Providence

McClintock & Strong on Providence

Proofs of Providence (Cont'd)

From Scripture (Cont'd)

In showing His sovereignty over death

1Sa 2:6 The LORD kills and makes alive. He sends to the grave, and He raises up from the grave.
1Sa 25:29 If anybody seeks your life, your life will be bound with the living with the LORD your God, but He will throw the lives of your enemies as if from a sling.
Job 1:21 I came into life naked, and I will return naked. The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 12:10 The life of everything that lives is in His hands, as is the breath of every man.
Job 14:5-6 You have determined each man's days, and he cannot exceed the limit You have set. Look away and let him rest until he has finished his days.
Job 34:14-15 If God so decides, He would take back to Himself the spirit and breath He gave, and all flesh would perish at once. Every man would return to the dust.
Ps 68:20 He is a God of deliverances. To Him belong escapes from death.
Ps 90:3 You return man to the dust. You call to Your children to return to You.
Ps 104:29 When You hide Your face, they are dismayed. When You take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust.
Ps 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.

In showing His sovereignty over affliction

Dt 8:5 Know that the LORD your God was disciplining you like a son.
Job 5:17 How happy is the man God reproves. Don't despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 10:17 You renew Your witnesses against me, and Your anger towards me is increased. You multiply my hardships.
Ps 66:10-12 You try us, O God. You refine us like silver. You bring us into the net, and lay heavy burdens upon us. You cause men to tread on us. We have passed through fire and water, yet You brought us through it all into a place of abundance.
Ps 69:26 They have persecuted Him whom You have smitten. They speak of the pain of those You have wounded.
Ps 94:12-13 Blessed is he whom You chasten, LORD, and whom You teach from Your law. In these things, grant him relief from adversity and dig a pit for the wicked.
Ps 119:75 I know, LORD, that Your judgments are righteous and true. It is in faithfulness that You have afflicted me.
Pr 3:12 The LORD reproves all whom He loves, just as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.
Isa 26:16 They sought You in distress. They could barely whisper a prayer, for Your chastening was upon them.
Isa 48:10 I have refined you, but not like silver is refined. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Jer 2:30 I struck your sons in vain, for they would not accept chastening. Your sword has taken down your prophets like a lion.
Lam 1:12-14 Doesn't this mean anything to you? Have you ever seen any pain like that which I am suffering? The LORD inflicted this upon me in the day of His great anger. He caused my bones to burn within me. He spread traps out before my feet. He turned me back and made me desolate. I faint all day. I am bound in the yoke of my sins. He knits the bonds together upon my neck. Thus has He made me weak, and given me into the hands of enemies against whom I cannot stand.
Lam 3:1 I have seen affliction because of His wrath.
Lam 3:32-33 If He brings grief, He will also have compassion according to His great lovingkindness. He does not afflict willingly, nor is He pleased to grieve men.
Am 8:10 I will turn your celebrations into mourning, and all your songs will be lamentations. I will have you all in sackcloth, and every head bald. It will be like a day of mourning for an only son. It will be a bitter day.
Heb 12:5-6 You have forgotten the exhortation He has made to you like sons, "My son, don't take the LORD's disciplines lightly. Don't faint when He reproves you. For the LORD disciplines those He loves, and scourges every son whom He receives."

