We read of a surprising revelation at the conclusion of the construction of the first temple. The gold is shiny. The furniture is new. Solomon is on something of a spriritual high. Things really couldn’t be better for Israel.
However, in the context of hope, excitement, and something of a spiritual arrival, we read this:
(1Ki 9.6-9) But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’
Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.'”
The people have not arrived. They must obey, trust and serve God. If they turn away from him and cling to other Gods then he will discipline them. He will discipline them to the tune of destruction of this very temple. They will become a prompting for the nations to hiss at them.
Sobering.
Notice the picture: If they abandoned the LORD their God and cling to other gods then God will bring destruction on them!
In order for God to be just and holy he must punish sin and sinners. It is as simply as that. But also, in order for God to be gracious and merciful he must provide a substitute.
And it is here that we see Jesus and his work jumping off the page.
It was us who abandoned God. It was us who turned aside and laid a hold of other gods to worship and serve them. It was us that incurs and deserves all of the destruction to come upon us. It was us that deserves to be abandoned by God. It was us that should receive the hissing from the passerbys.
However, God has punished Jesus.
(Isa 53.6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
It was Jesus that was abandoned by God. It was Jesus that received the disasterous, fully mixed, unmitigated, unbearable wrath of Jehovah. It was Jesus who was crushed. It was Jesus that was hissed by the crowd. It was Jesus that took the blame. In our place condemned he stood.
But at the same time, it was Jesus who obeyed the commandments. It was Jesus who loved his Father. It was Jesus who loved his neighbor. It was Jesus who was absolutely perfect in every required manner. It was Jesus who lived for us. It was Jesus who died for us. It was Jesus who was raised from the dead for us. What a Savior!
In order for God to be both gracious and just he must crush Jesus. And he did. And so we stand forgiven because of the perfect obedience of Jesus, even to the point of death on a cross.
May this eternal truth stir your heart to value, love and serve this beloved Jesus today.
