Is God Angry? | Greg Boyd

[Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] okay I'm up top now again good morning Woodland Hills good morning Padre sinners we're afternoon whenever you're watching this in a part of this it's good to be in the presence of God this is a Merril day weekend and so you can look around and tell all the people in our congregation who do not have cabins there you go this is the poor people service so we get ourselves extra righteousness points maybe there's some people here actually chose to be here even though you have a cabin but we'll get our cabin and glory I don't need one no no no no I'll just get by here without one I'm righteous hallelujah so we're in a series called dumps of the truth it's based largely on Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 where the author tells us that in the Old Testament in Old Testament times people got glimpses of the truth or God revealed himself in various ways and various degrees it says but in these last days God has given us the truth himself these last days be in its last epic and and it starts with the coming of Jesus and with the coming of Jesus we don't have a glimpse of the truth we have the full truth Jesus is the full truth and nothing but the truth thank God and so they in the Old Testament thing had glimpses of the Sun on a cloudy day but when Jesus comes we've got the Sun himself and the Sun itself and there's no clouds so Jesus reveals exactly what God is like now this tells us a whole lot about the Bible if there's a progression from glimpses to the full thing that means this is a story that unfolds and and there's a progress in the story and and you have to read everything leading up to the kind of climactic chapter which begins with Jesus everything in the light of what we find out about God in Jesus Christ it's a story and his progress means you can't read the Bible like a flat book I got a theological textbook you can't read the Bible the way unfortunately most people read the Bible where everything has equal value does ematic really where it is it's just sorry you pick out a verse and bam since it's all God breeds and we all believe that people think that therefore everything's equal equally authoritative but if you read the New Testament that's not how they treat the biblical narrative it's not all equal it everything is prior to Christ is there for the purpose of leading up to Christ and to pointing towards Christ but there's the development there's a story there they got glimpses they got glimpses better glimpses it's increasingly clear Crimson's but boom now we've got the son himself we've got the truth itself and this is this is a Hebrew builds exactly what God is like all the way down to his very essence that's what Hebrews 1:3 tells us he is the radiance of God's glory the place and she's like that that sort of captures the theme of his whole life his ministry is teaching that sums up the way he glorifies God and what he reveals about God the place where that happens is on the cross that's why uses taught that it's in the hour and this hour he says in John 12 when he lifted up that's when he'll glorify the father now glorifies the father all the time and if you see him you see the father all the time but you most clearly see the distinctive thing he reveals about the father when you slip it up on a cross and there we see that God is a God would rather die for his enemies than to crush his enemies kill his enemies he's a God who whose very essence is perfect unwavering other oriented self sacrificial non violent enemy embracing love so John sums up the revelation of God in Christ when he says God is love first John 4:8 and then if he finds love by pointing us to the cross here's how we know what love is here's how I know eleven Jesus Christ laid down his life for us so also we should lay down his life for one another love is about ascribing unsurpassable Worth to another at cost to yourself when necessary it's it's it's why it's self sacrificial it's other oriented in firms the work of the other and God is this John says so so so sacrificial love isn't just a verb that God does it is the noun that he eternally is his very essence is love which means that everything that God does every verb that he gazes in is an expression of the noun that he is all that he verbs love because he nouns love is it currently the noun love so every verb he does is the expression of his love and that brings us to the topic for today so Allah is God angry has always been angry what do you do with that so the angry wrathful portraits of God in the Old Testament and somebody argue even in the New Testament how do we understand those well see if we understand it God is love then it means that that even God's anger even God's judgment even God's quote-unquote wrath you have to understand to be an expression of love love isn't one of the attributes of God alongside all the others love is the essence of all the attributes of God I get came out just right I'm saying it again love is that one of the attributes of God love is the essence of all the attributes of God I think that went down tweeted if I were you so you see he sometime here here things like this sadly sometimes when you're teaching it's like you listen to yourself it comes out of you didn't plan on it's like well that's pretty good nothing only what I say it's kind of idiotic but yeah once in a while like it's not good so I hear people all the time off and pushing back on stuff i teach they'll say things like yes yes look god is love I totally believe that but but God's also just gotta balance it yes god is love but he gots also holy you have to have a balance of God look God is holy yes yes but he's also wrathful against sin we have to have a balance of you've got I call it the love but doctrine the love but concept of God yes God's loving but God's loving bodies only loves loving buddies just loving buddies wrathful and so you think you bet you balance things by qualifying the love but see God's love isn't one of the attributes you can put aside and put alongside of other attributes like justice and holiness and as wrath no the love is the essence of his all the other attributes his justice his holiness his wrath and so God is love and there is no but God is love and there is no but rather God is love and therefore everything God does and every attribute he has is an expression of the love that he is and love is defined by the cross which is why our understanding of God has got to be solidly anchored in the cross from beginning to end your eyes on the cross to know what anything means in God we keep our eyes on the cross where you have the perfect revelation of who God is God is love . from eternity to eternity God is perfect unwavering unfathomable incomprehensible uncompromising unqualified