GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 6

GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 6 ~ ~ Revelation 2:3 ~ ~ “and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”

Continuing with excerpts from chapter 4 of John Piper’s book, “The Pleasures of God”. Chapter 4 is “The Pleasure of God in His Fame.”

(He was showing when the chosen people of God turned against His rule and wanted a king. Samuel had just told them how serious this is, and the price they will pay for it. Today we will look at the parallel of that action in the lives of people today.)

He wrote:

When people have been brought to fear and repent of their sin, then comes the good news, “Fear not, you have done all these sins, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit or save, for they are vain.”

This is the gospel message, delivered to the Israelites back then and to us today.

Even though you have sinned greatly, and terribly dishonored the Lord, even though you now have a king which it was a sin to get, even though there is no undoing that sin or its painful consequences that are yet to come, nevertheless there is a future and a hope. Fear not!

Then comes the great ground of the gospel in verse 22: “For the Lord will not cast away His people FOR HIS GREAT NAME’S SAKE, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people FOR HIMSELF.”

What is the basis of the fearlessness they should have according to this verse? First of all, it is the promise that God will not cast them away. But that is not the deepest foundation of hope and fearlessness. WHY will God not cast away His people? The answer Samuel gives is, “for His name’s sake”—-His commitment to His own name. The rock-bottom foundation of OUR forgiveness, our fearlessness and our joy is (also this same) commitment of God to His own great name.

FIRST He is committed to act for His own namesake. Then, for that reason, He is committed to act for His people. How does Samuel make that connection for us in 1 Samuel 12:22? Why is it that God’s commitment to His own name results in not casting away His people? How does His commitment to His name produce a commitment to this people?

The last part of verse 22 gives the answer, “Because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people FOR HIMSELF.” Or, to put it another way, it was God’s good pleasure to join you to Himself in such away that His name is at stake in your destiny. Or again: it was God’s good pleasure to possess you in such a way that what becomes of you reflects upon His name. Therefore, FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE, He will not cast you away.

What does that mean—that God has pleasure in His name? We have seen that, even though it might not mean anything different than God’s pleasure in His own intrinsic glory, it often means something slightly different, namely, the glory of God gone public. In other words, the name of God often refers to His reputation, His fame, His renown. This is the way we use the word “name” when we say someone is making a name for himself. Or we sometimes say, that’s a “name” brand. We mean a brand with a big reputation.

This is what I think Samuel means in 1 Samuel 12:22 when he says that God made Israel a people “for Himself” and that He would not cast Israel off, “for His great name’s sake.”

God says in Isaiah 43:21 that Israel is “the people whom I formed for Myself that THEY MIGHT DECLARE MY PRAISE.” And when the church came to see itself in the New Testament as the true Israel, Peter described God’s purpose for us like this: You are a chosen race….THAT YOU MAY DECLARE THE WONDERFUL DEEDS OF HIM WHO CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT.” (1 Peter 2:9) In other words, Israel and the church are chosen by God to make a name for Him in the world.

David teaches the same thing in one of his prayers in 2 Samuel 7:23:

“What other nation on earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be His people, MAKING HIMSELF A NAME, and doing for them great and terrible things, by driving out before His people a nation and its gods?”

In other words, when God went to redeem His people in Egypt and then bring them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, He was not just favoring the people, He was acting, as Samuel says, for His own great name’s sake (1Sam. 12:22), or, as David says, He was making Himself a name—a reputation. He was revealing the pleasure that He has in His fame.

(As we go on) we will see that knowing this truth about God is immensely practical and has to do with the way we live and serve Christ every day. It is fitting, then, that we not hurry over this pleasure of God. It is such a crucial part of the foundation of our hope, our joy and our obedience.

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