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“Children that will not lie” – Isaiah 63:8 |
God speaks of His people that they are “children that will not lie: SO He was their Savior” (Isa. 63:8), but He was not always their Savior…as the latter half of the text in Isaiah 63 describes, before long, God turned to be their “enemy” (Isa. 63:10) - and for what? This was “The Righteous Judgment of God.” If God’s people turn against Him, He will turn against them. If they become His enemy, then He will become their enemy. “The LORD is with you, WHILE ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you” (2 Chron. 15:2). What is the righteousness of this judgment? Let Paul declare it to us:
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“Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.” (Rom 2:4-11)
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The righteous judgment of God is that He will “render to every man according to his deeds,” without respecting a man’s person and race. Compare “The Righteous Judgment of God” with what was said concerning eternal, elective mercies, which is, “Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy”: It is written, “Ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for My Name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings” (Ezek. 20:44). In the one place (Rom. 2:4-11), God is magnifying the comprehensible righteousness and justice of His judgment in the salvation (Rom. 2:7 & 10) and condemnation (Rom. 2:8-9) of individuals, which He declares to be a judgment according to a man’s deeds, but the other place (Ezek. 20:44) is magnifying elective mercy, the choice of God for salvation in an incomprehensible way which shatters our comprehension of justice in salvation and condemnation – a judgment which is, God says, “not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings” (Ezek. 20:44). “The Righteous Judgment of God” in the scriptures refers to the humanly comprehensible form of God’s judgments for salvation & condemnation, and because it is comprehensible, it is therefore God in the ways of man. See the table below so as to refresh your mind of the consistent deeds wrought by God from two separate and contradicting ways.
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God in the Ways of God
Irresistible will, word, and counsel.
Incomprehensible justice of condemnation. Incomprehensible justice of salvation Changeless and eternal counsel, will, mind, emotion, and word. |
God in the Ways of Man
Resistible will, word, and counsel.
Comprehensible justice of condemnation. Comprehensible justice of salvation Changing and temporary counsel, will, mind, emotion, and word. |
Do you remember the different aspects of God portrayed in the separate portions of scripture, each one devoted to a different snapshot of the work of God in different ways? For example, Exodus 1:7-10 appears to be the full and complete account of when and how the Israelites came to be enslaved by the Egyptians; however, Psalm 105:23-25 shows the sovereign hand of God working behind the scenes in the events chronicled in Exodus 1:7-10, thus revealing that God was working in a secret and incomprehensible way to establish His counsel by influencing the hearts of men, which is, the influence of interior capacities within man to save or condemn. On the one hand, in Exodus 1:7-10, we can see the guilt and righteous condemnation of the Egyptians in that they hated and enslaved Israel, thus we would understand why God would condemn them in “The Righteous Judgment of God.” However, in Psalm 105:23-25 we can see the sovereignty of God over their heart, will, and deeds, and that God’s irresistible will and counsel controlled the will and counsel of men, but of course, when we see that none can nor did resist God’s sovereign will, then it seems that the righteousness in justice was disannulled. Therefore men are compelled to ask, “Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will” (Rom. 9:19)?
This instance with the Exodus generation is doubly emphasized from two dimensions, but so are most weighty matters of significance, matters like those dealing with the condemnation and salvation of generations and dispensations. As Exodus 1:7-10 is an expression of the works of men in the ways of men without the secret of God’s higher ways chronicled beside it, so it is in Isaiah 63:7-19. Likewise, Psalm 105:23-25 is an expression of the work of God (God in the ways of God) determining the works of the men that were chronicled in Exodus 1:7-10; in similar ways, so it is with Deuteronomy 32 in comparison to Isaiah 63, but Deuteronomy 32 highlights some other aspects of sovereignty besides determination. Both chapters (Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 63) are addressing the future captivity which will come upon God’s people, but each one presents an entirely different aspect of God’s ways and works in the matter (God in the ways of God & God in the ways of man).
Both chapters reveal the rebellion of Israel as the source of God’s anger and righteous judgment against them (thus both present this aspect of judgment in the ways of man). However, in both of the chapters God said two different things:
This instance with the Exodus generation is doubly emphasized from two dimensions, but so are most weighty matters of significance, matters like those dealing with the condemnation and salvation of generations and dispensations. As Exodus 1:7-10 is an expression of the works of men in the ways of men without the secret of God’s higher ways chronicled beside it, so it is in Isaiah 63:7-19. Likewise, Psalm 105:23-25 is an expression of the work of God (God in the ways of God) determining the works of the men that were chronicled in Exodus 1:7-10; in similar ways, so it is with Deuteronomy 32 in comparison to Isaiah 63, but Deuteronomy 32 highlights some other aspects of sovereignty besides determination. Both chapters (Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 63) are addressing the future captivity which will come upon God’s people, but each one presents an entirely different aspect of God’s ways and works in the matter (God in the ways of God & God in the ways of man).
Both chapters reveal the rebellion of Israel as the source of God’s anger and righteous judgment against them (thus both present this aspect of judgment in the ways of man). However, in both of the chapters God said two different things:
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“I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this” (Deut. 32:26-27).
