We need to be conscious of how much
the spirit of demand is operative in the
church, consciously or unconsciously, and that's how we
evaluate its ministers and dismiss them in our
hearts because they don't meet our expectation.
If you want to read a statement of
definitive church, read Bonhoeffer in Life Together where
he says it's a privilege just to be
in fellowship with the saints as sinners being
saved by God.
It's a privilege to hear the word of
God coming from another brother, not preaching, just
in counsel or just in conversation is a
grace.
So he is so foundationally grateful, making no
demand and receiving whatever issues, however humble from
another saint as being greatest privilege and our
distinction as saints in the church.
What an attitude.
Think of us as Americans demanding, having certain
criteria that we think ought to be met
and being justified and being disappointed if it's
not.
And in fact, we're guilty of exactly what
we're now going to read about the Israel
who could not believe that God could set
a table in the wilderness.
It may be that there are some of
us in this room that don't believe that
God can set a table in this wilderness.
And we're just as ungrateful for this table
as they were for their table because we
are exactly identified with Israel in their sin
and we need to see that.
Let's read this.
They demanded the food that they craved.
They spoke against God saying, can God spread
a table in the wilderness?
Isn't that interesting, the language here?
They're raising a question, but the psalmist inspired
by the Spirit says they spoke against God.
How do you speak against God by raising
a question?
Well, because the question is shot through with
attitudes contrary to God.
It's raising the question of whether he in
fact is God and that he's able under
conditions that you think inhospitable to establish a
table in the wilderness.
Can he feed 2 million in the wilderness?
Can he feed us in this wilderness at
this table?
Are we speaking against God even to raise
the question in our hearts or to find
fault with the table that he's spreading because
we demand another kind?
We came all this way and we want
a payoff in a way that is more
gratifying for what we crave.
Are you guys following me?
Hey, this is not a little piece of
academia here.
This is a perfect analogy to our own
present condition in this place, in this wilderness,
at this table and we need to be
instructed by their attitude because more than we
know, our own might be very much like
it.
Nothing has changed.
This is the human condition that faults God
by even raising the question, can God put
a table in the wilderness?
I have an advantage of longer life and
coming the product of an earlier civilization where
unlike the children of this generation, we were
not asked what would we like to eat?
We just ate what was put before us
and we were grateful for it.
When we went for a haircut, we didn't
tell the barber, I like it this way
or that way.
We sat down on a chair, we got
a haircut.
This generation, kids are already conscious of their,
what do you call it?
Their coiffure and tell the barber exactly how
they want it because they are children who
have been accustomed to being asked, what do
you want to eat?
So that encourages demand, not only of men
but of God and that is an offense
and that we are consciously performing it.
It's in keeping with the whole tenor of
our society and our life.
They tested God in their heart by demanding
the food that they craved rather than just
being grateful, whatever pleased the Lord to give.
It says elsewhere they ate angel's bread.
It was good enough for angels, it's not
good enough for you.
You want variety?
What, there was no ketchup available?
We're spoiled so much more than we know
and bring that spoiled disposition into the church
and into our attitudes at the church that
makes us little different from the Israel before
us.
So verse 20, having spoken against God, saying
can God spread a table in the wilderness?
Is he really capable?
Even though he struck the rock so that
water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he
also give bread and provide meat for his
people?
If he can do the one, can he
not do the other?
That they said it even though they experienced
the one and could not believe for the
other.
Therefore when the Lord heard, he was full
of rage.
Talk about the wrath of God.
A fire was kindled against Jacob.
His anger mounted against Israel because they had
no faith in God and did not trust
his saving power.
That ties right in with the gospel, the
revelation of the righteousness of God, saving to
them that believe from faith to faith.
They had no faith.
Is the Lord justified in being full of
rage?
A fire was kindled against Jacob and it
may not be manifested until 1939 to 1945,
but it will surely be manifested.
It was kindled then, but it's manifested now.
God is not under obligation to bring retribution
exactly on the heels of the sin.
He can delay the judgment, maybe even waiting
for an acknowledgement and repentance to forestall it.
But if it doesn't come, the fire that
has been incited will fall.
Got the picture?
He's under no obligation to make cause and
effect simultaneous.
