Continued From Chapter 11
Chapter 12
is largely a continuation from the end of chapter 11. When we left Isaiah yesterday, we were
talking a fair amount about how God would bring His people back to Him. We had spoken a bit about the dual level of
interpretation of the end of the chapter.
What this means is that we can examine a dual nature of Isaiah 12 as
well.
The first
layer of understanding in a passage is always the historical one. Remember that in this passage, God is
historically (and quite literally) using Isaiah to talk about how He will
gather the Hebrew people after the Assyrians come and take them away. After captivity, there will be a remnant to
return to the Lord.
When we get
to chapter 12, then, we see that this chapter is all about how the Hebrew
people will respond to this gathering of the remnant. We hear that they will rejoice in the
Lord. Isaiah tells the Hebrew people
that they will learn and appreciate the fact that although God was angry with
them He relented and did not punish them as fully as they may well have
deserved. They will learn to appreciate
the fact that salvation comes only from God and not from any foreign power with
which we might make ourselves an ally.
They will learn what it means to call upon the name of the Lord.
Of course,
historically we know that this did happen.
We have the Biblical stories of Nehemiah and Ezra to tell us not only
that the Hebrew did return but that they returned with an appreciation of their
relationship with God. The Hebrew people did learn to draw close to God in their
captivity.
This
understanding opens the door for us to hear also how the Holy Spirit
reinterprets these words through the lens of Jesus Christ. As we left Isaiah 11 yesterday remember that
we talked about how the tender stump of Jesse can also be seen as Christ. When Christ came to earth, God made it
possible for not just the Hebrew people to be in relationship with Him but He
made it possible for all people to be in a relationship with Him. Through Christ, God made a road for Jews and
Gentiles alike from all the ends of the earth to come to Him if they but humble
themselves before God.
In that
light, we can take a second look at Isaiah 12.
We can understand this passage not just as the return of the Hebrew
people after their captivity but also as the proper response of any person who
puts their faith and trust in God through Jesus Christ. As the Hebrew people return from the
captivity under the Assyrians and Babylonians, so we all return to God out of
the captivity of our own sinfulness.
So we pass
anew through these verses. Though God
was angry at all of humanity, he has turned away that anger. Though God has every right to despise us on
account of our sinfulness, He has instead chosen to comfort us in the midst of
our sinfulness. He has provided a way
for us to know His grace, love, and mercy rather than His wrath.
In fact, we
could go so far as to say that it is through Christ that we know His
salvation. We try and save ourselves so
many times. We try and work ourselves
into greatness and glory. We try to
elevate ourselves into high positions of power and importance. But all of our efforts shall fail in the
end. No matter what we do, we are still
in bondage and in slavery until He comes and delivers us out of the bondage and
into a relationship with Him. We know
His salvation or we know no salvation at all.
We know what
it is like to call upon the name of the Lord and give Him praises. Indeed, we also know that through Christ we
have been called to give praise to His name and to proclaim His deeds
throughout the nations. In fact, is that
not our chief calling according to Jesus Christ? Is there anything that we should be doing
more than proclaiming His greatness among the nations?
In the end,
I am challenged by these verses. God is
so incredibly good. He could have left
me to wallow in my sinfulness. He could
have let me struggle to make my life all about me. He could have stood back and watched as my
joy was never complete and full. He
could have easily said, “Let’s let him get what he deserves.” But He didn’t. God came into my life and freed me from the
captivity that I brought upon myself. In
fact, He continues to do so. He
continues to come into my life and free me from captivity in the things that I
continue to bring upon myself. I should
give praise to His name and proclaim His deeds to the ends of the earth.
<><
I have a question for you...do you think God still gets angry? I think he was quite clearly angry at Israel here. I think he still does get angry, and yet it is very hard to think of God being angry at me. I am thinking of verse 1: "for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me." The other thing I'm thinking about is that God's nature doesn't change, even though His covenant with us has.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: God's anger
ReplyDeleteI'll answer the first question from two perspectives. When talking theology with respect to God's action I like to separate the conversation into eternal/finite. Sometimes I use the categories ultimate (salvation)/penultimate (everything else). In other places I might refer to absolute/permissive (especially when talking about God's will). These divisions might seem different, but they are really all the same, I just choose a different word based on the context of the discussion.
Regarding God's anger, I think the answer has to be both yes and no. Helpful, right? LOL.
From the perspective of the eternal (or salvation or absolute will) I believe the answer is no. God is not eternally angry with us. I can say this with confidence because we have several passages telling us that Christ reconciled us to God. (Note past tense) We have places in the Bible that tell us that when salvation comes to us God will separate our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. We have places that tell us that Christ's death on the cross has brought peace between God and mankind. So, from the perspective of the eternal things (or salvation) - no, God is not angry with us. Through Christ, we are at peace with God eternally.
However, I really don't think that is what you asked. If I'm reading your words here right, I think your question is more on the "day-to-day" living. Does God get angry with me over some of the choices I make, things I say, thoughts I think, etc. This is a question that comes out of the finite/penultimate/permissive will approach to God. In this case, I think it is absolutely a yes. I truly believe that every single moment of pride, greed, unrighteous anger, slothfulness, hatred, selfishness, lust, deceit, etc angers God. After all, the Bible tells us that, too. The wage of sin is death. All have fallen short of the glory of God.
