In my previous post, I looked briefly at the life of King David to see what ultimately made David a man after God’s own heart, and I suggested that it was his passionate, overwhelming desire to know and understand God at the deepest level of God’s being, His heart, for the purpose of being faithful to the God who created him to know and love and be loved by Him (Psalm 27:4) (Psalm 63:1-8) (1 John 4:19) .
I then looked at what God had to say in regard to this in Jeremiah 9:23-24 wherein God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, commands “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.”
In this passage, God is identifying what is to be the priority, the preeminent passion in a person’s heart, which is to know and understand God as He has revealed Himself in all of His glory – the infinite perfections of His being, which He created us to behold, display, proclaim, rejoice and delight in (Isaiah 43:7) (John 1:14). This is to take priority over our pursuit of wealth and possessions, power and fame, worldly wisdom and knowledge, health and beauty, personal achievements, marriage and family, and anything else that has the potential to take the place of God in our desires and affections as the ultimate source of our good (Psalm 16:1-2) (James 1:17) (Luke 14:26).
As we study the scriptures, we learn that God is a relational being comprised of three divine persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, co-equal, co-eternal, of one essence, who have existed in an eternal relationship of infinite love and unfathomable joy, a relationship that created mankind in their image and likeness to share in, not as divine equals but as beloved children, wherein we would find our greatest joy, our ultimate significance and eternal happiness in knowing, loving and being loved by God, and one another, intimately and personally (Genesis 1:26-28) (Matthew 3:16-17) (Jeremiah 31:3) (Matthew 22:36-40) (Psalm 43:4).
God calls us to love Him, to fear Him, to obey Him, to trust Him, to worship Him, to delight and rejoice in Him, all of which require our knowing Him intimately and personally (Psalm 37:4) (Philippians 4:4-8). To be a man/woman after God’s own heart is to know and love what God loves as well as to know and hate what God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19. It is to know and grieve over what grieves Him and to rejoice and delight in what He rejoices and delights in, which is His own glory (Jeremiah 9:24) (Psalm 147:11).
A heart after God is thus, most importantly, a heart that is motivated in all that we do by a passion for His glory, the praise and honor rightly due Him by men and angels for all that He is in the infinite perfections of His being, to be proclaimed and displayed in us and through us. (Isaiah 42:8) (Isaiah 48:9-11) (1 Corinthians 10:31) (Matthew 5:16).
Yet we live in a world where the knowledge of the glory of God, of all that makes Him worthy of being known intimately, loved supremely, trusted explicitly, obeyed perfectly, pursued passionately and enjoyed eternally has been suppressed by mankind’s sin, our rejection of God’ glorious purpose for and rule over our lives, pursuing our happiness and fulfillment in the creation rather than the creator, living for our own purposes, determining for ourselves good and evil, motivated by disordered desires, vile passions and worldly ambitions rather than by the glory of God (Romans 3:23) (Romans 1:18-25).
Thus, we live in a world that is under the wrath and just judgement of God, a world in which the glory of God is not proclaimed – the greatness of God is not praised and admired – the sovereignty of God is not acknowledged – the beauty of God is not savored and enjoyed, nor the goodness of God responded to with gratitude and thanksgiving. It is a world in which the love of God is not treasured – the word and wisdom of God are not esteemed – the commandments of God are not obeyed, and the promises of God are not believed. It is a world where the grace and mercy of God is not cherished because the wrath and judgment of God is not feared; and the wrath and judgement of God are not feared because the holiness of God is disregarded and dishonored (Leviticus 10:3) (Isaiah 6:1-4).
It is thus a world where the presence of God is not delighted in, and the person of God is not loved and adored above all of His creation. The most glorious, most desirable, most excellent, most essential, most valuable being in the universe – the stunningly majestic and fearfully awesome Creator and Sovereign ruler of this universe, is despised and disdained, dishonored and disrespected, disobeyed and disbelieved by everyone in the world to varying degrees (Psalm 14:2-3) (Psalm 10:3) (Props to John Piper).
In our willful ignorance and suppression of the knowledge of the infinite, all-encompassing greatness and goodness of God, we have brought nothing but disorder, corruption. destruction and death into His good and perfect creation – disqualifying ourselves from the eternal joys and pleasures – the unfathomable blessings that God created man in His image to enjoy – in Him (Genesis 1:26-31) (Psalm 16:11) (Hosea 4:1-3).
Instead, we have made ourselves the objects of His eternal wrath, who will in the end be punished with everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, because we neither knew God, nor were known relationally by God as those who loved Him above all else, which we cannot do apart from knowing His heart (Nahum 1:2) (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) (1 Corinthians 8:2-3) (Matthew 7:21-23).
Thankfully, this infinitely glorious God, whose heart we have failed to seek with all of our heart, has graciously provided a just means for our sin to be forgiven, His wrath to be satisfied, our spiritual eyes to be enlightened to His glory, and our hearts to be changed such that knowing Him intimately, loving Him supremely and rejoicing in His love for us becomes more important to us than anything else in this world (2 Corinthians 4:6) (Jeremiah 24:7) (Philippians 3:8-11). And that is in God the Father sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to die on a Roman cross for our sins, so that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) – entering into a heart-to-heart relationship with Him through faith– will not perish in Hell, but have eternal life, the glorious life of intimate communion with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirt, and with one another, for which we were created (John 3:16), (Romans 5:8-9) (Ephesians 1:7) .
More in my next post.
Grace and Peace ×
ALL absolutely
ALL glory goes to our Heavenly Father in Christ Jesus 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌
Amen Jerry!