For the Love of God Vol 1 [Hardcover]

Psalm 119:97, 111

`At their best,' writes Don Carson, `Christians have saturated themselves
in the Word of God ... The means by which God sanctifies men and women,
setting them apart as his own people, is the Word of truth.'

Many people, however, would admit that they have allowed the pressures of
life to crowd out serious and thoughtful reading of the Bible. Also, in a
culture that has moved away from a Christian worldview, the Bible's
unwavering proclamations and fantastic stories seem ever stranger. The big
picture of the Bible is gradually fading from view.

For the Love of God encourages us to face these challenges. Now, more then
ever, the need to read the Bible and to grasp its relevance for our lives
is critical.

This devotional guide follows Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Bible-reading plan,
taking you through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the Old Testament
once. Don Carson has written thought-provoking comments and reflections to
accompany one of each day's scriptural passages. And, most uniquely, he
offers a perspective that places each reading into the larger framework of
history and God's eternal plan, in order to deepen our understanding of his
sovereignty and the unity and power of his Word.

Carson has written or edited more than forty books, including the bestseller 'The Gagging of God: Christianity
confronts pluralism' (IVP), which won the 1997 Gold Medallion in theology/doctrine from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and Crossway's 'Letters along the way', co-written with his Trinity colleague, John Woodbridge.

He and his wife, Joy, have two children and live in the northern suburbs of Illinois.

Numbers 15; Psalm 51; Isaiah 5; Hebrews 12

IT IS NEVER EASY TO GET ACROSS a message of impending judgment (Isa. 5) to
people who are convinced they are not all that bad, especially when the
ruling elite are enjoying good times. So Isaiah resorts to an
attention-grabbing song. He picks up the ancient equivalent of a guitar and
begins to sing a simple ballad about his true love. His audience is
hooked-and then they cannot help but feel the hammer-blows.

In the ballad Isaiah begins by referring to God as "the one I love. . My
loved one" (5:1). Because God has not yet been identified, doubtless the
language instantly captures the audience. But it also reflects what Isaiah
feels: he is not a dispassionate observer but a prophet deeply in love with
the being and ways of the living God. Not to love him wholly is already
part of the problem, whether under the old covenant or the new (cf. Rev.
2:1-7). Israel is often pictured as the Lord's vine, so it will not be long
before Isaiah's hearers begin to get the point. Isaiah does not restrict
himself to subtle allusions, however; he delivers both God's threatening
speech and his own explanation of his ballad-parable.

The people have produced only useless wild grapes, bad fruit. The nature of
that fruit is described in the string of woes (5:8-25). In a nutshell, the
social justice demanded by the covenant has been observed in the breach.
Against the specific covenantal insistence that the land is the Lord's and
is to be parceled out fairly, land-grabbing has become the norm, squeezing
out the little people (5:8-11). The wealth among the elite in Uzziah's day
has fueled wanton arrogance and drunkenness (5:11-12) and sneering defiance
of God (5:18-19). Ultimately the land has overflowed with moral relativism
and confusion, doubtless pitched as sophisticated thought, but actually
nothing more than a commitment "to call evil good and good evil" (5:20). At
bottom there is arrogance (5:21) and corruption in the administration and
the courts (5:22-23). The Lord's judgment is implacable (5:24-25).

None of this means that God is checkmated. In the final section of the
chapter (5:26-30), God says what he will do. Punishment, the destruction of
God's "vineyard," will come by foreign invasion - the metaphorical language
of these verses is frankly terrifying. But the foreign invaders are not
merely fortunate opportunists with a powerful army. God himself whistles
them up, like someone calling for a dog. Despite the ruinous guilt of the
people, Isaiah never doubts that God is sovereign over history and can
dispose of nations in judgment as well as in mercy. That theme will grow
stronger in this book.