So how do I make sense of this and put it all together? How can God be angry with me in the moment but not angry with me from the eternal perspective?
Every single sin I do arouses God's anger. Every single sin for which I am guilty proves the righteousness of God against my unrighteousness. But from the perspective of salvation, Christ's death resolves that anger every single time (so long as I live a life of repentance, of course).
Thus, I can live my life knowing that sometimes God is going to let me live out the consequences of my actions in His anger. He is not always going to swoop in and save me from my consequences. But I need not fear His eternal wrath because Jesus has already paved the road to eternal forgiveness.
That being said, God is always there to comfort me - even in the midst of His anger. Every single time that we sin and then turn from our ways and turn to Him, He is there. Without fail, God is there to comfort. All any of us need do is turn and repent and we can know God's comfort.
In many respects, this is why I think the analogy to a marriage is so perfect in describing our relationship to God. (We as the bride, of course.) How many times have I still been angry at my own wife but I still help her when she needs it? How many times have I been angry and I still forgive her? How many times can she say the same about me? Marriage is so often the perfect example of how people can be:
1. angry when we look at the moment-to-moment situations of life, but
2. only see love when we look at the end (eternal, if I may) product.
Does that help any?
Question 2: God's change
ReplyDeleteThis is a question I wrestle with. I still do. So hear this answer not from a person who thinks they've got this one resolved. Here this answer from a person who continues to see both sides of the debate and whose answer is still evolving as I draw closer to God.
There are places in the Bible that God's character is constant and unchanging. Yet, there are places all throughout scripture that remind us to repent and pray to God so that He might "change" His mind and what He has resolved to do with respect to our sinfulness. There are places in God's Word that portray God as unchanging but there are places that paint Him as capable of change.
How do I personally try and resolve this? As you say, His character or nature does not change. However, God is willing to change "His plan" or "His mind" so long as it is still within the nature of His character.
The story of King Hezekiah is a brilliant example of this. God sends Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that He is going to die and Judah is going to fall into captivity. Isaiah even says that the Lord has promised that Hezekiah "shall not recover." The Lord has set His mind to Hezekiah's death. Yet, Hezekiah repents. Hezekiah repents deeply enough that God is moved and He spares Hezekiah's life and allows the kingdom to be spared for a time.
God's plan changed, but it changed to an alternate plan that was still consistent with His character. Instead of a plan consistent with His righteous anger, Hezekiah moved God to choose a plan consistent with His great mercy. The plans of God can be altered based on our relationship with God; but as you say, God's nature does not change.
Where I'd love to encourage deeper thought is in your last words. Has the covenant changed? Sure, we understand the Law differently than the Jews do because we see it through the lens of Christ. We know that the Law does not bring about salvation; rather the Law demonstrates our need for Christ while giving us an example of a spiritual life with God in pointing us to the fulfillment of the Law in Christ.
But does that mean the covenant has changed? {Not trying to split a fine hair here, just trying to promote thought to see where your own thoughts take you in response to this perspective.}
As I finished the answer to the first question, I thought about a side tangent that I wanted to talk about but knew that my first comment was already long enough. Being a side tangent, I really wanted to make it a separate comment. It pertains to the separation of things into the categories of ultimate (salvation issues) vs penultimate (non-salvation issues). {If you will, eternal vs. finite or absolute will vs permissive will}
ReplyDeleteI think having the ability to talk about ultimate vs penultimate is really an important perspective onto which we should hold. It is when we lose sight of the tension between the two categories that we often end up with bad theology. For example … take universalism.
How is it that the doctrine of Universalism has roots in genuine Christianity yet has strayed so far from Christianity in the end? People take passages about God’s eternal love and forget to remember God’s finite wrath. People focus on how much God loves them (which He does, of course) and they stop thinking at all about how they sin and therefore need to repent of their sin. Suddenly, God’s love is the only perspective they see and thus they can’t figure out how God can do anything except save every person who ever lived. They can’t see, of course, because they are choosing to only see God’s eternal love while ignoring His finite wrath.
When we stop remembering to think in terms of ultimate/penultimate we end up with what Bonheoffer describes as cheap grace. We offer forgiveness with the need of repentance. We offer love without the understanding of wrath. Shoot, I’ll let Dieitrich say it himself: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” (Cost of Discipleship)
This is actually what I love about your original question, Cheryl. It is so very hard to think about God being angry with us. It is hard to think about God doing anything but loving us. But it is that willingness to peer into that which we don’t want to see that helps us teach costly grace and not cheap grace.
Sorry to make you use up your morning writing back a sermon to me! But thank you for a really interesting answer. I like the idea of ultimate/penultimate. That makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteYou are more than welcome. And it didn't take up a whole morning at all! One of the side effects of writing a blog each day is that I've become a pretty typist. And I have a really cool Bible program (Logos) that lets me search through hundreds (well, tens of thousands, really) of resources in only a matter of seconds. I relish the opportunity to talk theologically and stretch the faith that is within me and us!
ReplyDelete