Author: Bryan Jay

My name is Bryan Jay and I have been teaching the Bible full-time for almost 30 years now. In 1992, I began pastoring a new church in Asheville, North Carolina, and in 1997, I moved with my family to Brazil where we lived and served for many years. Since that time, we have moved on to other places, continuing to teach the Word of God.

Categories
Theology

Isaiah 37 God’s sovereignty over evil

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, has beseiged Jerusalem during the days of King Hezekiah.  The situation is hopeless.  Sennacherib and his military commander, the Rabshakeh, are mocking the Jews and their God.  This has always been one of my favorite Bible stories because it is a hopeless situation.  The Jews are unable to do anything to answer the mockery.  They are completely powerless and unable to deliver themselves, and yet the end of the story is 185,000 Assyrian soldiers being struck down by God in a single night and the king of Assyria slinking back to where came from, humiliated and defeated, ultimately struck down by his own sons exactly as God declared through his prophet in Isaiah 37:7.

Part of God’s answer to Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance is the following,

   ““ ‘Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. “ ‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’” (Isaiah 37:26–29, ESV)

I think it is glorious that in God’s words against the king of Assyria here, he doesn’t just say that he is greater than the king of Assyria, and he doesn’t just say that his power is greater.  He says that everything the king of Assyria is boasting of is actually only what he, God, has brought to pass!  The king of Assyria boasts of his conquests, and God says, “I planned this!  I determined it long ago!”  God is the one who caused the king of Assyria to “make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins.”

Because the king of Assyria rages in pride against God (note that “complacency” in the ESV is “arrogance” in NASB and “insolence” in NIV) God declares that he will drag him away with a hook in his nose!  What a picture!  A “bit in your mouth” pictures a man guiding a horse.  In the same way, God directs every motion of this wicked king in accordance with his eternal plans (v. 26).

Surely this truth of God’s sovereignty over Sennacherib can be extrapolated and applied to his sovereignty over every human and spiritual power, from unjust governments and forces in the world today to the power of Satan himself.  Through all of this evil, God is “bringing to pass” what he “determined long ago.”

Categories
Bible Study Theology

Psalm 5 Does God really hate evildoers?

This is a psalm that challenges our paradigm of how we often view the world.  Are we ready to reckon with the fact that according to Psalm 5:5, God “hates all evildoers”?

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Psalm 5:4-6)

What in the world does this mean?  How are we to understand this?  What are the implications of this for our relationship with others?

The first thing we should say is that according to many, many other scriptures, this includes all of us.  Just consider Romans 3:10-20.  We are all evildoers.  We are all God’s enemies.  Therefore, the only way that we can “enter God’s house” is through the “abundance of his steadfast love”.  The psalm goes on to say:

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me (Psalm 5:7-8).

As the psalm continues, in vs. 9-10, we see David’s expression of the paradigm given in vs. 4-6.  David does not desire that those whom God abhors be absolved of their guilt.  He actually requests that God would “make them bear their guilt.”  He asks God to “cast them out” because of their rebellion.

For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you (Psalm 5:9-10)

What are we to make of these verses?  How should we pray this same psalm?  It is the Word of God!  Shall we overlook it and just conclude that to pray in such a manner is incomprehensible to us?  Actually, I think that might be a good way to respond.  Let me explain:

If we have trouble praying according to a certain scripture because it seems in our minds to contradict other biblical truths, then we should be careful not to discard those other truths in favor of the scripture we are seeking to follow.  If we cannot pray from a pure heart with no doubts asking God to “cast out” evildoers, then we should refrain and simply ask God to give us insight into what he is revealing of himself here.

That said, here is my best understanding of how we  can reconcile these strong verses with those verses that talk about God’s love for sinners and his lack of pleasure in killing the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11).  What we are asking God to do is to not forgive sin where there is no repentance from that sin (see also Psalm 7:12).    This is why he says, “let all who take refuge in you rejoice…”

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield (Psalm 5:11-12).

David asks for salvation, joy, protection, love, blessing, and favor for ALL who take refuge in the Lord.  Our prayers for evildoers, then, should be that God would graciously bring them to repentance.  We should pray that God would give them a heart that flees to him for refuge.  May God give my non-believing friends a heart that loves his name and exults in Christ Jesus.

Only when we let verses 4-6 sink in to our hearts can we begin to understand the depths of God’s love and grace.

Categories
Bible Study Cross-Centered Life

Luke 14-15 Calling the prodigal son to cross-bearing discipleship

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27)

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)

Often when we read the parables of Luke 15, we understand them from the perspective of the one looking for the lost sheep, or for the lost coin, or desiring that more prodigal sons would return to the Father.  We put ourselves in the place of the man looking for the lost sheep, or the woman sweeping and looking for the coin.

Today I read these parables immediately after reading the very demanding words of Jesus in Luke 14 regarding the cost of discipleship (and these include not just Luke 14:25-35, but the whole chapter, since in Luke 14:7-11, he is challenging us to humble ourselves, and in Luke 14:12-24, he is challenging us to heed the invitiation to the banquet and come).

When we see the parables of Luke 15:3-32 in the light of Luke 14, we understand that they form the other side of the coin of Jesus’ “hard” call to discipleship.  Jesus is saying that when we heed his call to put him first and deny everyone and everything to follow him alone, then the angels in heaven rejoice over our repentance, and the Father rejoices in our return.

God calls us to Christ not just with the “hard” words of Jesus’ challenge to deny ourselves, but also with “soft” words that show us the joy of heaven when we deny ourselves and follow Christ.  If we only had the hard words, we might be tempted to think that when we forsake everything to follow Christ, the Father thinks, “Good, it’s about time you came to your senses and obeyed me.”  But the “soft” words (and I’m not sure I like that term, but it’s the best I can do to make the contrast) remind us that Jesus loves us and is only calling us to “hate father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes even our own life” because he wants us to know the joy of the Father’s welcoming embrace.

“Renouncing all that we have” (Luke 14:33) is actually giving up “pig food” (Luke 15:16) so that we can enjoy the “fattened calf” (Luke 15:23) that our Father prepares for those who come in repentance.  Don’t think that Jesus calls you to a cross because he enjoys seeing you suffer.  He calls you to a cross because that is the way back into the fold.  The cross of discipleship is none other than the cross of union with Christ which brings us back into the loving arms of the Father.