warning

God is a siren.

God is a siren.

Psalm 7

In this chapter of Psalms, God sounds a warning through David: Beware of sin. It always backfires and injures the one who engages in it. Here’s how David put it: “An evil person is like a woman about to give birth to a hateful, deceitful, and rebellious child. Such people dig a deep hole, then fall in it themselves. The trouble they cause comes back on them, and their heads are crushed by their own evil deeds.” (vs 14-16)

God knows the future.

God knows the future.

1 Kings 16

Tucked away into this chapter was this curious little detail: "It was during [Ahab's] reign that Hiel, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid its foundations, it cost him the life of his oldest son, Abiram. And when he completed it and set up its gates, it cost him the life of his youngest son, Segub." (vs 34) What in the world does this have to do with anything else in the chapter? And why did this man, Hiel, have to pay such a dear price for rebuilding a city?

God knows what He's talking about.

God knows what He's talking about.

1 Kings 11

So, God had given Solomon incredible wisdom, massive amounts of wealth, and great fame. What He hadn’t given Solomon was a thousand marriage licenses. In fact, In Deuteronomy 17, God (in prophesying the fact that Israel would, in the future, demand a king to rule over them) specifically commanded that the king was not to take multiple wives. If he did, God said, his heart would be led astray.

God believes in full disclosure.

God believes in full disclosure.

DEUTERONOMY 28

So, here we have a mega-extension of yesterday’s chapter and lesson about God—that He warns us of impending danger. I know I’ve read this chapter of Deuteronomy several times as I’ve made my way through the Bible in the past, but never have I been so struck by the description of what life is like when we disregard God’s law of love. It is bleak.