GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 8

GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 8 ~ ~ Psalm 25:10 ~ ~ “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.”

Continuing with chapter 4 of John Pipers “The Pleasures of God”

“God’s Pleasure in His Fame”

“God-Centeredness Is the Ground of Mercy”

Isaiah too says that God’s aim in the Exodus was to make for Himself an everlasting name. He described God as the one…..

“who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them TO MAKE FOR HIMSELF AN EVERLASTING NAME, who led them through the depths. Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led Your people, TO MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GLORIOUS NAME (Isaiah 63:12-14)

So when God showed his power to deliver His people from Egypt through the Red Sea, He had his sights on eternity and the everlasting reputation that he would win for himself in those days.

Psalm 106:7-8 teaches the same thing:

“Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wonderful works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea. Yet, he saved them FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE, THAT HE MIGHT MAKE KNOWN HIS MIGHTY POWER. (See also Nehemiah 9:10; Ezekiel 20:9; and Daniel 9:15)

Do you see the gospel logic at work here? It’s the same precious logic that we saw in 1 Samuel 12:22 earlier. There the sinful people had chosen a king and angered God. But God does not cast them off. Why? Because his great name was at stake. Here it says that the sinful people had rebelled against God at the Red Sea and failed to consider his love. Yet, he saved them with tremendous power. Why? Same answer; for his name’s sake, to make known his mighty power.

(Let’s look at a situation with Joshua 7) Joshua understood this God-centered gospel logic and put it to use like Moses did to plead for God’s sinful people. Israel had crossed the Jordan, entered the Promised Land and defeated Jericho. But now, to everyone’s dismay, they have been defeated at the city of Ai. Joshua is stunned. He goes to the Lord in one of the most desperate prayers in all the Bible:

O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth; and WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR YOUR GREAT NAME? (Joshua 7:8-9)

The great ground of hope in all the God-centered servants of the Lord has always been the impossibility that God would let his great name be dishonored for long among the nations. It was inconceivable. This was bedrock confidence. Other things change, but not this—not the commitment of God to his “great name”

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