will other oriented self sacrificial enemy embracing love and everything God does then is an expression of that for someone I said that's been kind of hard to receive that for all of us to some degree it's hard for that to get on the inside because we've got all sorts of other conceptions of God that bump up against that I mean when I was a kid I've shared this before but but I you know my view of authority to think of authorities was that they're mad at me one thing I was good at it life was getting authorities to be mad at me and so so I was always in trouble you know ADHD and stuttering problems was always frustrated and went to a strict Catholic Irish Catholic school and and and and so everyone's mad at me nothing matters mother secures of enemies just like this and sometimes they express their anger and violent ways that's my view of Authority authorities are ticked off at me and they can strike at any moment so I go to the Catholic school and I have my head bashed with a family Bible a couple times a day and I'd have most peers smacking with an ugly stick it's big swaddled stick because I was misbehaving ever and have rulers that they smack your knuckles with and and and they're always mad I need to go home and I would get the same treatment or worse for my stepmother who kind of snapped whenever she got angry and she was the main authority in my life because my dad was gone most the time so my view authority was just that authorities are angry with me and they can strike at any moment so that was my view of God I think that God is love I thought God is ticked God is ticked off he's really mad it can strike at any moment it didn't help that in that in the church sir I had to go to every morning we had Mass every morning and and and it was said in Latin this is right during the Vatican - period but this is Church this particular parish was kind of resistant to that because it's very conservative parish so kevin doing a mass in Latin which if you have ADHD is torture he put his loom Sunday but absolutely intention of that it's like tell I get in trouble but in in this in this Cathedral all the pictures of God stained-glass windows and other things they were like enraged but they all look at kind of austere serious not very friendly not very welcoming nothing really is alike about those pictures of God the only friendly face in this Cathedral that I had to go to every morning was this statue of Mary and was up to the left and Mary was the Virgin Mary was holding the baby Jesus and she was so beautiful and has the serene look and had a little smile on her face and and I just was a love of that Mary and fortunately for me and it was my Catholic tradition you're taught that you can pray to Mary it's like you need to pray to Mary in fact we're taught that sometimes it's better to pray to Mary than to to Jesus because Jesus always listens to his mother that's what the event is really taught me and so I figured I don't have a chance but if I'm going to get you the pearly gates it's not with the Father Son Holy Spirit they're ticked off they don't like me but Mary is my ticket and so I talked to Mary all that time I prayed hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed all moaning splits for languages let me remember God pray for the sinner now as they are over my death amen all the time it's like because because she's the only one I thought who who kind of liked me and I think God use that to give me some really tough times I'd say have I one friend in heaven you know and and and I think God getting he always accommodates where you're at and that's where was that so he comes done I think he worked through Mary to minister this poor soul but that was my view of God now I could believe me when I was 12 you know my stepmother finally moved out hallelujah and and so we we uh my dad declared he was an atheist the only reason he was going to church was because my stepmother so I said I'm an atheist so for four years I didn't believe in God that's not really good not to have this angry God always looking at you but then I come to Christ meant of seventeen and and I love the good news about Jesus he died for me and now my sins can be forgiven that's good but see my view God basically didn't change now I'm just gonna believe in that again and so I had this view of God the ultimate authority is ticked off and he can strike any moment and in Jesus oddly enough becomes sort of my protector against God Jesus saves me from God Jesus my insurance against God because you know God would have been to his wrath on me but Jesus steps in the way and took it for me as I said that's how I can see good that's what I was taught and so he bears the brunt but the father figure you know it's something I need to be protected from so Jesus statements from God what is wrong with that picture and yeah there's a lot of people who believe that they'll say that but that's their conception of God God's ready to just get you but Jesus like no dad I take me instead and then even if I even though insurance from the father was not very good because it's as holiness Pentecostal church where you're only is saved as your last sinless minute every sin separating you from God you get you saved so what kind of insurance is that it's like having car insurance that protects you and and it covers you unless you have an accident the purpose for the insurance is the cover you want to get an accident so Kevin insurance is this but we can we've had that and that's what the good news is that's the good news hallelujah Jesus protects you until you need protection then the father is going to get you so so is what was going on there was I was projecting onto God my understanding of authority and my understanding of judgment and anger and all the rest God became a super example of all the authorities in my life but that's what human beings have been doing throughout history we take our ideas about what God was like it basic as all the things that we would do if we were God and we project it unto God so God becomes a projection of ourselves so the guy in the 19th century is named foyer box he wrote this book the essence of Christianity and he was an atheist thing he was arguing that that that basically God is just a projection of ourselves up on a cosmic scale and the truth is to a large large degree he was right for most people throughout history God has been a projection that's why the gods look like verses of young beings just on steroids they're temperamental but you ticked off they rage and they get violent and so when they get violent they send their earthquakes and famines and diseases and mudslides and wars and rapes and all the other kind of stuffs and that's been a basic picture of God throughout history including sadly in the Christian tradition and see God is a God who coerces