God's Jealousy for His Integrity
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Ezekiel 36:36 (ESV)
36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.
God has resolved to display His glory to every being in every dimension of creation.
How would you define God’s glory?
God’s glory is the sum of His perfections, all the attributes that make Him the unique and only God.
What attributes make God unique and set apart for anything else in all creation?
Omnipotence- infinite and inexhaustible energy
Omniscience- complete awareness of all realities and possibilities past, present, and future
Omnipresence- the capacity to be present everywhere at all times
Unfailingly pure, righteous, and just—but also patient, compassionate, merciful, and gracious.
Wise, generous, utterly sovereign—and yet infinitely self-sacrificial.
He is entirely truthful, reliable, and trustworthy.
And in all of His perfections He is immutable- He never changes.
Which one of His attributes is at the root of our confidence in all His other attributes? Why?
God’s trustworthiness!
How much would we know about God if He never told us anything about Himself?
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
What does creation itself teach about God? His omnipotence and His god-ness / His deity.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
What does the sky teach us about God? The heavens (sky) bears universal testimony that God is glorious.
Beyond these truths what else can creation teach us about God?
Little else is discernible on the basis of creation alone (what theologians call general revelation)
Example:
What might someone who is standing atop the Grand Canyon seeing the most magnificent sunset infer from the beauty of the world about God? This Being must be very good.
At the exact same moment someone else is standing in Ukraine watching the atrocities of war take place. What might they conclude about God? How could a good God allow this to happen.
How can we know if the all powerful, glorious, divine Being that created the world is good or evil?
Only additional explicit and authoritative revelation from God Himself (what we call special revelation) can inform us how to correctly interpret everything we see around us—including what God is really like.
Such additional special revelation need not be exhaustive, but it does need to be reliable.
Deuteronomy 32:4 (ESV)
4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
Faithfulness- (אֱמוּנָה) steadfastness, faithfulness, or trustworthiness.
Deuteronomy 32:4 (NET)
4 As for the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. He is a reliable God who is never unjust, he is fair and upright.
Deuteronomy 32:4 (NKJV)
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
What would happen to our understanding of God if He was not a God of truth?
If what He tells us about Himself is not trustworthy, then we do not know God and cannot know God. We are left to cobble together our own thoughts and hopes into a god of our own devising to join the countless knick-knack deities that cram every nook and cranny in humanities pantheon.
One of the characteristics about Himself that God zealously displays and jealously guards is the integrity of His words. Why do you think God does this?
His reputation and His glory rest upon it!
Narrative Testimony to God’s Integrity
Narrative Testimony to God’s Integrity
Divine Testimony in Narrative
Divine Testimony in Narrative
We will fist look at God’s own words in demonstrating His integrity. God takes compelling interest in demonstrating His own integrity.
Declaring, then Doing
Declaring, then Doing
God does not merely act in silence so He can demonstrate His omnipotence. God speaks first, and then acts according to His words “that you may know that I am the LORD.” This kind of language is all over the book of Exodus.
Moses invited Pharaoh to name the day that he wanted God to destroy the plague of frogs-
10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
God informed Moses that when He sends the plague of flies on Egypt He will exempt Goshen, where His people are-
20 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
21 Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.
22 But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Why did God tell Moses and Pharaoh what He was going to do before he acted?
14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
God tells Moses why He has hardened Pharaoh’s heart:
2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
Why did God not merely act and then take credit afterward?
Why did God announce what He would do before He acted?
So that Moses, Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the Israelites, and Israel’s future generations would know who He is—the God of all the earth who says what He will do, and then does what He says.
Covenanting, then Keeping
Covenanting, then Keeping
What is a covenant?
Built into the covenant concept is the essential ingredient of reliability. Covenants put trustworthiness to the test. Through the OT, God constantly demonstrates and reiterates His absolute loyalty to the covenants He has made.
What is the Noahic Covenant?
11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
It is one of the only covenants to incorporate a sign as a visible reminder not only to man but also to God-
16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Thousands of years have passed since then, filled with excessive wickedness, torrential downpours, and local floods sometimes on massive scales, but God has kept His word to never again destroy the earth by water.
Peanuts comic pt 1
Peanuts comic pt 2
And sound theology begins with the trustworthiness of God’s words. The reliability of God’s Words is the heart and soul of sound theology.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Here the Jews are just about to enter the promise land. What happened to their fathers and mothers the first time they tried to enter the promise land? They all fell dead in the wilderness. Why? Because they broke the Mosaic covenant.
