God's Government Part 3: God's Kingship

God’s Kingship

Random Bible Chapter for the Day – courtesy of http://handykarl.com/randombible/index.html

Isaiah 33

This is the third part of a series I started in June, and honestly the executive side of God’s government, i.e. God as king, is so pronounced in scriptures that it was difficult to boil it all down as to why God’s kingship brings salvation. In the overwhelming amount of information, I sort of gave up. However, I’m going to try finishing what I started with this post despite not getting close to covering everything.

The executive branch of any government has basically two functions, it is charged with defending the nation and enforcing the laws.

The scriptures are literally full of God bringing salvation through the defense of His people:

Psalm 91:9-10

If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the Lord, who is my refuge--

then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Defense seems like an easy answer when it comes to the executive branch of God’s government, and we all like that part, but how does salvation come from the enforcement of His laws?

God’s enforcement of His laws comes in two forms, blessings and cursings. Deuteronomy 28 lays out all the blessings and cursings of obeying and disobeying God’s law. The blessings are all the wonderful things we’d hope to get from God all the time, and they embody the very definition of salvation that I think we would all give. However, the curses which are the exact opposite of the blessings are also meant to be a means to salvation.

Deuteronomy 30:1-3 says,

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.

Revelations 3:19 says,

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

So even the when God enforces His law, He is using the blessings or the cursings as a means to bring salvation to His people.

As I alluded to before this study on God’s government is a huge one, and I’m just barely scratching at the surface of it, but it has been a lot of fun to study, and I hope that you continue looking into for yourself.

Gravity

It's been a long time since God has spoken to me in my dreams, but last night, I had a dream in which I saw many of the action movies I have watched replayed in high speed: Rambo, James Bond, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Jason Stratham, Jet Li, etc. flipping, fighting, shooting.

And God said, "Why do they call these sinful men heroes?"

"I don't know, why?"

And rather than answer my question, He said the most profound statement I've ever heard, well at least since the last time He spoke to me. It's still rattling in my brain with all its implications. He said, "Your sin is like gravity; it keeps you tied to the Earth."

I woke pondering repentantly. Sin is like gravity. It makes you fall. It keep you tied to Earthly things rather than eternal things. The only way to overcome gravity is with a force external to ourselves. It's impossible for us to do it on our own. And Jesus who never sinned ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives--just up and floated away.

My explanations do little to bring justice to the profundity of the statement, so I'll just leave it as He said it:

Your sin is like gravity; it keeps you tied to the Earth.