Sitting With the Fullness of God

Good morning. Today we are in Isaiah 3:1–15.

And we're in another section of Scripture in which God is doing some things to His people.

The first section is about removing the leaders.

Verse 4 popped out at me:

"And I will make mere boys their leaders, and mischievous children will rule over them. And the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the youth will assault the elder, and the contemptible person will assault the one honored."

Gosh, I've read enough news stories and can see correlations for sure here, but I feel like many nations throughout history could see this as applicable to them as well.

And then we get to verse 8:

"For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, to rebel against His glorious presence."

As I have been contemplating Isaiah and thinking back to the time we went through Nahum, it just really dawned on me that when I think of God, the last attribute of Him that I think about, that I give credence to, that I praise, is that He is a just God.

He is a righteous God.

He is a wrathful God.

He is against that which is evil.

He is also equally a long-suffering and patient God.

He is merciful. He forgives. He extends grace.

But I just keep thinking about the fact that He is long-suffering, but He is also just. And eventually our rebellion and sin will lead to us coming face-to-face with His justice, His wrath.

Yet He gives us a way out of what we deserve, which is why Jesus came.

We have the Old Testament to show us why we need Jesus.

I don't know. I sometimes struggle knowing that He is good and He is just. That He is merciful and He is wrathful. He is patient and yet judges according to His righteousness.

He is opposed to sin, but He also forgives sin.

And we have to learn how to sit with the fullness of God.

I don't know about you, but I have a diagram in my head, and all these harder things—the wrathfulness, the justice, His judgment, His hatred of sin—are all over, you know, on the left side.

And then on the right side, that I want to weigh heavier, to give more credence to, is His goodness and His mercifulness and His patience and His love and His grace.

And I think that that image of Him is incorrect.

I think it is all mixed up together, and He is perfectly able to dispense exactly what is needed.

And yet He loves us so much that He's willing to give us a way out of what we deserve.

That is sometimes a harder way to see our loving God.

I know that wasn't exactly within the Scriptures that we read today, but I've just been contemplating that and thinking about that and wanted to bring you along with me as I thought through those thoughts, and how it may apply to the rest of Isaiah and how I read it, how we read it.

Can we grasp God in His fullness?

Or do we want to piece out the parts that make us feel warm and loving and push off in a huff from the parts that feel a bit more prickly?

What about you? What parts of this jumped out at you? Which verses were your favorite today? Which ones made you stop and go, "Oh"?

Heavenly Father, Lord, thank You for today.

Thank You for loving us so much that You wanted to provide a way for us to be with You forever.

You just ask us to acknowledge who You are, to repent of our sins, choose You as our Master and Lord, to follow You.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being all of these things at all times, that it is all for Your glory and honor, Lord.

It is in the precious name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining me today as we wandered through God's Word with wonder.