He can withhold the effect and in fact
he's patient and forbearing to do, hoping and
waiting for some recognition of the sin that
had kindled his wrath.
When it doesn't come, it will fall in
the moment of his choosing and it will
fall grievously as fire.
How much are we storing up in the
wrath of God by conduct and attitudes that
he's not immediately judging, but when he does
it will come down in one fell swoop
grievously and that we have every reason to
be careful of walking before him daily knowing
that if fire fell on Israel much later
than the reason for it, it can fall
upon us also.
That we must not allow a wrath to
be stored up against ourselves that will come
at a moment when we least expect it,
but it will come.
It will come as surely as it came
for Israel, it will come for us.
How much more than knowing the terror of
sin, this is what Paul is talking about,
I persuade men.
I know the history of my people.
How much more than should we be careful
and judicious in our present walk and with
the things that we allow ourselves and attitudes
that will one day be visited upon us
in the moment of his choosing when that
wrath is full and if not being carried
into eternity itself.
So therefore when the Lord heard he was
full of rage, fire was kindled against Jacob,
his anger mounted against Israel because they had
no faith in God.
They could not believe that he could prepare
a table in the wilderness and did not
trust his saving power after already demonstrating his
saving power in so remarkable a way.
Shall he fail with food if he has
succeeded with water?
Is the one more difficult than the other?
With man it's impossible but with God nothing
is impossible.
A lack of faith is not just the
absence of some helpful facility, it's a statement
of sin that refuses to believe God even
in the face of his already demonstrated grace.
My Lord, that which is not of faith
is sin and have we brought that attitude
here?
Can God establish a table in this wilderness?
It won't be with the food that you
crave, it will be with what he sets
before us who knows our need and is
able to fulfill it.
Don't be like those Russian ministers who stayed
in the basement that would never come up
to the service because the first message was
not according to their craving.
They want the church growth and how to
succeed and here's this jerk coming with a
message about Paul's attitude toward widows and slaves
and their carcasses may be left in the
wilderness.
They'll never come through to Zion for that
attitude of contempt and that they weren't happy
with the table that God was setting.
We need to be grateful saints for whatever
we get.
You know that?
We're deserving of nothing.
God is not under obligation in any way
to please us.
Whatever we get, we ought to be grateful.
For us to say I've heard that before,
but you didn't hear it quite this way
and if you did hear it before, God
evidently thinks you need to hear it again.
So our attitudes stink and no better than
Israel and we're invited to repent just by
reviewing their history and seeing our own attitudes
as being so much like their own and
it kindled God's wrath.
A fire was kindled against Jacob in his
anger that mounted against Israel because they had
no faith.
How absolute that word is, no faith, not
just inadequate faith, did not trust his saving
power, which is to cast aspersions not on
God's impotence or inability, but upon his character.
Got the idea?
You hear the difference?
He had already demonstrated his power in water
gushing from a rock, but then raising a
question whether he's equally able to set a
table is raising aspersions against his character and
who are we snot noses to hold God
in contempt if he doesn't meet our standard,
which is to say if we were God,
we would do much better.
I don't have a word for this.
This is effrontery, this is impotence, this is
contempt, this is, what's the word that came
up in the reviews yesterday, last night?
Presumption.
Who are you to think that you can
best God, that you're more righteous than he,
more moral, more able, more generous, that if
you were setting the table you would do
this, this and this and you're better than
God?
It's a marvel that the stroke of God
doesn't fall and blot us out entirely.
It did fall or we would have been
blotted out.
Can we appreciate that more?
The stroke did fall, it could not be
withheld.
Why?
To withhold the stroke is for God to
impugn his own holiness, to say that well
it doesn't really matter, that's man, you have
to make allowances.
That stroke had to fall and it did
fall.
I'm the only one who could bear it.
That should have rightly come upon us.
He was bruised for our iniquity.
Of course Jacob denotes a certain character of
usurping, of heavy handedness, of proud arrogance, of
displacing another and that character lurks and remains
until Jacob does become Israel.
So it's probably appropriate that the word Jacob
is given here because what Israel is exhibiting
is not Israel.
It's not yet the Israel of God, though
they have that name.
They're really exhibiting their intrinsic Jacob character still.
