“For God is not a God of disorder…” (1 Cor. 14:33)
First things first. What is the chief and highest end of man? Let the revered Christian Book namely the Westminster catechism give the answer. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify (worship) God, and fully to enjoy him forever. When it comes to glorifying Him and fully enjoying Him, let it be said that the entire exercise ought to be “absolutely genuine emanating right from the innermost core of one’s being (read spirit)”.
This would lead to the next question, how could the process of glorifying Him originate right from the depths of one’s heart? It is only possible, when a person is truly fascinated by His unique traits. Remember, worshipping God for what He is, is the highest form of worship, standing head and shoulders above other forms of worship, which come with strings attached, such as worshipping Him for the blessings, He showers upon us.
While on the subject, at this stage, it would serve us well to look at the synonym of the word “Glorify”, which is “Magnify”. When, one magnifies Him, that is to say, when one keenly observes His Divine nature, with a magnifying glass, as it were, the “spiritual explorer” (if you permit me to use this expression) in you is bound to come across several unique attributes of the Almighty, which would evoke awe, and in turn lead to spontaneous, heart-felt worship and praise.
In this message punctuated with…what else…”Hallelujahs” (incidentally Hallel in Hebrew language means To praise and Yah means God), I would like to bring before my readership, one definite attribute in the Almighty, which at once evokes awe in me that is…He is (as the above-captioned Scripture emphasizes) a God of order. There is perfect order, in whatever He does.
Take the order of His Physical Creation for instance…first light…then only plants otherwise, how can plants survive without photosynthesizing their food in the absence of light…then only animals followed for how can animals live without eating the plants?
Now let us come to the spiritual realm. Let us look at the classification of the Scriptures and at once, we see Divine order in operation. Be it the the Old Testament Books (before the advent of Christ) which had been classified into three categories (See Luke 24:44) using the criteria which was accepted by our Lord and the Early Church or our contemporary Christian Bibles, which follow a beautiful symmetry. Firstly, let’s look at the classification which the Early Church accepted…
1. Law: Genesis to Deuteronomy
2. Prophets: Joshua to Malachi –It needs to be said here that the word “Prophecy” has to be understood in the way Jews and the Early Church understood it. For them Prophecy was not only foretelling but also forth telling. Hence Books of Daniel and Lamentations which appear in the “Prophets” section of the Modern-day Bibles, despite containing prophecies were not placed in the Prophets’ section of the Early Church but in that of Writings for the simple reason they do not contain anywhere in their contents the authoritative, powerful figure of speech “thus says the Lord” which distinguishes a Prophecy from other forms of speech (eg: a praise or prayer) in the Scriptures!!!
3. Writings: Psalms to II Chronicles
The Christian Bible, without as much as adding or deleting any book of the Old Testament Section, follows the beautiful symmetry of:
1. History: Genesis to Esther
2. Poetry: Job to Song of Solomon
3. Prophecy: Isaiah to Malachi
The New Testament Scriptures have also been categorized, generally speaking, into 3 sections based on the following time-related yardsticks:
1. Past–The four Gospels (redemption work has been completed)
2. Present–From the Book of Acts to the Epistle of Jude (symbolizing the age of Grace, following the atoning work of Christ on the Cross)
3. Future–The Book of Revelation
Amazing, isn’t it? If all Scripture is God-inspired as this portion of the Bible testifies: “All Scripture is God-breathed…” (2 Tim 3:16), then it follows that Divine inspiration would be very much there behind its classification too. In this series of four parts (including this one) we would reflect the unique orderly sequencing of three Psalms: Ps 22, Ps 23, Ps 24.
Prayer: Father, Thou art so orderly in everything you do. Let this trait be observed in us your children too at all times for Your Glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
(To access the entire “Order, Order, Order!” mini-series, please click here.)