I used to see God too small...

But I'm beginning to see Him magnified...

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis 3:22-24

I used to read this verse and see the words "drove out the man", "flaming sword", and "to keep the way of the tree of life" and think of these things only as punishment and anger and wrath from God. I know that these things are true - sin does exact wrath in the presence of our holy, righteous, and just God. But that isn't the whole story - it's just the beginning (Alpha).

I've been pondering on His holiness - and Tim brought out a point the other day when we were talking about it. He said that His holiness really encompasses all of His other attributes; all of His other "character traits" work together for holiness... He can't be anything other than:
Holy
Righteous
Just
Truth
Faithful

But - He is also merciful, longsuffering, loving, and compassionate.

Before being truly born again in the Spirit of God, we see statements in the Bible like:

Exodus 20:5-6
(5) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And we think - "who is this God to be jealous and angry? A loving God would not speak like this". From there we convince ourselves that the Holy Bible is less than authoritative, and from there society breaks down as we see it is doing in America today.

But we forget that the next verse says:

(6) And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

It was mercy that God sent Adam and Even out of the Garden and protected the tree of life. Had they eaten of the tree of life after choosing to be like God instead of choosing to obey submit to God, they would have been immortally and eternally condemned along with Satan.

It was mercy that God sent them from His paradise and subjected them to physical death. In doing so, He protected them from eternal death and condemnation - and promised that He would provide His own Way for them to eat of the Tree of Life through Jesus Christ.

It was mercy that He put walls around the tabernacle and Temple and veiled the Holy of Holies. I used to read this with the idea in my head that He was protecting His presence from man. How silly a concept. God wasn't protecting Himself from man - Almighty God needs protection from NO MAN. But walls and veils protected sinful man from entering unwittingly and carelessly into the consuminig presence of the Holy God.

The shekinah glory that came down and filled the tabernacle and temple once they were dedicated to Him put the people in awe - and they fell to the ground and worshipped the Lord God as He should be worshipped.

He reveals enough of His holiness through His Word and His Creation to:
1. Warn us of coming judgment by the Holy God
2. Make us desire Him and desire to be like Him

He veils His holiness for now in mercy, and yet offers it with grace.

We have to accept that only His payment through the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of His Holy Son Jesus Christ is acceptable to the Holy God.

The blood of the final sacrifice in Christ must be applied to each of us personally, and His perfect spotless righteousness must be claimed - instead of our own righteousness, which is but filthy rags in the sight of the Holy God.

When the cloud rolls back as a scroll, and this temporary world of darkness is revealed in the Light of His holiness in its fullness -

(10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
(11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10-11

Those who recognized it and pleaded that He apply it to them will be counted with His own righteousness and accepted in the sight of God. But those who believed themselves "good enough" to enter unprepared into the mighty presence of the Holy God will eternally find the truth of the eternal Word of God that they denied temporarly on earth.

Sin in the presence of holiness is consumed and destroyed and purified by the Holy fire of our Almighty Creator.

For our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:29

Jesus Christ's substitionary perfect life and perfect sacrifice is the only acceptable means of entering into that Holy judgment.

We must recognize:

1. Our own sinfulness
2. His holiness
3. His sole ability to satisfy the requirements of holiness
4. Our complete inability to satisfy the requirements of holiness
5. And then repent and turn from our selves, to Him - in worship, and love and admiration of the Holy Creator who alone can satisfy the hunger in our soul that He placed there for Himself.

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee..”
- St. Augustine

Lord - Help our hearts turn to You
Help us see you magnified as You truly are. Our sinful hearts want to minimize Your mightiness - cast that sin behind us and reveal Yourself as You truly are so that we fall down in worship and fellowship with You.

You loved us first so that we could love you back
Raise up admiration and love in our hearts for the One who made the way for us back to Himself
Through Jesus Christ - Lord, King, Savior - Holy God
Help us love, serve, and worship You in a way that is pleasing in Your sight
Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that we can please You and reflect Your glory to this dark world
That they might see Christ in us.
In Jesus' powerful name I ask these things for Your glory Lord.
Amen.

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Reading after lunch: 1 Kings summary in Adventuring Through the Bible. This went along with what I was trying to get out of my head onto the screen earlier this morning - so I wanted to add it:

"Shout louder!" he [Elijah] said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened."
When the pagan priests have exausted themselves to no avail [calling out to their gods to light the sacrifice on fire - 1 Kings 18], Elijah rolls up his sleeves and goes to work. He repairs the altar of the Lord, which has fallen into disrepair, then he orders four large jars of water to be poured over the bull and the wood upon the altar. He intends to make sure that the demonstration of God's power is not merely spectacular but absolutely astonishing. Then he calls upon God, and God sends down a fire so intense that it not only consumes the sacrifice but the water and the stones of the altar! Once judgment is exercised, the heavens open again and rain pours down upon the land.

This is a picture of what happens in the life of anyone who resists God's rightful rule. In what one writer has termed His "severe mercy", God brings us under His chastening until our stubbornnes is broken. Our willful rebellion is ended and we are humbled at last before God. Then the rain of grace can pour once again upon our hearts, bringing good fruit and sweet blessing once more.

Our human minds see God banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden (among other passages in the Bible) as mean and vengeful, and we're offended by it and want to think of it as foolishness - but that's because we see God too small.

He can't be judged by human means - for He is the only being who is absolutely worthy of being jealous and exacting punishment - because He alone is the only being in eternity worthy of being worshipped. He is Almighty - Holy - Righteous - Wonderful - Awesome - Just - Creator - Sustainer - Savior - LORD - King - Love - Bridegroom -

He
Alone
is
the LORD God.

We cannot wrap our little brains around a God that big - and anytime we think His Word is foolishness, we've failed to see how big He really is and tried to make Him as we are.