“For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie: so He was their Savior” (Isaiah 63:8). |
In Isaiah 63:8, God is relating to them in a genuine love and devotion, as if He does not know that they will eventually lie, as if He is limited in His abilities from the foreknowledge and determination of the future – and all of this magnifies the genuineness of God’s desire to save His people, that He, at the first, only desired to save them and never desired to destroy them. God was relating to them as if He did not “know” the “imagination” of their heart, that they were liars, and that they would depart from Him for idolatry and rebellion, but God speaks in Deuteronomy 32 from another glory of consciousness wherein He exercises Himself in omniscience. God, in Deuteronomy 32, declared the end from the beginning, demonstrating His complete foreknowledge of their eventual apostasy, thus He says: “I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware” (Deut. 31:21). In fact, the entire song of Deuteronomy 32 is sung to put the children of Israel in remembrance of how God knew these things beforehand and how He testified to them it would happen, and this makes it all the more appalling that Israel will go on to do the wickedness described in the song. Those who were alive at the time when the song was first sung, and those in generations to come, all are extraordinarily without excuse because of this, and when they commit this eventual rebellion, they will do it by ignoring the witness of this song. Being doubly warned, they are doubly conscious; thus they are doubly condemned. God explicitly told Moses of their eventual treachery, saying:
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“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke Me, and break My covenant. And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware” (Deut. 31:16-21).
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My reader, please carefully note the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, and read it. This approach of God toward the rebellion of Israel contrasts Isaiah 63, each representing contrary perspectives in God’s mind. It magnifies the treachery of God’s people, God’s foreknowledge (God in the ways of God) and holy hatred of their sin which is to come, and then at this time, before the crimes are committed, there is justice alive in God, because He sees and experiences this coming apostasy that is in the future, even now, because God is outside of time. Therefore, before the crimes are committed, God speaks of His desire to fully annihilate them, and the fact that He experiences the future events of apostasy now, even before they actually happen, we can see that the just wrath in God is in magnification. Thus He said: “I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men” (Deut. 32:26). God did “repent Himself for His servants” – but it was for the glory of His own Name – thus the exultant aim of this passage is the sovereign relations of God toward Israel in the light of their rebellion, His foreknowledge and therefore longsuffering of it, and how it required the justice of total annihilation. That is why He “said” what He “said”! Like as the “I said” of Deuteronomy 32, so also in Isaiah 48 God reaffirms His approach to Israel’s eventual apostasy with the same high powers of foreknowledge in use, thus making plain His ever-present desire to totally destroy them, which in turn magnifies the remaining reason why He would even save them in the beginning and also thereafter their apostasy. Read the three verses in Deuteronomy, 31:21 & 32:26-27 and compare them with Isaiah 48:4, 8, & 9-11, and then read the entire passage of Isaiah 48:3-12 as a whole, and you will see the purpose of the song of Moses enlarged before you.
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“I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware” (Deut. 31:21).
“I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this” (Deut. 32:26-27). |
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“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them… for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. For my name's sake will I defer Mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it: for how should My Name be polluted? And I will not give my glory unto another. Hearken unto Me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am He; I am the first, I also am the last” (Isaiah 48:3-12).
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God speaks of telling them this foreknowledge-empowered prophecy for the express purpose that they would give Him the glory for keeping them alive, being enabled to recognize that these things are of Him because they were exactly declared from the beginning by Him, before it all came to pass. When mercy is sinking down into the mouth of justice and hell, nearly swallowed and gone, there is only one foundation Rock which is able to keep a remnant above ground! God lifts up the banner, the crux of the matter, the hallowed title which is continually raised up through the centuries – HIS NAME – and it is the only reason God’s people were not fully annihilated. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. To this let all men give thanks. God saved and saves because God was jealous for the reputation of His own Name amongst the heathen, who, God says, would surely glory over God if He used their instrumentality to fully destroy all of His people. God declares He will prevent this, and not only this, but He will heroically end man’s earthly history, He declares, by drawing His sword of wrath to fully annihilate the heathen, and so, snuffing out their glory over God when He, by them, did almost entirely annihilate His people. What He would not do to His people, He will do to them.
The “I said” of Deuteronomy 32:26 speaks of the desire in God to fully annihilate His people, but the “He said” in Isaiah 63:8 reveals how God did not want to destroy them at all, and on the contrary, He tenderly, fervently, and in trustful hope desired to save them – being fully minded and devoted to this cause without any guile that the foreknowledge of their eventual treachery would incite in a human being. This is a clash of desires and wills from two separate ways in God, and thus, God did ever desire to fully annihilate them because of the foreknowledge of their apostasy, and at the same time He desired to save and never annihilate any of them. Deuteronomy 32:26 speaks of God’s expectation of their rebellion, and therefore, His desire to fully annihilate them, and Isaiah 63:8 speaks of God’s expectation that they will not rebel, His desire to fully save them and never annihilate them, and thus the crime of their rebellion against God is magnified, vilified all the more, for it grossly crosses God’s good covenant and faithful love. God said that they “will not lie”, and He meant it, was intent upon it in sincerity and truth, and this is a coexisting will simultaneously at work within God, even though it is in contradiction with the other will in God. Though this is impossible within man, it is not impossible within God, and shame on us if we simplify the Godhead to be limited to a man’s capacities of willing, and thus, we would say that both of these wills are not genuine because it does not make sense to us, because it is not capable in us, because it is impossible for us to have contradicting, genuine wills, even if we were humanly enabled to exercise foreknowledge and sovereign determination. We would do well to avoid the woeful indictment, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Ps. 50).
Though different aspects of the Lord’s will are magnified in each passage, the account traces the same event of the eventual apostasy unto the captivities. Deuteronomy 32:5 speaks of the dispossessing of His children like as Isaiah 63 gives the account of His disowning of them. “Is He not thy Father that bought thee,” Deut. 32:6 declares, but He dispossesses them. Like as this, in the account of Isaiah 63, the people cry to God with the same paternal acknowledgment and appeal - “Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory: where is Thy zeal and Thy strength, the sounding of Thy bowels and of Thy tender mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting. O LORD, why hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways and hardened our heart from Thy fear? Return for Thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance” (Isaiah 63:15-17). This is a frightening experience of reprobation.
