Scripture Reading: Joel 1:4; 2:28-29; 3:11-21
The Bible is a wonderful book. Because the Bible is wonderful, it is mysterious. Although a great many people have read and continue to read the Bible, few know what the Bible talks about. The Bible has much to say about God, Christ, Israel, and many other things, but what does the Bible actually talk about? If we would answer this question, we need to study the Minor Prophets.
The Minor Prophets are a key to understanding the Bible. In our study of the Minor Prophets, we have emphasized four points: God’s chastisement of Israel, God’s punishment upon the nations, the manifestation of Christ, and the restoration of all things. Through God’s chastisement of Israel and His punishment upon the nations, the manifestation of Christ is brought forth, and the manifestation of Christ will bring in the restoration. This restoration will include not only Israel but the whole human race, the earth, and the entire universe. The new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem will be the eternal restoration of all things. These four matters are revealed in the Bible, in particular in the Minor Prophets.
The Bible may be considered the history of God. If we human beings have a history, not only as a race but even as individuals, then surely the unique, universal, and wonderful person of God must also have a history. Where do we find the history of God? God’s history, the divine history, is recorded in the Bible.
God’s history is of two portions — the history of God with man, found in the Old Testament, and the history of God in man, found in the New Testament. In the Old Testament God’s history was a history with man. In the New Testament God’s history is a history in man, for this history involves God’s being one with man. Therefore, the history of God in the New Testament is a divine history in humanity.
God created man according to Himself, that is, in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). We may say that the man created in God’s image was a “photograph” of God. As a photograph of a person shows us something concerning that person himself to a certain degree, so the man created by God as a photograph of God can show forth God only to a limited extent. After God created man, He was with man, but He was still outside of man. Hence, in the Old Testament we see God not in man or one with man but simply with man. In Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, and the entire Old Testament, God was with man but not yet in man and not yet one with man.
The Old Testament does not speak mainly concerning man; rather, it speaks mainly concerning God. God has the primary role, and man has the subordinate role. The history in the Old Testament, therefore, is God’s history, God’s history with man.
God’s history in the New Testament is very different. Beginning with the first chapter of Matthew and continuing to the last chapter of Revelation, we have God coming into man and being one with man. The New Testament reveals that God is now in man and one with man. Thus, God’s history in the New Testament is the history of God in man.
Regarding the history of God in man, the incarnation of Christ accomplished two things. First, the incarnation brought God into man. Before the incarnation, as the Old Testament reveals, God was merely with man; He was outside of man. But by incarnation God entered into man, and from that time onward the history of God was different. Whereas in the past God was with man, and His history was a history with man, now God was in man, and His history began to be a history in man.
Second, the incarnation made God one with man. As a result of the incarnation, there was a wonderful person — a person who is the mingling of God with man. This person, Jesus, is not only God, and He is not merely a man. He is the complete God and the perfect man. Further, He is not only God in man — He is God mingled with man.
From this we see that the incarnation was an unprecedented event. Prior to the incarnation, there was not such a person, a person who is both God and man. But now, as a result of the incarnation, there is a wonderful person who is the mingling of God with man.
As believers, we all have become involved with this wonderful person, this One who is both God and man. A verse which speaks of this involvement is Revelation 22:17a, which says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” The Spirit is the consummated Triune God, and the bride is the transformed tripartite man. As this verse reveals, these two, the Spirit and the bride, will be married, joined to become one entity, one corporate person. This is a strong indication that, in the New Testament, God is in man and is one with man. The New Jerusalem is a marvelous sign demonstrating how God is in man and is one with man.
The history of God with man and of God in man is not a simple matter. God was with man with the intention of coming into man and being one with man. Man was created by God for this purpose. But although God had such a purpose in creating man, man has another, subtle, purpose, and these two purposes do not agree. God has His way, and man has his way. Because of this, even when man cooperates with God, he does this not by God’s way but by his own way. Thus, there are two lines — God’s line and man’s line. God wants to come into man and to be one with man. Man, however, does not take God’s way but insists on his own way. This insistence has caused, and continues to cause, great failure. As a result, in the sight of God man has become sinful, corrupt, and abominable.
Because man, including Israel, has taken his own way and has become sinful and corrupt, God comes in to chastise Israel, His chosen people, and to punish the nations. When God chastises His people Israel, He has no intention of utterly destroying them. On the one hand, God chastises Israel; on the other hand, He has promised not to destroy them completely.
In order to chastise Israel God needs a “rod,” a means of discipline, and this rod is the nations. In Joel 1:4 the nations are likened to locusts in four stages: the cutting locust (the Babylonian Empire), the swarming locust (the Medo-Persian Empire), the licking locust (the Macedonian- Grecian Empire), and the consuming locust (the Roman Empire). Of these four kinds of locusts — Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman — the Roman locusts are still with us today.
Although God allows the locusts to cut, swarm, lick, and consume, He does not permit them to destroy His people utterly. Whenever the locusts have gone too far, acting without regard for justice, God has come in to punish them. Whereas God uses the nations to chastise Israel, He also punishes the nations for going too far.
God’s chastisement of Israel and His punishment of the nations affords a way for Christ to be manifested. Thus, the Minor Prophets speak not only of the chastisement of Israel and the punishment of the nations but also of the issue of this chastisement and punishment — the manifestation of Christ.
The manifestation of Christ has a goal, and this goal is to restore the fallen universe. The fall of the universe was caused by two rebellions. The first rebellion was the rebellion of Satan and the angels who followed him; the second was the rebellion of man. These two rebellions — the angelic and the human — defiled and polluted the universe, so the God-created universe needs a restoration.
This restoration can be brought in only through the manifestation of Christ. Christ’s manifestation implies His incarnation, redemption, and many other matters. The manifestation of Christ has been going on for a long time, and it will continue until the fallen universe has been fully restored. Eventually, in the consummation of the restoration, there will be the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center. In the New Jerusalem we all will enjoy Christ and express Christ for eternity. This is the history of God with man and in man revealed in the Bible.
The history of God in the Bible provides a lesson for us today. God created us with the intention to gain us so that He could come into us and be one with us. However, either we do not care for God or we care for God according to our own way. The result is always total failure. Paul confessed his failure when he said, “Wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:24a).
Because we are a failure and because our situation is wretched, terrible, and miserable, we need God’s chastisement. For this reason, our human life as Christians is a life of chastisement through the sufferings caused by different kinds of “locusts.” Our husband or wife, our children, our job, our desire for higher education, our attempts to make more money — all these are locusts that cut us, swarm over us, lick us, and consume us. These “locusts” make our life a life of suffering and our days, days of God’s chastisement. The goal, the purpose, of this chastisement is that Christ would be manifested in us for the restoration of the universe. Eventually, the manifestation of Christ that is the issue of suffering and chastisement will consummate in the restoration of the entire universe.