people into believing the truth he loves people even when they're believing in errors and and and you know work was that even in there believing in the errors that's why we fight in the Old Testament maybe only got glimpses of truth God isn't going to lobotomize the brain coerce their brains to get them to have a right view of him so he has to work with them as they are and he works by means of influence is that he's not coercive but that's why folks if you have glimpse of the truth they're going to have some clouds and so as we read the Old Testament in my opinion now you have to understand it is glimpses of truth of Sun breaks through but is also clouds here's an example example of a cloudy picture of God if Jesus is exactly what God is like then any picture that disagrees with Jesus is going to be a cloudy one and we have to be able to discern the clouds the similar clouds from the Sun so in this portrait of God Ezekiel says this is what the Lord says I am against you I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked because I'm going to cut off the righteous and the wicked my sword will be in sheets against everywhere everyone from south to north the null people will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword from achieve this is a portrait of God that where he's so intoxicated with rage just so is going to take out that sword and he's just going to start swinging and doesn't matter whether you're righteous or your wicked whether you're young or old he's going to just slaughter from the south to north everyone from the north to south south to north to get me slaughtered and it was indiscriminate rage which is going to erupt then later on in this chapter it says well then my my wrath will be satisfied or satiated and I'll stop just got it just like a rageaholic now here's the thing when I when I came to Christ absolon supposed to read the Bible some 17 it's so sweet the Bible and no one told me about progressive revelation how you know the pictures of God get more christ-like in and in some parts later parts correct the earlier parts you got to read it from that from that from the perspective of the end and and you know anchor your view of God and Christ no one told me about that no one told me that that some of these portraits are going to be to be projections of the people because they only had glimpses of truth no I didn't hear that and so I just started reading the Bible and like any other book I thought you start the beginning and you go through to the end as I start confronting pictures of God like this and you know what that just confirmed all of my worst fears about God God it turns out God is as ugly as I thought God was God is a giant Mother Superior heard my mother-in-law and and I can strike at any moment the ultimate authority because something is mad and just starts raging and start slaughtering sounds a whole lot like my stepmother confirmed all my projections so God is in the ultimate authority who can get angry at any moment and can strike at any moment and see here's the thing I can fear that God I can fear that God I cannot love that God okay if I can fear that God and I can say I love you because if I don't he'll squash me but I can't genuinely love a God who can fly off the hook and slaughter indiscriminately and can can strike at any moment without rhyme or reason and and so you're in this position where you got to get to say I love you because he's the one holding the giant sword over your head but you can't if you're morally healthy you can't genuine saw what a lovely God I just naturally fall in love with this God it's sad I guess it's a position if so many Christians are in Leeson searly it would make me want to love God but they have a picture of God it's just not lovely that lovable but they have to say I love you and they say you're good it's amazing you can search history Agustin and others say God is all good it's all lovely and all together beautiful and then they ascribe to him the most horrendous behaviors you can imagine so what is loving mean or was a good mean when you're scrubbing to a deity who can pretense in the majority people to go to hell putting here with newborn little baby and and glorifies himself in the destruction and the torture of those he has predestined to suffer this is what happens when we project our stuff unto God get some conflicting pictures of God when it comes to thinking about God's anger or God's judgment or God's wrath as well as God's love X gods anything when it comes to understanding God folks we can't assume anything we shouldn't assume anything because the degree that we are assuming stuff we're just projecting our stuff onto God and so I may be right but a lot of it could be wrong but we will know the difference because because God can't correct our views because we're assuming we already know when it comes to thinking about God I see that we need to let God teach us let God lead us like I would reveal themselves to us rather than sue we know what it means what that God brings judgment let's let's let's sit at the feet of Jesus and learn what it means when God brings judgment the sit at the feet of the cross the foot of a cross and because the cross is a clear evolution of what God is like the cross is a revelation of how God brings judgment of what God's judgment is it's the perfect revelation of how God brings judgment on sin now that may surprise some of you because you've heard me say a million times that the cross is the perfect revelation of God's love so how can the cross be both the perfect revelation of God's love and also a perfect revelation of God's wrath well follow this and by the way this is one of the sermons going to have your thinking caps on the whole time right lady came to me afterwards last night said why do you always give me a headache yeah that's a sign of me that I did a good job so so you thinking here this is only a question that arises if you think that love is one of the attributes of God if you understand that love is the essence of all the attributes but then there's no problem understanding how the cross is both a revelation of God's wrath and revelation of God's love because the wrath is simply expression of the love got it was the stuff you say got it no no get it got it good okay get it good all right so the cross is revelation God's judgment uh in Matthew 14 or mark 14 it says this here's that Abba Father all things are possible for you so remove this cup from me yet not what I will but what you will now Jesus was in the garden holding a coffee cup is having a nice little spotty and say oh father we take this cup for me I don't want to walk you can get rid of myself no there's no actual cup there the cup is a metaphor and the metaphor comes out of the Old Testament and the cup is the metaphor for God's