Majesty of God in the Old Testament , livre ebook

Kaiser unpacks the vast wealth of several key Old Testament passages about God and his glory. These studies are wonderful and instructive examples of how to do biblical exposition and are especially fine examples of how to deal with Old Testament passages. But much more than that, each chapter will bring you face to face with the divine majesty in a powerful and life-changing way. Clear, straightforward, accessible, and precise, this is a superb resource in every way.
John MacArthur , president, Grace to You
I can t think of anyone better to lift our sight to the stimulating reality of the majesty of God than my friend Walt Kaiser. Unfortunately, God has often been tarnished by the smallness of our minds. Kaiser s winsome yet direct and clear writing will put the magnificent reality of God s glory in its proper perspective.
Joe Stowell , teaching pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel; former president, Moody Bible Institute
Rarely does a book come along that elucidates with both scope and depth the breathtaking splendor of the character of God, all while modeling how to preach and teach the sacred text. Walter Kaiser applies his passion for God s multifaceted majesty with wonderful biblical scholarship and insightful shepherding sensitivity. This work is a window into the grandeur of God, helping us to see that if we refuse to properly proclaim the unequaled God of the Bible correctly, we will never see ourselves, our culture, and his church in the proper light. Kaiser skillfully steers us on the right path to exposit and enjoy these biblical vistas of the Majesty on High.
Dorington G. Little , senior pastor, First Congregational Church, Hamilton, Massachusetts
THE MAJESTY OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A Guide for Preaching and Teaching
Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
2007 by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaiser, Walter C.
The majesty of God in the Old Testament : a guide for preaching and teaching / Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references .
ISBN 10: 0-8010-3244-X (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8010-3244-8 (pbk.)
1. God (Christianity)-Attributes. 2. God (Christianity)-Biblical teaching. 3. Bible. O.T.-Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title. BT130.K35 2007 231'.4-dc22
2006035279
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled NAB are from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible , copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
For the members of The Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Leadership Team
1997-2006
Robert Landrebe Barry Corey Sidney Bradley Alvin Padilla Lita Schlueter Bill Levin Howard Freeman
See what God has done! (Num. 23:23)
C ONT ENTS
Introduction
1. Magnifying the Incomparability of Our God I SAIAH 40:9-31
2. Magnifying the Greatness of Our God D ANIEL 4:1-37
3. Magnifying the Word of Our God N UMBERS 20:1-13
4. Magnifying the Wonderful Name of Our God J EREMIAH 32:1-44
5. Magnifying the Pardoning Grace of Our God M ICAH 7:11-20
6. Magnifying the Holy Spirit from Our God Z ECHARIAH 4:1-14
7. Magnifying the Awesome Character of Our God P SALM 139:1-18
8. Magnifying the Glory of Our God E ZEKIEL 1:1-28
9. Magnifying the Grace of Giving from Our God 1 C HRONICLES 29:6-19
10. Magnifying the Holiness of Our God I SAIAH 6:1-13
Endnotes
INT RODUC TION
You thought I was altogether like you. (Ps. 50:21b)
O ne of the greatest enhancements that could come to most evangelical teaching and preaching-indeed, the best preparation for a genuine revival and church renewal among the people of God worldwide-is a whole new appreciation for the majesty and greatness of our God as presented in the Scriptures. Unfortunately, one of the best sources for this teaching- the Old Testament-is all too often neglected in our teaching and preaching.
In this book, I wish to give God s people new insight into this avenue of thinking and believing by reviewing ten outstanding Old Testament texts that set forth the majesty of our Lord. Each chapter begins by exploring a key concept, an important term, an archaeological background, or a word study that will enhance our appreciation for the text under review and add to the depth of our study and teaching.
The center of our emphasis will be on the magnificence and majesty of our God. Our word majesty , of course, comes from the Latin root that means greatness. To describe someone as majestic is to speak of that person s greatness and to offer our respect for who that person is. But the fact is that there is no one like our God; he is incomparably magnificent and awesome in all his person, works, and plans!
Alas, however, much of our teaching and preaching suffers from a mediocre view of God s majesty. We are too much like those chided in Psalm 50:21, who thought [God] was altogether like [one of them]. As presenters of the Word of God, we desire to soar to the heights of the heavenlies and to lift the sights and hopes of our listeners to the very portals of the throne room of God himself; yet, more often than not, we feel frustrated and vacuous in the final results, both in our private study of the Word of God and in our listening habits on Sunday. Therefore, we, and the people we serve, starve for the awesomeness, greatness, and sheer majesty of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
In one of his letters to Erasmus, Martin Luther said, Your thoughts of God are too human. So too today, the god of this twenty-first century often does not equal the majestic and awesome Lord of the Scriptures. Instead, the god all too frequently announced today is more an invention of our own thinking and sentimentality. There can be no stopping point halfway between the absolutely majestic God depicted in Scripture and no God at all. J. B. Phillips was on the mark some years ago when he published the aptly titled Your God Is Too Small .
John Piper came to a similar conclusion in his revised edition of The Supremacy of God in Preaching . He began his preface by declaring:
People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy is brief and shallow. Preaching that does not have the aroma of God s greatness may entertain for a season, but it will not touch the hidden cry of the soul: Show me thy glory. 1
The psalmist did not let his heart starve for lack of expressing the majesty and greatness of God. Psalm 145:1-5 taught Israel (and now teaches us) to sing:
I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
Great is the L ORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
It was this same awesome majesty that Moses and the people of Israel sang about after successfully crossing the Red Sea. They hymned, In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble (Exod. 15:7). And Elihu declared to Job, God comes in awesome majesty (Job 37:22). It was at that very point that God himself took up the keynote that Elihu had just struck and set out for Job a mind-boggling display of his wisdom and power as exhibited in nature. If Job was so determined to preserve his own legitimacy before God, then God challenged him to step forward and show his own glory and splendor, his prized honor and majesty (Job 40:10), to see if what he had was anything like the glory, splendor, honor, and majesty of God! This quieted Job very quickly, and should do the same for us should we ever presume to put ourselves in God s place.
That is why David also urged his generation to declare [God s] glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the L ORD and most worthy of praise. . . . Splendor and majesty are before him (1 Chron. 16:24-25, 27).
The awesome distance described by David that separates the mighty Lord from all imitations of the same is enough to startle even the most insensitive of souls. Here is the Creator of the universe, the Potter who holds sway over all the clay! He is indeed the one and only Creator of all.
In the beginning God. . . . Doesn t that say it all? How else can we begin? To whom can we go if not to our magnificently majestic God who graciously made us and everything around us and who sustains us by the word of his mouth and by his mighty power (Ps. 33:6, 9)?
That is the conclusion that the fugitives from Egypt came to as the natio