The Case For Hope: “The Case For God’s Involvement”
By David E. Owen
Pastor – Piney Grove Baptist Church, Acworth
Deuteronomy 8:2–5; Psalm 139:7–10; Philippians 2:5–11
Family Bible Study Lesson for September 26
Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the idea of being an apologist; of responding to those who are either curious or critical of Christianity; ofMaking Our Case for the Hope that we have in God and in Christ. The very first verse of scripture we looked at in this series was 1 Peter 3:15 where Peter said…
(1 Peter 3:15) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
We’ve talked about the overall concept of Making Our Case and how we can do that effectively by…
1. Showing A Pure Conscience (1 Peter 3:15-17)
2. Stating The Personal Commonalities (Acts 22:1-3)
3. Sharing Your Phenomenal Conversion (Acts 22:4-10)
In response to the Atheist, we looked at the idea of Making The Case for God’s Existence and how that is proven by…
1. His Creation Of The Heavens (Psalm 19:1-6)
2. His Connection To The Humans (Acts 17:22-29)
3. His Communication Through The Heir (Hebrews 1:1-2)
In response to the Skeptic who wonders why our world is filled with pain and suffering if God exists as the completely good and loving God that we as Christians believe Him to be, we considered the idea of Making The Case for God’s Love. The scripture teaches us that in spite of the suffering we may experience in this world, we can be assured of God’s love knowing that…
1. He Has A Genuine Perception About Matters (Job 40:1-9)
2. He Has A Glorious Prospect To Be Manifested (Romans 8:18-21)
3. He Has A Good Purpose In Mind (Romans 8:28-30)
and He has A Great Passion For Me
Just as Atheism denies the existence of God, there is another school of philosophy called “Deism.” And Deism concedes that there must have been a higher power or a supreme being and that there is intelligent design in the creation of the universe. But though the Deist gives credit for the formation of life and the universe to a higher power, they say that this design allows only natural processes to govern creation. Deism maintains that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world in any way. In other words, they believe that there is a god who created all things, but this god set everything in motion and then backed off and has become a passive observer who never gets involved in creation or humanity.
It has been frequently said that the Deist views God as a sort of cosmic clock-maker. The complexity of the clock reveals that there must have been intelligence behind its design and fabrication. The same is true of creation. It is evident that there is intelligent design in creation. The problem with the Deist’s position is that they believe that the divine designer has wound up the wheels of time; he has set nature in motion, and then walked away never to intervene or reveal himself again.
An uninvolved God is certainly a contradiction to the revelation of scripture. Just because we cannot physically see Him or hear Him, do we deny His involvement in this world or in our lives? Adam would have scoffed at such an idea. Abraham, Moses, and David would have thought it ludicrous.
And what about those humble disciples who had direct contact with the God who was made flesh? The very idea of a God who does not get involved with humanity would have been utterly ridiculous and laughable to them.
What does it mean to be “involved”? To be involved means “to engage as a participant,” “to connect closelyto something or someone,” “to influence or affect.” Is God involved? Let’s look to the scripture today, and as we do, we find that…
The involvement of God has been clearly seen as…
I. His Sufficiency Has Been Proven
(Deuteronomy 8:2–5)
A.God Has Shown His Guidance As A Parent (vs. 2, 5).His Guidance Was Sufficient (He Leads)
(Deuteronomy 8:2) And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
(Deuteronomy 8:5) Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
led (vs. 2) – Hebrew 3212. yalak, yaw-lak'; a prim. root [comp. H1980]; to walk (lit. or fig.); causat. to carry (in various senses):-- X again, away, bear, bring, carry (away), come (away), depart, flow, + follow (-ing), get (away, hence, him), (cause to, make) go (away, -ing, -ne, one's way, out), grow, lead (forth), let down, march, prosper, + pursue, cause to run, spread, take away ([-journey]), vanish, (cause to) walk (-ing), wax, X be weak.
chasteneth (vs. 5) – Hebrew 3256. yacar, yaw-sar'; a prim. root; to chastise, lit. (with blows) or fig. (with words); hence to instruct:--bind, chasten, chastise, correct, instruct, punish, reform, reprove, sore, teach.
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says…
Thou shalt remember all the way which … God led thee these forty years. The recapitulation of all their chequered experience during that long period was designed to awaken lively impressions of the goodness of God. First, Moses showed them the object of their protracted wanderings and varied hardships: these were trials of their obedience as well as chastisements for sin.
