I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely"; and he became their savior in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
When I was a child, many boys would be playing with a new GI Joe on the first Sunday after Christmas. To make sure that no one was offended, GI Joe was not marketed as a "doll" but as an "Action Figure." Indeed, the name for a GI Joe-type action figure in the United Kingdom was Action Man which was less militaristic but apparently as equally adrenaline-producing for young males. "Action" was a key concept in marketing those toys on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Action, however, is a key element in life as well as a marketing strategy. As the motto of one transportation company says, "Nothing happens until something moves!" The best of intentions does not one any good unless they are acted upon. As Isaiah teaches us today, our God is not just a God of good intentions, but he is an Action God. Let's look at that concept more closely:
God has Graciously Adopted Us
While birthing a child is a natural process, adoption is act in which one consciously decided to make someone who is not a natural child a part on the family. We are probably all familiar with the story of young girl who was being cruelly teased by other children for being adopted. She resiliently and wisely retorted, "My parents actually chose me! Yours had to take what they got!"
In our natural state we are estranged from God and we are like foreigners to him. This is a major theme of the Book of Ephesians. For example, Paul wrote in Ephesian 2:12, "At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." What dismal and discouraging prospects!
Thanks be to God, He acted. He sent Jesus to redeem us and allow us to become part of the Family of God! In the very next verse Paul continued, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility . . . When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone." (Eph 2:13 & 17-20)
One of the most praiseworthy deeds of our God was to adopt us into His Family!
God has Graciously Redeemed Us
The Book of Ruth is a great love story. The scope of this love story isn't limited to just the relationship between Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. We do get that famous passage which we often adapt for weddings, in which Ruth says, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” After all, Ruth knew Naomi well, and had many years in which to come to love her. No, the greatest love story in the Book of Ruth is the story of Boaz as Kinsman Redeemer.
Provisions in the Law of Moses required the nearest male relative of an Israelite to assist that person in need. If someone was indebted, for example, and had sold them self as a slave, then the kinsman redeemer would have to buy them out of slavery if he could. It is interesting to note that the fiduciary benefit to the kinsman redeemer for doing this was very limited. It was really an act of love that originated in the heart of the kinsman redeemer, and so it was with Boaz. He did not know Ruth, and yet he welcomed her into his family and, by extension, took on the burden of caring for Naomi as well.
Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer. His sacrifice for us on the cross defeated death, and Hell, and allowed us to be redeemed from out slavery to sin. This is a gracious act of love which we did not deserve, one which originated in the heart of God and not in anything in our lives.
One of the most praiseworthy deeds of our God for Jesus to be our Kinsman Redeemer!
One of the false theologies current in our world today is Deism which postulates that God created the world and ordered it, then left it alone to develop itself. This concept recognizes our God as Creator, but denies that He is an immanent God, or a God who draws close to His creation. In this world view, God is Sovereign, but He just doesn't care enough to be engaged with the world. In essence, He is an absentee landlord. Nothing could be further from the truth!
From the very beginning of creation we see God being intimately engaged with it and with us, His people. In Genesis we read that, God was "walking in the Garden in the cool of the day," and that, after the fall changed his relationship with Adam and Eve, he made them clothes so they would no longer be embarrassed. Does that sound like an absentee landlord?
In fact, the Biblical record is that God has always been engaged with His creation. For example, Proverbs 21:1 says, "In the LORD's hand the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him." In Proverbs 3: 5-7 we read, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Jeremiah 31:33 tells us, "“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." God has always been involved with His creation.
The ultimate expression of God's immanence is that fact that He came in the form of a man, through Jesus His Uniquely Begotten Son, to live among us. Another name of Jesus is Emmanuel, which means "God is with us." As the beautiful phrase in Philippians 2 puts it, Jesus . . . "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!"
One of the most praiseworthy deeds of our God is that lived with us and that He continues to live with us today through the Holy Spirit.
God has Graciously Lifted Us
It is a natural instinct for parents t want their children to thrive and do well. The vast majority of parents want their children to grow up and have better living conditions that they do and they often go more than the extra mile to try to make that happen. These sacrifices pay off, however.
One young adult recently told me how grateful she was to her mom for carrying her to tutoring sessions during her high school years, which allowed her to earn a college scholarship. So many of her young peers in the working world are struggling to pay off their college loans but she is not only debt-free, but has money in savings. All of this was due to her mother caring enough to not only take her to the tutoring, but encouraging her and being patient with her while doing it.
Our God loves His children far more than any human parent loves their children. He loves to see them lifted up and their loves improved. The way He does this is by helping us to be disciples, as Paul taught us in Ephesians 4: "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ."
One of the most praiseworthy deeds of our God is that loves us enough to lift us up through discipling us!
Conclusion
We have many things that we should praise God for, but ones we see in our focal passage today are particularly powerful and important. Our God did not have to adopt us, or redeem us, or live with us, or lift us up, but He did. He did these things because of His loving grace and because who He is.
He is praiseworthy indeed!
Every Blessing,
Dr. Otis Corbitt
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