By reviewing the six insights we have learned so far we will plainly see this next insight.
God is the Faithful Designer
God is the Trustworthy Sovereign
God is the Consistent Accountant
God is the Trusting Owner
God is the Wise Disciplinarian
God is Love
Do you see the pattern? Life is all about God. He is the Joyous Prize!
God is the Joyous Prize
Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen; will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matthew 5:17-18)
Just what is the gist of the Law that Jesus is talking about? If we look at those first five books of the Bible with an eye for the underlying theme, we will quickly notice the foundation begins in Genesis 1:1 and culminates in the mountain top of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This foundational law or precept is simply that life is all about God.
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God…" There was no one else around. He had no peers to console or to rival Him. When Job complained about what had befallen him, God asked Job if he was around when He formed the stars and the earth. It is this great concept of a transcendent God that makes the Bible unique.
Where did that idea of a transcendent God come from? There are only two options. The first is that there was a human writer who was transcendent himself and therefore an eyewitness to all that is presented about this God. The second option is that the Bible itself is proof that this transcendent God has broken through the veil of human immanent mortality and revealed Himself to us. Since no human can be transcendent and dwell independently from creation, God had to give us the Bible through human instruments to show us who He is and what He is like and what He is about. Therefore, this simple declaration in Genesis 1:1 opens our eyes to this great precept that life is all about God.
After the Bible shows that God is the creating source for all things and creatures, He builds upon the first precept by showing us what He is all about. The second precept as revealed in Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God is all about relationships.
"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
The "Let us make…" is more than a majestic 'we'. With the benefit of the New Testament, we can clearly understand that this transcendent God is a trinity of persons in one being. This is further proven when He makes mankind in His image. He makes the human race male and female. Now, as disclosed in Genesis 2:24-25 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." The male and female persons are formed into one being. There is complete transparency in communication, trust, and love. Marriage is the living example of the Triune God. Since God is infinite and immense, the love and relationship among the three Persons is infinitely grander than anything found in human marriage. However, marriage is the image of multiple persons in one being. The very essence of God is that He is relational not just functional.
That is why He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. That is why He called out Noah from a flood of evil through the flood of waters. That is why He called out Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. That is why David prayed, "And who is like your people Israel-the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for Himself, and to make a name for himself…" (2 Samuel 7:23) God is forming a people for His own pleasure for all eternity, because God is all about relationships. All those relationships hinge upon Him because life is all about Him.
Thus His law is culminates into the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-5. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Jesus affirms that this is the greatest commandment ever given by God. He then ties the second commandment right into it. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." We are to develop our horizontal relationships with those around us. However, those will be all directed toward our relationship with God, because life is all about Him.
The key then to enabling your children to be successful is to point them to the right prize. Life is not about sports, careers, hobbies, or wealth. It is about God and He is about relationships. But the third precept of the Bible is that we are not able to maintain let alone develop our relationship with God and others as we ought to. Look what happens relatively quickly after Adam & Eve's first days. The next chapter in Genesis after their blessed union as one flesh gives us the account of their disobedience. Their disobedience causes God to look for them. When asked about their absence, Adam widens the gap by blaming Eve. Eve tries to pass the guilt on to the serpent. There is a huge rift in their relationship with each other and with God. Not long after that, their firstborn, Cain, kills their second son, Abel. And on and on goes the story of mankind as revealed in the Bible. We are not capable of maintaining our relationships to the standard God requires.
But God does not leave us alone to destroy each other. This is the fourth precept: God intervenes to restore our relationships to His pleasure. Immediately after Adam & Eve sinned in Genesis 3, God confronts them and offers both a promise and a sacrifice to restore His relationship with them. God promises that the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent. He then sacrifices an animal that may properly clothe Adam & Eve. That and many Old Testament passages foretell of God's own Son who would die to pay for our sins. Then we all become "sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Galatians 3:26-27).
In the same book that proclaims the Shema, Deuteronomy 30:6 tells us that God will have to circumcise our hearts in order for us to love Him rightly. So how will our hearts be circumcised? Romans 2:29 says, "No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." Wow! From the beginning God knew that life is all about Him and that He is all about relationships. All relationships should be about Him. Husband and wife, parent and children, neighbors and strangers are all built with an inner compass toward God. If He is the center and purpose for those relationships they will be rightly done in healthy ways.
God is truly the joyous prize!