wrath you find as dozens and dozens of times the cup is a metaphor of God's wrath for example in Jeremiah 25 it says this thus says the Lord God of Israel to me take the wine cup of this fury or it could be this wrath at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send it to drink it drinking from this Cup was drinking with a cup of God's wrath there's a long history behind that but we don't had to get into it but what Jesus is pressing here is he's aware that he is going to stand in our place as a sinner and he is going to then bear all the death consequences of sin all that it's in is inherently self-destructive and God's mercy protects us from that self-destructiveness but on the cross Jesus is going to bear all of that and that's the wrath of God he's going to stand on our plane is gonna be under the judgment of God you're going to drink of that Cup and a couple's a cup of God's wrath but notice this though Jesus is standing under the judgment of God the Father isn't angry with Jesus there's nothing that indicates that that the father has raged towards Jesus this wrath that he's going to stand under apparently is not a wrath that's motivated by anger in fact it's motivated by love and and and and so that's why the cross is both a revelation of God's love but also of God's God's rest of the two are the same everything Jesus does he does because he loves the father ain't no the father loves him and so his obedience to the father and this is an expression of love but there's no the father's not angry with Jesus so yes Jesus is standing under the judgment of God but apparently the judgment of God doesn't presuppose that God is personally angry at anybody also notice this Jesus is standing as his position the position of being under God's wrath but the father never acts violently towards Jesus what's with Jesus suffers because he's bearing the consequences of the sin of the world it's a violent judgment there's a lot of violence there is hideous it's gross but the violence isn't caused by the father the father never lifts a finger towards Jesus rather well the only thing that God's and father does is he turns Jesus over to these violent humans operating under these principalities and powers and they carry out all the violence to Jesus and they're the ones who have all the anger towards Jesus it's not the father who's angry and violent it's people but the father turns him over to - to these people that's why Paul says God didn't spare his own son but gave him up for us all gave him up delivered him over and romans 4 he delivered Jesus over a pair of dinner line means that just to hand something over pass something on he didn't protect Jesus he allowed this to happen that's the only thing God did in bringing judgment on Jesus and that's the only thing I submit to you that God ever does when he brings judgment he allows it to happen he delivers Jesus over but the father doesn't act violently in his judgment and he's not angry in his judgments the judgment is simply him allowing people to undergo to suffer the consequences of their own decisions also note this that the plan to have the father delivered Jesus over was settled on by the entire triune God Father Son and spirit they agreed upon his plans on the foundation of the world in case human beings should fall and I think that's probably inevitable but they had this plan and so it was agreed to it wasn't something it was forced on Jesus Jesus voluntarily and that's why it's an act of love but it wouldn't be love if it was forced on him he voluntarily allowed us up to be delivered over and the whole plan was this expression of the love that God is and the love that God has for us and the reason that's kind of poured right now is there's this little scuttle going on as a result of the crucifixion of warrior God where people are debating this void really believe that the father forsook Jesus how can possibly leave that that Jesus was abandoned by the father how can you possibly believe that well for one thing jesus said why have you forsaken me now it's kind of it's one reason to believe it but but here's the thing and yes the question did the father really forsake Jesus you have to answer that yes and no yes no yes he did an in this sense he delivered Jesus over right he didn't protect Jesus he allows these these violent youin beings to do what they wanted to do to Jesus and yes he was forsaken in the sense that when he stood in our place and he bore the sin of the world he's experiencing to the inside of the horror of the sin of the world and it's from that perspective that he cries out my God my God why have you forsaken me he's experiencing forsaken asst then is at its essence pushing God away and so on God lets people go they go away and so sin is separation from God and Jesus is genuinely experience that so yes she's experiencing genuine forsaking us and the father did deliver him over but also know the father didn't really forsake him because the plan to forsake him was agreed upon this is just agreed upon thing okay you didn't genuinely abandon Jesus and and the plan is an expression of God's love the love that he is and the love that he has for us and it's the love of God that unites the father-son in spirit and that's never broken it's never a threat and that's that's eternal essence of God and so ironically when Jesus cries out my God my God why have you forsaken me he's expressing the perfect unity of the Godhead because it's that other oriented love that unites the Godhead so when she went when you just stands in our place and undergoes the judgment or the wrath of God the Father is not angry with him and and if they're still united in perfect love and there is no violence on God's part like that in two other things that bought the cross about judgment that we learned from the cross number one far from having rage towards the son the father has a grieving heart when he has to deliver his son over he's grieving and Jesus reveals that this is the heart of God whenever there's a judgement in Luke 19 Jesus is riding into Jerusalem and he gives his prophecy about a coming judgment it's going to come on Israel it says this when he came near to the city of Jerusalem he beheld two sitting any wept the word clay can be translated as he cried or even that he wailed and he said as was wailing if you even you had known even today would bring what things would bring you peace which isn't a complete sentence which I think he's wailing because he didn't doesn't finish the sentence but now they are hidden from your eyes and it is crying he says for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you and press you in on every side and then he says next next slide there they will - you and your children within you to the ground they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did