Seeing that sovereign mercy (God in the ways of God) soars above the realm of man’s comprehensible justice (that God does not save according to man’s deeds), therefore God’s contradicting and simultaneous will/work (God in the ways of man) would make clear the deeds of God toward men in the realm of comprehensible justice (which is a justice according to man’s deeds), and when God relates to men in this realm, it is to teach and magnify this aspect of God – the understandable “Righteous Judgment of God.” Therefore in Isaiah 63, since it is in the realm of God’s will, counsel, and word, in the ways of man, which is limited from omniscience (at work through foreknowledge) and omnipotence (at work through determination to bring His saying to pass so as to make Israel faithful), God is seeking that men would understand exactly which sins would demand reprobation – which must be exceedingly sinful sins – but what is more exceedingly sinful than a child transgressing and defying the Paternal love of God to His children? The righteousness and justice of God to cast away His own children, which is a disowning of them, is a breach of the affections He formerly had in the Paternity of His Fatherhood (Isa. 63:15-16), because they breached their childlike trust, which is love toward God, and now, God turns upon them as His “enemy” (Isa. 63:10) and ignores their cries (Isa. 63:15) as He hides His face (Deut. 32:20) and hardens their hearts (Isa. 63:17). Can you see what deeds of Israel requited this response of God back to them? I hinted at it at the beginning:
The “I said” of Deuteronomy 32:26 speaks of the desire in God to fully annihilate His people, but the “He said” in Isaiah 63:8 reveals how God did not want to destroy them at all, and on the contrary, He tenderly, fervently, and in trustful hope desired to save them – being fully minded and devoted to this cause without any guile that the foreknowledge of their eventual treachery would incite in a human being. This is a clash of desires and wills from two separate ways in God, and thus, God did ever desire to fully annihilate them because of the foreknowledge of their apostasy, and at the same time He desired to save and never annihilate any of them. Deuteronomy 32:26 speaks of God’s expectation of their rebellion, and therefore, His desire to fully annihilate them, and Isaiah 63:8 speaks of God’s expectation that they will not rebel, His desire to fully save them and never annihilate them, and thus the crime of their rebellion against God is magnified, vilified all the more, for it grossly crosses God’s good covenant and faithful love. God said that they “will not lie”, and He meant it, was intent upon it in sincerity and truth, and this is a coexisting will simultaneously at work within God, even though it is in contradiction with the other will in God. Though this is impossible within man, it is not impossible within God, and shame on us if we simplify the Godhead to be limited to a man’s capacities of willing, and thus, we would say that both of these wills are not genuine because it does not make sense to us, because it is not capable in us, because it is impossible for us to have contradicting, genuine wills, even if we were humanly enabled to exercise foreknowledge and sovereign determination. We would do well to avoid the woeful indictment, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Ps. 50).
Though different aspects of the Lord’s will are magnified in each passage, the account traces the same event of the eventual apostasy unto the captivities. Deuteronomy 32:5 speaks of the dispossessing of His children like as Isaiah 63 gives the account of His disowning of them. “Is He not thy Father that bought thee,” Deut. 32:6 declares, but He dispossesses them. Like as this, in the account of Isaiah 63, the people cry to God with the same paternal acknowledgment and appeal - “Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory: where is Thy zeal and Thy strength, the sounding of Thy bowels and of Thy tender mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting. O LORD, why hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways and hardened our heart from Thy fear? Return for Thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance” (Isaiah 63:15-17). This is a frightening experience of reprobation.
Seeing that sovereign mercy (God in the ways of God) soars above the realm of man’s comprehensible justice (that God does not save according to man’s deeds), therefore God’s contradicting and simultaneous will/work (God in the ways of man) would make clear the deeds of God toward men in the realm of comprehensible justice (which is a justice according to man’s deeds), and when God relates to men in this realm, it is to teach and magnify this aspect of God – the understandable “Righteous Judgment of God.” Therefore in Isaiah 63, since it is in the realm of God’s will, counsel, and word, in the ways of man, which is limited from omniscience (at work through foreknowledge) and omnipotence (at work through determination to bring His saying to pass so as to make Israel faithful), God is seeking that men would understand exactly which sins would demand reprobation – which must be exceedingly sinful sins – but what is more exceedingly sinful than a child transgressing and defying the Paternal love of God to His children? The righteousness and justice of God to cast away His own children, which is a disowning of them, is a breach of the affections He formerly had in the Paternity of His Fatherhood (Isa. 63:15-16), because they breached their childlike trust, which is love toward God, and now, God turns upon them as His “enemy” (Isa. 63:10) and ignores their cries (Isa. 63:15) as He hides His face (Deut. 32:20) and hardens their hearts (Isa. 63:17). Can you see what deeds of Israel requited this response of God back to them? I hinted at it at the beginning:
“Children that will not lie” – Isaiah 63:8
According to the counsel of God in the ways of man, God covenanted with Israel with the conditional boundaries that they would be saved as long as they remained faithful to Him, and as much as they did not forsake Him, He would not forsake them. His Paternal love and familial security would remain as much as their childlike love, trust, and devotion remained. God covenanted with them on the basis that they would not lie to Him – but they DID. What would God require as justice for His child who, in this way, has become a liar? How exactly would it be phrased? First, let’s trace the logic of the righteousness in God’s justice from its scriptural beginning, and then we will be prepared to understand the edicts of retribution for backsliding and lying Christians.
