Friday 12 August 2005

I will do an awesome thing with you

“And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible [awesome] thing that I will do with thee.” - Exodus 34v10

As the Lord gave a new copy of the Ten Commandments to Israel He made a new covenant with them as well, “I will do marvels,” He said, “…it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.” The word “terrible” has changed a bit in the last 400 years. At that time “terror” was not necessarily a negative word. The word then meant something that was intended to inspire awe. Our modern English word, and one that many translations use, is “awesome.”

“Awesome” has been cheapened somewhat in the last few years, but only One and His works are truly awesome. God says that here that He will do awesome things with His people. We know of course in the Old Testament that this was true. God did an awesome work with Israel, carrying them through the wilderness and giving their land. Through them He did the most marvelous thing of all by providing Messiah, and He is not yet done with His awesome work.

What is truly awesome is what God has done with us. God took poor, miserable, wretched, hopeless, and helpless sinners and gave us eternal life through His Son. He takes selfish, flesh obsessed, self centred, proud people and uses them to serve Him and get out the most wonderful message if all. He uses the base, foolish, weak, base, and despised things of this world to serve Him and do His work.

Our awesome God truly wants to do awesome things in us. The question is, will we let Him do so?

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