“Not Our Ways”: What We Love When We Love God (part 7)
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… [And] You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus, in Mark 12:30-31
REVIEW
Why do we love God? We love Him for who He Himself is—He is Worthy; it is appropriate to love such a One as He is. We love Him for His Word, for His beauty, wisdom, power, and love, which are conveyed to us in it. We love Him for the World He has made, and for His many wondrous Works that Scripture, and our own lives, attest to. And we love Him for the wisdom and goodness of His Will, which He has made known to us in the commands and counsels of Scripture.
[REVIEW, WITH REFERENCE TO JESUS]
[Were we to say that, what we love about God is only Jesus Christ, we would still describe that love with these categories. Jesus is the Word of God, God Himself revealed to us. (John 1:1, 18) And so this is Jesus’ World which He has made and upholds by His power. (John 1:3; Heb 1:3) And it was Jesus’ mighty works in redemption and salvation ever on display. (E.g. Psalm 23:1, John 10:11) And as our shepherd, these commands and counsels are Jesus’ Will for our lives. (John 15:10) Christ is not other than God, nor separate from the things about God we love. No, but Christ is the embodiment of God’s virtues and The One Through Whom God’s glories are conveyed to us. (2Cor 4:6)]
WE LOVE GOD’S WAYS
There is one final general category about God that we love: we love God’s Ways.
What do we mean by “God’s ways”? This refers to the mysterious operations of God’s providence. How He works all things together for good. (Rom 8:28)
For example, many of the stories of the Bible contain what we might describe as “plot twists,” or “astonishing reversals of fortune.”
Abraham and Sarah are far too old to have a child! Nonetheless, to them a son is given.
Moses, the miracle baby, the murderer, the decades spent keeping sheep in the wilderness, suddenly called into the most prominent and significant leadership role yet for God’s purposes.
David, another shepherd, hunted by the King, for years hiding in caves and among pagans, raised up to victory and receives the Covenant Promise of God.
Ruth, wandering into the people of God behind Naomi and, in a wonderful story, becoming King David’s grandmother, teaching him profound truths about God’s heart.
Esther, wayward, embarrassed Jewish teenager, hiding her identity to get ahead in the world’s largest city, putting her life on the line to try to save God’s people and, in another amazing reversal, succeeding.
Daniel and the lion’s den.
Jeremiah and the sinking pit.
Hezekiah and the armies of Assyria.
The fiery furnace and the Fourth Man.
GOD'S WAYS, IN CHRIST
And to whom did the Great Angel Gabriel come, to announce the favor of God, the visitation of Christ the LORD? Not the Ceasar, nor any provincial governor, nor any member of the Sanhedrin, nor any tribal head, clan head or upstanding citizen or pater familia… a recently betrothed young woman named Mary, who had never known a man.
And what sort of person was this promised Christ to be? One who easily grew to thirty years of age without attracting much attention. And what sort of ministry did He accomplish? One that beguiled every careful God-watcher and Bible-scholar. One that flipped over all the values and norms people had come to associate with “God’s ways.”
“My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” -Isaiah 55:6
And what sort of death did Jesus, the Messiah, die? A death with honor? The death of the blessed? No, but He was dishonored and died as a curse—“we considered Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted…” (Isa 53:4)
Nowhere is the upside-down glory of God’s ways as prominent, surprising, and delightful, as in the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
GOD'S WAYS, CONTINUED
And yet, it doesn’t stop there. On and on the story goes, into the history of the church—miracles, divine appointments, answers to prayers. So many times when the story turns on the phrase, “and it just so happened.”
“Oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!” (Rom 11:33)
CONCLUSION
One way to categorize the things we love about God is like this: What about Him, when we think about it, brings a tear to our eyes?
The beauty of the joy of His infinite, eternal life, in love… the beauty of His heart, revealed in His word, in all our favorite verses and in Jesus Christ… the diverse and surprising beauties of the world He made for us to begin to meet Him in… the mind-blowing stories of His power and glory contained in Scripture… the breathtaking wisdom and kindness imbedded in His commands… all of these, yes.
But perhaps more than anything it is the innumerable moments of shock when it looked like we were in one story, one world, one situation, and then everything changed and we discovered we were in a different story, world, and situation. The murderer became the leader, the hunted became the king, the outcast becomes the matriarch, the weak become the strong, the poor become the rich, the fools become the wise.
The lowly one, the infant, the rejected one, the cursed man, the one who died, is revealed to be the LORD; the conquering lion is the lamb who was slain. (Rev 5:5-6)
What are these strange and wonderful things?
These are the ways of our God.
PRAYER
Father God, Your ways are not my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Your ways higher than mine. Oh the depths of Your riches and wisdom and knowledge! Oh how unsearchable Your judgments and inscrutable Your ways! Let me never forget that You always surprise. Let me rest in all things knowing that in all things, You are working.
I give You praise and thanks, LORD God, though there are things in my life that are “inscrutable” to me. For with You, all things are possible. And You do far more than we even think to ask. Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD our God! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash