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NASB | 2 Samuel 7:15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Samuel 7:15 "But My lovingkindness and mercy will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. |
Subject: Why God favours David over Saul |
Bible Note: Hi, Freddie... Yes, there is a sense in which God loves all humans. But God has a special love for His elect. There is also a sense in which God does not love the reprobate. How do we know this? From the Scriptures! (Leviticus 20:23; Psalm 5:5; 11:5; Hosea 9:15.) Hey, we are infinitely simpler beings than is God! Yet this shouldn't be difficult for humans to understand. There is a sense in which I love all humans. There is also a sense in which I love my brothers in the Lord. There is a sense in which I love my wife. But I do not love all humans in the same way I love the brethren, nor in the same way I love my wife! Freddie, we live in a day when the nature of God, as taught in His only self-revelation, the Scriptures, is widely disbelieved. People purge anything that makes them uncomfortable. When I was a teenager we were taught to sing, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love," in which we then instructed the Almighty Lord God that we do not need more mountains -- we have enough of them -- but we could do with some more love. The hubris of such thinking is truly staggering! Prior to our generation, the idea of the justice of God was universally accepted. When they were taught about the love of God, it was wonderful news! Today if you say to someone, "God love you." It is likely they will respond, "Of course He loves me... what's not to love? I'm okay, you're okay... God loves you and God loves me!" People have little difficulty believing in the love of God. They have a lot harder time in believing in His wrath, His justice, and the non-contradictory truth of His omniscience. But can the Biblical teaching of God's love be retained, when all His other attributes are jettisoned? Yes, God is love. But we aren't seeing the God of the Bible if we assign His every action to the single attribute of love. For example, what of His holiness? Scripture does not say that "God is love, love, love!" However, it does say that "God is holy, holy, holy!" Anyway... you wrote, "Because if God doesn't love Saul and hates Esau, then he might well Hate me too!" That is a something to be genuinely concerned about! Fortunately, the Scripture clearly teaches that the Shepherd loves His sheep (John 10:11), the Master loves His disciples (John 15:10), the Saviour loves His friends (Romans 5:8; John 15:13), the Lord loves His saints (Psalm 37:28), God loves His children (Hebrews 12:6), the Father loves His sons (1 John 3:1), etc. etc. So, if you want to be loved by God (Jude 21), examine yourself (2 Corinthians 13:5) to be certain you are of the faith. Internal realities are always manifest in external behavior. If your life has been transformed by grace, it will be evident (see post #153858). In Him, Doc "If it be true that God loves every member of the human family then why did our Lord tell His disciples 'He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father... If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him' (John 14:21,23)? Why say 'he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father' if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is found in Proverbs 8:17: 'I love them that love Me.' Again; we read, 'Thou hatest all workers of iniquity'-not merely the works of iniquity. Here then is a flat repudiation of present teaching that, God hates sin but loves the sinner; Scripture says, 'Thou hatest all workers of iniquity' (Psalm 5:5)! 'God is angry with the wicked every day' (Psalm 7:11). 'He that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him'-not 'shall abide,' but even now 'abideth on him' (John 3:36). Can God 'love' the one on whom His 'wrath' abides? Again; is it not evident that the words 'The love of God which is in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:39) marks a limitation, both in the sphere and objects of His love? Again; is it not plain from the words 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated' (Romans 9:13) that God does not love everybody? Again; it is written, 'For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth' (Hebrews 12:6). Does not this verse teach that God's love is restricted to the members of His own family? If He loves all men without exception then the distinction and limitation here mentioned is quite meaningless. Finally, we would ask, Is it conceivable that God will love the damned in the Lake of Fire? Yet, if He loves them now He will do so then, seeing that His love knows no change -- He is 'without variableness or shadow of turning'!" --A. W. Pink |