Taking every thought captive

I was reading Isaiah 17, where it says:

7 In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.
8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense. (ESV)

It got me to thinking about Psalm 8:3 where we read that the work of God’s fingers are the heavens. Here is a look that puts the work of our fingers into perspective. Nothing compares to God’s fingerwork, and nothing compares to God himself. However, rather than making us feel small, it should make us feel how big God is. Our God is a great and majestic God.

I was struck by something Ian Hamilton wrote in his recent article, The Everlasting Love of Christ:

Commenting on God's words in Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," Vos wrote, "The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began" (Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation, ed. By Richard B. Gaffin, p.298).

We often think of God's everlasting love as stretching into the future, but forget that eternity doesn't begin now. That certainly is a love without breadth, length, height or depth (Eph 3:17-19).

I was struck by the following paragraph in William Edgar's article "The Dynamics of Cultural Change" in the latest issue of reformation21 where he reflects on the contrast of the New Jerusalem with earthly cities as we know them:

Heaven will be a city, the New Jerusalem. Of course, it will be a beautiful city, full of gardens and trees. (Rev. 22:1-3) And at its center will be the great “gardener king” of biblical tradition. Just as the Ancient Near Eastern king had a magnificent garden, so Zion includes Eden in the new order. (2 Kings 25:4; Jer 39:4; Neh 3:15; Is 51:3; Pss 46; 36:8-9) Christ’s tomb was in a garden. When the women first came on Easter morning, they met a man whom they supposed was the gardener. (John 19:41) Well he was! He was the great gardener king of the new order, Jesus Christ, whose transforming breath would bring peace to all of the world. (Ezek 36:27)

This blog is unashamedly biblical and personal. It comes principally from my reading of Christian Scripture and other edifying literature, though sometimes it may be a response to current events or media reports. Being personal it will necessarily be open to criticism for it is likely incomplete and may be mistaken. Often it may be nothing more than thinking aloud, but I do trust that it will be stimulating and ultimately edifying as I try to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2Co 10:5).

Peter F Whyte