In showing His sovereignty over prosperity

Dt 8:18 You will remember your LORD, for He gives you the power to make wealth. This He does, so that He might confirm the covenant He swore to your fathers.
1Sa 2:1 Hanna prayed, "My heart rejoices in the LORD. He exalts my horn, and so, I speak boldly against my enemies because I rejoice in Your salvation."
1Sa 2:7-8 The LORD makes poor and rich. He humbles and He also exalts. He lifts the poor from the dust and seats them among nobles. They inherit a seat of honor, for the pillars of the earth are His, and He set the world on them.
2Sa 7:8-9, 1Ch 17:7-8 Tell David that I have taken him from the pastures, from being a shepherd, and made him ruler over My people Israel. I have been with him wherever he has gone, and have cut off every enemy from before him. I will make him a great name, a great man on the earth.
2Sa 12:7-8 The LORD God of Israel tells you, "It is I who anointed you as king of Israel, and it is I who delivered you from Saul. I gave you your master's house and his wives, and I gave you Israel and Judah. If that had not been enough for you, I would have given you many more things like these!"
1Ch 29:12 Riches and honor come from You. You rule over all, and power and might are Yours. It is in You to make great, and to strengthen everyone.
1Ch 29:16 O LORD our God! All this great wealth that we have given to build a house for Your holy name is from Your hand. Everything we have given You is Yours already.
Ezra 5:5 God's eye was on the elders, and their enemies did not stop them until Darius was sent a report, and had made his reply.
Job 1:10 You have made a hedge around Job and around all he possesses. You have blessed all his work, and his possessions have increased.
Job 34:24 He breaks mighty men without asking questions, and replaces them.
Ps 30:7 LORD, You have made my mountain to stand strong. When You hid Your face from me, I was dismayed.
Ps 75:6-8 Exaltation does not come from east or west. It does not come out of the desert. No, it is God who is Judge, and He humbles one and exalts another. There is a cup in the LORD's hand, and the wine foams therein. It is well mixed, and from it He pours out. It is certain that the wicked of the earth will be required to drink the very dregs of it.
Ps 113:7-8 He raises up the poor and seats them among the princes of His people.
Pr 29:26 Many seek favor from their ruler, but justice comes from the LORD.
Ecc 9:11 The race goes not to the swift, nor does the battle go to the warriors. Bread does not go to the wise, nor wealth to the discerning. Favor does not go to the able, for time and chance overtake every man.
Pr 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD, and they will be established.
Pr 16:33 Even though men cast the lot, its decision is from the LORD.
Lk 1:52-53 He has removed rulers from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away with nothing.
1Co 16:2 Put some of your goods aside on the first day of each week, as you may earn. That way, no collection will need to be taken when I come.

In showing Him to govern chance and accident

Ex 21:12-13 The one who kills a man will surely be killed. If it was not done with premeditation, then God allowed that one to fall into his hands. Therefore, I will appoint places to which the killer may flee.
Dt 19:4-5 The one who kills a friend by accident, with no malice beforehand may flee to one of these cities and live. For example, if a man goes with his friend to cut wood, and the head of his axe falls of the handle and kills his friend, he may do so.
1Ki 22:34 One man fired his bow at random, and it struck the king of Israel. The king, therefore, instructed his driver to take him from the battle.
1Ki 22:38 They washed his chariot off by the pool in which harlots were inclined to bathe, and dogs licked up his blood. Thus was the word of the LORD fulfilled.
1Ki 21:19 Have you murdered and stolen? The LORD tells you that the dogs will lick up your blood in the very place that they licked up Naboth's.
Pr 16:33 Men cast lots, but the decisions come from the LORD.

In showing His use of vicious animals for His governing purposes

Ex 23:28 I will send hornets before you to drive out the inhabitants of the land.
Lev 26:21-22 If you fight against Me, refusing to obey Me, I will multiply the plague upon you seven times, to accord with your sins, and I will send beasts among you, which will kill your children and destroy your cattle until your number is so reduced that your roads are deserted.
Dt 7:20 The LORD will send hornets against them until any who escape hide away from you and perish.
Jos 24:12 I sent hornets before you and drove out the kings of the Amorites. It was not your weaponry that did this.
Job 5:23 You will be united in purpose with the stones of the field, and the beasts will be at peace with you.
Jer 5:6 A lion will slay them, a wolf of the desert. A leopard watches their cities, and will tear to pieces anyone who goes out, for their sins are great, and their apostasies numerous.
Hos 2:18 I will make a covenant for them at that time with the beasts and birds, and that which creeps on the ground. Weapons and war will be abolished, and they will lie down in safety.
Joel 2:25 I will make up to you for the years that the locusts have eaten. They have been My great army, which I sent among you.
Amos 4:9 I smote you with hot winds and mildew, with caterpillars that devoured your produce, yet you would not return to Me.
Amos 7:1 The LORD showed me that He was forming a swarm of locusts to send when the spring crops began to sprout.

