Today we're beginning an ongoing series that will highlight key quotes from The "Miscellanies" of Jonathan Edwards. (Thank you to The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University for hosting all of them online for free!)

This week's quote is from Miscellanies #3:

Happiness is the end of the creation ... because the end of the creation is that the creation might glorify [the Creator]. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? An understanding of the perfections of God, merely, cannot be the end of the creation; for he had as good not understand it, as see it and not be at all moved with joy at the sight. Neither can the highest end of the cr…

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Moses had had it up to here.

The Israelites' continual complaining and rebellion and lack of faith had been a heavy burden. Now they were standing in front of their tents weeping. Why? Because the food they were eating was boring. "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at" (Numbers 11:5-6).

They wanted to eat meat.

Moses was beside himself. No people had experienced God so near to them or had him provide so directly for them. God had humbled Pharaoh to the ground and walked them all through the Red Sea. His pillar wa…

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This is the twelfth post in a series of twelve. The content comes from “Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers” found in the new edition of Let the Nations Be Glad.

My biggest concern about the effects of the prosperity movement is that it diminishes Christ by making him less central and less satisfying than his gifts. Christ is not magnified most by being the giver of wealth. He is magnified most by satisfying the soul of those who sacrifice to love others in the ministry of the gospel.

When we commend Christ as the one who makes us rich, we glorify riches, and Christ becomes a means to the end of what we really want—namely, health, wealth, and prosperity. But when we commend…

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This is the eleventh post in a series of twelve. The content comes from “Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers” found in the new edition of Let the Nations Be Glad.

The apostle Paul set us an example by how vigilant he was not to give the impression that he was in the ministry for money. He said that ministers of the word have a right to make a living from the ministry. But then, to show us the danger in that, he refuses to fully use that right.

It is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” . . . It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. …

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Twice Jesus was offered wine while on the cross. He refused the first, but took the second. Why so?

The first time came in verse 23, “they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.” William Lane explains,

According to an old tradition, respected women of Jerusalem provided a narcotic drink to those condemned to death in order to decrease their sensitivity to the excruciating pain . . . . When Jesus arrived at Golgotha he was offered . . . wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it, choosing to endure with full consciousness the sufferings appointed for him (The Gospel of Mark, p. 564)

This first wine represented an offer to ease the pain, to opt for a small shortcut…

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This is the tenth post in a series of twelve. The content comes from “Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers” found in the new edition of Let the Nations Be Glad.

A fundamental change happened with the coming of Christ into the world. Until that time, God had focused his redemptive work on Israel with occasional works among the nations. Paul said, “In past generations [God] allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16). He called them “times of ignorance.” “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Now the focus has shifted from Israel to the nations. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God will be taken away …

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This is the ninth post in a series of twelve. The content comes from “Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers” found in the new edition of Let the Nations Be Glad.

The New Testament not only makes clear that suffering is necessary for followers of Christ, it is also at pains to explain why this is the case and what God’s purposes in it are. These purposes are crucial for believers to know. God has revealed them to help us understand why we suffer and to bring us through like gold through fire.

In Let the Nations Be Glad, in the chapter on suffering, I unfold these purposes. Here I will only name them and say to the prosperity preachers: Include the great biblical teachings in you…

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We hear sirens all the time. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the day, at some point, we hear the sound of an ambulance or fire truck or police car. What do you think when you hear them?

We have become so accustomed to the sound that we typically ignore it. We go about our activities uninterrupted. But wait, that sound means something! It means that there is an emergency. Someone is in need, and that’s not something to ignore.

Sirens come into our day loaded with significance. Whether they are heard faintly in the distance or close enough to disturb our ears, they come into our day as an invitation to get out of our bubble of self and remember that there are 6.8 billion peopl…

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At the end of Numbers 15, God commanded Moses to have the people attach tassels on the corner of their garments. These were accessories with a purpose:

And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. (Numbers 15:39-40)

These accessories were not intended to beautify the wearer. They were intended to remind the beholder that they had whoring hearts and eyes and they were not to follow their inclinations, but to follow God’s commands.

When I read …

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How would you fill in the blank?

Chances are "vengeful" or "wrathful" were some of the first words to cross your mind. Why is that? Why has the God of the Old Testament become so associated with his wrath and, as usually follows, set in contrast to the "merciful" God of the New Testament?

Read Nehemiah 9 and "wrathful" is not the primary image of God you get.

This is one of the great chapters in the Old Testament: the people of Israel have just returned from captivity in Babylon, and they are recounting their past and confessing their sins to God. Notice the repeated references to their sinfulness and God's mercy:

"[Our fathers] refused to obey and were not mindfu…

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