For Us God is NOT Normal

We continue learning of the God of our faith, from the old testament. Lots of fighting for you who like fighting. Killing and conquering. Kind kings, wicked kings, usurpers revolting. What more could we Amercian action junkies ask for? I suppose I could ask for a clearer understanding of God myself. I (probably like you) struggle to understand the differences between how God dealt with men in the old testament and now in the new covenant/testament. So far, the best understanding of it is most concisely put in the words of Mr. Spurgeon "Jesus ushered in the dispensation of nearness." I agree with this take on this old testament. God is removed from these men in a way that, through the blood of Jesus, we do not have to live with. God in His kindness is near to us. We must learn that this is NOT normal. Nor was it easy.

The normal way for God to act is how He dealt with Gehazi in II Kings 5. Gehazi was greedy and he took silver and clothes from a man of Syria, despite the fact that the prophet Elisha refused to (Gehazi was his servant-thus should obey and follow his master). And he lied to Elisha. In return for this sin, Gehazi was given Naaman's leprosy. One sin of greed leads to a lifetime of sickness. One sin. Suppose that was how God acted today. I'll just be straight up; I'd be dead! No jokes. And honestly in Gehazi's case, as in all of ours, God is being merciful by not sending him to hell for his sin. God must punish sin.

I was at a conference this week where a pastor named Ligon Duncan recounted going through this story with his six year old son. His son said to him, "Dad, Gehazi sinned and God judged him." "That's right son." "Dad, I want to do what is right but sometimes I don't; I don't want God to judge me." Mr. Duncan, not being an old Israelite, has the distinct privilege of telling his son that God does not have to judge me for their sin because Jesus took our leprosy (his privilege is knowing His name and seeing clearly the Substitution of God, which an Israelite would only have known vaguely). Jesus became the Leper so we who are sinners could be made clean. It is as the psalmist says, "[He] forgives all your iniquity, [He] heals all your diseases" (Ps. 103). Let us take the rest of the psalmists urging when his says in the previous verse, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not any of His benefits."