In showing His just retribution

Lev 10:1-3 Nadab and Abihu offered strange, unauthorized fire before the LORD. So fire came out from the LORD and consumed them. Moses noted that this was exactly what the LORD had spoken of in saying that those who come near Him must be holy, and that He is to be honored by all the people.
Lev 26:14-39 If you fail to obey My commandments, if you reject My laws and refuse to do them you will have broken My covenant. In response, here is what I will do to you. I will cause terrors, consumption, and fevers to come upon you. Your eyes will fail, and your soul will lose all strength. What you sow will be useless to you, as your enemies will eat the produce. I will be set against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies, and ruled by those you hate. You will flee even when nobody is chasing you. If all of this does not suffice to bring you into obedience, I will punish you seven more times for your sins, and I will break down your pride in your power. The sky will be as bronze to you, and your strength will be wasted on a land that will yield no fruit. If your hostility and disobedience continue, I will increase the plague upon you seven more times, to accord with your sins. I will loose animals among you to kill your children and your cattle. There will be so few of you left that your roads will be deserted. If this is still insufficient to turn you back to Me, I will be hostile toward you and strike you seven times for your sins. The sword of my vengeance will come upon you for breaking the covenant. In your cities, I will send pestilence, and deliver you into your enemies' hands. I will cut off your grain, and your hunger will not be satisfied. If even this fails to bring you into obedience, I will punish you seven times for your sins. You will feed on the flesh of your children. I will destroy your places of worship, and leave the trash from that destruction on top of the trash of your broken idols. My soul will abhor you. I will destroy your cities, and your sanctuaries will be empty. I will not take note of your offerings. The land will be made desolate, and your enemies will be appalled at the state of the land when they take possession of it. You will be scattered among the nations, and yet I will draw a sword out and pursue you, even as your land and your cities become desolate. After I am done, the land will have its Sabbaths while you remain in enemy lands. It will have that rest which you refused to observe while you were in the land. Any who may remain, I will weaken in enemy lands to the point that a falling leaf will cause them to flee, and in that fleeing they will fall. No strength will remain in you with which to stand before your enemies. You will die in foreign lands, and rot away in enemy territory because of your iniquities, and the sins of your forefathers.
Dt 25:17-19 Remember how Amalek treated you when you came from Egypt. He met you and attacked the stragglers at the rear of your column. He did not fear God. Therefore, when the LORD has given you rest from your enemies in the land He gives you to possess, you are to eliminate the memory of Amalek from the earth. You mustn't forget to do this thing.
Dt 28:23-24 The heavens over your head will be as bronze, and the earth like iron. The LORD will give you only powder and dust for rain, coming down upon you until you are destroyed.
2Sa 3:39 Even though I am anointed king today, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are proving too difficult for me to deal with. May the LORD repay the evildoer as his deeds deserve.
2Ki 9:30-37 Jehu came to Jezreel, and Jezebel adorned herself and looked out for his arrival. She spoke derisively to him, and he, in response, called upon a few loyal guards to throw her down from her room. They did so, and her blood sprinkled the wall and the horses. He trampled her under foot. Then, he went in and ate, and gave orders for her to be buried, being as she was a king's daughter. This they did, but could find only her skull, her feet, and her hands. When they informed Jehu of what had been done, he said that this fulfilled what the LORD had said through Elijah: that Jezebel would be eaten by dogs in Jezreel, and that her corpse would be like dung fertilizing the fields, such that none could ever identify her remains.
2Ki 19:25-28 Weren't you told of this? I did this long ago, planning it from ancient days. Now I have brought it about, bringing you to tear down the fortified cities and destroy them. It is because of Me that their inhabitants were so weak and dismayed. They were like grass on housetops, which is scorched before it has even ripened. But I know all that you do: how you sit, when you depart, and when you return. I know all about your raging against Me. Because of that rage, because of your arrogance, I will put My hook in your nose, and My harness in your mouth, and turn you back down the same way you came.
2Ch 6:26-27 When no rain comes because of their sins, and they pray towards Your temple, and confess Your name, when they turn from their sins due to your afflictions upon them; then please hear them in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. Teach them the way in which they should walk, and send rain on Your land, which You gave to Your people.
Job 5:13 He captures the wise by their own shrewdness, and thwarts the advice of the most cunning with ease.
Job 10:14 You would notice any sin I might commit, and would refuse to acquit me in my guilt.
Job 34:11 He pays a man as his work deserves, and a man finds that he is paid according to his own way.
Ps 35:6-8 Let their path be treacherous, and let them be pursued by the LORD's angel. Without cause, they sought to entrap me. So, let them be taken by destruction. Let them be caught by the traps they have laid.
Ps 75:6-8 Exaltation comes from no other place but God the Judge. He humbles and He exalts. He holds in His hand a cup of foaming wine. The wicked of the earth will be required to drink this down to its dregs.
Ps 89:30-32 If his sons forsake My law, and violate My commandments, then I will take the rod to them for their transgressions, and give them stripes for their sins.
Ps 94:23 He brings back their own wickedness upon them, and destroys them in their own evil. The LORD our God will destroy them.
Ps 107:33-34 He dries up rivers, such that the ground around them becomes a thirsty wilderness. Once fruitful lands, he changes to salt wastes because of the wickedness of those who live there.
