The most important word in the universe

A good follow up to my last post on the angriest person in universe?  This post tells us how God’s wrath is satisfied!

Some years ago, in a faculty devotional at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Dr. Murray Harris proposed this line of thinking:

What is the most important Book in the universe?  The Bible.  Which book within the Bible is the most important?  Romans.  Which chapter in Romans is the most important?  Chapter 3.  Which paragraph in Romans 3 is the most important?  Verses 21-26.  Which verse in that paragraph is the most important?  Verse 25.  Which word in verse 25 is the most important?  Propitiation: “. . . whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Therefore, the most important word in the most important verse in the most important paragraph in the most important chapter in the most important book within the most important Book in the universe is propitiation.

Worthy of our reverent contemplation.

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The angriest person in the Bible

Who is the most loving person in the Bible?  Most of us would say, “God!”

Who is the most merciful person in the Bible?  Again, we would chorus together, “God!”

Who is the angriest person in the Bible?  We might be uncomfortable saying it, but the answer is “God!”  Now most people rarely think of God as angry, much less as the angriest person in the Bible.

So why do I say that? Because the Bible depicts God as a God of wrath! Let me explain!

In Isaiah 9, we learn about how Israel was taught by God and disciplined by God’s anger, and yet they refused to listen to Him. Here’s a phrase that occurs 4 times in Isaiah 9:12-10:4, “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.” (Isaiah 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4).  Now God’s wrath is not mere cruelty as we often are prone to think in terms of man’s wrath. Rather God’s wrath or anger is intentional in judgment and in disciplining.   God’s wrath is his active, resolute opposition to evil.

It works in two ways:  His anger will ultimately condemn those who finally reject Him and yet His anger purifies those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:5-13).

Here’s a fuller explanation of God’s wrath as Ray Ortlund explains in his commentary on Isaiah (p. 102):

What we must understand is that God’s wrath is perfect, no less perfect than “the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience” (Romans 2:4). His wrath is not moody vindictiveness; it is the solemn determination of a doctor cutting away the cancer that’s killing his patient. And for God, the anger is personal, not detached and clinical. This Doctor hates the cancer, because he loves the carriers of the disease and he will rid the universe of all their afflictions. He has already scheduled “the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). So let’s forget our simplistic thoughts of God. The magnitude of the gospel prompts us to invent a word like “lovingangerkindness,” to come to grips with who God is.³ In his lovingangerkindness, God destroyed the guilt of sinners at the cross of Jesus. He will destroy all remaining sin in the hearts of those who take refuge in Jesus. He will destroy all injustice and suffering here in this world when the kingdom of Jesus creates a world better than our sentimentality could imagine.

This may take some serious thinking and study but don’t ever underestimate the holy wrath of God!

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Crisis management

In Isaiah 7-8, we have some principles for how God’s people should handle crisis. King Ahaz, king of Judah, was facing a big crisis in his country. The Assyrians were the superpower of the Ancient Near East at this time. This was the nation that Jonah was sent to in order to preach repentance. They were the Nazis of their day. They were edging closer and closer to a number of smaller nations like Syria and Israel and Judah.  A number of these countries thought their best hope would be form a coalition of the small guys against the big bully.  Syria and Israel had formed alliances before and this time they were doing it again and pressuring King Ahaz to join them.  He didn’t want to and they got so ticked at him that they decided they would start a war with him, depose him and set up their own non-Davidic puppet king.  Isaiah tells Ahaz, “Trust God!  Ask God for a sign and He will grant it to you!” Ahaz piously refuses and says that he wouldn’t dare test God like that.  However, he had already determined in his mind to ask Assyria for assistance which obviously not what God desired.

In the end God preserved Ahaz and Judah, even though they were invaded by Assyria eventually.

But Isaiah 8 teaches us a few lessons of how we ought live in the time of crisis as we remember that we live for Immanuel who is God with us!  Here they are just in bulletin form with accompanying Scriptural support from this passage.  Consider these the next time you face a crisis–or as you are facing one right now!

1. Don’t be controlled by the fear of man (8:11-12)
2. Live a God-centered life (8:13)
3. God will be a sanctuary to some and a stone of offense to others (8:14-15)
4. Never lose hope in God and His Word (8:16-18)
5. Don’t consult man’s wisdom or other paths of illumination (8:19-20)
6. Failure to adhere to God’s Word makes life hard (8:21-22)

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Living wholly for the Savior

A prayer from the Valley of Vision:

Let me live wholly to the Savior

free from distractions,

from carking care,

from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.

I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus–

give me a new sense of it,

continue to pardon me by it,

may I come every day to the fountain,

and every day be washed anew,

that I may worship thee always

in spirit and truth!

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