In the same chapter of Isaiah where God says: “Therefore the Lord God said: ‘Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.’” He also says this, “For the Lord will rise up as He did at Mount Perazim. He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.” [Isaiah 28:16, 21 HCSB]
Because of love, God has given us Christ Jesus. He is the precious cornerstone that is a sure foundation in our lives. By trusting in Christ Jesus, we have an assurance of God’s love and grace. Peter tells us that while this cornerstone is precious to those who believe, it is anything but precious to those who don’t believe. They reject the very foundation God wants to build in their lives in Christ Jesus. [I Peter 2]
This rejection, if left intact will eventually prompt God’s “strange work” and “his disturbing task.”
God’s strange work and disturbing task is judgment. Our God is a God of love. He wants all to come to salvation through His love and grace. I think God hates the idea of subjecting any of His creation to judgment … and that’s why He calls it his strange work and disturbing task. While He may hate it, His holiness demands it.
So, what has all that to do with you and me? I think we sometimes are too eager to see God’s judgment fall on those who are bound deep in sin. I think we love it a little more than we should. Instead of being broken by the thought of any of God’s creation falling under judgment, we can hardly wait for it to happen. Yet God Himself considers love His main work, and judgment His strange work.