Isa 5:11-16 Woe to those who live to drink! They party with music and wine, but ignore the works of the LORD, and forget what His hands have done. Therefore are My people exiled for their lack of knowledge. Their most honorable men are starving, and all are parched with thirst. The grave is wide open, ready to swallow them all up, and all of Jerusalem's glory will descend into it. Even the most common man will be humbled, and the more important will be humbled even further. No pride will be left in them, but the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in His righteousness.
Isa 5:22-25 Woe to those who are renowned for their drinking! Woe to those who will twist justice for the right price! Because of their ways, their root will rot and their blossom become dust. They will be consumed like grass in a fire, for they have rejected the law of the LORD, despising His holy word.
Isa 9:13-14 Still, these people do not return to Him who struck them. Still, they will not seek the LORD of hosts. SO the LORD cuts both head and tail from Israel, palm branch and bulrush are destroyed in one day.
Isa 13:11 I will punish this world for its evil. I will punish the wicked for their sins. I will stop the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.
Isa 28:15 You think you have made a pact with death, such that this scourge will not reach you when it comes. No, but you have made falsehood your refuge, and your concealment is but deception.
Isa 29:6 The LORD will punish you with thunder and earthquake, with whirlwind and tempest, with consuming fire.
Jer 22:21-22 I warned you while you were rich, but you wouldn't listen. Such have you always been, never obeying My voice. So the wind is going to sweep away all your shepherds. All your lovers will be taken away captives. Surely this will shame and humiliate you because of your wickedness!
Eze 11:21 As for those who set their hearts on detestable things, I will bring them down by their own conduct, declares the LORD.
Eze 26:2-21 Because Tyre has considered this people as broken and easily taken, the Lord GOD declares that He is against Tyre, and that He will bring nations against them like the waves of the sea. The walls of Tyre will be destroyed, and its towers broken until the city has become like a bare rock at the edge of the sea, a place for casting nets. Tyre will be spoil for nations. Those of her daughters found on the mainland will be slain. The LORD will bring Nebuchadnezzar from out of Babylon with his great army to slay your daughters by the sword. He will lay siege to your city, and his battering rams will break down your walls and towers. You will be covered with the dust of his horses when he enters through the breaches in your city walls. All who are in your streets will be trampled down, and all your pillars will be pulled down. They will take your riches as spoil, and destroy all your pleasant houses. The debris of your city's destruction, they will cast into the sea. No more will your songs be heard. This place will be no more than a bare rock, a place to spread nets, and you will not be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken. The very coastlands will shake at your fall, and the princes of the sea will clothe themselves in trembling, so appalled will they be at your ending. They will lament over your fate, saying that you, who were once the terror of all upon the sea and upon all your own inhabitants, have become a different terror to the coastlands in your passing away. When I, the LORD make your city desolate, when I bring the sea over you, then I will take you down to the pit, and make you dwell in the lowest parts of the earth. But I will set glory in the land of the living. I will bring terrors upon you, and you will be no more. Though they seek after you, you will never again be found.
Dan 5:18-30 The Most High God granted glory and majesty to your father Nebuchadnezzar, and because of the glory He bestowed upon him, all nations feared him. He killed whom he would, and he spared whom he would. He raised up those he wished to, and humbled others. But when he became proud and arrogant, he was deposed and his glory taken away. He was driven from among mankind, and dwelt with the beasts, eating grass like a cow, until he recognized that God Most High rules over all the realm of mankind, and He alone decides who will rule over them. But you have not humbled yourself before Him, even though you know these things. No! You have exalted yourself against Him, taking the vessels of His house to drink wine with your nobles and your women. You worship gods of metal, wood, and stone, though they cannot see or hear you. But the God who has your life in His hands, you have not glorified. That is why He sent the hand to write the inscription you saw. It wrote 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,' and this is the meaning of it: God has determined to put an end to your kingdom, for you have been weighed on the scales of His justice and found wanting. He has determined to give your kingdom over to the Medes and the Persians. So Belshazzar ordered that Daniel be clothed in royalty, and given the authority of third in command of the kingdom. That very night, Belshazzar was slain.
Amos 4:1 Hear his word, you who oppress the poor and crush the needy. Hear Him, you who call to your husbands to hurry and bring you drink.
Ob 10-15 Because you have done violence to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and cut off forever. You stood aloof as strangers took away his wealth, as foreigners entered in and divvied up Jerusalem. You were among them. Don't gloat over your brother in his misfortune. Don't rejoice over Judah's destruction. Don't think to enter their gates on the day of their disaster, nor to loot their wealth. And don't stand in the road to cut down their fugitives and imprison their survivors. For the day of the LORD will come upon all nations, and as you have done, it will be done to you. The way you have dealt with others will be the way you are dealt with.
Zep 1:17 I will bring distress upon men so that they walk as though they were blind, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
Zep 2:8-10 I have heard Moab and Ammon taunting My people in their arrogance. Therefore, as I, the God of Israel, the LORD of hosts, live, surely Moab will be made like Sodom, and Ammon like Gomorrah. They will become a place of nettles and salt pits, a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them, and inherit them. This will be the return they have on their pride, because they have become arrogant and taunted the people of the LORD of hosts.
Hag 1:10-11 Because of you, rains ceased and the earth would not produce. I called for drought on the land, all the land; a drought that eliminated your grain, your wine, your oil, your produce; a drought that came upon man and beast, and on every labor of your hands.

