Last Friday, my devotional reading through the Robert Murray M’Cheyne reading plan took me through 2 Kings 20; Hebrews 2; Psalms 137-138, and Hosea 13. I’ve been using this plan for years and have commended it before. Having used this plan for more than twenty years, I get the benefit of reading Scripture’s interconnected themes.
The passages above are both loosely and specifically interconnected. In 2 Kings, the focus is on Hezekiah of Judah, the king who governed Judah when God brought judgment on the northern tribes under Assyria. Assyria came to besiege Hezekiah and Judah, but the king prayed, and God rescued. Hosea was sent by God to prophesy against the northern tribes who were judged by God through Assyria (Hosea and Hezekiah are the same time period). Psalm 137 is a hymn of lament and anger from the returned exiles who were devastated by God’s judgments against them from Assyria (Israel/Samaria) and Babylon (Judah).
Here is one of Hosea’s laments:
Samaria shall bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.Hosea 13:16
Can there be a more horrific judgment than the one described against Samaria’s pregnant women and infants?
The mournful prayer of Psalm 137 comes from Israel’s exiles who pray for equitable judgment against her enemies–nearly the exact language and circumstance of Hosea’s lament.
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!Psalm 137:8-9
What a horrific-sounding prayer! How can God hear that kind of prayer? Notice the prayer is only asking for reciprocal judgment against enemies. The exiles remembered what was done to their infants and are only asking God to judge accordingly.
Still, it’s a horrible prayer. God’s judgments are horrors to those who stand against him. We’re working our way through Revelation on Sundays at our church. One of the prominent themes of the book is God’s judgment on idolaters and unbelievers. His wrath is great against those who reject him and rebel against him.
He judged his own people in the Old Testament when they rebelled through idolatry and unbelief. He judged the vileness and violence of the enemies of his people–Assyria and Babylon. God’s wrath against sinners is because God is supremely holy and righteous.
But God is not merely one of justice and wrath. He is great in mercy. The same Friday’s reading above included Hebrews 2. Here are a couple of interconnected verses from Hebrews 2.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Hebrews 2:10, 14-15 (emphasis mine)
In his mercy, God through Jesus became the recipient of suffering and death. Jesus accepted in his body the judgment and wrath of God on our behalf. The glory and goodness of the gospel is that Jesus took the judgment we deserved so that we might be delivered from slavery and made sons of God. By trusting and following Jesus we no longer have to fear the wrath and judgment of God.
We should expect Scripture to be interconnected as God is the author of all sixty-six books. Open God’s Word today. Listen for him to speak to you. Respond in praise and trust.