The Delight of the Father

"God will always choose a man He can save over a devil He will not."

THE FATHER will defend His children from darkness even when they are wrong. They belong to Him, and He adores them. That IS the reason Jesus came and did such a humble act of obedience. Sin had been stealing their lives for generations.

We see the Levitical sacrifices which atoned for sin, but we forget the thousands of men and women of Gentile, uncovenanted people outside of Abraham’s descendants which had no promises. Didn’t the Father care for these? The Old Covenant includes commandments for those not born a Jew, who chose to worship as they did. We see this in the book of Ruth. She was from Moab, a group of descendants from one of the daughters of Lot. Moabites were enemies and troublemakers of Israel for many generations, yet she is specifically addressed.

Interestingly enough, and a bit of a rabbit trail here, but the book of Ruth paints a prophetic picture of Israel, seen as Naomi, and Jesus our Redeemer, seen as Boaz, with Ruth as the New Covenant church. Here is a widow from a Gentile culture who is embraced by Israel and blessed with a son.

But circling back around to the top, we don’t have to qualify, we don’t have to be good enough, we aren’t required to have an amazing height of faith to be saved from the work of the thief. We can rely on the Father’s tender heart for His children, including those He desires still to adopt (Romans 8:15-16;Ephesians 1:5). He gave of His deepest self for our rescue and de-feeted Satan, the accuser, for good.

Why would anyone take God’s merciful goodness to us and lower Him to the level of the devil, a fallen thief? Because that’s what any talk of God “using” the devil to teach people does. Satan was one of the angelic hosts, anointed by God to minister to the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14), when he sinned and was cast down to the ground without any of God left in him (Luke 10:18). Yet men think God honors him with any attention now that Jesus destroyed all the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The devil tried to trick Jesus into sinning when he spoke to Him in the wilderness. Every word he said was an L-I-E, especially that he had any dominion or glories of the world to offer. He didn’t, and afterward, we’re told he left Jesus “for a season (Luke 4:13).” That piece of garbage sought another opportunity to destroy what he didn’t understand and found it in Peter’s plea of ignorance.

“And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” (Mark 8:31-33)

Don’t pick on Peter. He loved Jesus more than words and in his simple view, couldn’t see what was happening. Jesus didn’t reprimand Peter but Satan. We read Jesus’ tender heart for Peter in John 21, where He asked Peter three times, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” Then He gives him a co-mission: “Feed my lambs,” and “Feed my sheep.” Jesus saw the future of Peter from the moment He called him to learn from Him.

See also Jesus calling out to Paul, then Saul, on the road to Damascus. Paul was a despicable man, filled with violence, and using the Old Covenant Law to justify it. Yet, the Father rescued him from what sin and death had planted in his heart. God will always choose a man He can save over a devil He will not.

“God our Father sends his goodwill and peace to you, as does the Lord Jesus Christ who voluntarily sacrificed himself to restore trust and heal us from the infection of fear and selfishness and thus deliver us out of this present self-indulgent, self-destructive evil age, according to the eternal purpose of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:3-4, Remedy)

We should have this planted deep in our heart. In a parable, Jesus described the Father’s joy at seeing His lost son. But don’t miss this: The feast He had prepared for his return is another of the sacrifices of Leviticus. It pictures Jesus as celebration for the son who is recovered, forgiven, and restored. Leviticus really is a wonderful book to study and allow the Spirit to speak to you. There, sacrifices for sin are described but also for thankfulness and worship. Jesus is pictured in all things presented there. As well as the beauty of the Holy Spirit who consumes the sacrifice, and the fragrance of our worship in the incense burned. There is the oil of God’s Presence and the delight of the Father to have men’s hearts held out to Him.

In contrast, in Isaiah and in Malachi, Jehovah speaks of sacrifices given from unchanged hearts. He didn’t want a multitude of sacrifices made in sin. Now, applying this to the Nee Covenant, the Father will defend us from darkness because of the blood of Jesus, but it is SO THAT we will desire forgiveness and walk clean of sin, in the sacredness of Him. Then being forgiven, we can live in His goodness with all of our needs supplied for the rest of our days on this earth and on into an infinite eternity.

See His size, His expansiveness, in His character and His nature and how truly fleeting these present troubles are to us (Romans 8:18). See how confident we should be that God so great, so high, so tender and gentle to fashion us from dust, would then live among us as one of us, so that we would receive all His glorious benefits.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:” (Psalm 103:2)

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)

Image by Nigel Wood from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com