So it's altogether appropriate that he uses that
word there, though in the very next statement
he uses Israel as well.
They did not trust his saving power, yet
he commanded the skies above and opened the
doors of heaven.
It rained down on them manna to eat.
He gave them the grain of heaven.
Mortals ate of the bread of angels.
He sent them food in abundance.
He caused the east wind to blow in
the heavens and by his power he let
out the south wind.
He rained flesh upon them like dust, winged
birds like the sand of the seas.
He let them fall within their camp all
around their dwellings and they ate and were
all filled and for he gave them what
they craved.
Isn't that a remarkable provision that God could
command these birds to fall around and about
the encampments of Israel and give them meat.
What they craved he gave them, but while
the food was still in their mouths the
anger of God rose against them and he
killed the strongest of them and laid low
the flower of Israel.
Can you love a God like this?
While the meat was in their mouth the
plague struck.
Gave them leanness in their souls and actually
killed the strongest of them and laid low
the flower of Israel.
What a judgment.
How serious was the offense that required a
judgment that stripped Israel of its cream, of
its finest young men and future heroes of
the faith were taken.
So grievous was the sin that kindled God's
wrath that it required this judgment.
The question is, is it as serious for
us as it was for him?
How grievous was the offense that they murmured
and raised a question about his character and
his saving power which is to strike at
the heart of God as God and to
say that you're not really God.
Not really deserving respect and worship and that
God said, oh when you take an attitude
like that and your attitude was not born
in a day.
You have been nurturing it day by day
growing in sullenness, growing in resentment, growing in
unbelief and sarcasm and criticism until now it's
come to full flower and this is the
judgment.
It may well be that they were reprimanded
even at the earlier stages by Moses, by
Aaron or by the wise and older men
in their midst and they didn't hearken and
so when their cup of iniquity was full
just like the Canaanites before them, God's judgment
fell as death.
The wages of sin is death and it
fell not upon their weakest and the frailest
but their best.
The strongest of them he laid low the
flower of Israel.
So who of us is safe dear Saint?
Especially among the flower of Israel, the best
candidates in the church today, the most impressive
young candidates to really make a mark in
the Christian world.
If God's judgment fell upon their best we
need to tremble that we will not be
spared and maybe all the more because to
whom much was given much was required and
they failed.
Remember the statement in the holocaust book that
we have every reason to regard calamity as
the judgment of God as a first consideration.
Before an accident or a catastrophe in nature
or in history is examined or explained in
any other way the first and rightful consideration
should be is this a judgment of God
and for what reason might it have been
given.
After you have exhausted that question before God
then you're free to consider that it might
have been mere mishap or chance or some
other explanation but your first obligation rightfully as
a saint is always to look at catastrophe
as the hand of God in judgment raising
the question what would have justified it and
after you have exhausted that then you can
consider other alternatives but I don't think you'll
need to if you make that your first
consideration.
We ought to have a perpetual gratitude that
we have been saved from the wrath of
God and always living in that gratitude with
that consciousness deserving of nothing the fact that
we have been extricated from judgment and live
and have possibility in future is pure gravy,
pure gift and that the only response is
thankfulness but that's so little to be seen
that the first response seeing these birds falling
about their camp should have been for them
to go down on their faces with a
cry of forgiveness Lord we thought you could
not set a table in the wilderness but
look what you have performed before we even
touch it we go down in gratitude and
ask you forgiveness for murmuring against you as
if you were not able or as if
you didn't care to give but instead of
that repentant response they greedily devoured the new
provision and while the meat was in their
teeth God slew them probably for the want
of this kind of acknowledgement and repentant gratitude
because of a demanding attitude that we deserve
sinful nation oh sinful nation wicked from the
top of your head to the soles of
your feet you're shot through with corruption and
sores that need to be bound up and
mollified the ass knows its owner and the
donkey its master's crib but my people do
not know do not understand the very first
statement of Isaiah such an indictment against this
nation and it's an indictment that stands to
this day it's not been acknowledged nor rectified
and the only way it can be rectified
is by that blood let's try and complete
this in the time that remains so we've
got a lot of text left that in
verse 32 in spite of all this they
still sinned in spite of all this they
