Chapter 4: What Does God Want?

God Joined His Human Family | Meditation on a Book | What Does God Want? Series | Jesus Christ | Christianity

Oct 15, 2023

Featured image credit: geralt on Pixabay.com

How could I have imagined that between my posts on Chapters 3 and 4, world events would change so drastically and so tragically. I’ve written a brief note at the bottom of this post to address the recent conflicts.

God Joined His Human Family

The Old Testament (OT) is filled with accounts of God dealing with His rebellious but chosen, covenant people. He chose them but they often strayed and stopped choosing Him. As I continue to read through the OT, some days I want to raise my hands in the air and say: “Enough, already, you stubborn people. Stop, and return to Yahweh, your Creator and your Lord.” I feel Yahweh’s frustration after all of the patience He showed to His people.

What could the Lord God do to gain the free-will love and loyalty of His chosen people?

Join His human family and fix things, repair what was broken, restore us to Him. Chapter 4 discusses this in these three sections:

There’s More to Jesus than the Cross
Fixing More than the Fall
Satan and His Minions: Dumb and Dumber?

There’s More to Jesus than the Cross

Chapters 2 and 3 of the book “What Does God Want?” by Dr. Michael S. Heiser discuss three rebellions against God [ Chapter 2 ] [ Chapter 3 ]. After the three rebellions, God saw that His people needed brand new hearts. He also saw they needed His presence among them to help them consistently believe in Him and be loyal only to Him (and not loyal to other gods). God had to do something radical to save His people from themselves. So, through a promise Yahweh made to Abraham, God the Son joined His human family, and walked among them. His life and death not only canceled out the three rebellions, His life and death and resurrection also fulfilled Father God’s covenants with His human family:

Jesus’ death and resurrection reversed the curse of sin and death that fell upon humanity through the rebellion in the Garden of Eden, re-establishing God’s relationship with His human family (Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 3; Galatians 3:16-18; Gal. 3:26-29; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 2)
God told Abraham that through his descendants all the Earth’s nations would be blessed (Genesis 18; Gen. 22), even the nations that Yahweh assigned to other gods (bene elohim) after their rebellion at Babel. Jesus, the Son of God with us, descended from Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Luke 3:34)
Jesus’ life as the sinless and perfectly loyal incarnate Son of God fulfilled Yahweh’s covenant with King David, keeping His promise that one of David’s descendants would be the true King of Israel. His life also shows us the one perfect imager of God, and He’s taught us—His fellow imagers—how to be God’s disciples on Earth. (Romans 1:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Peter 2:21)

The key take-away in this section is that God had to become a man to reverse the horrible consequences from the three rebellions and also to keep His covenants intact, fulfilled.

Fixing More than the Fall

God joined His human family to provide a way for us to be fully restored to Him, and to send us His Holy Spirit, the third person of the holy Trinity. [ See my series on the Holy Spirit ] When Jesus ascended back into heaven, and took His seat at His Father’s right hand in the heavenly throne room, King Jesus established His reign and His power over everything: the rebellions, the covenants (fulfilled), the nations, sin, death, and over His enemies in the spiritual realm. And, with Him living in us through His Holy Spirit, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 1:3 (NLT)
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

For those who are not-yet believers: God wants you. He wants you back in His family, free from sin and death forever, free from the darkness of the enemy. He wants you to live the life only He can give you, in this world as well as in the next (our true and eternal home). He’s provided the way for us rebellious humans to come back to His family: Jesus Christ. I hope you’ll believe in Him and pledge your loyalty forever to Him. Please do so soon, as the world is growing darker and more evil every day.

Satan and His Minions: Dumb and Dumber?

Satan (our enemy) and his fellow rebellious, disembodied ones have observed humanity ever since God created Adam and Eve. They’ve watched us and they watch us still. These evil ones have also known everything God has done and promised to His human family. Yes, they can read the Bible.

And yet…and yet…they were surprised (and defeated) by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (ESV)
7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

How could they have missed God’s big plan? How could they have killed Jesus, let Him die, so Father God could raise Him from the dead and have victory over sin and death? Did they not understand Jesus’ earthly mission?

God is Almighty God and the evil ones are created beings. They are not omniscient; only Yahweh is. They simply didn’t know how God’s plan would work.

They sure found out on what we call Easter Sunday.

Meditations on Chapter 4

It’s easy for some of us “crusty Christians” to feel too familiar with Jesus’ salvation mission. We hear about it in church every week, and we celebrate His first coming and His resurrection every year. Do we grow complacent? Are we able to share His story, the gospel, with power? Are we all living our lives filled with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms? Are we walking moment-by-moment filled with the Holy Spirit?

This “crusty Christian” is still growing, still learning.