The Righteous Judgment of God – By Principle: Horizontally & Vertically
The Righteous Judgment of God – By Principle: Horizontally & Vertically
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Breach for Breach
“And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again” (Lev. 24:19-20). |
The righteous judgment of God in principle is, as formerly stated, “as he hath done, so shall it be done to him,” which is, whatsoever he did, to the degree he did it, let it be returned upon him. By principle, this was put in practice all across the scriptures and into the New Testament (Ex. 21:23-25, Deut. 19:21). This is the biblical presentation of “the righteous judgment of God”. The scripture cited above, and the others mentioned in the parentheses, refer to the recompense of the law for a situation of two men, as a man “hath done” to another man, and likewise, other horizontal circumstances and crimes “man to man”, but what is the principle of justice when a man sins against God vertically? By vertically I mean, “man to God”? What is the righteousness of justice from “man to God”?
It is said of God, “Surely He scorneth the scorners: but He giveth grace unto the lowly” (Prov. 3:34). “He,” meaning God, scorns those that scorn Him, but in what way? Some of you may be hearing Elijah’s mocking voice ringing in your memory when He mocked the prophets of Baal at their momentous face-off against each other before all the eyes of Israel, who all watched on under the grip of anticipation. This principle, written in Proverbs 3:34, is not horizontal but vertical, meaning not “man to man” justice but “God to man” justice. It is how God responds to the deeds of men when they are sinful towards Him. As righteous justice was horizontally, “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Lev. 24:19-20), so it is vertically; thus if a man scorns God, then God scorns him – scorn for scorn! Paralleling the context of Proverbs 3:34, Proverbs 1:20-33 is a real and lively example wherein God scorns the scorners, and He does it in the very words of inspired scripture. With strong and yet lamentable pleading, God calls out to scorners, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge” (Prov. 1:22) – but they refused and rejected His call, and so, they rejected repentance and salvation. Therefore they are scorners, thus God, according to justice, declares their woeful recompense for their behavior towards Him, and says:
It is said of God, “Surely He scorneth the scorners: but He giveth grace unto the lowly” (Prov. 3:34). “He,” meaning God, scorns those that scorn Him, but in what way? Some of you may be hearing Elijah’s mocking voice ringing in your memory when He mocked the prophets of Baal at their momentous face-off against each other before all the eyes of Israel, who all watched on under the grip of anticipation. This principle, written in Proverbs 3:34, is not horizontal but vertical, meaning not “man to man” justice but “God to man” justice. It is how God responds to the deeds of men when they are sinful towards Him. As righteous justice was horizontally, “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Lev. 24:19-20), so it is vertically; thus if a man scorns God, then God scorns him – scorn for scorn! Paralleling the context of Proverbs 3:34, Proverbs 1:20-33 is a real and lively example wherein God scorns the scorners, and He does it in the very words of inspired scripture. With strong and yet lamentable pleading, God calls out to scorners, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge” (Prov. 1:22) – but they refused and rejected His call, and so, they rejected repentance and salvation. Therefore they are scorners, thus God, according to justice, declares their woeful recompense for their behavior towards Him, and says:
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“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I ALSO will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD” (Prov. 1:24-29).
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These persons are scorners who delight in scorning (Prov. 1:22), and what does scorning look like exactly? They are laughing and mocking even though God is calling out for them. God’s vertical recompense to them is a reflection of what they did to Him. He says, “I ALSO will laugh… I will mock,” which is to say, He also will scorn like as they scorned. In this passage we can see that vertical justice is – scorn for scorn, laugh for laugh, mock for mock, and refusal of call for refusal of call. God called to them and they refused His call, as it was said, “Because I have called, and ye refused,” thus God did to them just “as [they] hath done” - “Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer” (Prov. 1:28). This saying, refusal of call for refusal of call, could be rephrased to, silence for silence, rejection for rejection, and forsaking for forsaking. Thus it is written, “The LORD is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you” (2 Ch. 15:2). It is a fearful thing for the Lord to laugh and scorn! It is nearly inconceivable to the human mind that God would execute the justice of destruction upon sinners with the face of holy laughter, mockery, and scorning, even while they whimper for mercy and plead for pity. This expression of God is a high secret in God’s awful justice against sin! Until sinners everlastingly cry in teeth-gnashing agony so as to never die, God will not be satisfied! While sinners have rest, God is in unrest; therefore the fires of that eternal Lake shall never diminish. Do you understand why? God is, “Holy, Holy, Holy, [and He is the] Lord God Almighty” (Rev. 4:8)! He will be happy, and heaven will shout Hallelujah when the Lake of Fire is finally filled with those predestinated souls of unrepentant sinners. “The Lord shall laugh at him [the sinner]: for He seeth that his day is coming” (Ps. 37:13).
This vertical justice of God fuels a responding and repaying of sin upon men for how they paid Him. This was a feared and well-known expectation in biblical saints, observable throughout the centuries of biblical history. David declared of the Lord:
This vertical justice of God fuels a responding and repaying of sin upon men for how they paid Him. This was a feared and well-known expectation in biblical saints, observable throughout the centuries of biblical history. David declared of the Lord:
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“With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself upright; With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward” (Ps. 18:25-26).
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This is to say, furthermore, mercy for mercy, uprightness for uprightness, pureness for pureness, and frowardness for frowardness – in its vertical context of man to God, and mirrored back by God – God to man. God returns and visits those things, which are done to Him, back to man. Mercy, uprightness, and pureness are all vertical responses of God to men: men who live mercifully, upright, and pure toward God and man. Are you seeing the principle? God reflects the same character and deeds which man is doing toward Him (“as he hath done, so shall it be done to him”, Lev. 24:19-20). We looked at how God would scorn a man, but are there any other ways in which we could examine how God would be froward to a froward man, as is said in Psalm 18:26? God scorning a man is breathtaking to imagine, but what about God being froward to a man? To be froward is to be: “perverse, ungovernable, and not willing to yield or comply with what is required” (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary). The deeds of God’s frowardness I intend to exhaustively address, but the verse below shows for a good introduction:
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“Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel” (Psalm 125:4-5).