still sinned my God Lord what you're breaking
our brains here and they did not believe
in his wonders and despite of his judgment
that was visible they still sinned did not
believe so he made the days vanish like
a breath and their years in terror when
he killed them they sought for him and
repented and sought God earnestly they remembered that
God was their rock the most high God
their Redeemer but they flattered him with their
mouths but they lied to him with their
tongues their heart was not steadfast toward him
they were not true to his covenant and
we had the earliest examination of righteousness his
covenant faithfulness so this is the epitome of
unrighteousness which is the issue of the heart
that was not steadfast toward him they were
not true to his covenant yet he being
compassionate forgave their iniquity and did not destroy
them often he restrained his anger and did
not stir up all his wrath he remembered
that they were but flesh a wind that
passes and does not come again how often
they rebelled against him in the wilderness and
grieved him in the desert they tested God
again and again they provoked the Holy One
of Israel they did not keep in mind
his power or the day when he redeemed
them from the foe when he displayed his
signs in Egypt as miracles in the fields
of Zion he turned their rivers to blood
the Egyptians so they could not drink of
their streams he set among them swarms of
flies which devoured them and frogs which destroyed
them he gave their crops to the caterpillar
the fruit of their labor to the whole
locust he destroyed their vines with hail their
sycamores with frost he gave over their cattle
to the hail and their flock to thunderbolts
he had let loose on them his fierce
anger wrath indignation and distress a company of
destroying angels he made a path for his
anger he did not spare them from death
but he gave their lives over to the
plague he struck all the firstborn in Egypt
the first issue of their strength in the
tents of Ham then he let out his
people like sheep and guided them in the
wilderness like a flock he led them in
safety so that they were not afraid but
the sea overwhelmed their enemies and he brought
them to his holy hill to the mountain
that his right hand had won he drove
out nations before them he apportioned for them
a possession and settled the tribes of Israel
in their tents yet they tested the most
high god and rebelled against him they did
not observe his decrees but turned away and
were faithless like their ancestors the sins of
the fathers coming upon the sons they twisted
like a treacherous bow for they provoked him
to anger with their high places they moved
him to jealousy with their idols when God
heard he was full of wrath and he
utterly rejected Israel he abandoned his dwelling at
Shiloh the tent where he dwelt among mortals
and delivered his power to captivity his glory
to the hand of the foe remember that
in the time of Eli that the box
that contained the ark of God was captured
by the Philistines and his sons were killed
and Eli falls over dead he gave his
people to the sword and vented his wrath
on his heritage fire devoured their young men
and their girls had no marriage song their
priests fell by the sword and their widows
made no lamentation then the Lord awoke us
from sleep like a warrior shouting because of
wine he put his adversaries to rout he
put them to everlasting disgrace he rejected the
tent of Joseph he did not choose the
tribe of Ephraim but he chose the tribe
of Judah Mount Zion which he loves he
built a sanctuary like the high heavens like
the earth which he has founded forever he
chose his servant David and took him from
the sheepfolds from tending the nursing ewes he
brought him to be the shepherd of his
people Jacob of Israel his inheritance with upright
heart he tended them and guided them with
a skillful hand what a remarkable survey of
the whole history of Israel up to the
time of the advent of David himself verse
67 he rejected the tent of Joseph and
did not choose the tribe of Ephraim meant
that northern Israel from these tribes were cast
into into exile they were defeated and wiped
out these are the lost tribes of Israel
and God gave Judah the inheritance one or
two tribes around Jerusalem but all 10 tribes
descended from Joseph and Ephraim were cast into
captivity and utterly destroyed by the Assyrians in
710 720 BC in 586 BC Judah then
catches it because God says that your sins
are like your sister instead of receiving the
example of being chastised by what I've done
with the northern tribes you have committed adultery
and idolatry of like kind and so upon
you comes not a judgment through the Assyrians
but through the Babylonians and Jerusalem is destroyed
and millions are wiped out and cast into
exile so what a tragic history that Israel
itself the nation does not profit from its
own example seeing what God did with the
northern tribes the southern tribes instead of being
chastened in time are just as sinful as
their kinsmen before them but all of that
is in one verse he rejected the tents
of Joseph this is understatement but we must
not miss it he did not choose the
tribe of Ephraim he chose the tribe of
Judah Mount Zion which he loves built a
sanctuary and then chose his servant David and
made him to be the king over this
