Gud, Bibelen og politiske Justice: Advarsel!

ADVARSEL!

This book may be harmful to your current peace of mind. Read at your own risk.

Les dette først!

Dette er en utrolig smertefull bok.

No one should have written it. No one should read it. It should not be necessary. But here it is. God’s heart laid bare for all to critique.

We want justice. We want peace. We want love. We want everything He offers. But do we want Him?

This is the question from the beginning of time. This is the question we were born to answer. Do we want Him?

Dette spørsmålet presser oss i møte med en verden blottet for løsninger; verden roper etter et alternativ til alle sine tidligere overbevisning og tro; en verden knust av været, befolkningen, fattigdom, uro og ødeleggende sykdommer; en verden lengsel å drømme, men med ingen visjon; en verden lengsel å endre, men med ingen alternativer; en verden boblende med potensialet for en stor alder i menneskehetens historie, men uten tromme slå følge.

He is who we are looking for. He is the dream fulfilled, the one who offers us our destiny. But will we allow Him to be Himself? This is an odd question in a generation that is asking that so strongly for themselves. Let us be us! Fair enough, Gud sier. But first you must let Me be Me.

I denne boken ser vi på politisk rettferdighet, ett av ønskene til hvert hjerte, the cry of billions and the demand of many nation’s people. We have only one concern and that is “what does God say?” There is only one book for us to turn to in this study, som er Guds bok. In the Bible God does not say what we want Him to say. He does not tell us how to take power and make our nations good and just. He does not tell us how to legislate sin out of our towns and streets. Han gir oss ikke en strategi.

I stedet, He tells us our story and His purpose. It is an unrelentingly tragic journey through the history of man. We begin with an amazing vision of possibility for God’s human creation. The cosmos is made for our inheritance. We are co-regents with God in dominion. Perfection, regal authority and eternal comradeship with our maker is all ours. It is breathtaking.

Skjebne å Destruction

Fra Genesis kapittel tre men det er en helt annen historie. We are in freefall from sin and beginning with fratricide by chapter six we are all the way to human genocide. What is that all about? Nearly ten generations of human destruction ending in a violent global catastrophic flood. Why even read this stuff. What is the point? Where is God in all of this? Hvorfor ikke bare hoppe over dette og få til rettferdighet i Det nye testamente. Fordi dette er Guds utvalgte historie og han ønsker at vi skal forstå det. Hvis vi ønsker Hans velsignelse vi er nødt til å forstå hans tenkning. Vil du ham eller din ide om Ham? You have to make a choice

Endelig er det noen lettelse som Gud kaller en mann å bli far en stamme, en ny nasjon å åpenbare seg. But from the first generation of Abraham there is lying and cheating and difficult alternative families. Within four generations we are back to near fratricide of Joseph and genocide of the Shecemites. This is followed by more than 400 years of slavery as God deals with Abraham’s legacy. Where is the joy here?

The Law

Reprieve comes again in the form of the Law given to Moses to disciple the nearly free nation of Israel. God begins to speak for Himself and gives clear, concise and very specific instruction for how to achieve justice in a community. Five books, 10 commandments and one small nation should be doable. God is with them. They make a covenant with Him. Finally we are moving forward.

We have some good years and some bad years but it all hits the fan again. 2000 years from Joshua to the last Kings of Israel and total destruction of the promised nation. Sure there are highs and lows. Much of what God wanted is achieved even a certain amount of political justice but then it deteriorates into bloody chaos again.

But then there is David. Ja, vårt beste for politisk leder, only a murderer and an adulterer. But he had a heart for God? Ja, han gjorde. But there is Solomon. Ja, the pinnacle of national history. A man of great wisdom from God in governing but so little wisdom at all in his personal life. The King of Israel’s greatest age and the father of the Kings that will in one generation begin to tear it all apart and take the nation to total destruction. Why read this stuff? Why dwell on this for hundreds of pages? And then we have the Prophets and a few hundred more pages of pain? Surely God wants us to put this awful history behind us and get to Jesus, peace and joy. More than a thousand pages of historic torture for what when we now have the good news of the New Testament.

Er det en Point?

Det er Guds punkt! He is telling us who we are, what we were made to be and what we have become. He is telling us what He has had to witness, gråte med, and address in order to bring us back to our destiny. He is telling us the cost, den smertefulle nådeløs lidelsene til Gud og mennesker, av all skapelse på grunn av misbruk av vår menneskelige autoritet, kostnaden av uvitenhet, kostnaden for lostness, the cost of the dream behind giving man authority in the first place. He is telling us everything else has been tried in human history and failed. He is telling us that we want the wrong king, at vi er på jakt etter feil riket, og hver gang han prøver å røre menneskeheten i riktig retning vi nekter ham!

When we reject the Old Testament pain we are rejecting God’s view of humanity and reality. We are saying that we don’t want this God to be God. We don’t want this to be the truth about who we are. We do not what this to be the story. We want Jesus! And Jesus does come.

Vi ønsker Jesus

When Jesus comes his male peer group is slaughtered. When He comes His own people work with a pagan empire to execute Him. He is not the King they want. “But He is resurrected. He ascends!” He does, og Ånden kommer, the power of God in man to carry out his destiny. "Ja, Dette er den ene; this is the King we asked for.” The church explodes and sweeps the known world. “Yup, this is the wave we were waiting for.” But then it begins. Persecution from within, troende ganging opp på troende; and from without political domination and persecution from Empirical governments with different agendas. The church struggles to be His church and we continue to argue about what kind of King He actually is, hele veien gjennom de tre første kapitlene av åpenbaring.

Hvis han ikke har kommet for å gi oss kontroll? If He has not come to give us peace and comfort, Hvis han ikke har kommet for å stoppe synd og vold, så hva er poenget? Why are we still here, på jorden, lidelse?

Det er et veldig viktig spørsmål, og for svaret må du gå gjennom hva Gud har vandret gjennom og se hva han har sett før vil du forstå hva han forstår om rettferdighet, på jorden og i himmelen.

 

 

“Many people have compassion for the lost. I have compassion for God.”

Wynn Fountain

Neste