A Sobering Thought

Here is a sobering thought: While The Bible is indeed true and Truth, everything written therein is not necessarily right, or even true! It truthfully records many lies, deceits, trickery, murders, horrific family disputes, and national/global calamities. This awful, yet truthful history is, of itself, not necessarily ‘The Word’ of The God of The Bible and His Christ (Anointed Savior). So people who read its surface stories understandably walk away shaking their heads, wondering how on earth can such texts be ‘sooooo venerated by soooooo many millions of peoples across the ages of time!’

A perfect example of this is the entire text of Psalm 74. King David did not write many of the psalms. Over his life, he learned and intimately knew the heart or spirit of God, and this is reflected in many (not all) of his writings. Lack of intimate knowledge of God’s heartbeat would cause great dissonance between what is written (or read, in our case) and what is ‘the Truth’ to be revealed, understood, applied and benefited from. Please re-read that sentence. Such dissonance is revealed in Psalm 74, which is an accurate/truthful account of what the psalmist wrote, but it misses the Truth of God’s Word.

Psalm 74 is an accurate portrayal of the ‘surface’ conditions in Jerusalem after the invasion and destruction by the Chaldeans of Babylon (Babylonians). While true, it is totally silent on, or deliberately side-steps and, therefore, misses the root issues that triggered this invasion - issues that would need to be addressed in the long-haul recovery from this invasion. These issues are sin, the awful punishment it deserves and attracts, and the tremendous grace available to the God-pardoned sinner. This issue is quite graphically and rather aggressively summarized in Ezekiel 14: 13 - 23. As you check it out, pause and breathe a relaxing, deep breath at the first word of verse 23, ‘Yet’. This, my friend, is grace at work. The spirit of this message is the ever-present Truth of The Bible, iteratively accented in e-v-e-r-y  story, poem and letter recorded therein. This is the heartbeat of the God of The Bible.

The thump-thump of this heartbeat was even more accurately and gracefully heard in the life of Jesus. He is God’s heart, not only heard, but seen. Both physically and spiritually, in crucifixion, He took on the types of brute punishment so vividly described by God to Ezekiel, so you and I could be that remnant of Grace who escaped total destruction that our sin deserved. (Ezekiel 14:22)

Enjoy a Grace-filled day~