Live Dead Joy: 30 Days of Living and Dying with JesusSample

“God Insurance”

We can no less handle God’s goodness than we can His wrath. From my youth I have loved the hymn, “He Hideth My Soul.” The chorus rejoices, “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand.” Moses was covered by God’s hand, from God—from God’s goodness!

In Exodus 33, Moses asked to see God’s glory. God explained that His glory is His grace and mercy applied as He wills—outside of man’s consent (vv. 18–19). God then revealed His goodness to Moses, but God only revealed His “back”—protecting Moses from the full revelation of God’s goodness by hiding Moses in the cleft of the rock. If God were to reveal all of His goodness to us, we would explode. This reality is justification for heaven: The goodness of God is so great that for all eternity He can progressively reveal Himself and there will be no end to His revelation. The wonder of eternity is not endless time. It is the unending revelation of the goodness of God!

We must never lose reverence for being protected from God by God. The blood of the Passover lamb protected the Israelites from the wrath of God. It was God’s destroying angel who saw the blood and passed over the guilty. The Israelites were no better than the Egyptians—they just had God insurance. Let us retain a wonder that God, who has every right to destroy us, also makes a way for us to enter His presence.

Entering His presence, let us not forget that His goodness is so eternally great that it, too, can destroy us. God will eternally, progressively reveal His goodness to us. What joy this gives us for heaven!

Pray for the Unreached:

Sayyid Muslims of India

7,125,000

0.0% Evangelical

Pray that believers among the Sayyid would be set from a spirit of fear of what may come and would boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel (2 Timothy 1:6-8).