he had built to serve as God’s earthly dwelling place, he stated, “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27 NLT). Solomon recognized that his immaculate Temple was insufficient to house the God of the universe. Yet, God was more than willing to bless the Temple with His presence.

When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of the Lord. – 1 Kings 8:10-11 NLT

Then the transcendent God delivered a very personal message to His servant Solomon.

“I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.” – 1 Kings 9:3 NLT

The doctrine of God’s immanence teaches that God’s presence is all-pervasive. It is closely related to His attribute of omnipresence, which teaches that God is not limited by time and space. He is not restricted to a human body or confined to a particular place or time. David was blown away by the amazing reality of God’s grandeur and immeasurable vastness and attempted to put his thoughts in writing.

I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me. – Psalm 139:7-10 NLT

For David, God was both near and far away. He was at the same time distant and close at hand. God could not be avoided or escaped from. There was no place on earth where His presence was missing or His power could not penetrate. To put it simply, there is no place where God is not; He is everywhere at all times.

But God’s immanence is not to be confused with Pantheism, a pagan doctrine that “teaches the belief that God is equal to the universe, its physical matter, and the forces that govern it” (“Pantheism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pantheism. Accessed 16 Aug. 2024).

“Canon W. G. Holmes of India told of seeing Hindu worshipers tapping on trees and stones and whispering ‘Are your there? Are you there?’ to the god they hoped might reside within. In complete humility the instructed Christian brings the answer to that question. God is indeed there. He is there as He is here and everywhere, not confined to tree and stone, but free in the universe, near to everything, next to everyone, and through Jesus Christ immediately accessible to every loving heart.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

God’s presence permeates His creation but is not equal to it. God’s omnipresence should not be construed to mean that everything is God. That is the false and unbiblical premise of Pantheism. What makes the doctrine of God’s immanence so incredibly unique is that it maintains the integrity of His otherness while assuring us of His closeness. Moses reminded the people of Israel, “What great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7 NLT).

The incomparable and incomprehensible God of the universe has chosen to make Himself known and knowable.

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
    the Holy One, says this:
“I live in the high and holy place
    with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
    and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.” – Isaiah 57:15 NLT

He is high and lofty yet intimately involved in the affairs of men.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
    and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit. – Psalm 34:18 ESV

Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
    who is enthroned on high?
He stoops to look down
    on heaven and on earth.
He lifts the poor from the dust
    and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
    even the princes of his own people!
He gives the childless woman a family,
    making her a happy mother.

Praise the Lord! – Psalm 113:5-9 NLT

Why would the all-powerful, fully righteous God of the universe stoop so low as to have a relationship with sinful men? What would possess the holy transcendent God to condescend and care for those who have chosen to reject Him? The simple answer is “Love.”

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 ESV

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. – Romans 5:6-8 NLT

The transcendent God took it upon Himself to transcend time and space by entering into the sin-darkened world as the light of life. God’s presence had always pervaded His creation but with the coming of Christ, His presence took on a personal and perfectly relatable form.

In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
    and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it. – John 1:1-1-5 NLT

God became flesh. Jesus, in His incarnation, became Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). He was fully God and fully man. He was the God-man. In His humanity, Jesus made God visible, relatable, and easily knowable. He was the flesh-and-blood God, but no less divine and fully holy in every way. As John points out in his gospel, Jesus was the light shining in the darkness.

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. – John 1:9-12 NLT

The immense significance of Jesus’ immanence should not escape us. As John points out, “The Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14 NLT). God took up residence among us. He literally “tabernacled” among us. Not only that, He poured out His unfailing love and faithfulness to undeserving humanity through the life of His Son. And John adds the mind-blowing note that, as a result, “we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (John 1:14 NLT).

The transcendent became immanent. The invisible became visible. The incomprehensible became fully relatable and knowable. According to Paul, “in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” (Colossians 2:9 NLT). Through Jesus, God has made Himself fully known and easily knowable. Jesus assured Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9 NLT). Jesus boldly claimed, “If you knew me, you would also know my Father” (John 8:10 NLT). Just hours before His death, Jesus told the crowd gathered in Jerusalem, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark” (John 12:44-46 NLT).