the time of your visitation this is a judgment that's coming on in Israel and and it's horrendous no no dear it's a violent judgement but God doesn't do the violence the only thing God does it says in other passages we got God left the temple desolate your temple the desolate which means it's vacated and a temple was understood by used to be the house of God God has vacated the premises he's you push them away so persistently I finally got giving you your wish you want me to go I'm going to go and that's going to be terrible for you because now your enemies are going to Bank around you and your enemies are going to do terrible terrible stuff and they did from 66 to 70 AD the Iranian SEC Jerusalem tore down the temple slaughtered massacred thousands and thousands upon thousands survivors were banished from from the holy city but all that was done by the Romans not God and note though this is the genuine judgment for God God isn't out there personally angry with them he's not trying to get even he's not being vindictive his heart is grieving if this is his carrion part he's wailing and since Jesus reveals exactly what God is like all the time we need to whenever we are reading a judgment of God in Scripture I behind that there is a wailing God a crying God the Old Testament office usually couldn't see that though we'll see you in a moment sometimes they could but usually that's so far it's so different from what everybody thinks about God and in the Old Testament authors are somewhat conditioned by that culture they don't usually envision God crying when he brings the judgment but we know what God's really like and so as we read the Bible that's kind of we have to fill in the background God is a crying God so that's the first thing second thing is this that that when Jesus when the father delivers Jesus over his motive is not to get even his motive is not to vent his wrath his motive is not that I get my pay you owe me the motive of God when children Jesus over is redemptive he's aiming at redemption is the thing is that the reason that the Jesus had to die it was not to satisfy something in God like I got a bet this rage on somebody the reason Jesus had to die was because only this perfect Express love God becoming a human being becoming our sin becoming our curse only God going to that extreme reveals what God really is like and that has the power to break all of the lines the enemy's never told us about God only going to that extreme and showing that perfect self sacrificial love at the power to destroy the kingdom of darkness and to break the chains praise God only that expression of love has the power to abolish everything the enemy ever had on us like light vanquish the darkness everything the enemy had on us the accuser of the Brethren it was nailed to the cross and it was abolished because only that perfect expression of love has the power to set us free to see who God really is and to accept his forgiveness and it be restored and reconciled him only that perfect expression of love has the power to restore all of creation back to God praise God and bring an end to evil and and with the resurrection shows is that it worked the resurrection is is one big declaration that God's love has conquered all God's love is defeated the powers God's love is defeated Satan God's love has defeated sin God's love is defeated death God's love is defeated everything could separate us from God God's love is defeated all lies God's love has has liberated the captives break God's God's love has liberated creation the resurrection shows all of that and that's why Jesus died it wasn't nothing vindictive it was redemptive so so just someone roll up the cross teaches us three things okay number one God judges out of love and with the redemptive intent that's what I just said number two God judges not by acting violently but by simply turning people over to the death consequences that are in here in their own sin and number three God judges when he brings judgment he doesn't with a grieving heart that's very different than what we use the name by judgment or what we mean by wrath but it's it's the conception we have to have in mind as we're reading the Old Testament now they got glimpses of this truth by usually they couldn't see it and so you find a lot of pictures of God that don't reflect any of this you'll find pictures of God we're gotta is acting vindictive if I'm pictures of God where where he's not motivated by love it's just even motivated by sheer wrath you'll find pictures of God ways acting very violently and when we come upon pictures like this in my opinion what I recommend is that we exercise the same faith we exercised when we see the as a revelation of God the cross on the surface is hideously ugly because it reflects the sin that God is bearing that doesn't tell us what God is like that tells us what we're like what tells us what God is like is that we by faith look through that surface and we see God stepping this infinite distance to become this ugliness and the beauty of God is that he's willing to become this ugliness in order to redeem us he's a humble guy who Stoops this low to bear our sin and to take on this appearance as ugly and so when we come upon ugly pictures of God that are consistent with the character that we see revealed in Christ I recommend that we understand that the surface tells us a lot about the biblical author and the people that God is dealing with it reflects the sin of the people about what will reveal God to us because all Scripture is god-breathed for the purpose of pointing to the cross what will God and what will point to the cross is when we look through that surface and behold God humbly stooping this far to staying a covenant to a relationship with his people to keep on influencing them in the direction of truth he stays in the game even though going to make him look bad even though he takes on the appearance that reflects that ugliness so there's a lot of clouds there and but the clouds are still God breeds and point to the cross but thank God there are also glimpses of truth that looked exactly like the cross and so I would look at a couple of those and its message by looking at a couple of these all right under those three categories first let's look at a passage that that reveals that when God judges he does it with a redemptive motive and and he does not have love the the the one I'm gonna look at Isaiah chapter 19 alright interesting passage it says see the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and so come to Egypt already you see a little bit of accommodation here don't you he's riding on a swift cloud you know pitch him serving serving on a cloud and this is how all ancient people ancient Near some people envisions the warrior gods they wrote out their chariots were on the clouds