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God is good for good, and for the wicked, “the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity,” but who are these wicked men? They are such men that do “turn aside” – a turning which is a turn from uprightness, purity, mercy, and goodness; thus it is a turn from God, and therefore God turns from them, turn for turn, and leaves them to the deception of their sins, which is to say, “the LORD shall lead them forth with workers of iniquity.” Did you know that God can lead people in the deception of their own sins? DECEPTION, and unrecoverable demise therein! Notice: This is a turn for turn in God’s righteous justice toward them who turned from uprightness, namely, the regenerate turned back.
According to the glory of God’s higher ways, a man cannot continue to be deceived by the sin-soaked counsel from his own heart, unless God first “gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust” (Psa. 81:12). God can enjoin men to deception and sin, and then, “let [them] alone” to stay in their sins (Hos. 4:17), even though before they were rejected they were savingly with God (1 Sam. 16:1). If a man is led into deception, he is led, as it were, into a barren wilderness without one tree of saving wisdom, knowledge, and understanding – and so he is left there to die. Wisdom is not found by the will of man, but as a gift from God (James 1), and “a scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth” (Prov. 14:6). God is the governor of every pilgrim’s progress. Pilgrims digress, and their steps take hold on hell, because of God’s responsive reactions to evil, and “evil men understand not judgment” (Prov. 28:5).
When a Christian does not deal rightly with God, God will not deal rightly with him – right for right and wrong for wrong. A Christian, bound by the promises of God, attained his favorable estate in Christ when he did heartily promise/commit himself to God as a sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2, Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:1-3). If haply this Christian does not keep this oath and promise to God “unto the end”, he has broken the Covenant of God made up of promises and oaths – man to God and God to man. God will justly respond, break for break, “for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Heb. 3:14). Break of promise and oath for break of promise and oath – do you believe it?
According to the glory of God’s higher ways, a man cannot continue to be deceived by the sin-soaked counsel from his own heart, unless God first “gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust” (Psa. 81:12). God can enjoin men to deception and sin, and then, “let [them] alone” to stay in their sins (Hos. 4:17), even though before they were rejected they were savingly with God (1 Sam. 16:1). If a man is led into deception, he is led, as it were, into a barren wilderness without one tree of saving wisdom, knowledge, and understanding – and so he is left there to die. Wisdom is not found by the will of man, but as a gift from God (James 1), and “a scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth” (Prov. 14:6). God is the governor of every pilgrim’s progress. Pilgrims digress, and their steps take hold on hell, because of God’s responsive reactions to evil, and “evil men understand not judgment” (Prov. 28:5).
When a Christian does not deal rightly with God, God will not deal rightly with him – right for right and wrong for wrong. A Christian, bound by the promises of God, attained his favorable estate in Christ when he did heartily promise/commit himself to God as a sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2, Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:1-3). If haply this Christian does not keep this oath and promise to God “unto the end”, he has broken the Covenant of God made up of promises and oaths – man to God and God to man. God will justly respond, break for break, “for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Heb. 3:14). Break of promise and oath for break of promise and oath – do you believe it?
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“For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the Covenant” (Ezekiel 16:59).
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Therefore God saith again in another place, “Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely Mine oath that he hath despised, and My Covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head” (Ezek. 17:18-19). To be froward is to be “perverse, ungovernable, and not willing to yield or comply with what is required” (Webster’s 1828), and “the way of man is froward and strange” (Prov. 21:8). Therefore in this case, men dealt with God frowardly and strangely by wronging His righteous behavior. They ought to have been pure rather than froward. “As for the pure, his work is right,” and they should have had the blessedness of right for right with God, but now it is wrong for wrong, froward for froward, and strange for strange (Prov. 21:8). Note: God did not break His Covenant so as to “cast them away” in the sense that He would, in casting them away – “destroy them utterly” and entirely (Lev. 26:44), but He will follow through with another sense of “casting away” (Rom. 11:15) which is different from the sense which is entire annihilation (Rom. 11:1-2). He will cast them away (Rom. 11:15) so as to cause their “fall” from salvation (Rom. 11:11-12), His own sovereign hand darkening their eyes of understanding into “blindness” (Rom. 11:7) and giving them a “spirit of slumber” (Rom. 11:8), so it is written: “eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear” (Rom. 11:8). They provoked Him to jealousy (Deut. 32:16), therefore God shall deal with them likewise, and He shall provoke them to jealousy by choosing the Gentiles for salvation instead of them (Deut. 32:21) – jealousy for jealousy! This is the woeful happening prophetically foretold in ancient days: “And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them, because of the provoking of His sons, and of His daughters. And He said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith” (Deut. 32:19-20).