Yet, the light wasn’t well received. The presence of God in human form wasn’t fully appreciated by those who saw Him. Jesus’ entrance into the world was met with mixed revues, as He Himself confessed.

“God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” – John 3:19-21 NLT

The light of the world was eventually extinguished, but that was not the end. Jesus was put to death but the grave could not hold Him. His life was taken from Him but His divinity could not be extinguished. Jesus burst from the tomb in a blaze of glory so bright that it paralyzed the Roman soldiers.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. – Matthew 27:2-4 NLT

The light of the world was alive and well. The light of life overcame the darkness and defeated death and the grave – once for all. Jesus was and is alive and lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25).

Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. – Ephesians 2:18 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Transcendence of God

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Studying the attributes of God is a noble and worthy task but it must be acknowledged that man’s capacity to understand the greatness of God is limited by his inherent finiteness. The apostle Paul eloquently stated humanity’s dilemma.

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
    Who knows enough to give him advice?
And who has given him so much
    that he needs to pay it back?

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. – Romans 11:33-36 NLT

Paul makes it clear that the human mind is incapable of fully comprehending the greatness of God. This all-powerful and incomparable Being is Invisible to the human eye and incomprehensible to the human mind and must choose to make Himself known if He is to be recognized at all. As Paul stated in the opening chapter of Romans, God displayed certain aspects of His divine nature through creation.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. – Romans 1:20 NLT

The universe reveals His power, majesty, creativity, and sovereign control over all things. While we can’t physically see God, we can witness the work of His hands and begin to grasp the awesome nature of His power and transcendence. David was blown away by the indisputable evidence of God found in the natural world. He could see the proof of God’s existence everywhere he looked.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
    The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
    night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
    their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
    and their words to all the world. – Psalm 19:1-14 NLT

Creation declares the glory of God but it will never fully mirror the majesty of its Maker, and David seemed to understand that fact. When he became king of Israel, David voiced his growing awareness of God’s unlimited power and sovereignty over all things. God didn’t just make the universe, He ruled over it with unrivaled authority that made David’s royal power pale in comparison.

“O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever! Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.” – 1 Chronicles 29:10-12 NLT

To say that God is transcendent is to confess His otherness. In other words, it is an admission that God is not like us. He is not a slightly improved version of man; a human being on steroids. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, transcendent means “being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge” (“Transcendent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcendent. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024). God is beyond our comprehension. He exists outside our scope of understanding. He is not only invisible but unknowable and, yet, He has chosen to make Himself known.

God desires for us to know Him, not just cognitively but personally and intimately. The Bible is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It all began in the garden where God developed an ongoing relationship with the first man and woman. In that pristine and perfect environment, Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of the transcendent God. He spoke to them and made His presence known to them. They couldn’t see Him but they knew He was there. When they eventually disobeyed His command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they attempted to hide from Him.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. – Genesis 3:8 NLT

Their sin resulted in their banishment from the garden and the loss of their intimacy with God. From that point forward, mankind began its unrelenting trajectory away from God. It was not that God was somehow relegated to the garden and their travels took them further from His presence. Distance didn’t determine their separation from God, it was the spiritual state of their hearts. But the further they went, the weaker their awareness of God became. In time, they forgot about Him altogether, and the Book of Genesis records the sad result of their faithlessness and forgetfulness.

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. – Genesis 6:5 NLT

Humanity had been allowed to know and experience the transcendent God of the universe but had chosen to walk away from Him. So God started over, revealing Himself to a man named Noah. Once again, the invisible, all-powerful God made Himself known and knowable. He spoke with Noah and provided him with a plan to repopulate the world and reboot the system. The flood destroyed the rest of humanity but Noah and his family were preserved by God. They were given the privilege of salvation and the responsibility to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 

This royal reboot allowed Noah and his family to experience the personal presence of the transcendent God. He sealed them in the ark and protected them during the days of the flood. He graciously preserved them and mercifully released them to begin the process of filling the world with more of their kind. But the rest of the Book of Genesis records the less-than-stellar results of their post-flood experience. It didn’t take long for Humanity 2.0 to succumb to the same internal bugs that doomed the previous model.

