Why Read the Bible: To Learn About the Manifold Expressions of God’s Love for His People

“Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel
and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the LORD
and invoke the God of Israel—
but not in truth or righteousness—
you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
and claim to rely on the God of Israel—
the LORD Almighty is his name:
I foretold the former things long ago,
my mouth announced them and I made them known;
then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
For I knew how stubborn you were;
your neck muscles were iron,
your forehead was bronze.
Therefore I told you these things long ago;
before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
‘My images brought them about;
my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
You have heard these things; look at them all.
Will you not admit them?

“From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you.
They are created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
‘Yes, I knew of them.’
You have neither heard nor understood;
from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
you were called a rebel from birth.
For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to destroy you completely.
See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.

–Isaiah 48.1-11 (NIV)

In one sense, the Bible contains the unfolding story of God’s love for his people, both Jew and Gentile, and today’s passage gives us insight into the many ways God expresses his love for us. At first blush this seems like a very odd way for God to express his love. For those who are not mature Christians or are not familiar with Scripture at all, frankly a passage like today’s isn’t a good place to start exploring the wondrous nature of God’s love about which the Bible consistently speaks.

Why? Because you will be reading this from the perspective of an outsider who does not really know God. It is not unlike those situations in which we see a parent disciplining his child in public. Seeing it makes us uncomfortable, especially if we do not know the parent, because none of us really likes to be disciplined. We don’t know what the parent is thinking or what motivates him to discipline his child. We might even wonder if we are witnessing an abusive parent in action.

If the above analogy doesn’t work for you, try this one. Starting to explore the Bible with passages like today’s is not unlike viewing our own parents from the perspective of a teenager. We don’t really understand why mom and dad are so hard on us. We sometimes misinterpret their discipline as really an unloving act instead of seeing appropriate and deserved discipline for what it is–an expression of the parents’ great love for us that causes them to want the best for us.

But for those who are mature enough in the faith, passages like today’s can be quite enlightening–if in the process we can resist the temptation to project our own broken and unholy anger onto God. Because we know God’s great love for us in Christ, because we spend a good amount of time at the foot of the cross, we can see in passages like today’s not an angry, capricious God but rather a God who laments over his creatures’ willful, foolish, and ongoing decision to try to live their lives apart from him, which can only lead to their death since God is the only Source of life.

When we understand that real love always desires the best for the beloved, it allows us to see that in today’s passage God is really imploring his people (in this context, his Jewish people) to shape up and get with the program. God urges them to give him more than lip service, to behave like they really do love God so that they will obey him and show their love for him, in part, by loving each other. We see God telling his people in no uncertain terms to ditch their various idols (things of human origin) because no idol can give life or rescue us from death.

And then at the end of this passage, we really begin to understand how true love works. First God tells his people that because they have been so persistently stubborn, rebellious, and willful, there is no hope for their exile from him to be ended. Their behavior will bring about their much deserved punishment, in this context their future exile to Babylon.

But then we read the most remarkable thing. God will not punish Judah as she deserves! He will not destroy his people completely. He will not let the shame of their future exile last forever because doing so would give outsiders the wrong impression about God and who he really is! No, because of God’s mind-blowing love for his people, God promises to redeem them–at least a remnant of them who remain faithful to him–because, well, that’s just who God is.

This picture of God is confirmed elsewhere in the OT and in spades in the NT. All we have to do is look at the cross of Christ to have God’s massive love for us confirmed. In the death and resurrection of Christ, God has demonstrated to us decisively that he created us for relationship, not destruction, and he has poured out his Holy Spirit on us to help us learn this magnificent truth and understand it as fully as we finite humans are able. In other words, God has done all the work to ensure that we can have life to its fullest, both here in this mortal life and for all eternity.

As I said at the beginning of this reflection, if you are new to the Bible or are searching for real Truth and life, don’t start reading Scripture by reading passages like the above because as Scripture makes clear elsewhere, our spiritual journey is dynamic, not static. Every one of us starts out as infants in the faith and like physical infants are not able to feed on adult (mature) food, which today’s passage represents. With that in mind, start out with John’s Gospel and spend a good amount of time on his prologue. Ask God to help you wrap your mind around the wondrous truth and promises contained in it and to deepen your understanding of his word in Scripture. You have the testimony of countless believers that you will not be disappointed.

But expect opposition along the way from multiple sources. For example, living in a culture that glorifies the self and sees love as some sort of sappy sentimental feeling that quickly gives the beloved anything the beloved desires impedes our understanding of real love made manifest. This, in turn, is compounded by our inability to know about or know God without him revealing himself to us.

But when by God’s sheer grace we begin to wrap our minds around his great love for us manifested in Jesus, we can begin to read hard passages like today’s with new eyes, eyes of faith and trust. We begin to develop an accurate understanding of the real nature of love. We begin to ask ourselves what would motivate God to behave toward his people in the ways that he does. And with the help of the Spirit, we suddenly realize God’s character never changes nor does he ever act inconsistently with his people.

If you are a seeker or someone who is struggling with your faith, think on these things. The God who chastises and punishes his wayward people does not do so because he is some sort of cosmic bully or angry abuser of his creatures. No, he chastises and punishes us to help open our eyes to the mortal danger we are really in. We know this because we have seen his cross on Calvary and have stood at its base. We can’t fully comprehend the depth and breadth of his love for us but that shouldn’t (and doesn’t) stop us from putting our faith and trust in him. When we do, we will want to spend the requisite time and make the requisite effort to get to know this crucified God of ours, and by the help of his Spirit living in us, we will not ultimately be disappointed. We have God’s very word on it.

What’s holding you back? Take the chance. Take the plunge. Ask God to help you follow him through Jesus so that you will get to know him as fully as you are able. When that happens you will discover what it means to really have life.

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  1. Pingback: Why Read the Bible: To Learn the Basis of Real Hope | The Anglican Priest

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