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament says…
Verse 2. To this end they were to remember the forty years' guidance through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:31; 2:7), by which God desired to humble them, and to prove the state of their heart and their obedience. Humiliation was the way to prove their attitude towards God. ±inaah, to humble, i.e., to bring them by means of distress and privations to feel their need of help and their dependence upon God. nicaah, to prove, by placing them in such positions in life as would drive them to reveal what was in their heart, viz., whether they believed in the omnipotence, love, and righteousness of God, or not.
Verse 5. In this way Jehovah humbled and tempted His people, that they might learn in their heart, i.e., convince themselves by experience, that their God was educating them as a father does his son. yicar, to admonish, chasten, educate; like paideu’ein. “It includes everything belonging to a proper education” (Calvin).
The Pulpit Commentary says…
Verses 1, 2. - God’s dealings with the Israelites were disciplinary. Both by the afflictions and privations to which they were subjected, and by the provision they received and the protection afforded to them, God sought to bring them into and keep them in a right state of mind towards him - a state of humble dependence, submissive obedience, and hopeful trust. But that this effect should be produced, it was needful that they should mark and remember all his ways towards them.
Verse 5. - Thus God educated, disciplined, and trained his people as a father does his child. Chasteneth. The idea is not so much that of punishment or chastisement, properly so called, as that of severe discipline and training. God made them feel his hand upon them, but ever for their good; the end of the discipline to which they were subjected was that they might keep his commandments and walk in his ways, so as to enjoy his favor (cf. Hebrews 12:5, etc.).
B.God Has Shown His Generosity As A Provider(vs. 3–4).His Generosity Was Sufficient (He Meets Needs)
(Deuteronomy 8:3-4) And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. {4} Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
humbled (vs. 3) – Hebrew 6031. 'anah, aw-naw'; a prim. root [possibly rather ident. with H6030 through the idea of looking down or browbeating]; to depress lit. or fig., trans. or intrans. (in various applications, as follow):--abase self, afflict (-ion, self), answer [by mistake for H6030], chasten self, deal hardly with, defile, exercise, force, gentleness, humble (self), hurt, ravish, sing [by mistake for H6030], speak [by mistake for H6030], submit self, weaken, X in any wise.
Adam Clarke wrote…
[He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee] God never permits any tribulation to befall his followers, which he does not design to turn to their advantage. When he permits us to hunger, it is that his mercy may be the more observable in providing us with the necessaries of life. Privations, in the way of providence, are the forerunners of mercy and goodness abundant.
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary says…
Verse 3. The humiliation in the desert consisted not merely in the fact that God let the people hunger, i.e., be in want of bread and their ordinary food, but also in the fact that He fed them with manna, which was unknown to them and their fathers (cf. Exodus 16:16ff.). Feeding with manna is called a humiliation, inasmuch as God intended to show to the people through this food, which had previously been altogether unknown to them, that man does not live by bread alone, that the power to sustain life does not rest upon bread only (Isaiah 38:16; Genesis 27:40), or belong simply to it, but to all that goeth forth out of the mouth of Jehovah. That which “proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah” is not the word of the law, as the Rabbins suppose, but, as the word kol (all, every) shows, “the word” generally, the revealed will of God to preserve the life of man in whatever way (Schultz): hence all means designed and appointed by the Lord for the sustenance of life. In this sense Christ quotes these words in reply to the tempter (Matthew 4:4), not to say to him, The Messiah lives not by (material) bread only, but by the fulfillment of the will of God (Usteri, Ullmann), or by trusting in the sustaining word of God (Olshausen); but that He left it to God to care for the sustenance of His life, as God could sustain His life in extraordinary ways, even without the common supplies of food, by the power of His almighty word and will.
The Pulpit Commentary says…
Verse 4. - As the manna furnished by God’s creative power saved them from hunger, so by God’s providence and care their raiment was marvelously kept from decay, and they had not to go barefoot from their sandals being worn out. Waxed not old upon thee; literally, did not fall away, waste away from upon thee.
Neither did thy foot swell. The verb here is found in only one other passage (Nehemiah 9:21), where this passage is repeated; … in Nehemiah the rendering they give is dierra/ghsan, were torn, the object torn being … their feet, according to (another source), their sandals. In Deuteronomy 29:5, the shoe or sandal is specially mentioned in the same connection as here. The verb, however, cannot mean tear or torn, neither does it mean swell; the idea involved is rather that of softening, or, melting or flowing; and the meaning here seems to be, “Thy foot did not get into a bruised and wounded state”– which would have been the case had their sandals not been preserved from breaking or being worn out.
