limiting God

1 Kings 19-20, 2 Corinthians 8

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Putting Limits On God’s Grace and Greatness.

1 Kings 19-20, 2 Corinthians 8

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. – 2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

A big part of the narrative of the Bible is its focus on the greatness of God. From the creation account found in the opening chapters of Genesis all the way to the image of God’s recreation of the world and the redemption of man found in the book of Revelation, we can see His greatness on display. But one of the things we human beings tend to do is limit God. We fail to recognize just how great, gracious and good He truly is. We put limits on His capacity to love and His capability to intervene in the affairs of mankind. In the story recorded in chapters 19-20 of 1 Kings, we see even Elijah, the prophet of God, who had just witnessed an unmistakable display of God’s greatness through the defeat of the prophets of Baal. And yet, this man who had displayed such unwavering faith in God suddenly finds himself faced with the wrath of Jezebel, the wicked queen. The next thing we know, Elijah is on the run and wishing he was dead. Two different times Elijah responds to a question from God with the same answer: “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 ESV). Elijah was having himself a first-class pity party, whining over his sorry lot in life. But what he was really doing was limiting the power of His God. It seems that Elijah’s God was great enough to defeat the prophets of Baal, but He was not match to the revenge-seeking, false-god worshiping wife of the king of Israel.

But Elijah wasn’t the only one limiting God’s greatness. It seems that the king of Syria had no qualms attaching the nation of Israel, with the help of a 32-nation alliance. He saw his odds as pretty good and his army as greater than the God of the Israelites. But he was wrong. The Israelites won a great victory over the Syrians, with God’s help. But then the Syrians decided that the only reason they had lost the batlle was because the “gods” of the Israelites were gods of the hills. Since their defeat had taken place in the hills, it only made sense to attack the Israelites on the plains, where their “gods” would be impotent. But they were wrong.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God is great – all the time. His greatness never diminishes. His power never decreases. His all-encompassing, incomparable strength never changes. It didn’t matter if the Syrians fought the Israelites in the hills, the plains, the valleys, the forests or along the shores of the sea, the God of Israel would always prove greater than any god they might worship or any army they might muster. Elijah’s God was not only great enough to defeat the prophets of Baal, He was great enough to handle the likes of Jezebel. Contrary to Elijah’s assertion, he was NOT the only one left. He was not the only faithful Israelite left in the world. God was still in charge – in spite of Jezebel’s threats, Elijah’s doubts, the Syrian’s faulty logic, and any evidence that might point to the contrary.

What does this passage reveal about man?

The greatness of God is not just a pious-sounding platitude or religious catch-phrase we use to impress one another with our apparent faith. It is a non-debatable reality. But occasionally, we have a hard time believing it. Elijah had been a witness to an extraordinary display of God’s power. Fire came out of heaven, consuming “the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38 ESV). Elijah himself had single-handedly killed the 450 prophets of Baal – all in the power provided by God. He even received supernatural strength to outrun King Ahab and his royal chariot. going on the way from Mount Carmel to Jezreel on foot and in record time. But in spite of all this, Elijah still put limits on God’s greatness and grace. While things seemed to have turned out remarkably well that day on the mountain, they evidently didn’t turn out quite like Elijah had expected them to. The death threat on his life from the irate queen left him feeling like things were worse than ever. But rather than focus on all the great things God had done through and around him, Elijah put limits on what God could do. A common trait in even the most godly of men.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

God’s greatness goes hand-in-hand with His grace. His power is provides Him with the capacity to extend grace to sinful men. Paul reminds us that it was the death of Jesus Christ, provided for us by God Himself. that made possible our redemption and reconciliation with Him. But it was God’s power that made it possible. Yes, Jesus had to die. But had not God’s power raised Him from death back to life, the cross would have ended in nothing more than tragedy, and Jesus would have been nothing more than just another human martyr for a worthy cause. But God’s incomparable greatness made it possible for Him to provide us with His invaluable grace. And Jesus displayed grace to us by sacrificing not only His life, but His very place at the right hand of God by taking on human flesh and dying a sinner’s death on our behalf. Why in the world would I ever doubt God’s greatness after all He has done for me? Why would I place any limits on His capacity to great things in and around my life, when He has already done so much on my behalf? Our God is truly great and His grace is greater than all our sins.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Father, You truly are great. Please forgive me for the many times I doubt Your greatness and put limits on Your power. I have no reason to do so. You have proven Yourself great and gracious time and time again in my life. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 103 – Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40

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Intelligent, But Ignorant.

Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40

Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” – Matthew 22:29 NLT

Jesus is facing yet another confrontation with the religious leaders. This time it is the Sadducees. They were the religious liberals of their day who refused to believe in the afterlife, the doctrine of the resurrection or the reality of angels. For them, this life was the only life and it was to be lived in strict adherence to the written law as found in the Torah. They were elitists who rejected the oral law of the Pharisees, the “traditions of the elders” that contained hundreds of additional laws or expansions of the written law. But while they were not exactly bosom buddies with the Pharisees, they shared one thing in common with them: their hatred for Jesus. So we see them coming to Jesus posing a question that they intended to use to expose Jesus’ heretical views on the resurrection. Their question is a lengthy one, in the form of a short story. It’s a fictitious scenario involving what was called the Levirate Law, part of the Law of Moses found in the book of Deuteronomy. This law ruled that when a man died, leaving a wife as a widow with no children, one of the deceased man’s brothers was obligated to marry the woman so that she might have a son by him and so that son might carry on the name of her deceased first husband and inherit his land.  The law states, “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law. The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:5-6 NLT).

These Sadducees create a highly unlikely scenario where the woman ends up marrying seven different brothers, each one dying before they could father a son with her. Then finally, the woman herself dies. And at last they ask Jesus their question. Matthew makes it clear that the real point behind their question is the resurrection. They are not really interested in Jesus’ interpretation of the law, but in His views on the resurrection. So they ask, “So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28 NLT).

They think they have Jesus trapped. Because the Torah did not teach explicitly about the resurrection, they did not believe in it. Their little story was designed to expose the ridiculousness of the whole idea of the resurrection. In their minds, they had shown that the very concept of the resurrection would conflict with the law itself. How could a woman have seven husbands in heaven? But Jesus exposes the flaw in their thinking and the problem in their lives. He simply states, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God” (Matthew 22:29 NLT). This would have been like a sucker punch to the stomach. Jesus had caught them off guard and wiped the smug look of satisfaction off their faces with one simple sentence. They prided themselves on their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures and here was Jesus telling them they didn’t really know them. They were intelligent, but ignorant. In all their study of the Word of God, they had missed out on the power of God. They had relegated all they know about life to the here and now and rejected the idea of a hereafter. So Jesus shocks them by letting them know that in the resurrected state there will be no marriage. Their whole scenario is pointless and irrelevant. The woman will not be married to any of the brothers, “For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30 NLT). This may be just as shocking to many reading these words right now. Your concept of heaven has always included marriage. You have assumed that if you are married here on earth, you will be married in heaven. But what would be the purpose of marriage in heaven. As an institution, it was designed to illustrate the relationship between Christ and His bride, the Church. It was intended to be a physical representation of the spiritual reality. In heaven, the union of Christ and the Church will be complete. There will no longer be a need for a symbol of that union. And while we may find that idea disturbing and possibly disappointing, we have to remember that our condition in our resurrected state will be one of perfection. We will be like Christ and have perfect fellowship with God the Father. Our primary relationship will be with Him. There will no longer be the need for another person to complete us.

But Jesus knows that the real issue behind their question is their view on the resurrection, so He cuts to the chase and takes it head on. “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said,‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’So he is the God of the living, not the dead” (Matthew 22:31-32 NLT). Once again, Jesus questions their knowledge of the Scriptures, letting them know that in spite of all their study, they had missed a key point. When referring to His relationship with the great patriarchs of the Hebrew people, God had spoken in the PRESENT tense. He said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” These words were spoken long after all three of these men were dead and gone, and yet God refers to them in the present tense. Jesus makes it clear that this is not a grammatical error, but a theological truth. There is an afterlife and there will be a resurrection. The problem of the Sadducees was that they studied the Scriptures with a biased view and a limited understanding of the power of God. The idea of the resurrection was impossible to them. It was inconceivable. So they simply refused to believe in it. In establishing their doctrinal views, they had unknowingly limited the power of God. Because they couldn’t understand something, they simply eliminated it from consideration. But Jesus made it clear that the resurrection was not only possible, it was undeniable, because of the unlimited power of God.

For the Sadducees, life had become all about what they could see and explain. Their view was limited and restrictive. They had no room in their theology for an afterlife, because they couldn’t explain or control it. So they put all their eggs in basket, concentrating all their efforts on making the most out of this life. In doing so, they had missed the whole concept of the afterlife, of heaven and the resurrected state. For them, this earthly life was the only life. Nothing more, nothing less. And yet, there are many who live that way today. Even those who claim to be Christ-followers live as if there is no eternal life, focusing all their attention and energies on making the most of this life. They ignore what they can’t explain or understand. And yet, we are encouraged throughout the Word of God to run the race of life with the end in mind. We are to set our affections on things above, not the things of this earth. We are told to consider ourselves as strangers here, and to remember that this world is not our home, we are simply passing through on our way to somewhere better. There is an afterlife. There is a heaven. This is not all there is. And we should live with that reality in mind.

Father, it is easy to begin to believe that this really is all there is. The ever-present reality of this world can easily overshadow the idea that there is something more. Don’t let me lose sight of the fact that heaven is a real place, the resurrection is a future reality and not a myth, and that You have much more in store for me than what I can see or even understand here. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org