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Breaking the Covenant "And I took My staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break My covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD" (Zechariah 11:10-11). (See Zech. 11:7-14 & Matt. 26:15) |
They wronged His righteous faithfulness which was toward them, as is represented in Isaiah 63:8, and God did plead with them according to their wrong that they did toward His righteous goodness, saying – “I said, I will never break My Covenant with you” (Judges 2:1) – and this promise of God they despised by disobeying His commanding voice (Judges 2:2). On this the promises hinged and God dealt with them – break for break – thus He said: “Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you” (Judges 2:3). Hovering high above and transcending over the events of time as they unfolded through history, there is an unbreakable eternality in God’s promise, though throughout time there were so many who perished in the justice of break for break. This is the mystery of damnation which God executed upon His backsliding children through the centuries. It was not that men understood it entirely so as to understand all the ways it was entirely just, but rather, they were bewildered and confounded about it. Thus they were led to pray to God – “Thou hast made void the Covenant of Thy servant” (Ps. 89:39). Their complaint was that it was VOID. They knew the promise and oath of God: “My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David” (Ps. 89:34-35). God’s justice was termed break for break in Ezekiel 16 & 17, as formerly addressed, thus in Psalm 89, the bewildered prophet feels as though God is being froward and deceptive. The prophet feels as though he is beholding a froward face upon God, and in the stead of all the Israelites the prophet cries: “How long, LORD? Wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever? Shall Thy wrath burn like fire?...Lord, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth” (Ps. 89:46, 49)? This prophet feels lied to even when God said, “I will not lie unto David” (Ps. 89:35).
Jeremiah knew the feeling of shame and adverse darkness under the shadow of the froward face of God. He cried, “O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed” (Jer. 20:7). And again, “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail” (Jer. 15:18) – and Jeremiah knew that God had said of Himself that He would not -“suffer My faithfulness to fail” (Ps. 89:33). These cries of Jeremiah were all in the dilemma in which his personal, prophetic covenant that he had with God (Jeremiah 1) was breached, thus deception did mark some of his experiences throughout his personal ministry with God (Jer. 15 & 20), the details of which I will write later. Jeremiah was the intercessor for the generation of the captivities who also, like unto Jeremiah’s personal experience, underwent the woeful darkness of the froward face of God when He turned their light into darkness, but unlike Jeremiah’s quick restoration back into the favor of his convent with God, this generation was never able to recover themselves. For them, just retributions of deception fell upon them alway. My reader, let these words of inspired scripture cry aloud in your conscience as if you were beholding Jeremiah himself: gasping, confounded, and crying loud and long – AHHHH! “Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! Surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul” (Jer. 4:10). The form of this deception is break for break, thus Jeremiah cries on behalf of the generation: “Do not abhor us, for Thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory: remember, break not Thy Covenant with us” (Jer. 14:21) – but for them there was no hope (exempting a small remnant). Intercession was impossible: “Then the LORD said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth” (Jer. 15:1). Though it is impossible that God would eternally and everlastingly break His Covenant (Jer. 33:20), God is able to reprobate generations and persons from the company of those bound in this saving Covenant, for the glory of His wrath against lying children. To the “children that will not lie” (Isa. 63:8), God will not show Himself as a liar, and so He will save them by the keeping performance of His promises and oaths. It is impossible for God to be evil, impure, and froward; likewise it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:8), but in retributive deceptions, God brings upon men the just penalty of their actions which are done vertically against Him, and thus He can show Himself to be froward to them. By show Himself, I mean that He appears to be this way in the deception of their own mind – froward for froward, impure for impure, break for break, and lie for lie – nevertheless, in God’s higher righteousness it cannot be so. “Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar” (Jer. 15:18), Jeremiah said to God, though he knew that it was written of God that He “will not lie” (Ps. 89:35).
Jeremiah knew the feeling of shame and adverse darkness under the shadow of the froward face of God. He cried, “O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed” (Jer. 20:7). And again, “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail” (Jer. 15:18) – and Jeremiah knew that God had said of Himself that He would not -“suffer My faithfulness to fail” (Ps. 89:33). These cries of Jeremiah were all in the dilemma in which his personal, prophetic covenant that he had with God (Jeremiah 1) was breached, thus deception did mark some of his experiences throughout his personal ministry with God (Jer. 15 & 20), the details of which I will write later. Jeremiah was the intercessor for the generation of the captivities who also, like unto Jeremiah’s personal experience, underwent the woeful darkness of the froward face of God when He turned their light into darkness, but unlike Jeremiah’s quick restoration back into the favor of his convent with God, this generation was never able to recover themselves. For them, just retributions of deception fell upon them alway. My reader, let these words of inspired scripture cry aloud in your conscience as if you were beholding Jeremiah himself: gasping, confounded, and crying loud and long – AHHHH! “Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! Surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul” (Jer. 4:10). The form of this deception is break for break, thus Jeremiah cries on behalf of the generation: “Do not abhor us, for Thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory: remember, break not Thy Covenant with us” (Jer. 14:21) – but for them there was no hope (exempting a small remnant). Intercession was impossible: “Then the LORD said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth” (Jer. 15:1). Though it is impossible that God would eternally and everlastingly break His Covenant (Jer. 33:20), God is able to reprobate generations and persons from the company of those bound in this saving Covenant, for the glory of His wrath against lying children. To the “children that will not lie” (Isa. 63:8), God will not show Himself as a liar, and so He will save them by the keeping performance of His promises and oaths. It is impossible for God to be evil, impure, and froward; likewise it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:8), but in retributive deceptions, God brings upon men the just penalty of their actions which are done vertically against Him, and thus He can show Himself to be froward to them. By show Himself, I mean that He appears to be this way in the deception of their own mind – froward for froward, impure for impure, break for break, and lie for lie – nevertheless, in God’s higher righteousness it cannot be so. “Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar” (Jer. 15:18), Jeremiah said to God, though he knew that it was written of God that He “will not lie” (Ps. 89:35).
