John Eldredge compares the saving work of Jesus to the work of Tom Hanks and his cohort in the film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Jesus is not the Fuller Brush man, knocking on a housewife’s door to sell her a new broom. He’s not the ice cream man, trolling the neighborhood, offering something sweet to anyone who might care for it. Jesus is a WARRIOR. And His saving work is “a daring rescue behind enemy lines.” Coming to earth to battle the enemy and die for those He would save—that is no casual thing. Have you seen the pitiful paintings of Jesus—a pale-skinned, effeminate man with his head in the clouds like some Eastern mystic, an ascetic too skinny to stand under his own power, much less work as a carpenter? Jesus was never that guy. He was a warrior! “The Lord is a WARRIOR!” Exodus 15:3.
David understands the daring rescue by a powerful warrior. Read this paraphrase and consider what a different picture of God David paints here from the Shepherd of Psalm 23:
The waves of death engulfed me, the floods of destruction terrified me. Death had me tangled in its ropes, trapped and drowning. In my distress I cried out to God and He heard me. “Then the earth shook and quaked, the foundations of heaven were trembling” because He was angry. Smoke snorted from His nostrils, fire raged from His mouth, kindling everything. He bent the heavens and came down, He rode on a cherub and flew. “The Lord thundered from heaven,” He shot arrows and threw lightning. He split the earth to its foundations. He reached down and took me and drew me out of the waters and rescued me. “He rescued me, because He delighted in me” 2 Samuel 22:5-20.
Now THAT is a rescue.
God loves you—and He is the WARRIOR who fights for you!
God, help us love you as our tender shepherd, and revere and fear you as the warrior who rescues us—even from our own bad choices.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 