surviving remnant which not long after David and
through Solomon thereafter then that Judah falls again
into the sins of Israel and is judged
but with upright heart he tended them and
guided them with a merciful hand because David
is so much the statement of the God
who appointed him tending the nursing hues that
was a preparation for tending Israel so this
is a remarkable overlay of the whole history
of Israel until that time both of judgment
and of mercy isn't it interesting that the
psalm ends on the high note it doesn't
end with the statement of judgment it ends
with God's honoring of Zion and establishing his
kingdom through David but we know tragically what
has followed since did you read that part
about the idols and the thing that they
performed that when they moved him to jealousy
with the idols in 58 with their high
places what are the high places the places
for Canaanite idolatry worshiping trees because they are
the symbol of the fertility what's the phallic
symbol penis it's a whole fertility worship that
includes temple prostitutes both male and female and
doing that on the high hills in the
face of God who had called them to
be a holy people and separated unto himself
is there a word for such a history
as this how God is rubbed raw by
a people who are so privileged to receive
the law and the deliverance out of Egypt
faithfulness through the wilderness into the land of
promise prepared for them flown with milk and
honey and then as they were fattened they
grew sleek and rebelled against the rock so
the doctrine of total depravity that there's no
man good nor not one is not some
exaggerated or extreme notion that was cooked up
in some theologians head the evidence the testimony
both of Israel and even of the church
quite confirms that truth total depravity required a
total answer from someone who was untouched by
it and was without sin to be a
once and for all sacrifice to bring an
expiation of these of this historic guilt in
which we are all included whether or not
we lived at that time or a participant
just by virtue of being human Adam sons
of Adam guilty and capable of all this
that required all that I don't know how
a modern Jew would read this but even
the orthodox who read it don't read it
but chant it and the issue of chanting
is not comprehension but dutifully getting through a
certain measure of scripture so I remember being
at an orthodox service in Saint Paul the
Hasidim the Lubavitcher and they were reading in
Jeremiah was the selection from the prophets on
that Shabbat that spoke about devastation and destruction
and ruin and I'm looking around and these
guys are chanting like they're reading abracadabra and
finally I was so incensed that I turned
to the guy closest to me and I
said do you realize what you're reading and
he looked at me like where are you
coming from Mars what are you talking about
am I supposed to comprehend this I'm not
the object is not comprehension the object is
recital I'm doing my duty I'm getting through
I'm chanting inflecting rising my voice rises and
falls according to the prescribed rhythm for those
verses but the content or comprehension let alone
repentance so utterly blind and that spirit of
religion it's like Catholicism in Latin is orthodoxy
in Hebrew so we need to know that
and the people whom we're called to confront
they have no consciousness of their own sin
either of their ancestors or their own because
the sin of their ancestors is their own
that's why in Leviticus 26 I think in
one of the last chapters God says when
you will acknowledge the sins of your fathers
as your own and your own sin then
I will restore the covenant that I have
made then I will circumcise your heart that
you might love the Lord your God he's
waiting for an acknowledgement that the sins of
our fathers are our own sins and until
that acknowledgement comes we stand under the indictment
and the judgment that can yet fall and
will in God's chosen moment and can only
be withheld by the provision already made there
is no or little or no sin consciousness
among Jews even orthodox certainly it's going to
require a profound sin consciousness in ourselves and
that we don't come to them with a
haughty superiority as if we have seen the
light and they're still in darkness we come
to them with a brokenness that we are
guilty with you we have shared your condition
exactly our only difference is that by the
mercy of God he has expiated that sin
and we want to let you know that
your God has made that provision and you've
missed it and in fact I think in
that same section of scripture about the stupor
it talks about that their table has been
made a snare unto them so still the
issue of gratification lust appetite as being an
obstruction to the communication of God the table
itself is a snare to say that God
is not able or uninterested is to impose
a limitation this is the greatest insult because
God is infinite in his possibilities with men
it's impossible but with God nothing is impossible
so to imply that God is limited or
for you to limit him by your own
mentality and attitude is to express the vilest
of sins see that so that's that's why
that's an alternative reading that gets to the
heart of the matter and it's one with
which we are guilty also can God provide
