Devotional Spirituality

We have an amazing God.

Not only does he love us, but he acts out his love through  patience, and treats us as the image bearers we are when he lets us access and influence his decisions. Throughout the Old Test God bluntly states what matters most to him, and what grieves him. In Ezekiel God tells the people he doesn’t want to kill the wicked–rather he wants the wicked to repent. He tells us through his words and his actions. In Jeremiah 9 he says those who know him exercise kindness, justice and righteousness. In Jeremiah 22, rebuking the son of Josiah, Jehoiakim, God rails against Jehoiakim’s injustice, and greed.

God also reveals who he is and what he values with Abraham, when he comes and visits Abraham, then decides to discuss with Abraham his plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And, God seeks Abraham’s counsel, allowing Abraham to persuade him to NOT destroy Sodom and Gomorrah–and leave everyone alive–if there are 10 righteous people living there. God values Abraham and gives him the power to redirect God’s plan. Though what the Sodom and Gomorrah people were doing was abhorrent to him, he was willing to suffer their godless activity because of the pleading of Abraham–if there had been 10 righteous people living there.

All these emphasize the depth of what it means to say God is love, and that His love–and our love is exemplified in the death and resurrection of his son, and the fruit of His Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control).

1.     Genesis 18 Abraham Pleads for Sodom 16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.] 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

2.     22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[d] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[e] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

3.      27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” 29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

4.     30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” 31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” 33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

5.      Deuteronomy 10 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

6.     Exodus 34  Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

7.     Ezekiel 18 21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. 22 None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

8.     Ezekiel 33 11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’

9.     Jeremiah 9 23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom  or the strong boast of their strength  or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:  that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,  justice and righteousness on earth,  for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

10.   Jeremiah 22 13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,  his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing,  not paying them for their labor. 14 He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace  with spacious upper rooms.’
So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. 15 “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just,  so all went well with him. 16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. 17 “But your eyes and your heart  are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.”