But all along the way, God continued to make Himself known. He revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He displayed His glory to Moses. He showed up in a light show on the peak of Mount Sinai, displaying His majestic power to the people of Israel cowering in the valley. He gave them His Law, designed to be a further revelation of His holiness and righteousness. He provided them with the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system to accentuate His set-apartness and to ensure their own holiness. The invisible, unknowable, inaccessible God continued to make Himself known. He had made them His own people, His chosen possession. He gave them a land as their inheritance. He provided them with kings. He blessed them and prospered them. But in return, they turned their back on Him

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and I called my son out of Egypt.
But the more I called to him,
    the farther he moved from me,
offering sacrifices to the images of Baal
    and burning incense to idols.
I myself taught Israel how to walk,
    leading him along by the hand.
But he doesn’t know or even care
    that it was I who took care of him.
I led Israel along
    with my ropes of kindness and love.
I lifted the yoke from his neck,
    and I myself stooped to feed him.” – Hosea 11:1-4 NLT

The more the transcendent God made Himself known, the more comfortable and complacent the people of God became. They lost their awareness of His greatness. Their awe and wonder diminished over time. His blessings became rote and expected. They took His power for granted. Eventually, God chose to remove His hand of blessing and allow His people to experience the loss of His presence. They had lost their wonder and appreciation for God. Their undeserved access to and intimacy with Him lost its value. His persistent presence robbed them of their appreciation for His transcendence.

And so the Lord says,
    “These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
    is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.
Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
    with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
    and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.” – Isaiah 29:13-14 NLT

For centuries, the people of Israel would lose their privileged position as God’s chosen people. Their Temple would be destroyed. The sacrificial system would be eliminated. Tens of thousands of Israelites would spend their lives living in exile in foreign lands, far from their homeland and separated from their God. They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder, but that was not the case for the Israelites. Even after their return to the land of Israel, they failed to reestablish their wonder and awe for God. Their hearts remained far from Him. But the transcendent God was not done revealing Himself to His people.

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. – Galatians 4:4-5 NLT

God sent His Son, and this staggering event would prove to be the greatest revelation of God that man has ever experienced. The apostle John reminds us of the staggering nature of Jesus’ incarnation.

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. – John 1:18 NLT

Jesus, the Son of God, made the invisible God visible, a fact the apostle Paul makes abundantly clear.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation… – Colossians 15 NLT

The unknowable, unapproachable, invisible God of the universe wants to be known. He desires to have a relationship with fallen humanity. As Paul makes clear, no one is seeking a relationship with God. The reality of indwelling sin makes the pursuit of God impossible for all men.

“No one is righteous—
    not even one.
No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.
All have turned away;
    all have become useless.
No one does good,
    not a single one.” – Romans 3:10-12 NLT

But God sought us out. He sent His Son to make Himself known and knowable. The transcendent God condescended to take on human flesh and make the fulness of the Godhead visible to fallen mankind. This fact should not only astound us but cause us to rejoice in the greatness and goodness of our gracious God.

“He is far away, in one sense, but in another He is as near as your heartbeat, for the cross has bridged the gulf. Let the blood of Jesus cleanse us from all sin. He who is God the Transcendent One says, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’” – A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Justice of God

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Ever since 2020, the word justice has become a hotly debated topic in our modern culture, even among evangelical Christians. In fact, one of the most frequently quoted verses during the last four years comes from the pen of the prophet Micah.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8 ESV

It is only appropriate that Christ-followers should care for and be concerned about justice because it is of great importance to our God, whom the prophet Isaiah describes as “a God of justice.”

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. – Isaiah 30:18 ESV

Moses, who enjoyed an intimate and up-close relationship with God, referred to Him as a “Rock” whose “work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deuteronomy 32:14 ESV). In his personal experience, Moses discovered God to be just in everything that He does. So, as His people, we should seek to follow His example and make justice a high priority in our lives. But what exactly is justice and how should we display it in everyday life? Better yet, what does God’s justice look like and is it even possible for us to emulate this divine attribute of the Almighty?

The prophet Isaiah provides some insight into these questions.

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. – Isaiah 1:17 ESV

“For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong…” – Isaiah 61:8 ESV

The Psalms also promote the need for justice among the people of God.