and it was based on like a storm front moving in an ominous that's kind of like that the idea is I'm in a storm cloud coming in here and the Lightning was the arrows that the gods would throw down at people and you find all sorts of pictures in the Old Testament of God riding on the clouds in a chariot followed by some cosmic horses a story lightning bolts to people because it's how ancient near-eastern people thought about and so God influences in the direction of truth as much as possible but then he has to accommodate at some point and so we get these pictures in the Bible but this judgment here could the judgment is an ominous thing the idols of Egypt shall tremble at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its mist okay so this is this is a storm cloud moving in and you always on the cloud and Egypt is easy because the archenemy of Israel and archenemy of God and they're going to get it now now they're going to pay so if you're writing a script on this you want to have the soundtrack going something like this da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da so here's here's Yahweh coming up it's it's butt-kicking time and then you have a bunch of verses were you always portrayed is doing that and and it's it's it's a nasty judgment that comes on Egypt there they get it bad and here Yahweh is portrayed very much along the lines of an ancient Near some warrior God and does all the things that ancient warrior gods do although if you read it carefully you'll see that God actually doesn't do anything if you really take carefully you'll see that the authors describing the violence to god but God actually never does doesn't to the violence it's always other agents that carry out the violence the only reason these authors feel the need to describe this violence to God is because in ancient Near East they thought that's the way you praise God our gods more ferocious in your God our God more vicious our God will rip your little babies heads off and and they'd have you terrible terrible grisly gross things that they say and they think the praising God in doing that you find that what the biblical authors as well but God didn't do it okay so it's a terrible judgment but what's interesting then is at one point towards the end the Sun comes out and it's purely God breaks through and we read this this is the day in that day when is when when the judgment is over in that day the there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt the archenemy of Yahweh and interesting and a pillar to the Lord and his border and it shall be it for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt for they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressors the ones who did all the violence in that judgment and he shall then send them a savior and a chance and he shall deliver them this is interesting so the judgment is because God's Maddy did not trying to get even time for you to pay so the score or retaliate there's none of that the reason why God is allowing this judgment to come on them and allowing oppressors now a ransacked Egypt is because God wants to redeem Egypt God is in love with Egypt and and he wants to bring it to the point where they need a savior and deliver and then Yahweh will say I'll be that for you okay so it is motivated by a redemptive a motive a longing and then he goes on to say that the Lord shall be known in Egypt and the Egyptians these archenemies who have been just railing against me all this time but they shall know the Lord in that day and they shall worship with sacrifice and offerings and they shall make a vow to the Lord and perform it the Lord shall strike Egypt he shall strike and heal it then they shall return to the Lord and he shall be entreated by them and he shall heal them if the Lord strikes it's only to heal and even when he strikes he's not the one doing the striking he's just allowing it but if he allows you to be struck it's because it's because he wants to bring a healing in your life which by the way doesn't mean that every bad thing happens here is the judgment of God not at all not at all most of the stuff that goes out of life is simply a reflection of the fact that he made a world where there's free agents who can do what they want they do sometimes they angels and humans they do bad stuff so don't go blaming God for everything that happens I just explained the judgments and Hanauer here in the Bible and when God strikes Egypt he's doing it out of love because he wants to heal them he wants to restore them because the truth is if you read down in this chapter God he says it explicitly the Egyptians are my children as much as the Israelites are my children as much as the Assyrians are my children these are all the archenemies at the time but he's saying I want to redeem all of them I want to make them all my children and the reason why he brings this judgment is to move to that end so whenever there's a judgment in the Bible know that the ultimate purpose of it is not to get even or to settle score God's doing it out of love and you're doing it with redemptive motives secondly God judges not by acting violently but by turning away and we find this reflected a lot in the Old Testament the ones that are the most interesting actually are where you find you thank the author ascribes violence to God but in the same chapter or in a close in somewhere else and in their writing they scribed that violence to another human being the raziel every feels what's going on here they are aware on some level that God doesn't actually do this they just want to ascribe it to them I'll just give you two examples of this in Jeremiah 13 the Lord is portrayed as saying I will smash them my people is talking about the Israelites here one against the other parents and children alike he's going to smash families I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them I'm going to destroy them and I if I feel any kind compassion I'm going to put a sign and again immersing with a put side and it kind of pity I'm going to put it aside because I am going to destroy those families I'm going to take the kids and the parents and smash them together now I can't for the life of me imagine Jesus doing that for any reason and so I would see this as being a cloudy picture this is saying a lot about Jeremiah Jeremiah thinks the highway is capable of this it's not surprising because this is what exit near some people think the God is always arguing there they smash people but this is this is a reflection of Jeremiah now if you keep on reading it's all already this offenses like this I would encourage you to trust that God really looks like you is revealed to be on the cross this reveals the real heart of God and so the surface of this portrait of God is saying a lot about the sin that God is bearing so look