What I enjoyed about this chapter is the emphasis on family, on the Lord God joining His family as a human to bring us back to Him. For God, it’s all about His family, and His restoring our relationship with Him. He is Almighty God, but He’s not some far-off, angry deity who is impersonal, pulling the puppet strings attached to all of humanity. No, He’s a good and loving father, our Abba (daddy), who adores us.

I wonder about those who “deconstruct” their faith, who leave the church, leave Jesus. I’ve listened to a few stories. I hear their reasons for walking away. I often wonder if they truly understood God and His story about His human family, and what He did to get His family back. I find those who do understand say they could never, ever walk away from Jesus. I also know that others who have “deconstructed” did so because they no longer wanted to walk in God’s ways, but wanted to walk in the ways of the world.

My prayer is that we can pray and love them back to God’s family.

Your Turn

What’s your salvation story? Or, to put it another way, what’s your testimony? Can you share it fairly easily with others?

How are you doing with Papa God, your Abba Father? Do you see yourself as a beloved and cherished family member? Has your walk as a Christian grown stale or is it vibrant and you’re continuing to grow closer to Christ?

Those are just some things to ponder. Pray and rest in the Lord. Ask Him to reveal new things to you, how you—as His image bearer—can grow and show the world what it’s like to be in His family.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Conversation & Community

What are your thoughts about this post?

Support My Publication

It’s easy and free:

save my Substack publication’s URL in your browser, or
subscribe for free and receive updates via email or in your Substack app.

Follow me on Twitter (X)

https://twitter.com/NightOwlXian

Pin me on Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/nightowlchristian/night-owl-christian-blog-posts/

A brief note concerning this past week:
My heart is broken. I’m holding everyone up in prayer, in Israel, in Gaza, in the entire Middle East, around the entire world. The spiritual warfare in the unseen realm crushes humanity in terrible ways as the evil and rebellious ones use humans to fight against Yahweh, the God of Israel. We see this warfare throughout the Old Testament. We see it in our world today, in every single country. Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can bring true, everlasting peace to humanity. Pray for revival. Pray for hearts to turn to Him. And, dear readers, expect the enemy and his minions to attack all who commit their believing loyalty only to Jesus.

Armor up, fellow believers. Ephesians 6:10-20.

Linking and Sharing Brief Excerpts: We encourage you to quote briefly from our articles within reason, and to link to our content, with proper credit given to Night Owl Christian and contributors. Please provide a complete link to nightowlchristian.substack.com or directly to the article’s URL.

Reprint Permission: Please contact nightowlchristian@proton.me to request reprint permission. All reprints must include the language “Previously published in Night Owl Christian reprinted with permission” or “Reprinted with permission from Night Owl Christian along with a live link to nightowlchristian.substack.com. Content may not be reproduced, in any form, without permission from Night Owl Christian (Jenise Cook).

Email NOC

James Mangano

"Your Turn," My Turn, Our Turn, Their Turn.

"I also know that others who have "deconstructed" did so because they no longer wanted to walk in God's ways but wanted to walk in the ways of the world." Jenise. . .

Turn: a change of direction to cause to move, affecting a desired result, a push to go forward or backward.

"It's all about the Turn."

Ezekiel 18:23-32 NLT "Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to "TURN" from their wicked ways and live. However, if righteous people "TURN" from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live? No, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.

"Yet you say, 'The Lord isn't doing what's right!' Listen to me, O people of Israel. Am I the one not doing what's right, or is it you? When righteous people "TURN" from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things, they will die for it. Yes, they will die because of their sinful deeds. And if wicked people "TURN" from their wickedness, obey the law, and do what is just and right, they will save their lives. They will live because they thought it over and decided to turn from their sins. Such people will not die. And yet the people of Israel keep saying, 'The Lord isn't doing what's right!' O people of Israel, it is you who are not doing what's right, not I.

"Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign LORD. Repent, and "TURN" from your sins. Don't let them destroy you! Put all your rebellion behind you and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? I don't want you to die, says the Sovereign LORD. "TURN" back and live!"

"Now repent of your sins and "TURN" to God, so that your sins may be wiped away." Acts 3:19 NLT

Let us pray. . . Dear "ABBA" Father in heaven above, we come before You today with hearts of Thanksgiving because we know that You have enabled us to turn from our sins and turn to You.

We pray that those people everywhere who have yet turned to You will hear Your call to turn, enable them to make that turn away from their sins, turning toward You. Fill them with new life. Fill them with Your Spirit and with hope for a sure everlasting future, we pray. We ask You to save their souls from destruction. Let the call go out now, Merciful GOD, to all who have fallen away to return to You. Let Your loving words, "Come back, come back to Me, Your GOD," fill their ears and hearts we pray.

And for us, we ask, use us for Your good purposes. Help us be faithful to Your call to reach out to the lost and the saved. Help us to redeem our time, for we know the days are short, and You are coming soon. In JESUS Name, we pray. Amen

"It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything, he has promised us." 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NLT.

Night Owl Christian