a table in the wilderness can he meet
our financial need what will we do in
the last days of the economy collapses we're
raising all kinds of questions and doubts and
apprehensions I've had them myself even in these
days I had it fought today I went
to bed last night disquieted and not knowing
how to continue and having to face today
not trusting God and doubting that he could
bring us through and maybe we've come to
an impasse where as far as we can
go and that this school no matter how
precious others may have been is at an
end I was wrestling with questions like that
you know where their source is but it
was a real wrestling and a real concern
that myself with all the experience of God's
faithfulness for all these years can still entertain
a doubt that he can succeed now with
this wilderness at this time with these students
in this place who is free from that
kind of apprehension and anxiety and limits God
unconsciously or consciously and says he's not able
we need to be reminded not only with
our own personal experience of God's faithfulness which
is enormous but his faithfulness in history his
faithfulness with Israel his faithfulness in the giving
of his son his faithfulness in the giving
the word the prophets the Psalms is a
whole vast basis for acknowledging God's faithfulness and
we need to invoke that in our memory
not just our personal experience precious though it
is but the whole testimony of God in
time and in history from the beginning and
especially with Israel to miss God with Israel
is to miss God interesting like the choice
of the word Jacob that here he would
use the reference to him who was the
son who took the liberty of his father
naked and defenseless and advantaged himself over his
father and whispered to the other brothers that
they should share with him in his delight
and seeing the father exposed and so the
Egyptians are from that line and so the
judgment came upon the tents of Ham it
could be I hadn't thought about it before
that as God will delay his judgment though
he does not forget the infraction and will
recompense the sinner at a later time that
it may well be that the judgments that
came in Egypt are altogether related to the
infraction of Ham at the very beginning and
the nakedness of his father and the delaying
of that judgment came until the Lord expressed
it in judgments in Egypt why because there
I'm just talking off the top of my
head great question Ham has now come to
the place of his greatest glory and expression
as the most conspicuous and significant kingdom that
then prevailed and God judged that kingdom in
every aspect of their idolatry frogs were celebrated
as a symbol and the river that was
their life turned to blood so he brings
a judgment on everything celebrated by Ham here's
a one here's a might be a remarkable
example that God did not forget Ham's infraction
against his father Noah but reserved and waited
to bring it at a time when it
was most righteous in his wisdom to perform
it while at the same time it it
saved Israel out of Egypt and the same
judgment came on the Canaanites so as to
prepare the place for Israel so the judgment
against the Gentiles is often the very same
act by which Israel is brought into her
own inheritance that the judgment for one proves
the blessing for the other but the judgment
may have a longer history than just the
present sin of the pharaoh that the sin
of the pharaoh and of Egypt is the
outworking of something that had its initiation all
the way back to Ham and was transmitted
through the generations till it came to its
fullest flower of opposing the Israel in its
midst and then God judges it we need
to have a much larger view of God
than what we presently know a much greater
historic and even cosmic view of God in
his righteous judgment and in his own privilege
to determine when it shall be executed and
therefore he needs to be feared and therefore
Paul says knowing the terror of God that
that judgment righteous can fall at any time
what manner of men ought we to be
and we don't know and we have separated
sin from its consequence and because it has
not been immediately answered in the infraction and
liberty that we have taken we go on
from sin to sin so what begins as
first a mild flirtation and lightning did not
break through to strike us then the next
time we take a little bit more liberty
and go from a flirtation to a kind
of affair that does not eventuate an actual
fornication but still God has not answered so
maybe he's approving and then we go from
that to an actual adultery and we go
from the adultery to an actual divorce and
we set in motion and then the judgment
falls I don't know what God does not
immediately answer but we need to know from
his treatment of Israel and of the sons
of Ham that that's not for us to
determine but that he will answer is unquestionable
his wrath has got to find its expression
for he's no longer holy so we need
to be warned against the first flirtation something
needs to be recognized at its inception because
well I got away with this I guess
it's okay then to go on to the
next expression the next and the next and
then the judgment falls why are Christians capable
of that kind of conduct because they have
not studied the history of God's dealing with
Israel and just the very song that we're