So what covenant is God referring to here? Abrahamic Covenant. Why is that so significant?
Moses just got done warning the people about forsaking the Mosaic Covenant like their fathers and mothers in the wilderness.
23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
But then Moses blends the Mosaic Covenant and the Abrahamic Covenant together to give them hope.
29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Would Isreal fail to keep the Mosaic Covenant again in its future? Time and time again.
The hope is that God has already covenanted with Abraham, and on the basis of that, on the basis of God’s integrity to keep his word, He cannot destroy or forget Israel His people.
It would be a theological impossibility because God is utterly trustworthy and so are His words.
What do the promises He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob entail? Possession of land, perpetuity of the nation- they form the foundation for every other covenant He will make with them, including the Mosaic, the Davidic, and the New covenants.
Covenants are public tests of personal trustworthiness. Whatever God covenants He keeps, because all His words are trustworthy.
Defending, then Demonstrating
Defending, then Demonstrating
In Numbers 11 we have the account of the people of Israel whining in the wilderness about not having meat to eat. After all of the amazing things that God did to deliver His people, and then God kept His people alive by means of the daily miracle of manna from heaven, still his people complain! How could they? We would never react like that right?
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.
11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?
13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
God’s provision was not good enough for them. They wanted meat! Moses’ response to their weeping is very instructive.
14 I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me.
15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
Is Moses wrong?
What happens in life and ministry when we try to carry the burden alone?
What happens to the ministry of the church when the burden is carried alone? What happens when the pastor is the only one doing the work? Or when the few (5% do 90% of the work)?
Guess what an extended time of solo ministry leads to? Discouragement! (v. 15)
Look at the Lord’s solution:
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
17 And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.
18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.
19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,
20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ ”
Nothing but meat for a whole month! Go tell them Moses! And how does Moses respond?
21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’
22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?”
600,000 men plus women and children God! Meat for a whole month? How is that possible! (remember Moses is already discouraged). Now God adds this to his plate?
You can tell Moses is discouraged. What do you want us to do God? Slaughter all of our livestock? Or are you going to gather all the fish from the sea and dump them out here in the desert?
What is the problem? Why is Moses responding like this?
He isn’t LISTENING to God! What is Moses fixated upon? The PROBLEM.
All Moses can see is the size of the crowd- 600,000 men plus their families! The size of the crowd makes God’s proposal seem utterly implausible (as if God had forgotten how many people He had just brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea).
Moses fixes his mind on the unimaginable (at least to his mind). This is such a danger for our faith. So often we limit God. And the limit we place on God is the extent of our own finite imagination. Why should our own weak and finite imagination be a limitation to a limitless God?
Look again at the complain of Moses. Look at how Moses focuses on God’s Words.
Numbers 11:21 (ESV)
21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’
Now listen to God’s reply.
Numbers 11:23 (ESV)
23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
Lord’s hand shortened? An idiom for over-promising.
Now you shall see whether MY WORD will come true for you or not. Do you hear the focus on God’s words again?
God doesn’t merely defend his omnipotence. He doesn’t say, “Now you shall see whether or not I am powerful enough to do a great miracle.”
God defends His integrity, His reliability to do exactly what He said.
God has made his intentions for what He will do very public. This is what I am going to do Moses, and once again God did exactly what He said.
31 Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.
32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague.
34 Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
Two cubits above the ground- about 3 feet.
Ten homers- about 38 and 65 bushels! A staggering amount. Hoarders on steroids.
Kibroth-hattaavah- The name “the graves of the ones who craved”
How did Moses imagine God might keep his word? Livestock / or all the fish in the sea.
Who did God actually keep His word? It was in a way no one ever would have imagined.
“We discredit God when we measure the reliability of His words by our lilliputian imagination.”
Lilliputian- tiny, miniscule; based on the diminutive inhabitants of the island nation of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
How many miracles had Moses already seen God perform? 25 miracles at this point.
10 plagues that brought the most powerful nation to its knees- check.
Split open a path through the sea and then close it to destroy an entire army- check.
Miraculously provided manna in the desert for weeks on end- check.
But- feed this multitude with meat for a month- God I don’t think that one is possible.
After God had kept his word time and time again how could be not keep it this time?
There may be times in our lives where we witness God do amazing things and for a time that may remove doubt of God from our faith, but it does not cure it.
We are incurably inclined (in this life) to doubt God’s words! Why?
“We are capable of boundless unbelief, especially whenever God says things that over-reach our meager imaginations. But God is intent on proving the reliability of every word He speaks. And He’s willing to push the envelope to make His point.”