“Children that will not lie” – Isaiah 63:8
Children that will not lie believe that God does not lie; therefore they are nourished by persevering graces issuing from the root of God’s promises. All men are liars, save those inhabited by and walking in the Spirit of truth, and as much as men abide in Him, they will keep the Covenant of their first confession firm until the end. They do believe in the faithfulness of God and so, by Him, are made faithful to the end. His faithfulness is the fountain of persevering graces, and those who disbelieve in His faithfulness believe that God is a liar. Therefore those who lie to God believe
God is a liar! They believe that He is unfaithful, evil, and therefore a liar, so they are unfaithful and disobedient to Him. Under God’s retributive powers of justice, God saith, “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because He believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:9-10). As it were, froward for froward and lie for lie. Judgment according to works vindicates the logical justice for God to cast away souls into deception, and in this way, at least, He shows Himself froward, perverse, scornful, and as a liar. According to what they have done, in response to and according to the light that they have had in the good promises of God, God shall do unto them (Num. 14:24).
Many men only meditate on the mercy of God and they spend a lifetime in the noble task of trying to discover the unfathomable riches in grace, but these riches of mercy, as wondrous as they are, are only half of the whole in two outstanding glories in God. One is: “the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy” (Rom. 9:23), and the second, “His wrath, and to make His power known” upon “the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom. 9:22). In other words, God wants men to know the faithfulness of His promises in their immeasurable expanse because of elective mercy, but not this alone – nay – but also its opposing force in God. If elective mercy was North then God would take men South, even to the lowest hell. Nay, God would not have men know His mercy alone, but He would take men to the gaping chasm of hell’s mouth moving to swallow sinners with jaws of plaguing power – in all its gnashing terror and agony. He would have men know God’s holy breach of promises and overruling wrath: “and ye shall know My breach of promise” (Num. 14:34). God says that He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). Men who spend their whole lives feasting on sin will, as it were, spend an eternity wishing they could vomit it out, but they will forever spasm and gag in the relentless sickness of regret and depression as souls locked up under the power of the second death.
What is the justice of God toward the generation where Numbers 14:34 is found, justice which merited the breach of promise? They believed God to be a liar, an unfaithful God, and so they feared He desired to destroy them. This they did say of God, and cried out, “Wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt” (Num. 14:3)? As they believed of God, as if He were a liar, even calling him a liar in accusation when their evil unbelief dictated their complaint, so He showed Himself, as it were, a liar, and reflecting their frowardness, He recompensed their fears upon them. “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me” (Num. 14:28-29). This is “The Righteous Judgment of God.” As they believed of God, or, as they made God out to be, this they did to God: they scorned Him, beat Him, reproached Him, and were froward to Him, and so justice responded to the frowardness of their unbelief by the fulfillment of that wicked belief. Therefore it is said of God to men, He “will bring their fears upon them.” God called Israel to go forth and inherit the Promises of everlasting life, but when He called, they did not answer. Thus God behaved as it is written, “I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer, when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not” (Isa. 66:4). They believed God was evil, as if He were bent to destroy them, as a liar against His promises, laying in wait for their blood, and as an austere man. Thus God says, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee” (Lk. 19:21-22). “The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted” (Prov. 10:24), and again, “the fearful and unbelieving…and all liars, shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar” (1 John 5:9-10), even though it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18) just as it is impossible for God to be froward (which means perverse, evil, and unfaithful), but it is not impossible for God, to the wicked, to show Himself froward and as a liar, and so, the wicked will go to the grave with the bitter murmur, “wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar” (Jer. 15:18)?
This is the righteous judgment of God recompensed to lying children – “children of disobedience” (Eph. 5:6). They trusted in their own hearts, which told them that God is a liar, and thus they trusted in vanity. Wherefore it is written, “Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense” (Job 15:31). They sowed “vain words” (Eph. 5:6) and became “vain” men (James 2:20), thus they reaped vanity when they sought out their own deliverances after rejecting God’s. How they judged God, they were judged, “for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7:2). “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices” (Prov. 1:31). “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).
The prophets under the inspiration of God wrote extensively to reveal this realm of justice surrounding all the events that Israel underwent throughout the centuries. With the aid of metaphors, the prophets made this reality come alive, that by pictures of real events which men could identify with, they would, thereto, be equally gripped. These metaphorical events aided the preaching of spiritual truth, because they depicted the urgency and emotional distress that is parallel to the spiritual situation at hand between them and God, and so the people would understand more clearly what manner of emotional distress they ought to have in heart, if, by faith, they would receive the prophets’ word of warning. Therefore, there are various pictures used to show the urgency at hand when, as it was many times, the protection of the promises were being breached, or were in danger of being breached.
The OT promises of God ensured the corporate (citywide & nationwide) and individual lives of the people to be in health and prosperity, so that when Israel was exalted in these ways, the image of God’s reigning glory would be revealed to the surrounding nations. Israel was the only nation, people, and Kingdom God called His own. Thus, the name of the people became the Name of God, or they became, as it were, a belt around His loins (Jer. 13:1-8). Like a belt bound to the waist of the very Person of God, Israel was bound to the promises of health, life, and prosperity, but it was as long as they did obey, and in the event that a promise was breached because of sin, inciting wrath, then they would become sick, wounded, defeated, and destroyed (in varying degrees, in all types and areas). The promises given to individuals, comparatively to the promises given to the corporate nation of Israel as a whole, are of no major difference. A break is a fracture; like it is in a bone, so it is in a stonewall. It is a gap in a stonewall, or in the case of a person’s body of flesh, it is a wound, and these expressions, alongside others, do figuratively represent a broken promise, or as it was said, a “breach of promise.” I do therefore desire that the reader would understand the various prophetic pictures and expressions which are used to show the reality of breach for breach. Breach for breach = break for break, gap for gap, and wound for wound. As it is with the individual bodies of persons bound with promises, so it is with the corporate city and nation of persons together, that when they are in rebellion, they are invaded by aliens and destroyed – in other words, the citywide or nationwide person of Israel was wounded.