through that and let it be a testimony to how far God was willing to stoop to stay in a covenant relationship with his people it's like you always up there saying I know you think that I'd go around smashing families together of children or whatever I still love you and I'm going to keep on trying to influence you going in the future and so I'll take you as you are and that's why that that cloud gets recorded in Scripture the whole scripture is a record of God's progressive revelation so it's got to be a record of God's getting calls out of the way which means you're gonna be finding clouds all throughout the thing leading up to Christ but you keep on reading in Jeremiah find that God doesn't actually do this he says this later on he says uh where does it say oh here it is I will give that a kayak Keegan Judah his officials and the people in the city into the hands of Nemec Ezard the king of babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives he's doing here what he does with Jesus on the cross I'm going to deliver you over he will put them to the sword he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion the same things the same attitudes that are ascribed to Yahweh earlier are now ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar and the reality is it was Nebuchadnezzar who had no pity or compassion was Nebuchadnezzar who put them to the sword it was Nebuchadnezzar and his armies smashed all the families it says that Jeremiah being an ancient nation person was not yet able to give up this idea that you're praising God by attributing violence to him and so he describes the same attitudes and actions - to Yahweh another example is in Jeremiah 21 because the Lord says I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm even in anger and a fury and a great wrath I will strike the inhabitants of the city both man and beast it looks like now he's going to personally come down there and do it all slaughtering his fury in his wrath gonna rip them all up but then five verses later we hear this for I set my face against the city for disaster and after good says the Lord it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire and he'll put it to the sword and on and on Yahweh doesn't lift a finger against his people he he just turns them over to the enemies as he's now has found that his merciful protection is now just enabling them to go on getting deeper in the rebellion so he has no choice but to withdraw and he's doing it with a grieving heart when we come upon portraits like this Jeremih couldn't conceive it right at this point but but but but we have to be able to conceive it that Yahweh is crying here he hates to do this but it's what he's got to do that's what he's got to do alright so God judges not by acting violently but by turning people over finally there are passages in the Old Testament that capture God's greeting heart usually they don't succeed at this but but sometimes they do I only only tended to give you one injera in Hosea now Hosea is interesting because he sometimes gets there are glimpses of truth that our magnificent in Isaiah but sometimes he has portraits of God that are the worst of the worst in ancient Near East so for example I'll give you two examples of this in Hosea 9 you always portray is saying because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house I will love them no more he's got it I thought love lasts forever loves love endures forever no not not in this picture I'm going to stop loving them even though they give birth I will kill the cherished offspring of the room delightful so he's going to be a child slaughtering because he doesn't love them anymore then once they are 13 we read this and this is a note about a judgment coming on the Israelites so I will be like a lion to them like a leopard I will lurk by the path I will attack them like a bear bereaved of her cubs and will tear open their ribcage there I will devour them like a lion we you know a nation years there's some cannibalistic deities who would devour their enemies chances they destroyed them and here Yahweh's Hosea's projecting this onto Yahweh he's going to tear them to pieces they shall fall by the sword the little ones shall be dashed in pieces the babies are going to be dashed into pieces and the pregnant women held their wombs ripped open that delightful is delightful now it was there is God's working in them and God's moving forward but this is the best that he can do right now and Yahweh is a humble guy who submitted the insect that's the best you can do I'm gonna stay in covenant relationship with you and keep breathing through you even though now I'm going to be burying your sin and therefore taking on the parents that reflects that sin and we've got to be able to look through the surface and see that humble God stooping and vicious passages like that because I can't imagine Jesus for a moment eating people alive and ripping out babies out of wounds and stashing them on the ground that's just me but I is 15 that's a cloud and if they're only getting glimpses of truth that means there goes give me a lot of colleges we have to expect clouds well read the Old Testament now what's amazing is that even though Hosea it says these things that trips them to God other passages in Hosea make it clear that God doesn't lift a finger towards anybody or harm anybody at one point in Jesus for the Lord says that Ibrahim which is to the another name Israel Froome is attached to idols let them alone that's what God does that's how God judges can leave people alone if that's you want to go there and train hang idea but now I got to let you go leave him alone and that's all God ever does he hands over and Hosea captures in a beautiful way the heart of God at one point the Sun breaks through and and the spirit be able to reveal this truth and it was a 11 now he says yet this is after all this vicious judgement talk he goes I was want to talk to you to walk in for him I took you up in my arms I led them with cords of human kindness with bands of love the picture here is of a parent in Israel they would teach people kids how to walk the 18th chord and they would lead him how to walk with these chords as a tender thing and so Yahweh here is a despite all the internation rage here we're seeing in the heart of God is like this is my precious baby my precious baby I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks a little when mother just holds it baby so close I bent down to them and I said them and then the Lord is crying here it goes how can I give you up your family how can I hand you over and look at the truth here this is what God does I get to give you up I have to hand you over in this case he's handing them over to the Assyrians and the Assyrians are the ones who do all ripping and tearing and killing