In ascribing deliverance to God

Jos 24:5-11 I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt; then I brought you out. I brought you out of Egypt and up to the Red Sea; and Egypt pursued you. But when you cried out to the LROD, He put darkness between you and Egypt, and brought the sea down upon them. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. You lived a long time in the wilderness. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, and they fought you. But I gave them into your hand, and you took their land when I destroyed them before you. Balak, king of Moab rose up against you, sending for Balaam to curse you, but I was not willing to hear Balaam, so he had to bless you. I delivered you from his hand. You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and Jericho fought against you, along with the Amorites, the Perizzites, and all the other ites. But I gave them into your hand.
2Ki 5:1 Naaman, captain of the army of Aram, was a great man and highly respected, because the LORD had given victory to Aram by him. He was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.
Eze 34:12 As a shepherd cares for his herd, so I will care for My sheep and deliver them from every place they were scattered to.
Eze 34:16 I will seek the lost, and bring back the scattered. I will bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. But the fat and the strong I will destroy with judgment.
Eze 34:30 I will show that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they are My people.
Eze 36:22-24 Tell Israel that it is not for their sake that I am acting, but for My holy name, which they have profaned among the nations where they were sent. I will vindicate the holiness of My name. Then the nations will know that I am LORD, when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will gather you from the nations, and bring you into your own land.
Eze 37:21-23 Tell them that the LORD GOD says that He will take Israel from among the nations and gather them back into their own land. He will make them one nation in Israel, with one king. No longer will they be a divided kingdom. No longer will they defile themselves with idols and sins. I will deliver them from the dwelling place of their sins, and cleanse them. They will be My people, and I will be their God.

New Thoughts (10/13/02-10/15/02)

How happy is the man God reproves! Thanks be to Him that we have more than the word of Job's friend to commend this belief to us. If Job 5:17 were the only source we had for this bit of wisdom, we would be inclined to pass it off as a bit of error being rebutted. Often enough, there are viewpoints put forth in that book for the purpose of showing those views to be wrong. But this thought, Scripture reinforces elsewhere. Both Solomon and the Psalmists reflect on this same great truth.

The LORD disciplines all those whom He loves because He does love them. This is the statement of Solomon in Proverbs 3:12. To our modern ears, this doesn't sound quite right. We've come out of a society that no longer really comprehends the connection between love and discipline. We've come out of a society that has largely forgotten what it means to be a father, so when we are told that God disciplines us just as a father would discipline the son he loves, we're not certain how to react. But, the truth of the matter is that such discipline is love. It is love precisely because it is done out of such care for how the loved one lives their lives, it is done out of concern that their lives be the best they can be.