God is a liar! They believe that He is unfaithful, evil, and therefore a liar, so they are unfaithful and disobedient to Him. Under God’s retributive powers of justice, God saith, “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because He believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:9-10). As it were, froward for froward and lie for lie. Judgment according to works vindicates the logical justice for God to cast away souls into deception, and in this way, at least, He shows Himself froward, perverse, scornful, and as a liar. According to what they have done, in response to and according to the light that they have had in the good promises of God, God shall do unto them (Num. 14:24).
Many men only meditate on the mercy of God and they spend a lifetime in the noble task of trying to discover the unfathomable riches in grace, but these riches of mercy, as wondrous as they are, are only half of the whole in two outstanding glories in God. One is: “the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy” (Rom. 9:23), and the second, “His wrath, and to make His power known” upon “the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom. 9:22). In other words, God wants men to know the faithfulness of His promises in their immeasurable expanse because of elective mercy, but not this alone – nay – but also its opposing force in God. If elective mercy was North then God would take men South, even to the lowest hell. Nay, God would not have men know His mercy alone, but He would take men to the gaping chasm of hell’s mouth moving to swallow sinners with jaws of plaguing power – in all its gnashing terror and agony. He would have men know God’s holy breach of promises and overruling wrath: “and ye shall know My breach of promise” (Num. 14:34). God says that He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). Men who spend their whole lives feasting on sin will, as it were, spend an eternity wishing they could vomit it out, but they will forever spasm and gag in the relentless sickness of regret and depression as souls locked up under the power of the second death.
What is the justice of God toward the generation where Numbers 14:34 is found, justice which merited the breach of promise? They believed God to be a liar, an unfaithful God, and so they feared He desired to destroy them. This they did say of God, and cried out, “Wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt” (Num. 14:3)? As they believed of God, as if He were a liar, even calling him a liar in accusation when their evil unbelief dictated their complaint, so He showed Himself, as it were, a liar, and reflecting their frowardness, He recompensed their fears upon them. “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me” (Num. 14:28-29). This is “The Righteous Judgment of God.” As they believed of God, or, as they made God out to be, this they did to God: they scorned Him, beat Him, reproached Him, and were froward to Him, and so justice responded to the frowardness of their unbelief by the fulfillment of that wicked belief. Therefore it is said of God to men, He “will bring their fears upon them.” God called Israel to go forth and inherit the Promises of everlasting life, but when He called, they did not answer. Thus God behaved as it is written, “I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer, when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not” (Isa. 66:4). They believed God was evil, as if He were bent to destroy them, as a liar against His promises, laying in wait for their blood, and as an austere man. Thus God says, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee” (Lk. 19:21-22). “The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted” (Prov. 10:24), and again, “the fearful and unbelieving…and all liars, shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar” (1 John 5:9-10), even though it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18) just as it is impossible for God to be froward (which means perverse, evil, and unfaithful), but it is not impossible for God, to the wicked, to show Himself froward and as a liar, and so, the wicked will go to the grave with the bitter murmur, “wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar” (Jer. 15:18)?
This is the righteous judgment of God recompensed to lying children – “children of disobedience” (Eph. 5:6). They trusted in their own hearts, which told them that God is a liar, and thus they trusted in vanity. Wherefore it is written, “Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense” (Job 15:31). They sowed “vain words” (Eph. 5:6) and became “vain” men (James 2:20), thus they reaped vanity when they sought out their own deliverances after rejecting God’s. How they judged God, they were judged, “for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. 7:2). “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices” (Prov. 1:31). “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).
The prophets under the inspiration of God wrote extensively to reveal this realm of justice surrounding all the events that Israel underwent throughout the centuries. With the aid of metaphors, the prophets made this reality come alive, that by pictures of real events which men could identify with, they would, thereto, be equally gripped. These metaphorical events aided the preaching of spiritual truth, because they depicted the urgency and emotional distress that is parallel to the spiritual situation at hand between them and God, and so the people would understand more clearly what manner of emotional distress they ought to have in heart, if, by faith, they would receive the prophets’ word of warning. Therefore, there are various pictures used to show the urgency at hand when, as it was many times, the protection of the promises were being breached, or were in danger of being breached.
The OT promises of God ensured the corporate (citywide & nationwide) and individual lives of the people to be in health and prosperity, so that when Israel was exalted in these ways, the image of God’s reigning glory would be revealed to the surrounding nations. Israel was the only nation, people, and Kingdom God called His own. Thus, the name of the people became the Name of God, or they became, as it were, a belt around His loins (Jer. 13:1-8). Like a belt bound to the waist of the very Person of God, Israel was bound to the promises of health, life, and prosperity, but it was as long as they did obey, and in the event that a promise was breached because of sin, inciting wrath, then they would become sick, wounded, defeated, and destroyed (in varying degrees, in all types and areas). The promises given to individuals, comparatively to the promises given to the corporate nation of Israel as a whole, are of no major difference. A break is a fracture; like it is in a bone, so it is in a stonewall. It is a gap in a stonewall, or in the case of a person’s body of flesh, it is a wound, and these expressions, alongside others, do figuratively represent a broken promise, or as it was said, a “breach of promise.” I do therefore desire that the reader would understand the various prophetic pictures and expressions which are used to show the reality of breach for breach. Breach for breach = break for break, gap for gap, and wound for wound. As it is with the individual bodies of persons bound with promises, so it is with the corporate city and nation of persons together, that when they are in rebellion, they are invaded by aliens and destroyed – in other words, the citywide or nationwide person of Israel was wounded.