For the word of the Lord holds true,
    and we can trust everything he does.
He loves whatever is just and good;
    the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.. – Psalm 33:4-5 NLT

Turn from evil and do good,
    and you will live in the land forever.
For the Lord loves justice,
    and he will never abandon the godly. – Psalm 37:27-28 NLT

There is joy for those who deal justly with others
    and always do what is right. – Psalm 106:3 NLT

But before we take it upon ourselves to right the world’s wrongs by performing amazing feats of justice on behalf of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised, it would make sense to discover what brand of justice God has in mind. Like any other attribute associated with God, we are not free to define justice on our own terms or to implement it in ways that are solely intended to achieve our own agenda. The Psalmist provides a sobering reminder about the divine nature of justice.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.
    Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants. – Psalm 89:14 NLT

As fallen creatures, we don’t get to decide what is right and wrong. Our sinful natures render us incapable of determining what is righteous and unrighteous. The prophet Isaiah gave a stinging assessment of man’s inherent inability to do the right thing.

We are constant sinners;
    how can people like us be saved?
We are all infected and impure with sin.
    When we display our righteous deeds,
    they are nothing but filthy rags. – Isaiah 64:5-6 NLT

So, it would seem that any attempt on our part to display justice and righteousness is severely hampered by our fallen state. As Isaiah makes painfully clear, even our most righteous efforts done with the best of intentions are little more than soiled garments in the eyes of God. Yet, He commands us to do justice and to love kindness.

The problem with modern-day concepts of justice is that they leave God out of the equation. But as Isaiah makes clear, any attempt by fallen men to distribute true justice will fall woefully short and be the byproduct of sinful, self-serving hearts. So, we must turn to the justice of God as our model and for the proper motivation for our behavior.

A. W. Tozer notes that “In the inspired Scriptures justice and righteousness are scarcely distinguished from each other” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy). It is impossible to dispense justice without righteousness. Notice what the prophet Amos says about these two inseparable concepts.

…let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. – Amos 5:24 ESV

In man’s well-intentioned effort to mete out justice, he often does so in ways that are out of step with God’s righteousness. Equity and equality are impossible to achieve if God’s righteous laws are voided or ignored. In distributing justice, God never violates His own righteous decrees. As Moses put it, “Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!” (Deuteronomy 32:4 NLT).

The justice of God is “that essential and infinite attribute which makes his nature and his ways the perfect embodiment of equity, and constitutes him the model and the guardian of equity throughout the universe” (ATS Bible Dictionary, 1859). In other words, any hope we have of distributing justice on earth is dependent upon a solid understanding of God’s justice toward us.

God’s justice flows from His holiness. He is without sin and completely righteous in every way, which guarantees that all His acts of justice are always right, pure, and perfectly executed in keeping with His nature. There is never any aspect of unfairness or inequity with God. He shows no favoritism or partiality (Romans 2:11). He doesn’t mete out punishment arbitrarily or disproportionally. At no time does God act unjustly or unrighteously. He cannot be charged with inequity or accused of wielding His power and authority inappropriately. His holiness ensures that His justice is wholly righteous and right in its application.

To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
    to those with integrity you show integrity.
To the pure you show yourself pure,
    but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
You rescue the humble,
    but you humiliate the proud. – Psalm 18:25-27 NLT

For justice to be right and fair, it requires an outside criteria or standard of measurement. According to the Scriptures, God is the sole arbiter of what is just, right, and fair. He alone determines the basis for true justice. The reason injustice exists in the world is because of the presence of sin. According to 1 John 3:4, sin is lawlessness, a direct violation of God’s righteous commands. Virtually all sins are crimes against others. The list of sins contained in Galatians chapter five provides a stern reminder that our human flesh can only produce “fruit” that is self-promoting and damaging to others.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. – Galatians 5:19-21 NLT

While we may try to convince ourselves that our sins pose no threat to anyone else, this list suggests that most, if not all sins are committed against others. They are not just self-destructive, but they are a direct assault on the well-being of our fellow man. David didn’t simply commit sin with Bathsheba, he sinned against her. In a fit of jealousy, Cain took the life of his brother Abel. Driven by lust for his half-sister Tamar, Amnon orchestrated a plan to seduce and rape her.

But sin is much more than a crime against a fellow human being, it is a violation of God’s revealed will. David understood this stark reality, and after his illicit affair with Bathsheba, he confessed his guilt before God.

Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment. – Psalm 51:4 ESV

David had violated the commands of God, having committed adultery and murder. These transgressions required that justice be served and God did so in such a way that both atonement and forgiveness could be administered fairly and righteously. David’s sins were paid for with the life of the newborn son he shared with Bathsheba. We may find this solution untenable and difficult to understand, but God’s ways are always just, right, and fair. Sin has a cost. All violations of God’s will come with a price tag. Cain was cursed for his murder of Abel. Amnon was executed by his brother Absalom for the rape of Tamar. Absalom would ultimately die a gruesome and ignominious death at the hands of Joab.

Sin requires justice because God is holy and righteous. And since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, all deserve the same fate: Death. Yet God, in His mercy and grace, came up with a plan that would allow Him to be loving without sacrificing His justice. To pay the debt owed by humanity, God chose to send His Son as a substitutionary atonement – a sinless Lamb to die on behalf of sinful men and women. Jesus took our place so that we might be spared the just and righteous wrath of God.

“A simpler and ore familiar solution for the problem of how God can be just and still justify the unjust is found in the Christian doctrine of redemption. It is that, through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner. Redemptive theology teaches that mercy does not become effective toward a man until justice has done its work. The just penalty for sin was exacted when Christ our Substitute died for us on the cross. However unpleasant this may sound to the ear of the natural man, it has ever been sweet to the ear of faith. Millions have been morally and spiritually transformed by this message, have lived lives of great moral power, and died at last peacefully trusting in it.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Wrath of God – PT 2

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While we might be tempted to ignore the reality of God’s wrath, the Scriptures make it difficult to deny its existence.

For the Lord holds a cup in his hand
    that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices.
He pours out the wine in judgment,
    and all the wicked must drink it,
    draining it to the dregs. – Psalm 75:8 NLT

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28 NLT

“But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.” – Luke 12:5 NLT

So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. – 2 Peter 2:9 NLT

God hates sin because it is a direct assault on His sovereign will. Every sin is an act of rebellion against His righteousness and His right to rule and reign over the universe He created. These willful acts of transgressions take a myriad of forms and bring out the just and righteous anger of the Almighty.

There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
    feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers. – Proverbs 6:16-18 ESV

But according to David, God doesn’t just reserve His hatred for the sin committed; “his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalm 11:5 ESV). This jarring thought may leave us confused and conflicted but it should not cause us to question God’s character. Despite how it may sound, it does not stand in contradiction to John’s declaration: God is love (1 John 4:8 ESV). Love is the essence of who God is; it is the foundational quality of His being. But His love and wrath are far from contradictory or antithetical; they complement one another.

In fact, Paul makes it clear that the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ were all demonstrations of God’s wrath against sin and His love for helpless humanity.

Christ died for the ungodly… – Romans 5:6 ESV

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8 ESV 

…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son… – Romans 5:10 ESV

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. – Colossians 1:21-22 NLT

As sinners, we deserved God’s wrath but, instead, we were the undeserving beneficiaries of His love. But that love came at a high price. His Son had to die to pay the debt we owed. His sacrifice propitiated or satisfied the just wrath of God. Our sin wasn’t ignored and our debt wasn’t left unpaid; Jesus paid it in full with the willful sacrifice of His own life. We deserved God’s wrath but, instead, He poured out His love in the form of His Son’s selfless substitutionary death on the cross.

Discussing the wrath of God can come across as if we are dealing with a flaw in the divine character. It seems out of step with His love, grace, and mercy. But the wrath of God is never displayed arbitrarily. He need never apologize for it or be embarrassed because of it, and He never unleashes His wrath undeservedly or unjustly. Unlike us, God never loses His temper. He never flies off the handle or suffers from a lack of self-control. He is always purposeful when displaying His wrath against sinful mankind. When doing so, He is displaying who He is, exhibiting His divine nature, and glorifying Himself in the process. In fact, God’s wrath is inseparably linked with His glory. When He exercises His wrath, He displays the fullness of His glory.

The book of Exodus records the encounter that Moses had with God on Mount Sinai. Moses, the deliverer God had chosen to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt, made a bold request of God. He asked the Almighty, “Please show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18 ESV). God agreed to do so but under one condition.