We cannot buy that best life for them. Indeed, if we attempt to do so, we will likely only wind up buying them the worst life they could lead. No, we need to learn from our Father how to be the fathers that this generation needs, that every generation has needed. We need to recover the art of loving discipline before it's too late. He delights in us. We need to remember that fact. He delights in us, and such discipline as He sends our way, such afflictions as He sends our way, are sent in one accord with that delight. This is how our discipline must be, and anybody who's attempted this knows just how hard that is. It is incredibly difficult to discipline from the place of delighted love. We tend to discipline because we have been angered by disobedience. Were it not for disobedience, after all, we'd have no cause to discipline by affliction We could simply train by word and example. In the face of disobedience, our best weapon against disciplining poorly is to recall God's mercy towards us in the face of our disobedience.

His judgments are righteous and true, writes the Psalmist (Psalm 119:75). They cannot be otherwise for He is righteousness and truth. He is faithfulness, and from the faithfulness that He is, He sends such afflictions as are necessary to correct His wayward children. No more, and no less. He is all wise and all knowing. He can administer precisely the degree of correction that it will take to bring us around. Happy is the man that God reproves, for that corrective will be sufficient, and it will never be more than we can bear! Happy is the child who lives in the household of truly godly parents, for they will avail themselves of the LORD's wisdom in their own efforts at discipline.

God has told us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask, and He will surely provide. Nowhere is this more necessary than in the art of parenting. If, in our parenting, we rely solely on our own ability, we will destroy not only our own peace, but also the following generation. God has entrusted their upbringing to us. This is no small task! It is a task that will take every ounce of strength we have as a starting point. It will take every ounce of strength that we can think to ask from our Lord and King. It will take us being constantly attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit, whispering His direction to us. How happy is the child whom God reproves through his parents, for only if it is God who directs the action will the judgments be righteous and true. Only then can faithful afflictions bring correction. Anything else will result either in ineffective parents or in abusive parents. Either way, the desired result will be lost, and our heritage will be that we delivered into the world a generation totally devoid of discipline. Woe unto us, if we allow this to be our result!

Lord God, I know that this is a call to my own heart to repent. I have allowed anger and frustration to be my rule, when it is You, Lord, who should be my rule. I have refused to listen to Your voice, trying to correct me, and have allowed my own attempts at correction to exceed the rule of righteousness. Forgive me, Lord, for abusing the authority You have vested in me in this household. Forgive me, Lord, for failing of the duty You have called me to in the office of father and husband. Teach me, Lord, how to succeed in this position You have given me. Help me, Holy Spirit, to fulfill the duties of my office more properly. I repent now, knowing the challenge ahead. I repent now, knowing that it will take more than words. I will myself to act in accord with the Word of God. Work in me, Holy Spirit, both to will and to work, that I might fulfill my vows in the sight of my God and King.

This has been one of the more difficult sections of this study to get through. It is hard for us to contemplate God's wrath. It's not the side of Him we want to look at, and as much as we understand that His discipline is indeed done in faithfulness, still we don't relish going through it. One verse in particular struck me, as I read through the portion on His retribution. Amos 4:9 speaks of His having sent hot winds, molds, and bugs to devour the produce of the land, and of a people who refused to see Him at work behind their troubles. God was calling His people to return to Him. Sadly, it is true of us that unless we are in the furnace, as it were, we refuse to look to our Creator.

This is what it takes for Him to get our attention. If it could be done with any less, He would do that lesser thing. Even in this, we see Him trying the weaker means of gaining our attention. And still they would not return. Look around the landscape today. It's October, and I've been finding blossoms on our Forsythia bush. Since May, our local towns have been on various water restrictions. We have been visited with some of the warmest years on record here. The produce of the land, where it hasn't been plowed under for housing developments, is showing the effects. Apples that rot before they can ripen. Small fruits on the trees.

It seems as though it should be clear to us that God has been seeking to get our attention. He's been trying for a long time. Thousands of deaths in the Twin Towers got our attention for a short while, but we cheerfully blamed on the devil, and on evil men, and got back to our own ways. There was a momentary spike in Church attendance, but it didn't hold. The people, by and large, would not return to Him, but returned instead to their own ways.

What will it take, I wonder, for Him to truly turn this nation back to Himself? In our age, we are surrounded by historians who seek to deny history, because they don't like that history containing religious roots for our nation. We are surrounded by court justices who call the Constitution a living document so that they can twist its meaning to suit their own agendas. Why? Because we don't want to look at the holy root of the nation, for it shows us the shamefulness of our own age. We are surrounded by people who will go to any length to assert their own perceived rights, while denying the basic right of life to their babies! We are surrounded by a culture that will cheerfully allow anything into its thinking except holiness. What will it take for a holy God to get through, to turn a nation such as this back to Himself? That question really scares me, when I consider what hasn't gotten our attention yet.

