At the tail-end of Sunday School last week, we touched on a concept I’d like to expand a bit here.
God’s judgment often takes the form of giving us precisely what we want, and what we want ends up wrecking us.
In Eden… Paul’s interpretation of Genesis 2 is that man is the head of the wife (1 Cor 11:1-16). However, in Genesis 3, it seems that the man and woman, at the behest of the serpent, set aside God’s design (Gen 3:1-7). The woman led and the man followed. The ensuing narrative reveals that the consequences would include the hardwiring of their hearts to continue on this course (Gen 3:16b). The wife would desire to dominate her husband, while the husband would abuse his authority over his wife. In other words, God judges them by giving them what they wanted.
Genesis alone contains a number of examples where this judgment proved disastrous. For instance, when Sarai and Abram failed to conceive in a timely manner, Sarai decided to take things into her own hands, instructing her husband to impregnate her servant, Hagar (Gen 16). Abram obeyed, Hagar conceived, and Sarai was…furious! You can read the story once again to refresh your memory regarding the strife and heartache that followed.
In Canaan… shortly after the colossal failure of the people during the judges period, the people clamored for a king like all the surrounding nations (1 Sam 8:5). Therefore, God instructed Samuel,
“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." (1 Sam 8:8-9)
God gave them what they wanted. This was not a gift, but a judgment. We know this because of the warning that Samuel gave the people about how their king would behave: 1) he would take their sons to serve in his army and farm his land; 2) he would take their daughters to be his personal servants; 3) he would take the best of their land and crops; 4) he would take the best of their servants and livestock; and 5) he would limit their personal freedoms (v10-17). The result would be chilling: “And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day” (v18).
Continue reading in 1 Samuel for a detailed account of Saul’s reign. In short, Israel’s king had an impressive stature, but a twisted heart. Envious, paranoid, suspicious, vain…Saul’s reign ended with his own death at the hands of the Philistines, the same enemy who oppressed Israel long before Saul’s anointing.
Over the course of history… Paul’s letter to the Romans gives a bird’s eye view of man’s history of rejecting God. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:22–23). Paul continues, noting that man “exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom 1:25). Man wanted an existence without God, so He gave them “the due penalty of their error,” the best of what a godless world has to offer—impure hearts, degraded bodies, and darkened minds (Rom 1:24-29).
As eternal justice… In a sense, hell itself is an expression of God giving man what he most wants. As Genesis 3 and Romans 1 teach, man rejected God. Hell is eternity without Him. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 describes it this way, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Where God is, there is everything good, holy, and pleasurable (Rev 21:1-4; 22:1-5). Where He is not, there is darkness, isolation, sorrow, and suffering (Matt 8:11-12; 13:47-50; Mark 9:43). In the end, God gives what man wants unto his own destruction.
What then is grace and salvation? Among other things, God gives us what we did not initially want. He gives us Himself (2 Cor 5:18; Eph 2:11-16) through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. We are brought back to Him, forgiven by Him, and welcomed into His presence eternally.
To be sure, this is what we did not want…initially. For God not only saves us from the judgment of our sin, but He even rescues us from our wrong desires. We were formerly haters of God (Rom 1:30). BUT, God changes our hearts (Eze 36:25-27) so that we renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, waiting eagerly for the second coming of Christ who will take us to live with God forever (Titus 3:11-14).
What we formerly did not want…now we want more than anything. And God gives it to us. In both judgment and salvation, God gives us what we want.
All this is great encouragement to pray, “Oh God, bend my heart all the more toward You!” (Psa 119:36)
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