the babies and opening up wombs that's what that's there were a vicious vicious army they're the ones who did it Yahweh though was turning him over and his heart is breaking so he says my heart recoils within me my compassion grows warm and tender and so this is cookie I've got to let you go but I can't I bet there's at least one couple one parent hearing this message where you've had to do this to a child there's a couple that I knew a number of years ago who had a 24 year old son he was he drank smoked pot the drugs all day long didn't couldn't hold a job for his life and he was still living with his parents in the camp point where they had to put him out because as long as they were caring for him and and just meeting his needs what he didn't have any motives to get a job and to keep it and and didn't have a motive to you know after stay sober he just stay stoned all day long and they play video games and so they thought they were enabling him and they had to say it's time for you to go out on your own and he's rebelled and like you hate me you're mean to me whatever but it's like no it's time you've got to get a job you got to live this is we're not helping you by enabling you to stay here and and let you stay stone and all that and it kills them it broke their heart but they had to let the Sun out there and and he had to fall and he had to fall hard and it hurt but it was only by falling and getting hurt that finally he got came to his senses it came to reality and realize that you've got to make a living if you want money and you can't be spending all your money on drugs if you're you're going to survive and if you're on drugs all the time not going to keep your job you need to get your job otherwise you can't live so life sometimes life has to teach our kids but we can't you're right you know it's just tough love and that's what God does here it's not that every bad thing that happens was as a result of God turning us over not at all in fact Jesus in Luke 13 it makes it clear that we don't have any business trying to discern the hand of God behind disasters if God reveals that like he does in Scripture that's one thing but we it's not our job to draw the conclusion we should just assume that mayhem that happens to people as a result of living in a world that's populated with free agents but when God does bring judgments is with a grieving heart in Hosea gets it so I end with this how how cloudy is your picture of God you know we've been given the unclouded picture of God bidding but see even having gotten that it's possible for us to hold on to our projections where we where are we projecting our assumptions about what God should be like and how is that clouding the true picture of God because as I say all the time around here your picture of God is all-important the beauty of your relationship with God the passion of your relationship with God the beauty of your life will never outrun the beauty of your picture of God everything hangs whatever you do with that Old Testament stuff you don't have agree with me but everything hangs on our resolving that God looks exactly like Jesus from beginning to end down to his very very essence hey God looks as beautiful as he's revealed to be on the cross and so I encourage us to lock that in and do two things one spend with that guy especially if you have had ugly pictures of God circulating your mind for however long your whole life maybe you need a weed those out is the best thing to do is to spend time letting God love you with the kind of love that reveals on the cross and and surrender your imagination open to the Lord and let the spirit just bring you to Jesus and and go places and then bring healing delights and then say to you all the things you said about you in Scripture but he says it with your name if you eye contact with you feel it in its embrace sense it in his presence spend time with that God and number two I encourage us as we're going throughout the day remind ourselves about that God and pulses bring every thought captive to Jesus Christ second Corinthians 10:5 and if ever there's a thought that we need to bring connected to Jesus Christ it's our thinking about God and you can only do that a limit by moment basis remind yourself in the morning and at night maybe write post-it notes if you need to but you're always walking in the presence of God a God who loves you with an everlasting love you are right now loved by God it was a perfect love that could never be improved in all eternity remind yourself of that and then an ally what washes off the pollution of our minds with regard to God it contrasts with all the often tearing pictures we have it does that we also find it has one other advantage and that is that it puts you in a very good mood we would fan it does you can't help but write in your day when you're aware that your love is pretty everlasting love all the circumstance of your life becomes sort of inconsequential you're having a good day even if you're having a very bad day I like to ask the pro teams to come up here as I'm getting ready to close and if you're here this morning and have any need whatsoever that could use prayer come up your prayer with these folks they'd love to minister to you and if you here this morning and you're not a follower of Jesus you're not surrendered to him I encourage you to consider doing that and if you come up here and talk to these folks they'd love explain what's it what's it what that is all about father as we leave here would you remind us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus whenever we are in our minds turning towards any other conception of God any love but God anything we inherited along the way that could compromise our understanding of your beauty help us to say vigilant I'm setting that aside and turning our eyes to Jesus help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith the revealer of God the revelation of truth let that be true in our mind and everything it disagrees with a liar and if you agree with that say Amen and go out and love on your neighbors god bless you guys keep your eyes fixed

Channel: The Narrow Gate

Views: 5,292

Rating: 4.7974682 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Satan, Sin, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Christian, The Gospel, Truth, Lord, Salvation, The Word, Preaching, Study, Sermon, The Father, Faith, Hope, Love, Apostle, Disciples, Heaven, Hell, Demons, Angels, Prophets, Saints, The Cross, Calvary, Crucified, Born Again, Scripture, Prophecy, Holy, Justification, Sanctification, Regeneration, Soul, Church, The Blood, Prayer, New Covenant, Grace, Christianity, Martyr, Pastor, Messiah, Savior, Atonement, PRAYER, repent, Greg Boyd

Id: fcTWHqbCTbY

Length: 51min 51sec (3111 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2017