Thank God that where He shows wrath, He also shows mercy! Thank God that He Himself has provided the answer in His Son! Thank God that He has moved upon our hearts in His sovereign power that we might accept what His Son has done on our behalf! What an awesome, loving God we serve! How exciting, how wonderful to serve a God who knows the end from the beginning, because He is throughout time, from beginning to end! How wonderful to know that He kills and makes alive! How reassuring that He chooses to reveal these things in that order!

He kills and makes alive, says 1Samuel 2:6. The order is critical. It doesn't say that He makes us alive and then kills us, it says He kills us, and then makes us alive. And just to be certain that we don't fail to catch His drift, He words it a bit differently. He sends to the grave, and He raises up from the grave. There can be no mistaking this for the normal course of life. It is not natural birth He is driving at here, it is that very spiritual rebirth by which we have been enabled to come before Him. This is the plan of God in action! This is what all His providential actions upon the earth have been driving at; that He might kill this fallen nature so that we might truly become alive! I started to write that it was the flesh that He killed, but that's a misconception we need to turn away from.

Scripture teaches that the flesh will also have its resurrection, that our holy, redeemed spirits will have a holy redeemed body in which to dwell. But the time is not yet. What we need to grab hold of is the image of the sacrifice. No sacrifice was ever acceptable until it had died. Death was required. It still is. We must also understand that there remains no sacrifice we can make to atone for our sins, for Christ Jesus has already paid it all. His death, being of infinite worth, is more than sufficient to pay the penalty for all our sins. Indeed, life is in the blood: the blood of Christ.

In spite of this, knowing this to be truth, Paul tells us to become living sacrifices, to be holy and acceptable before God. How can that be? The sacrifice must die to be accepted. How then, shall we be living sacrifices? I think this verse from 1Samuel holds the key for us. The LORD kills, and the LORD makes alive. Until He has killed off that fallen nature in us, there's no way for us to be sacrifices, living or dead. There's no way for us to come into His presence. There is nothing for us other than eternal separation. But, He does come, and He does kill that fallen nature within us. This is not the end, though. He breathes new life into those dead bones, a life utterly different from the one we lived before, a life that is pleasing in His eyes. Truly, He raises us from the grave just as surely as He raised Jesus from the grave. Because of His gracious work, we are taken from eternal separation from Him to eternal union with Him. Glorify His name!

We are welcome in His presence because of what He has done. What an incredible privilege! We know full well that we don't deserve it. We know full well how much of our sinfulness remains with us. Isaiah, when he recognized with Whom he was dealing, despaired of his life, knowing that his sinfulness could not stand in the presence of a holy God. Oh, but that's the Old Testament! God is all love and mercy now, right? Wrong. God has not changed. Certainly He is love and mercy, but that has never been and never will be all that He is. He is also truth and justice. He is also holy. We can't have just a part of Him. We will either accept Him in all that He is, or we will have nothing of Him at all.

We, in this present age, are at a loss to remember His holiness. We're not entirely certain anymore what holiness even is. That's a scary place to be in, when dealing with a holy God. We are in great danger of joining Nadab and Abihu in their mistake, because we've lost sight of God's requirements entirely. We're so wrapped up in seeing Him as Daddy, that we forget He is also King of all Kings, that He is also the Creator of all that is, that He is the Law. Nadab and Abihu forgot this, and brought whatever offering they felt like before Him. They paid an eternal penalty for their audacity. Can we expect to escape with less, if we follow in their footsteps?

Consider Moses' wise words in reflecting on what had happened. In Leviticus 10:3, he speaks to Aaron, who was understandably upset over the death of his sons. But, Moses didn't speak comfort to Aaron, he spoke righteousness. The LORD told us, he said, that those who come near Him must be holy, that He is to be honored by all the people. That is the word of the LORD. He hasn't changed. If we wish to come near Him, we must be holy. The work of Christ has made that possible for us. We are allowed to come before Him, to come into His courts. But, woe to us if we come without respect for the Holiness before which we stand! Woe to us if we feel we can just make up our own rules, and He'll have to accept them! God will not be mocked!

