The God Who Commands the Impossible
The teacher asked the kids why the Old Testament God was tougher than the God of the New Testament. One little girl piped up, That was before God became a Christian. Maybe the Prophets saw the love of God as more in line with the cross of Christ than most modern people. We like books that are moving or make us soar. We just delight in the wooing note. We just love the cross when it is reduced to God's warm affection. We just love it (to be read with that sugary sweetness) when it is proof that God, at awful cost to himself, is on our side, as long as it says nothing about our being on his side at great cost to us.
The Prophets of the Old Testament were no more earnest than Jesus Christ when they insisted on God's holy love and called his elect nation as Jesus does today to live as the elect. Both the prophets and the Christ speak for the one true God who has always been the God Who Commands the Impossible. The book looks at the truth of the Old Testament Prophet's message about God and his people. Nothing was sugarcoated in their message. Prolonged suffering and loss were acknowledged but the Prophets still expected God's people to take His call (through their words) seriously. As history had proven, the God they spoke of had committed himself to his people and the world. He had shown himself true and faithful and had earned a response to his demands for "the impossible".
Table of Contents:
The Prophets: God's Servants in Hard Times
- Proclaimed a God Who Is Personal
- Proclaimed a God Who Has a History With People
- Proclaimed a God of Relational Religion
- Proclaimed a God of Astonishing Grace and Patience
- Proclaimed One True and Sovereign God
- Proclaimed a Covenant-Keeping God
- Proclaimed a God Who Risks His Reputation With His People
- Proclaimed the Groundwork For the Messiah
- Proclaimed the Future
The Prophets: Their Message in Hard Times
- Why Are There Hard Times?
- 600 Years Ago or Yesterday?
- A Smoke Filled Temple
- The God Who's Only Passing Through
- The Delight of Your Eyes
- Annulling Our Covenants With Death
- Staying At Your Post Alone
- Because God's Hand Is On US
- This Is An Answer?
- Faith War and Boredom
- Life in the Big Paneled House
The Prophets: Their Confidence In Hard Times
- Faith With a Piece of String In Its Hand
- Embracing the Darkness
- God Can be Trusted
- So Flee to Tarshish
- Getting Away From the Facts
- Tyranny Is Suicide
- The Great At Last
- I Mean You No Harm
- My Name Is Immanuel
- Our Last Line of Defense
- Nevertheless
- Sun Rises, Sun Sets, Sun Rises, Sun Sets
- What's Wrong With This Picture
- How Shall We Live?