Thoughts on Thursday
The minor prophets are not where most people go when they want to find out what is required of them as a follower of God. I'll admit, as I've been reading through the books of prophecy, I've gotten a bit bogged down at times. I've wondered why God would choose to include so much of it in the Bible. I know there are a number of ways to answer that question, but one reason in particular grabbed my attention and renewed my interest. When looked at through a wide angle kind of lens, the books of prophecy teach us a lot about the character of God. We learn what makes Him angry, what behavior results in discipline, and how wounded He is by our sin.
Here are a couple "big picture" principles I've gleaned from reading the minor prophets:
- God is God and we are not. This sounds simple, but people (me included) have a tendency to forget their place in the equation. When I insist on doing things my way, it results in a mess. We are to acknowledge God and His Word as the final authority in all matters.
- Empty rituals are not enough. God says that He desires mercy, not sacrifice, meaning that the heart attitude matters just as much as the action. Doing the right thing externally doesn't mean much if you have a heart and mind filled with hatred, greed, and immorality. This idea of God desiring His people to pursue mercy, justice, truth, and purity is prevalent throughout the Bible. (I'll post more on this later.)
I'm not trying to climb up on my soapbox my any means, I'm just trying to process this stuff that I've been learning. Well, that's my thoughts today.
posted by T.K. Chapman @ 10:54 AM
6 Comments:
It's kind of hard to get the big picture for all of the minor prophets because they all had different messages given at different times in different circumstances. The main messages tend to focus on God's faithfulness in contrast to Israel's unfaithfulness and His desire for reconciliation. Sometimes the message is direct, i.e. Amos, Micah, and Zechariah. Sometimes it comes in a parable, i.e. Hosea, Jonah, and Joel.
Come to think of it, most of the old covenant books focus on the problem; sin, and God's pursuit of the heart of man. This makes the new covenant so relevant and important. If God's heart is for reconciliation at all costs (within the boundary of his established law), it is completed in Christ's sacrifice. Paul has some good things to say about that in Romans and Hebrews.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Good points Nathan. I certainly appreciate your two cents. :) The theme of reconciliation is all throughout the Bible, and it's quite beautiful. I love the picture we are given in Hosea.
A question that has been top of mind for me lately is, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" I think it's tempting to see someone go to church or have a fish on their car and assume that they are a certain way. Then you get closer and realize they have no desire to actually walk as Christ walked. Of course, I have to look at myself in this light too. So as I've read through the Bible this year, God's desire for whole-hearted devotion has jumped out at me. Or maybe I've just been looking for it as I read.
I hear you on that. I've been finding that a whole-hearted devotion to God is not cultivated through any other means but by knowing his passion and desire for relationship with us. Fear of judgement by Him is of some benefit to the man who isn't seeking God, but to the believer, we can be more motivated by love.
When you see yourself as the bride of Christ, being prepared and made pure by Him for His glory and pleasure, it changes the way we look at our role. If you look at how a good husband treats his bride, with love, great desire, faithfulness, always protecting and always captivated by her. Isn't God a million times more so than a man?
If we realized how passionately he loves us and wants the best for us, I think we'd be a whole lot more motivated to be a pleasure to him. Read Song of Solomon and read how the bride responds to the Lover. This is how we will respond when we truely know his heart.
So the responsibility to be whole-hearted shifts from the perfectionism and fear-based motivation to a desire to know His heart in all things. Can we know His heart? I think it's, like you said, all throughout His word. It's the filter we use that can either cloud or clarify His message to us.
I'm not saying we don't fear God in the sense that we lose our awe or treat him like a man. I actually think that sometimes our "Fear of God" is really not the kind of fear he wants us to have. When we see His true heart, we'll fear him as he really wants us to fear him.
Whew, that was long, sorry. It's something I've recently begun to think through myself and I've been getting a lot of revelation on. Does this make sense?
It makes a lot of sense actually. I think it is easy to forget the great lengths He has gone to just to be in relationship with us. The picture of a bride and bridegroom is beautiful. Maybe it is difficult to see our relationship with God in this way because we as a culture have so distorted marriage. Sadly, we don't see enough "good marriages", and then when we look at that picture in Scripture it seems almost unbelievable. "God wants me to know His heart?!"
I think people find "rules" easier and more desirable than true relationship sometimes. Relationship requires committment, care, and the knowing of the other person's heart.
I'll stop rambling now. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's given me something more to think about.
Hi, I'm Soaps, Nathan's friend. Hope you don't mind me jumping in your dialogue here. . . but the 2nd paragraph of your 2nd comment reminded me of a book called The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtiss and John Eldredge. That's exactly what they talk about...how some people will quiet the God-given desires of their hearts in an effort to convince themselves that they are happier than they really are. Anyways, I'm really not doing the authors any justice here, because they do such a beautiful job of weaving the whole bride and bridegroom theme into a divine epic that just awakens your heart to God. In fact, God really used this book to woo my heart when I first became a believer (a few years ago) and awakened hope and love in me once again, after becoming so bitter, cynical, and disillusioned from my parent's own broken marriage and my own numerous relationships that unfortunately followed the same precedence. Anywho, now I'm rambling, but I think you'll really like it. It pretty much tears apart the typical religious view of God.
Soaps,
Feel free to jump in anytime. The more the merrier! That sounds like a good book. I'm going to add it to my Amazon Wishlist right now actually.
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