“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord’…But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” – Exodus 33:19, 20 ESV

God warned Moses that viewing His face would prove deadly. Why? Because of Moses’ sinfulness. No man can behold the full, unveiled glory of God while in his sinful state. Moses wanted to see God’s glory, but to do so without God’s protection would result in Moses’ destruction. Because the wrath of God goes hand-in-hand with the glory of God.

God kept His word, but in a display of His goodness and mercy, He prevented Moses from seeing Him in all His glory.

“I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” – Exodus 33:22-23 ESV

Moses, as a fallen human being, deserved to come under the wrath of God but, instead, he experienced God’s grace and mercy. Remember what God had said to Moses immediately after making his request:

“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” – Exodus 33:19 ESV

God, because of His righteousness and holiness, is obligated to punish sin. He cannot overlook or ignore it but He can make provision for it. In this case, that is what He did.

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” – Exodus 34:6-7 ESV

As God passed by with His hand placed protectively over His servant, He proclaimed His mercy, grace, patience, steadfast love, faithfulness, and forgiveness. In other words, He declared His divine attributes. But don’t miss this part. While God declared that He was willing to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin, He would not clear the guilty. The Hebrew word translated as “clear” is naqah and it means to “acquit” or ”to leave unpunished.” The guilty must be held to account; they must pay for their sins. God cannot simply whitewash over them.

Just before Moses was given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the glory of God, he received the law of God – the Ten Commandments – on tablets of stone. Moses returned from the mountaintop, tablets in hand, only to find the people worshiping false gods down in the valley. In his shock and anger, Moses destroyed the tablets containing God’s law. In His wrath, God brought a plague upon the people, punishing them for their rejection of Him.

…the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. – Exodus 32:33-35 ESV

God punished the guilty. He could not and would not allow them to get away with their sin. The entire law, as prescribed by God on Mount Sinai, was based on the premise that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22 NLT). Some would die by the plague that God had sent and their deaths would assuage or propitiate God’s wrath. He had to punish the guilty. He could not simply clear or acquit them.

God gave Moses a second set of tablets, containing His code of conduct for the people of Israel. His laws were intended to set them apart as His chosen people. Those tablets contained all they needed to know about living as His children. He left nothing up to their imaginations. They would not be free to live on their own terms or follow the examples of the other nations around them. But Moses, knowing the hearts of his people, made yet another request of God.

“If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” – Exodus 34:9 ESV

Moses knew that, without God’s grace and mercy, the people of Israel would find themselves the fully deserving recipients of God’s wrath, once again. So, God renewed His covenant commitment with the people of Israel, but He warned them:

“…for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” – Exodus 34:14 ESV

God will not tolerate unfaithfulness. He will not put up with His chosen people turning their backs on Him by worshiping something or someone other than Him. But it is not because He is overly sensitive or wears His feelings on His sleeve. It is because He is God and worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.

In the book of Revelation, John records his vision of the throne room of God in heaven. He describes the four living creatures, standing around the throne of God:

Day after day and night after night they keep on saying,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—
    the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” – Revelation 4:8 NLT

They are joined by the 24 elders, who lay their crowns before God’s throne and say:

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” – Revelation 4:11

God is worthy of our praise. He deserves our worship. He created us and we exist for His glory. When we refuse to give Him the glory He deserves, we sin against Him. Sin is not so much the action we commit, as it is the heart behind the action. What we do is an outward display of the state of our hearts. Jesus said, “…from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander” (Matthew 15:19 NLT). Then He added, “These are what defile you” (Matthew 15:20 NLT). The Greek word for “defile” is koinoō and it means “to make common or unclean.”

Our actions, which stem from our hearts, end up making us unacceptable to God. They display our love for something other than Him. When we sin, we are giving evidence that our hearts do not belong to God. We love something other than Him, such as pleasure, sensuality, self, success, power, position, prominence, or happiness. Those things become idols or substitutes for God and our sin is an outward expression of our love affair with these false gods.

But God’s holiness demands justice, and His justice requires that He display His wrath “against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18 NLT). Yet, in His mercy and grace, God came up with a way to satisfy His wrath and display His goodness at the same time. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or forgiveness of sin, and since all men have sinned, all men deserve to fall under the wrath of God. But Paul reminds us of the amazing grace of God as displayed through the gift of His Son.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. – Romans 3:23-26 NLT

God satisfied His own wrath by sending His own Son as the payment for mankind’s sin debt. He gave His sinless Son as the atonement for sinful men.

God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. – Romans 4:25 NLT

But to escape the wrath of God, sinful men and women must accept the free gift of God’s sacrifice on their behalf. They must acknowledge their sin and their need for a Savior. The payment has been made, and the gift has been offered, but it must be accepted. Paul goes on to state: “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22 NLT). A few chapters later, he adds: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NLT).

The wrath of God is real. But so are His grace and mercy. God is a just God who must punish sin. But He is also a gracious God who has provided a way that He might justify the ungodly. All for our good and His glory.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Wrath of God

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When discussing God’s attributes, it is only natural to focus on the more positive aspects of His character such as His love, mercy, grace, all-sufficient power, and faithfulness. We are drawn to those marvelous attributes because of their attractiveness and the potential benefits they offer us as God’s children. But they lose all their meaning if they are not considered against the backdrop of God’s wrath.

God is not one-dimensional in nature; He is a complex being whose character is comprised of a myriad of seemingly contradictory but perfectly symbiotic attributes. His love and wrath do not stand in opposition; they complement and complete one another. His infinite love becomes meaningless and immeasurable without the knowledge that He is also capable of great anger. God speaks of Himself in terms that convey His well-balanced nature.

“Look now; I myself am he!
    There is no other god but me!
I am the one who kills and gives life;
    I am the one who wounds and heals;
    no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!
Now I raise my hand to heaven
    and declare, ‘As surely as I live,
when I sharpen my flashing sword
    and begin to carry out justice,
I will take revenge on my enemies
    and repay those who reject me.’” – Deuteronomy 32:39-41 NLT

But despite God’s very blunt self-assessment, His wrath seems to be a forbidden topic among many Christians. We’re uncomfortable hearing our loving God openly admit that He kills. Yet when reading the Old Testament, it’s virtually impossible to ignore the truth of His statement. This is the reason many Christians avoid the Old Testament like a plague. In its pages, the wrath of God is on full display, and don’t like what we see.

We treat the wrath of God as if it’s some kind of flaw in God’s character that no one wants to admit or talk about. Like a favorite uncle who struggles with a drinking problem. Everybody knows about it, but it’s just easier to treat it as if it doesn’t exist.

But it’s difficult to ignore the wrath of God. It’s an unpleasant yet unavoidable reality that shows up throughout the Scriptures. And it can’t be relegated to the pages of the Old Testament.  Many believe that the God described in the gospels is far more loving, gracious, and kind than the God who commanded Abraham to sacrifice His Son, told the Israelites to massacre entire communities, and decreed the stoning of rebellious sons . Yet, Jesus Himself said, “anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment” (John 3:36 NLT).

The apostle John linked the hope of salvation with the reality of God’s wrath.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. – John 3:36 ESV

Paul warned the believers in Rome that God’s wrath was a very real thing that must

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. – Romans 1:18 ESV

The Old Testament clearly portrays God as capable of wrath and provides numerous examples of its devastating consequences. The prophet Nahum provided a stark warning regarding the pagan people of Nineveh:

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. – Nahum 1:2 ESV

Ezekiel delivered God’s warning regarding the Philistines, the enemies of Israel:

“I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.” – Ezekiel 25:17 ESV

Isaiah prophesied of a future day when God’s wrath would come on all mankind:

Look! The Lord is coming from heaven to punish the people of the earth for their sins. – Isaiah 26:21 ESV

But the wrath of God did not dissipate with the coming of Christ. The arrival of His Son in human form did not diminish His anger against mankind’s rebellion against Him; i provided a means by which His divine and just wrath might be satisfied, once and for all. God’s love, manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, must be viewed against the dark reality of His holy and fully justified wrath. Because God is holy and completely righteous, He must punish sin. He can’t ignore it or fail to deal with it justly. To do so would render Him unjust and imperfect.

