GOD’S WORD FOR MAY 25 ~ ~ Ps 149:4 ~ ~ “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.”
Continuing with excerpts from Chapter two of John Piper’s, “The Pleasures of God”
“The Pleasure of God in all He does” ~ ~ ( Anything in parenthesis are my comments.)
In Psalm 135:8-10 it says that God’s sovereign freedom was shown most vividly in the Exodus when He delivered Israel from Egypt. “He is was who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast…who smote many nations and slew mighty kings…”
This refers explicity to the destruction of rebellious Egyptians and nations and kings. This is the scope of what god does when he does all He pleases.
I n Ezekiel is says that God is NOT pleased with the death of unrepentant people, and in Psalm 135 it says that God does whatever He pleases including the slaying of unrepentant people, for example. The enemies of His people in Egypt. And the very same Hebrew verb is used in Ps 135:6, “He pleases” and in Ezekiel 18:32 “He does NOT have pleasure”
Deuteronomy 28:63 where Moses warns of coming judgment on unrepentant Israel. But this time it says something strikingly different from Ez. 18:32. It says:
“As the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you….”
So, we are brought back to the inescapable fact that in some sense God does not delight in the death of the wicked, and in some sense He does. Even acts of judgment which in one sense do not please God, in another sense do please Him.
God’s emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend.
(We can’t completely understand His mind. All we have is His Word, knowing that He IS love, and just seeing creation makes it clear to us that His intelligence and scope of knowledge is far, far beyond us. That’s where faith comes into the picture. We need to:
“… know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
And rest in the peace that Christ promises to those of us who Trust in Him:
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
But, Mr Piper has more thoughts and hopefully some light to shed on the question and give us more food for thought…
TOMORROW.)