considering today and therefore they are uninstructed and
take liberties with the God of Israel who
is God still he's not changed he's the
same deity then as now only our knowledge
of him is most inadequate because we have
not given ourselves to the study of the
thing that reveals him in scripture these things
are written for our admonition upon whom the
ends of the age have come remember that
of Jesus it says that he was the
lambs the lamb slain before from the foundations
of the world the historic fulfillment came in
30 AD but the event itself in God
was timelessly and eternally enacted even before the
foundations of the earth were laid is that
remarkable we're suffering from time sense time space
sense that is altogether human and therefore we
lose the sense of God in his eternity
and in his cosmic liberty of establishing the
fact before the historic enactment actually takes place
so that he foresaw its need and established
it from the beginning is a remarkable statement
that beggars imagination so when the John the
Baptist sees Jesus behold the lamb of God
who has come to take away the sins
of the world somehow either intuitively or howsoever
he recognizes this is that provision made before
the foundations of the earth were laid now
coming to pass we need to fact this
in we're so boxed in with our human
categories and sense of time that we don't
understand God as God eternally and his freedom
to act and we need to give him
a due respect admiration worship because he's much
larger than we thought let's conclude in prayer
how shall we pray in view of what
it pleased the Lord to set before us
today despite my doubts and apprehensions that he
was not capable of setting a table in
the wilderness today thank you Lord prayer is
a remarkable sacrament a remarkable privilege and he
hears it so Lord what shall we say
to you my God we're dust we're not
one whit better than our father Israel the
sons of Israel my God had we lived
at that time we ourselves my God would
have been completely indifferent to you while your
meat was in our teeth we would have
deserved your stroke and even now we are
demanding and an exhibit so much my God
of what was characteristic of the Israel which
you judged and judged severely and rightly so
we ask you we're receiving your mercy Lord
we would have been blotted out this is
your mercy and we have not sufficiently appreciated
your mercy my God and so help us
Lord we're dense we're dull we have kept
ourselves from your testimony if we looked at
the Psalms at all it was with some
kind of acknowledgement that this was historic it
pertained to Israel not to us thank you
for your mercy Lord we are so shallow
how are we going to teach our Jewish
kids how are we going to instruct them
about sin and knowing the terror of God
persuade men when we ourselves don't know that
terror mercy Lord mercy Lord mercy Lord precious
God Lord holy one come and work your
work Lord we're so dependent God if we
turn this only into head trip if we
just make this academic knowledge and are not
affected in our own deeps in our own
subsequent life does not show forth the benefit
of this kind of emphasis and instruction which
you have invoked for our good of what
then are we deserving we of all people
are most to be pitied our judgment will
be the greater because to whom much is
given much is required and you have given
much so we're asking my God for the
mercy to convert that much into real inward
appropriation that will express itself in conduct character
and life to the praise of your glory
because of your grace after today Lord we
shall never again boast of being the Israel
of God as if we have superseded your
people and are superior to them we are
only the Israel of God in the sense
that we share with them the same indictment
the same condition needing the same mercy so
forgive us my God in the vain boast
that we have made as if we're made
of better stuff than they when we're made
of actually the same stuff and we're equally
as guilty whether we live through that time
or not as our attitudes even now continue
to display making demands and doubting your ability
to establish a table in the wilderness thank
you my God oh save us from our
presumption our pride our false superiority my God
we are all together deserving only of judgment
and of no other consideration that it has
not come is simply your remarkable grace and
mercy so what shall we say to you
Lord you're deserving only of praise and honor
because you're righteous what you've done in your
righteousness is for on our side totally undeserved
but it's the statement of yourself holy God
jealous for his own name and honor and
has taken the pains to defend it through
the death of your son that at the
same time provided our salvation thank you Lord
oh precious God precious God thank you Lord
for your long patience in waiting for us
to come to a certain elementary understanding that
should have been ours long ago and would
have saved us from so much in the
way in which we have deported ourselves in
the church and in our own life and
own friends our own conduct reckless and indifferent
to the issue of sin and judgment because
we were not instructed and refused to be
instructed mercy Lord on the church today in
that condition our own flesh and blood we
pray in Jesus name