So, what are we to do with this uncomfortable aspect of God’s nature? Do we simply ignore it, rationalize it away, or reject it out of hand? A. W. Pink provides us with a powerful response to those questions.

“It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight; they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.

“Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him.” – A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God

At some point, we have to ask the question: What is the source of God’s anger or wrath? We inherently know that God does not have an “anger problem.” He’s not an angry individual who lacks self-control and is unable to manage His emotions. It is far too easy to view God through a lens that is heavily distorted by our own human flaws and frailties. We struggle with anger, so we assume that God’s anger manifests itself in the same way. In our minds, anger is a liability, not an asset; it is negative, not positive. But because we are talking about the holy, righteous, perfectly sinless God of the universe, we can’t attribute His anger to some flaw in His character. His anger, like every other one of His character qualities, is fully justified and wholly holy.

So, why would anger be an attribute of God? It is because of His holiness. The apostle John wrote, “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all” (1 John 1:5 NLT). Darkness is a metaphor for evil or wickedness. It stands in stark contrast to the “light” or righteousness of God. That’s why Paul wrote, “…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18 ESV). What truth? The truth of the existence of God as displayed in the miracle of His creation.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. – Romans 1:19-20 ESV

But Paul goes on to point out that, despite God’s revelation of Himself in creation, mankind “became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21 ESV). And “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25 ESV). As a result, God’s wrath was revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

But what is the nature of God’s wrath? Is it some kind of out-of-control, vengeance-laced tirade against those who don’t agree with Him? Is God some petty tyrant who uses His power to punish those who refuse to do what He wants? To understand God’s wrath, we have to see things from His perspective, not ours. Again, A. W. Pink provides some helpful insights into this matter.

“The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.” – A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God

To add further clarity to this topic, J. I. Packer provides a much-needed word study on the meaning behind “wrath” and “anger.”

“‘Wrath’ is an old English word defined in my dictionary as ‘deep, intense anger and indignation.’ ‘Anger’ is defined as ‘stirring of resentful displeasure and strong antagonism, by a sense of injury or insult;’ ‘indignation’ as ‘righteous anger aroused by injustice and baseness.’ Such is wrath. And wrath, the Bible tells us, is an attribute of God.” – J. I. Packer, Knowing God

A sense of injury or insult. About what? Deep, intense anger and indignation. Against what? Against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Or to put it in more simplistic terms, against sin. Sin is an affront to a holy, righteous God. Mankind was created by God and exists only because of His love, mercy, and grace. So, when men reject Him as their God or rebel against His divine sovereignty as their creator, provider, and sustainer, God is rightfully offended.

Robert L. Deffinbaugh describes divine wrath as “God’s righteous anger and punishment, provoked by sin.” It is never arbitrary or unwarranted. God’s wrath is never unjustified or undeserved. The God of the universe is the ultimate master of the domain which He created and over which He rules. And He will vindicate His sovereign rule, but He will never do so vindictively.

One of the things we overlook when discussing the wrath of God is how it demonstrates God’s hatred for sin. As human beings, we tend to tolerate sin and view it as little more than a flaw in our character. But God sees sin as rebellion. It is a rejection of His Word, His ways, and His divine will for mankind. That is why Paul describes it as ungodliness and unrighteousness. Sin is ultimately anti-God and anti-righteousness. It is the antithesis of godliness and stands in direct opposition to the very essence of God.

Paul paints a bleak picture of man’s rebellious condition, revealing that sin has serious consequences.

…since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. – Romans 1:28-32 ESV

Notice those three simple words in the middle of the preceding paragraph: Haters of God. Ultimately, sin is an expression of hate for the Almighty. And that hatred results in godless actions and attitudes, each of which is proof of man’s rejection of God. These outward displays are God-directed but also self-destructive. Sin does irreparable damage to the individual, a family, a community, the nation, and the world. And that is not something a holy God can or will tolerate.

“In order to fully appreciate God’s love and goodness we must examine them against the black backdrop of of His wrath. Only when we understand that He judges sin – all sin, even our own sin – can we appreciate His glorious grace for what it is. The darkness of God’s wrath showcases the flawless gem of His unmerited mercy toward us. But remove the dark background of His wrath, and our appreciation of the brilliance of His amazing love fades.” – Steven J. Lawson, Made In Our Image

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.