Keil and Delitzsch said…
Knobel is quite correct in observing, that “this would be altogether too trivial a matter by the side of the miraculous supply of manna, and moreover that it is not involved in the expression itself, which rather affirms that their clothes did not wear out upon them, or fall in tatters from their backs, because God gave them a miraculous durability.”
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says…
Thy raiment waxed not old ... neither did thy foot swell. What a striking miracle was this! No doubt the Israelites might have brought from Egypt more clothes than they wore at their outset; they might also have obtained supplies of various articles of food and raiment in barter with the neighbouring tribes for the fleeces and skins of their sheep and goats; and in furnishing them with such opportunities care of Providence appeared. But the strong and pointed terms which Moses here uses (see also Deuteronomy 29:5) indicate a special or miraculous interposition of their loving Guardian in preserving them amid the tear and wear of their nomadic life in the desert. This same view, we think, must be taken of the fact that their feet did not swell, or rather were not blistered, by their constant and long journeyings, as is usually the case with people who walk an unusual distance. But Dr. Benisch ('Colenso's Objections Critically Examined,' p. 50) ascribes their exemption from such bodily discomforts to the circumstance of their journeys being always very short, not being perhaps much in excess of five miles a day, owing to the incumbrances of children and cattle. The tenor of the context, however, manifestly points to miraculous aid.
As I read this, I thought about the old song written by the Easter Brothers…
THANK YOU LORD, FOR YOUR BLESSINGS ON ME
Written by Russell, James, and Ed Easter - personal testimony of James Easter
Verse 1
As the world looks upon me, as I struggle along
They say I have nothing, but they are so wrong
In my heart I’m rejoicing, how I wish they could see
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me.
Verse 2
I know that I’m not wealthy and these clothes, they’re not new
I don’t have much money, but Lord I have You
And to me that’s all that matters, though the world may not see
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me.
Chorus
There’s a roof up above me, I’ve a good place to sleep
There’s food on my table, and shoes on my feet
You gave me your love Lord, and a fine family
Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.
The involvement of God has been clearly seen as…
II. His Spirit Has Been Present
(Psalm 139:7–10)
A.We Cannot Limit God By The Extreme Places (vs. 7–8).
(Psalms 139:7-8) Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? {8} If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Albert Barnes wrote…
[Whither shall I go from thy spirit?] Where shall I go where thy spirit is not; that is, where thou art not; where there is no God. The word “spirit” here does not refer particularly to the Holy Spirit, but to God “as” a spirit. “Whither shall I go from the all-pervading Spirit-from God, considered as a spirit?” This is a clear statement that God is a “Spirit” (compare John 4:24); and that, as a spirit, he is Omnipresent.
[Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?] Hebrew, From his face; that is, where he will not be, and will not see me. I cannot find a place-a spot in the universe, where there is not a God, and the same God. Fearful thought to those that hate him-that, much as they may wish or desire it, they can never find a place where there is not a holy God! Comforting to those that love him-that they will never be where they may not find a God-their God; that nowhere, at home or abroad, on land or on the ocean, on earth or above the stars, they will ever reach a world where they will not be in the presence of that God-that gracious Father-who can defend, comfort, guide, and sustain them.
Psalms 139:8
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
[If I ascend up into heaven] The word “heaven” here, in the original is in the plural number - “heavens,” - and includes all that there is above the earth-the highest worlds.
[If I make my bed] Properly, “If I strew or spread my couch.” If I should seek that as the place where to lie down.
[In hell] Hebrew, “Sheol.” See the notes at Isa 14:9, where the word is fully explained. The word here refers to the under-world-the abodes of the dead; and, in the apprehension of the psalmist, corresponds in depth with the word “heaven” in height. The two represent all worlds, above and below; and the idea is, that in neither direction, above or below, could he go where God would not be.
[Thou art there] Or, more emphatically and impressively in the original, “Thou!” That is, the psalmist imagines himself in the highest heaven, or in the deepest abodes of the dead-and lo! God is there also! he has not gone from “him”! he is still in the presence of the same God!
make my bed – Hebrew 3331. yatsa'; to strew as a surface, to spread it out.