Monday, September 19, 2005

"Fanatically loyal..."

I've never cared quite enough about sports to be considered a fanatic by any stretch of the imagination. But I know people who are.
We've got people down the road from where we live who have flags for their favorite teams hung all over their living room. I've known people who have bought green cars and pasted Eagle stickers all over because of their devotion to their team. I've even seen grown men get emotional when they see their team lose.
I've been thinking about that kind of "fanatical loyalty" lately, ever since listening to a former Westminster prof, Edmund Clowney use it as an illustration of the the Hebrew word "hesed."
We might think that when the Bible talks about hesed, that kind of "fanatical loyalty" that it would be describing man's devotion to God. After all, it makes sense for us to be that committed (and of course, way, way more) to God.
But, Dr. Clowney said, and I love this, by far the majority of times hesed is used, it's used to describe God's complete devotion, "fanatical" in the best sense of the word, loyalty to His people.
It's pretty, scratch that, completely humbling to think of God as being committed to me, to us as believers. It's amazing to think of him as being "fanatically loyal" to me. It would almost seem impossible to believe...except for the cross.
The cross proves its true.
"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things..."

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