Friday, June 20

To listen to the audio version, click here.

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”  Now I was cupbearer to the king.  - Nehemiah 1:8-11

This final portion of Nehemiah’s prayer gives us a hint of what Nehemiah was really about.  Notice that Nehemiah never mentions the wall that he is going to build.  He never mentions stones, or mortar, or wood, or work teams, or finances, etc.  Of course Nehemiah is not unaware of the resources he will need and God is going to supply all of these things and more.  However, Nehemiah has a vision and purpose beyond the mere building of a physical wall.

If Nehemiah had lacked a vision of God’s purpose, when he heard about the conditions in Jerusalem he would have said, “Why be bothered about Jerusalem? We live in Babylon and have lived here for over 100 years. What’s the big deal about Jerusalem any- way? Why not just settle down and worship God here?”

But Nehemiah knew something about what God wanted to do with His people (1:9): “I ... will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell there.” Babylon would not do. God’s purpose involved His name or His glory being made known in Jerusalem!

God’s purpose in this age involves the building of His church. Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Revelation 5:9 says that Jesus purchased for God with His blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. But why does He want to save people from around the globe?  Be careful how you answer!  We live in such a man-centered age that we easily can fall into the trap of thinking that God’s purpose is to save people because He loves them and wants them to be healthy and happy. But that is a man-centered goal.  God’s purpose is not man-centered; it is God-centered. God does love people and He wants them to be happy, but not as the final end in itself. Saving people is a means toward God’s purpose, but it is not the end of God’s purpose.
As Paul makes clear in Ephesians 1-3, God’s purpose involves building His church for the sake of His name or His glory. 

that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.  - Ephesians 3:10-11

God’s chief purpose is to further His own glory through the joy of salvation that His people experience in Him.

One of the most profound, books I have ever read on this concept of God’s glory is John Piper’s God’s Passion for His Glory, which is built around and includes the full text of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “The End for Which God Created the World”.  I will warn you: it is not easy, light reading!  Grappling with the truths that Edwards presents makes your brain ache!  He argues that the end for which God created the world is, “first, that the glory of God might be magnified in the universe, and, second, that Christ’s ransomed people from all times and all nations would rejoice in God above all things”.

The life-transforming truth is that God’s glory and His people’s joy in Him fit together.  Thus God’s purpose is to magnify His name or His glory through His people. He does that when His people not only know and dutifully obey Him, but when they joyfully know and obey Him. As John Piper often states, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” If you want God to use you, ask Him to give you a burden for His people and a vision for His glory!

Jeff Frazier