Spurgeon's Cigar

(Leon Bonnat, 1880 - Public Domain) The following material is copyrighted and cannot be copied or transmitted in print, digital,  electronic, or any other means without express written consent of the author. Direct quotations  or paraphrases are permissible within the legal boundaries of "fair use." Excerpt 16: "Job and God's 'Terrible Majesty' ”  from Chapter IX: "God's Terrible Majesty" TERRIBLE MAJESTY: Biblical Aesthetics and the Recovery of Authentic Fear (Publication date: soon, D.V.) The magisterial connotation of Elohim intensifies when OT writers complement the pluralis majestatis with the precise Hebrew word for “majesty” - hod. Amazingly, the first instance of hod as a descriptor of Elohim’s “majesty” occurs in Job 37:22 when Elihu declares, “with God is terrible majesty.” This inaugural declaration of God’s majesty immediately reenforces our thesis that sublime consciousness of God inherently involves an ex...

“Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”   Isa 44:16 God has always confirmed His presence among His people with a physical sign.    Manna was an obvious one.  God’s sufficiency to meet a daily requirement for sustenance is what sustained His people.  Their physical need was met by supernatural provision.   The tabernacle was another.  It provided the space whereby spiritual atonement for sin might take place.  Physical, ritualistic sacrifices were made there.  An unblemished animal was sacrificed as evidence that supernatural pardon of sin was not only possible but had actually occurred.   Signs always point to something beyond their own manifestation.  The meaning of these occurrences, as spectacular and strange as they often were, transcends their own utility.   In fact, God’s presence being marked by a sign happens so often throughout the Scriptures ...