Perhaps, what I am hearing in this is a call for my next study. I don't know. I do know that my grasp on the concept of holiness is insufficient at present. Father, if this is a direction You desire that I would pursue, continue to impress it on my heart as I come closer to the close of this study in providence. Lead me, and I will follow.

In Ezekiel, I find great comfort in the words written of our great Shepherd. He knows His people. He knows that we are like sheep, ever going astray, and He has words of assurance for us, as our Shepherd. Look through Ezekiel 34. In verse 12, He tells us that He will care for us, that He will deliver us from every place we are scattered to. In verse 16, He declares that He will seek out the lost, to bring them back! We are so terribly inclined to wander, but He will not allow us to wander off and be lost forever. No! He will seek us out and bring us back! That's assurance. He goes on to tell us that He will bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick. So great is His care over the flock of His sheep!

He also says that He will destroy the fat and the strong. Why is that? I believe what is being driven at here is that those who are fat and strong, given the prevailing circumstances, could only be so by unjust means. These are ones who have profited from the harm of others, who have taken what isn't theirs by right, and left all others to their want. These are those who have failed in the commandment to love neighbor as self.

In this, I hear another warning for God's church in the 21st century. If we allow ourselves to be satisfied in our own salvation, if we allow ourselves to sit comfortably inside our church walls, knowing we are saved and that's good enough for us; then we have become those same fat, strong sheep. We have withheld the very words of life from the people around us, allowing them to march on to their doom while we sit smugly aside, knowing our salvation. This is loving our neighbors? This is making disciples of all nations? How can we allow this? How can I allow this? I know I do so, yet I cannot even offer a plausible explanation to myself. How can I hope to offer a reasonable excuse before Him? I cannot.

We've come to our salvation with some really strange misconceptions. We are all too ready to declare that it's all about us. This shows in our drive for physical healing. What does physical healing have to do with our eternal welfare? Nothing! This shows in our drive for present prosperity. What does it profit us to have all the wealth the earth has to offer? Nothing! These things may come along with our salvation, and they are indeed blessings, wonderful gifts from our Lord. There's nothing wrong with being healed. There's nothing wrong with being prosperous. The problem lies in our focus.

If we are focused on these side dishes, instead of the great wonder and purpose of salvation itself, we've missed it entirely! Look a little further on to Ezekiel 34:30, and allow God to explain His own purpose. All this action, the salvation He has brought to us, the care He takes over us, the blessings He showers down upon us, are for one purpose: to show that we are His people, that He is our God, and that He is with us! If our love for the lost around us is not evident, how are they going to see this?

Consider also God's declaration in Ezekiel 36:22. Tell My people that I am not doing this for their sake. I am doing it for My holy name. Salvation is not for your sake. It is for His holy name. It's not about you or me. It's about His holy name. It comes back to what Moses said: His name is to be honored among all the people!

Notice the next portion of that verse: They, My people, have profaned My name among the nations! Our actions have embarrassed our Creator. This is as true of His Church today as it was of Israel in Ezekiel's time. We continue to act in most unholy fashion. We continue to allow the world to influence the Church, rather than acting as the Church to influence the world. Twelve apostles turned the world of their day upside down. Millions of believers today have allowed the world to turn Christianity upside down without making a move to stop it. But God will vindicate His holy name, whether we will or not. The nations will know that He is Lord, whether we carry the message to them, or He has to drop us like He dropped others before us. Notice, though, that He never dropped them from His care, only from the honor of being part of His work. He will gather them back. If we insist on blowing it, He will gather us back as well. But, what joy we will have lost, if we must come before Him having failed to even begin the mission He sent us on.

We are all busy at our churches. We are in constant danger of burning ourselves out with all our activity. But are we doing His will? Are we serving the purpose He established us for? Are we making Him evident to the nations? Are we causing His name to be honored in all the land? We must heed the words of Scripture, and commit our works to the LORD. This doesn't mean that we simply ask Him to bless whatever we happen to feel like doing. That's back to the strange fire. No. What is required is that we seek Him out to know what we should be doing, and then do it. That is committing your work to the LORD, because you are allowing Him to direct the work, to turn to His purposes every ounce of strength you have with which to labor. Only then will our works stand. Only then will our effort be established, and be able to accomplish anything. Only then can we hope to see the Church stand up and change the nations again.